, producers with overseas operations and with similar market capitalizations to Hess, had, respectively, $1.85 billion and $564 million at end-September, according to Thomson Reuters data.
(Reporting by David French and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Additional reporting by Karina Dsouza in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)
The #MeToo movement is engulfing the nation with a rapidly growing fervor. Following the revelation of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinsteins dangerous and serial sexual harassment, his contemporaries throughout Hollywood, journalism, comedy, the culinary world, and politics have also been exposed.
Yet the artificially bronzed elephant in the room remains hulking and uninvestigated. We cant forget that in 2016, nearly 20 women bravely came forward to share their unwanted and uninvited experiences with former tabloid star, real estate mogul, and reality show host Donald Trump. These women are not just part of the #MeToo movement; they are inspiration for the victims who shared their own stories this year.
Given the number of accusations, as well as recorded conversations of Trump on the Access Hollywood tape and The Howard Stern Show in which he brags about such behavior, the company I work for, Brave New Films, created a documentary examining the accused sexual harasser in the Oval Office. 16 Women and Donald Trump weaves together the most painful moments of these womens feelings, emotions, and truths.
I then reached out to these women so they could tell their stories again, this time in the context of and in support of the #MeToo movement. On Monday, we hosted a press conference with three of the women I reached to publicly describe the sexual misconduct they maintain they experienced at the hands of the president, and to call for a congressional investigation of his behavior.
All of the women we spoke with were apprehensive about sharing their stories again. They were still experiencing the trauma of their truth being questioned and attacked. Though they were already being actively and aggressively pursued by well-known news personalities, they resisted. What was the point, they thought? No one cared about their stories in 2016. Why would that have changed?
The difference, we countered, was that there is power in numbers, and strength and unconditional support in sisterhood. And the discussion has shifted around sexual harassment since they first broke their silence. These points were validated by a Quinnipiac University national poll earlier this month: 70% of Americans believe Congress should investigate Trump for the sexual harassment allegations against him.
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Why did these women come forward years later, and not at the time they allegedly endured Trumps sexual misconduct? For Jessica Leeds, that would have meant shouting in front of her fellow first-class passengers after Trump allegedly assaulted her in 1979. While others saw the assault, no one helped when they saw her desperately squirming away from Trump, according to Leeds. How could she have confronted him at that moment?
Some might say Leeds should have alerted her boss after the incident. Leeds was working as a traveling paper saleswoman, which at the time made her among the few women traveling for work, let alone traveling on her own. How could Leeds have reasonably assumed that reporting a powerful, high-profile mans aggression to her boss would end well?
When Rachel Crooks made the exciting move from Ohio to Manhattan, what if she almost immediately made a stink about the billionaire part-owner and most-coveted client of the building she worked in forcibly kissing her on the mouth and demanding her phone number shortly after starting the job? Would she have been able to continue on as usual? Or what if Miss USA contestant and 20-year-old Samantha Holvey had defiantly told Trump, the owner of the pageant, to give privacy and dignity to her and the other women dressing backstage? Would that have been an easy thing to do at the time? Keep in mind that two hired security guards were present, purportedly to protect against the exact behavior Trump allegedly engaged in. They didnt stop it, according to Holvey.
Almost to underscore the difficult facing these silence breakers, the White Houses statement in response to the accusations on Monday again called into question the accusers reasons for coming forward now: The timing and absurdity of these false claims speaks volumes and the publicity tour that has begun only further confirms the political motives behind them.
This statement is wrong. These women deserve a platform to tell their stories. Congress now needs to do the job its members were elected to doserve the constituents of this country by investigating the allegations of Trumps sexual misconduct. In doing so, lawmakers will honor the courage of the history-making women who spoke up against the president.
Shira Levine is a producer at Brave New Films.
Hedge fund Elliott Management is reportedly poised to wage a campaign to unseat Hess CEO John Hess or force a sale of all or part of the company.Shares of Hess were up 6 percent in after-market trading.Elliott Management, which holds a 6.7 percent stake in Hess, also wants the company to cut its dividend and instead buy back stock from shareholders, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Other big investors are also pressuring the company to make improvements, the paper reports.Investors are reportedly unhappy with Hess's projection that it won't generate free cash flow through 2020 due to spending tied to its offshore oil project in Guyana and its U.S. shale fields.Hess is primarily focused on oil and gas exploration and development, and is also involved in transporting and storing crude through Hess Midstream Partners."As long-term shareholders in Hess, we are frustrated by the company's continuing underperformance," Elliott portfolio manager John Pike told the Journal.Shares of Hess are down 31.5 percent this year."Shareholders are getting impatient because the changes needed to remedy Hess's severe undervaluation are substantial and need to be announced without delay," Pike said.Hess Chairman James Quigley defended Hess in a statement to the Journal."John has the clear, unanimous and unambiguous support of our board as our CEO," he said.Hess and Elliott previously clashed in 2013 in a battle that ended with Hess giving up his role as chairman and Elliott nominees joining the board of directors, the Journal notes.Read the full story here . Hedge fund Elliott Management is reportedly poised to wage a campaign to unseat Hess CEO John Hess or force a sale of all or part of the company. Shares of Hess were up 6 percent in after-market trading. Elliott Management, which holds a 6.7 percent stake in Hess, also wants the company to cut its dividend and instead buy back stock from shareholders, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Other big investors are also pressuring the company to make improvements, the paper reports. Investors are reportedly unhappy with Hess's projection that it won't generate free cash flow through 2020 due to spending tied to its offshore oil project in Guyana and its U.S. shale fields. Hess is primarily focused on oil and gas exploration and development, and is also involved in transporting and storing crude through Hess Midstream Partners. "As long-term shareholders in Hess, we are frustrated by the company's continuing underperformance," Elliott portfolio manager John Pike told the Journal. Shares of Hess are down 31.5 percent this year. "Shareholders are getting impatient because the changes needed to remedy Hess's severe undervaluation are substantial and need to be announced without delay," Pike said. Hess Chairman James Quigley defended Hess in a statement to the Journal. "John has the clear, unanimous and unambiguous support of our board as our CEO," he said. Hess and Elliott previously clashed in 2013 in a battle that ended with Hess giving up his role as chairman and Elliott nominees joining the board of directors, the Journal notes. Read the full story here .
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Wikimedia [/caption] In less than a month, Californians will be able to legally buy weed just for fun. While recreational marijuana usage has been legal in the Golden State throughout 2017, the sale of non-medical marijuana was still against the law. That's changing on Jan. 1, 2018. And though California's cannabis industry is still facing some speed bumps, bringing the currently-underground recreational market into the light of day means more customers and more money. A study from University of California Agricultural Issues Center at UC-Davis estimated the state's recreational marijuana sales could reach $5 billion a year. It's an expansion that could turn small companies into big onesones that need full in-house legal departments, a cannabis industry rarity today. "As companies get bigger, then people may see the need for a GC," said Burke Hansen, a San Francisco-based cannabis attorney at Hallinan and Hallinan. "The way it works now is most businesses have a regular attorney they work with but not a formal in-house counsel relationship." That's the relationship Nicole Howell Neubert, a principal at Clark Neubert, has with a few cannabis companies. She's been on the legal side of the cannabis industry for years, and she guides companies on everything from general corporate issues, including financing and structuring, to marijuana-specific regulations. In the months leading up to 2018, she's also worked with cannabis companies of all sizes to secure local permits necessary to apply to sell recreational marijuana. Companies are also prepping for the new licensing fee structure for marijuana in the state. Fees depend on the company's size and purpose. Companies that transport marijuana and don't need to quality test the product they deliver would only pay $500. But the largest distributors, which do have to test, would pay $125,000 annually to stay licensed. A growing market also means more deals, and cannabis companies in California may need more legal firepower to carry out mergers and acquisitions. Neubert says that as the industry grows from small and niche to large and becomes relatively accessible to adult consumers, cannabis companies will begin to look more like regular businesses, potentially with the in-house lawyers to match. A background in cannabis law may be helpful, but attorneys looking to go in-house at a marijuana company mostly need the same skills as they would in any other industry. "These businesses, like all other businesses, need lawyers of all practice areas," she said. "They need good litigators, they need estate planners and they need good corporate counsel. On some basic level these are just businesses. Theyve had to exist in this nonprofit land and haven't been a traditional business until now. But they will be very much so next year, with opportunities for all kinds of attorneys who aren't [cannabis] specialists." Still, smaller and midsized cannabis companies may stick with the current outside general counsel model, at least for the moment. Neubert says developing an in-house team may not yet be financially viable for these players. But that doesn't mean lawyers shouldn't be paying attention to the growing industry and their potential role in it. "I would encourage folks interested in entering the industry to focus on their specialist area," Neubert said. "Focus on your strengths because the businesses need really good lawyers of all practice areas."
Migratory birds arriving in Jagadishpur in droves
With the arrival of winter, migratory birds have started flocking to the Jagadishpur lake, often called as a bird haven, in Kapilvastu district.
ASHM operates in the capital markets sector, which has characteristics that make it unique to other industries. Understanding these differences is crucial when it comes to putting a value on the financial stock. For example, capital market businesses are required to hold more capital to reduce the risk to shareholders. Examining elements such as book values, on top of the return and cost of equity, is fitting for determining ASHMs valuation. Below we will look at how to value ASHM in a relatively accurate and straightforward method. See our latest analysis for Ashmore Group
Why Excess Return Model?
Before we begin, remember that financial stocks differ in terms of regulation and balance sheet composition. Strict regulatory environment in United Kingdoms finance industry reduces ASHMs financial flexibility. Moreover, capital markets usually do not have substantial portions of physical assets on their balance sheet. While traditional DCF models emphasize on inputs such as capital expenditure and depreciation, which is less useful for a financial stock, the Excess Return model focuses on book values and stable earnings.
LSE:ASHM Intrinsic Value Dec 16th 17
The Calculation
The central assumption for this model is that equity value is how much the firm can earn, over and above its cost of equity, given the level of equity it has in the company at the moment. The returns in excess of cost of equity is called excess returns:
Excess Return Per Share = (Stable Return On Equity Cost Of Equity) (Book Value Of Equity Per Share)
= (20.38% 9.39%) * 1.08 = 0.13
Excess Return Per Share is used to calculate the terminal value of ASHM, which is how much the business is expected to continue to generate over the upcoming years, in perpetuity. This is a common component of discounted cash flow models:
Terminal Value Per Share = Excess Return Per Share / (Cost of Equity Expected Growth Rate)
= 0.13 / (9.39% 1.49%) = 1.61
Putting this all together, we get the value of ASHMs share:
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Value Per Share = Book Value of Equity Per Share + Terminal Value Per Share
= 1.08 + 1.61 = 2.77
Relative to the present share price of 3.95, ASHM is , at this time, priced higher than its intrinsic value. This means ASHM isnt an attractive buy right now. Valuation is only one side of the coin when youre looking to invest, or sell, ASHM. Fundamental factors are key to determining if ASHM fits with the rest of your portfolio holdings.
Next Steps:
For capital markets, there are three key aspects you should look at:
1. Financial health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free bank analysis with six simple checks on things like leverage and risk.
2. Future earnings: What does the market think of ASHM going forward? Our analyst growth expectation chart helps visualize ASHMs growth potential over the upcoming years.
3. Dividends: Most people buy financial stocks for their healthy and stable dividends. Check out whether ASHM is a dividend Rockstar with our historical and future dividend analysis.
For more details and sources, take a look at our full calculation on ASHM here.
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.
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Screenshot of the letter a lawyer for ex-Uber employee Richard Jacobs sent to in-house lawyer Angela Padilla[/caption] SAN FRANCISCO A 37-page letter written by a lawyer for an ex-Uber employee that makes incendiary accusations about the company surveiling and ripping off competitors was made public on Friday by the judge presiding over Waymos trade secrets lawsuit. The letter, written by Minneapolis-based whistleblower attorney Clayton Halunen on behalf of former Uber security analyst Richard Jacobs, alleges that Uber ran clandestine operations aimed at stealing competitors trade secret informationincluding Waymos. It also specifically accuses Uber of seeking to evade current and future discovery requests, court orders, and government investigations in violation of state and federal law as well as ethical rules governing the legal profession. The letter was originally sent to Uber in-house attorney Angela Padilla in May this year. Padilla later testified that she believed it was an attempt to squeeze money from Uber by Jacobs, and that she had turned the letter over to federal prosecutors in order to take the air out of his extortionist balloon. (Uber reached a settlement with Jacobs, who resigned but was facing termination, for a total amount of $7.5 million$3 million of which went to Halunen.) The letter was disclosed in the civil trade secrets case after prosecutors took the rare step of turning it over to U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California, who had referred the case to the local U.S. Attorneys office in light of the trade secret theft claims. Earlier Friday, a court-appointed special master concluded in a report that Uber should have turned over the letter itself in the context of discovery in the civil litigation. In response to the letters unsealing Friday, Uber spokesman Matt Kallman said in a statement: While we havent substantiated all the claims in this letterand, importantly, any related to Waymoour new leadership has made clear that going forward we will compete honestly and fairly, on the strength of our ideas and technology. After the letter was brought into the civil case, Jacobs subsequently walked back the accusations about the Uber stealing Waymos trade secrets specifically and said that he had only reviewed the lengthy letter written by Halunen briefly. In a section beginning on page 13, under a bolded subhead that reads Waymo, the letter says Jacobs heard an account from another Uber employee suggesting that the company had gone to great lengths to keep its pending acquisition of Ottomotto secret. Ottomotto is the self-driving car company started by Anthony Levandowski, a former senior Waymo engineer. The section also says Uber employees arranged a training session in Pittsburgh on ephemeral communications, non-attributable devices, and false attorney-client privilege designations with the specific intent of preventing the discovery of devices, documents, and communications in anticipated litigation. These facts corroborate Google's legal theory in pending litigation that Otto was simply a shell company whose sole purpose was to dissemble Uber's conspiracy to steal Waymo's intellectual property, the letter adds. The letter also accuses Uber employees of fraudulently impersonating riders and drivers on competitor platforms, hacking into competitor networks, and surreptitiously recording private conversations of other companies' executives.
The Federal Communications Commission vote on Thursday to roll back net neutrality rules could galvanize young voters, a move Democrats hope will send millennials to the polls in greater numbers and bolster their chances in next years elections.
Democrats are hoping to paint the repeal of the rules by the FCC, which is now chaired by President Donald Trump appointee Ajit Pai, as evidence Republicans are uninterested in young people and consumer concerns at large.
The American public is angry, said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat. She added that the actions of the Republican majority have awoken a sleeping giant.
Attitudes toward net neutrality, or rules that prevent internet providers from limiting customers access to certain websites or slowing download speeds for specific content, are largely split along party lines in Congress. The heated debate has turned into the kind of election issue that Democrats think will help them.
Studies show young people disproportionately use the internet compared with older Americans and polls have shown they feel passionately about fair and open internet access. Democrats believe the issue may resonate with younger voters who may not be politically active on other issues like taxes or foreign policy.
U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, said on Twitter young people need to take the lead on net neutrality. Its possible for Millennial political leadership to make a real difference here.
The scrapping of the Obama administrations rules is likely to set up a court battle and could redraw the digital landscape, with internet service providers possibly revising how Americans view online content. The providers could use new authority to limit or slow some websites or offer fast lanes for certain content.
Republicans on the FCC have sought to reassure young people that their ability to access the internet will not change after the rules take effect. People who favor the move argue that after users realize that little or nothing has changed in their internet access, it will not resonate as a political issue.
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Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist, said polls have found young people are favoring Democrats in the most recent elections and that the net neutrality issue could be used to gather support in the 2018 midterm congressional elections.
He said while older voters tend to care about Medicare, polls are finding that younger voters are motivated by net neutrality.
Net neutrality is the latest data point for voters that the administration is more interested in doing what big companies want them to do, than what people think is in their interest, Ferguson said. Thats a narrative that is politically toxic for Republicans.
In November 2018, all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will be up for grabs, as will 34 seats in the Senate. Democrats hope to gain control of one or both chambers by capitalizing on the unpopularity of Trump. Republicans currently control both chambers as well as the White House.
To regain power, Democrats will need a strong showing of support among young voters, who traditionally have not shown up in large numbers for elections held in years when there is no presidential contest.
Liberal groups are using net neutrality as an issue to criticize Republican incumbents.
Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state, echoed that sentiment, telling Reuters on Thursday that net neutrality will have huge political legs This is something that everyone across the country understands the importance of the internet.
The group End Citizens United announced last week a $35 million advertising campaign targeting 20 Republican House members for their stances on issues that relate to business, including net neutrality.
Democrats facing difficult election battles next year are already weighing in strongly in favor of net neutrality rules.
Senator Bill Nelson likely will face a difficult battle in Florida and sent a letter earlier in the week opposing the change in net neutrality rules. Several Democratic candidates are sending campaign fundraising appeals citing net neutrality.
The changes could also become issues in a number of House races across the country, where Democrats will need to win more than 25 seats to control the chamber. Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also publicly opposed the rule changes, a sign that she wanted to be sure to stake a Democratic position on the issue.
Bob Corker and Marco Rubio say they will vote in favor of $1.5tn bill
Donald Trump wants sign controversial legislation before Christmas
Bob Corker said: I believe that this once-in-a-generation opportunity to make US businesses domestically more productive and internationally more competitive is one we should not miss. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
The GOPs $1.5tn tax reform bill is heading toward a final vote and possible victory before Christmas with support from key Republican holdouts who had raised concerns about the deficit and a child tax credit.
Bob Corker of Tennessee, a frequent critic of Donald Trump and the only Republican senator who voted against the legislation in the Senate, announced Friday that he would back a final version of the bill despite his concerns about the deficit. Corker said: I believe that this once-in-a-generation opportunity to make US businesses domestically more productive and internationally more competitive is one we should not miss.
Senator Marco Rubio, of Florida, also said he would back the bill, a day after he threatened to vote against it if lawmakers did not expand access to a child tax credit for lower-income families. He tweeted that the legislation would allow a higher percent of a child tax credit to be refundable, calling it a solid step toward broader reforms which are both Pro-Growth and Pro-Worker.
For far too long, Washington has ignored and left behind the American working class. Increasing the refundability of the Child Tax Credit from 55% to 70% is a solid step toward broader reforms which are both Pro-Growth and Pro-Worker. Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 15, 2017
The backing of Rubio and Corker means the legislation, a signature policy initiative of Trump, is on track to pass. The news came days after Republican control of the Senate shifted to a tight 51 to 49 margin following the election of Democrat Doug Jones over Republican Roy Moore in the closely watched Alabama Senate race.
The Democrats have called on Jones to be immediately seated so he can vote on the tax bill.
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The controversial legislation was rushed through the Senate early this month after lawmakers received a nearly 500-page document, some of it handwritten, hours before the vote. The legislation represents the most sweeping overhaul of the tax code in decades and stands to benefit big businesses and the rich.
Critics have called the legislation a handout for the super-rich that would hurt lower-income and middle-class families. Bernie Sanders labeled it one of the greatest robberies in American history.
Republicans merged the House and Senate versions of the legislation and released a final bill late Friday, with the goal of voting before taking a recess for the rest of the year. Majority leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would get this bill done next week.
Opponents have said the legislation would further exacerbate inequality in the US, and the latest Republican agreement seeks to gut a key part of Barack Obamas healthcare law. The bill would repeal the individual mandate, which required people to purchase health insurance or pay a fine. Millions could be left without insurance and premiums could rise as a result.
Trump, who has yet to score a single major legislative victory, has called on Republicans to send a bill to his desk by Christmas.
We want to give you, the American people, a giant tax cut for Christmas. And when I say giant, I mean giant, Trump said in a speech at the White House on Wednesday.
The final bill would also open the Arctic national wildlife refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling, a proposal that has drawn fierce backlash from environmentalists and tribal groups.
The president has expressed frustration with the lack of movement on his agenda on Capitol Hill, and was left bruised when repeated attempts by Republicans to repeal and replace Obamas healthcare law fell short this summer. Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, have expressed confidence they will not suffer similar embarrassment with tax reform.
The final bill is poised to lower the top tax rate for families and individuals to 37% from 39.6%. It will also lower the top corporate tax rate to 21%, one percentage point higher than the 20% Trump had called for.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders praised Corkers reversal in a statement Friday. She said: He sees a great entrepreneurial spirit being released in our country and he is a part of that spirit. When these massive tax cuts and incentives kick in, jobs and growth will follow at a very high level.
The Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office, both nonpartisan research groups in Congress, have projected the Republican proposals would disproportionately benefit corporations and wealthy people.
Republicans in the Senate are using a process known as budget reconciliation that enables them to pass the tax plan with a simple-majority vote. As a result, they can only afford to lose two votes under their current two-seat majority a scenario in which vice-president Mike Pence would act as the tie-breaking vote.
If Republicans dont advance their plan before Jones is sworn in, they would have just one vote to lose.
This is what the American people have been waiting for: more jobs, fairer taxes, and bigger paychecks, House speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement Friday night, saying the bill was now only two votes and a signature away from becoming the law of the land.
Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.
By Richard Cowan and David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's drive to win passage of a sweeping Republican tax bill in the U.S. Congress hit potential obstacles on Thursday as two more Republican senators insisted on changes, joining a list of lawmakers whose support is uncertain.
Florida's Marco Rubio, a former presidential contender, told reporters on Capitol Hill that if the bill's proposed refundability to taxpayers of the child tax credit is not expanded, "I'm a no ... It has to be higher than $1,100."
Rubio and Mike Lee of Utah are in talks with other senators about expanding child tax credit refundability, said Conn Carroll, a Lee spokesman. Lee is now "undecided on the tax bill as currently written," Carroll said in a telephone interview.
The child tax credit now in the U.S. tax code is meant to lower the tax bills of working families with children.
As the fast-moving Republican tax package has evolved, it has tilted increasingly toward benefiting businesses and wealthy taxpayers, a trend that aides were saying privately is a growing concern for some lawmakers.
Provisions for offsetting the revenue costs of last-minute changes also were becoming worrisomely unclear, they said.
After resisting demands for weeks to cut the top income tax rate for the richest taxpayers, the bill's authors did agree in recent days to lower it to 37 percent from 39.6 percent.
"My concern is that if you found the money to lower the top rate ... you can't find a little bit to at least somewhat increase the refundable portion" of the child credit? Rubio said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the White House will continue to work with Rubio on the child tax credit.
The headline feature of the bill is a deep cut to 21 percent from 35 percent of the corporate income tax rate, a step that corporate tax lobbyists have been pursuing for many years.
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Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate tax committee and one of the bill's chief authors, said the Senate would probably vote on a final Senate-House measure on Monday.
He said he hoped Rubio's concerns could be addressed. "Hes important to us," Hatch said. "I dont know what leadership wants to do on that. Its a problem, no question."
The Senate approved a wide-ranging tax bill of its own on Dec. 2 by a vote of 51-49. Senator Bob Corker was the only Republican to join all 46 Senate Democrats and two independents in voting against the bill.
SIGNED BEFORE CHRISTMAS?
Earlier, the House of Representatives had approved its own tax legislation. In recent days negotiators from both chambers have been scrambling to reconcile the two bills, changing specific parts on the fly to lock in enough votes to pass it.
Trump has said he wants a final bill on his desk for enactment before Christmas. If it is enacted, the bill would be the first major legislative achievement for Trump and the Republicans since he took office in January.
Corker, a leading Republican fiscal hawk, reiterated that his concerns about the bill's expansion of the federal deficit have not been addressed.
Independent and nonpartisan tax analysts have estimated that the bill will expand the $20 trillion national debt by at least $1 trillion in the next 10 years.
Moderate Senator Susan Collins also has been non-committal on the bill, in part out of concern about its provision to repeal an Obamacare federal fine imposed on Americans who do not buy health insurance.
The Senate vote outlook has been further muddled by Senator John McCain's admission to the hospital for treatment for side effects of cancer therapy. His office said he "looks forward to returning to work as soon as possible."
Carroll said if the child tax credit were to be made fully refundable, it would cost about $7 billion in lost revenues over 10 years. Lee and Rubio want expanded refundability.
Under current law, a maximum child tax credit of $1,000 per eligible child under 17 is allowed on a portion of family earnings. In its current form, the legislation expands that credit but Lee and Rubio are seeking more help for families, especially in lower-income brackets.
The two senators failed in an effort to do that on the Senate floor when the tax bill initially was debated.
Republicans have a 52-vote Senate majority. So they can lose no more than two of their own votes and still win approval, with Vice President Mike Pence able to vote to break a tie.
Pence has delayed a planned trip to the Middle East in case his vote is needed on the final tax bill.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Amanda Becker; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Bill Trott)
By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. Senate Democrat said on Friday he would force a vote on the Federal Communications Commission's decision to repeal the 2015 landmark net neutrality rules. The FCC voted Thursday along party lines to reverse the Obama rules barring internet service providers from blocking or throttling internet traffic, or offering paid fast lanes. A group of state attorneys general vowed to sue. On Friday, Senator Charles Schumer of New York said he would force a vote on the FCC action under the Congressional Review Act. Republicans scuttled internet privacy rules adopted under the Obama administration using the same procedural vehicle. "There will be a vote to repeal the rule that the FCC passed. Its in our power to do that," Schumer said in New York. "Sometimes we dont like them, when they used it to repeal some of the pro environmental regulations, but now we can use the CRA to our benefit and we intend to." This week's FCC order grants internet providers sweeping new powers to block, throttle or discriminate among internet content, but requires public disclosure of those practices. Internet providers have vowed not to change how consumers get online content. The FCC rules also seek to bar states from imposing their own net neutrality requirements. The FCC said Monday the rules will take effect once the White House Office of Management and Budget approves the new transparency rules, which could take several months. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Friday in a Fox News interview that "so much of the hysteria is simply misplaced." He added: ""Going forward, the internet is going to speed up." Republicans on Capitol Hill have largely praised the rollback of the rules. Many want Congress to pass legislation that would retain consumer protections but prevent future regulators from adopting internet pricing rules or other actions. Moody's Investors Service said in a note Friday the FCC vote was "credit positive" for internet service providers that could have faced rate regulation under the 2015 rules that would have treated them like public utilities. Moody's said providers "will tread lightly when it comes to engaging in paid prioritization and throttling, as there could be significant negative public reaction to these acts." Moody's said "at least in the near term, the cost of negative publicity on their existing businesses far outweighs the benefit of additional revenue streams these companies can generate from paid prioritization agreements." (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)
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Uber headquarters. Photo credit: Jason Doiy/ALM [/caption] Ubers legal department is looking worse and worse as more information surfaces about an in-house lawyers handling of a potentially critical document in the ride-hailing companys epic trade secrets battle with Waymo.In a report released Friday afternoon, special master in the case, John Cooper, slammed San Francisco-based Uber, which he said had been obligated to produce an inflammatory letter from ex-employee Ric Jacobs lawyer to Uber deputy GC Angela Padilla in earlier requests for evidence. It is not easy, in abstract, to determine where the line regarding the scope of discovery search should be drawn, Cooper wrote. But this is not a case involving mere possession of some document. The facts in this case suggest Ms. Padilla knew of the Jacobs letter at the time Uber had to respond to discovery requests calling for its productionit certainly was reasonably accessible. Uber was not immediately available for comment on the special masters report. Coopers report states the letter should have been produced during discovery requests RFP 29 and RFP 73, which were served to Uber on May 9, 2017. Padilla received the letter on May 5. Ubers legal team, outside counsel from Morrison & Foerster led by Arturo Gonzalez, had argued in pretrial hearings that the May 5 letter from lawyer Clayton Halunen hadnt been produced earlier because its contents and date range were outside the search terms set by Waymo. Gonzalez also said Padilla hadnt been one of the agreed-upon search custodians, so her emails fell out of the scope of discovery. But Cooper states in his report there are two main reasons why an exclusive focus on the use of search terms is inappropriate for determining whether the Jacobs letter should have been produced. The first is that Uber and Waymo never agreed to limit their search to documents that included the search terms. The second is that search terms werent necessary to find the letter sent from Jacobs lawyer to Padilla, one of the highest ranking lawyers at Uber, a letter that resulted in a $7.5 million settlement and was discussed with then-GC Salle Yoo and then-CEO Travis Kalanick. Jacobs resignation email, which was sent before the May 5 letter, also sat in the inboxes of both Yoo and Kalanick, Cooper points out. The email holds similar allegations to the letter, but with less detail. Kalanick was a custodian whose emails fell under the search terms. Cooper stated in the report that search terms are only necessary when trying to find a needle in a haystack. But this needle was in Ubers hands the whole time, he wrote. The Jacobs letter, which alleges that Uber spied on competitors, bragged about stealing Waymo trade secrets and used ephemeral messaging to delete the evidence, was not stowed away in a large volume of data on some server, Cooper wrote. They [Jacobs letter and resignation email] were not stashed in some low-level employees files. Cooper goes on to specifically call out Padilla, who testified on Nov. 29 that she passed the Jacobs letter on to Joe Spiegler and Sidney Majalya, lawyers on Ubers in-house compliance team, upon receiving it via email. Padilla said she didnt give the letter to in-house or outside counsel involved in the Waymo case because Spiegler and Majalya told her it would obstruct an internal investigation of its allegations made by Jacobs. She testified in November that she also didnt pass the email and its allegations along because she believed it would eventually turn up in Waymos search terms regardless. Padilla has previously stated Ubers failure to produce the Jacobs letter earlier was not a cover-up, as she voluntarily submitted the document to the Northern District of California U.S. attorney. In an rare move, the U.S. attorney sent the evidentiary document along to U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California, who is overseeing the Waymo case. Alsup said that was the first time such a transmission of evidence has happened in this court, and implied that Padilla was attempting to hide the information by sending it to the AG rather than the parties involved in the Waymo case. Its a claim Padilla has denied. The full text of the Jacobs letter, though read in part by both Uber and Waymos legal teams during pretrial hearings in November, has not yet been disclosed. But it is due to be unsealed late Friday. The trial, originally scheduled to begin in October, has been delayed by Alsup, who has been highly critical of Ubers handling of the Jacobs letter throughout ongoing pretrial hearings in the case. Alsup asked Cooper to draw up Fridays report following the last pretrial hearing in the case.
Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.
After months of debate, lawsuits, and legislative fights, the roll-back of Obama-era net neutrality rules is now official. The big question for most of us is, will the web really change?
The rules, enacted back in 2015 by the Federal Communications Commission, were repealed by the current FCC by a party-line vote in December, but the repeal required the approval of the Office of Management and Budget before taking effect.
Net neutrality is the principle that all internet traffic should be transmitted to consumers with the same quality and at the same speed, regardless of whether an internet service provider has a financial interest in promoting one website over another. The rules banned ISPs from blocking or throttling lawful content and from entering into paid-prioritization deals to create fast lanes only for services that agreed to pay for them.
Its unlikely that consumers will see the internet change immediately, according to both advocates and opponents of the rules. That may be all they agree on, though. Theres a good reason that net neutrality has been one of the most contentious digital issues for the past several years. The two camps predict very different futures for the internet.
With todays net neutrality repeal in full effect, the FCC has essentially handed the keys to the internet to service providersmany of them who face little or no competition, says Jonathan Schwantes, privacy and technology policy director for Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports. Internet providers are now free to move forward on the anti-competitive practices they were flirting with before these rules were passed, including throttling content and paid-prioritization schemes that place smaller businesses at a disadvantage and ultimately cost consumers more.
Big internet service providers, which are cheering the rollback of net neutrality rules, object to such warnings. They say the web will remain essentially unchanged in the absence of government regulation.
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What consumers will notice today, tomorrow, next month, next year, or pick your date, is quite literallynothing, the NCTA The Internet & Television Association wrote in a statement on its website Monday. ISPs keep their customers happy by providing the best experience possible, not by forcing limitations through some Machiavellian throttling scheme that is hardly even possible to design, let alone enforce.
In an op-ed published in CNET this weekend, FCC chairman Ajit Pai, the architect of the repeal, reiterated his position that the move will protect consumers and promote better, faster internet access and more competition.
Experts say that, if net neutrality norms do start to erode, it will probably happen incrementally, in ways that may be difficult to recognize at first.
The court and congressional battles arent over yet, and any drastic changes from ISPs would probably not come right away but when they hope no one is paying attention any more, says Danny Kimball, assistant professor of communication and media studies at Goucher College in Baltimore. So consumers should stay vigilant."
Heres what you can watch for.
More Zero-Rating Plans
The first change consumers may experience will be the spread of zero-rating and sponsored data plans. Thats when a provider doesnt count the data you use when you access a service, such as a particular streaming or payment app, it wants to promote.
People are familiar with data caps on cellular plans, but the same concept is now spreading to residential ISPs. Pilot data-cap programs for home broadband service have popped up here and there over the past few years, but we anticipate there could be more of them now, Schwantes says.
Zero-rating has already been around for a couple of years. The practice was being investigated by the FCC, but the investigation ended with the transition to new leadership at the beginning of the Trump administration.
Several ISPs have zero-rating arrangements.
For instance, cellular customers of AT&T, which owns DirecTV, get zero-rating on DirecTV Now, the companys video-streaming service. Comcast zero-rates its own Stream TV service, while videos you stream from competitors such as Amazon Video and Netflix count against your data cap. Verizon exempts its Go90 video service from its customers mobile data plans, and some T-Mobile plans allows users to stream music from services such as Apple Music and Spotify without using any of their data.
On one level, this sounds great for consumers. But advocates worry that the practice will help ISPs drive more customers to its own servicesnot by providing better quality but by artificially making it more expensive to try other services.
The incentive to stick with your ISPs own streaming service will just get stronger if more consumers turn to internet-delivered video services, 4K video becomes the norm, and more ISPs impose limits on how much data you can use each month.
Additionally, some observers say that zero-ratings cost-savings can be illusory.
In some ways, zero-rating plans are especially pernicious because they give consumers the appearance of getting a great deal, Goucher Colleges Kimball says. But a lot of the time its a way for a company to charge more for everything else you get as part of that bundle. He also says an extra cost to consumers is likely to come from streaming companies, such as Netflix, passing on the extra costs they incur from ISPs to be zero-rated.
Some states have considered banning zero-ratings programs in the absence of federal rules. For example, a bill in California that has already passed the state Senateperhaps the strongest proposed net neutrality bill in the countrywould ban the programs.
Price Hikes for Internet Access
There are a couple of ways that the end of net neutrality rules could drive up the prices consumers pay for internet access.
First, ISPs may impose access fees on larger internet companies. These would be fees paid by web companies (Netflix, Amazon, and so on) to send their content over an ISPs network and into peoples homes. These costs could be passed along.
The easiest way for ISPs to enact tolls on the internet is simply by charging online services at the point where those sites or services enter a broadband ISPs network, Ryan Singel, media and strategy fellow at Stanford Law Schools Center for Internet and Society, told Consumer Reports in December when the vote to repeal net neutrality rules took place.
Several years ago Netflix was forced to pay several larger ISPs, including Comcast, to get better content delivery for its streaming customers. The two companies engaged in a very public scuffle, and one result was that the 2015 net neutrality rules gave the FCC the ability to review these interconnection practices.
The net neutrality rollback removes this oversight.
Paid-prioritization deals could also drive prices upward. This is where companies pay extra to get on a fast lane so that their consumers have a superior experience with their service.
Paid-prioritization and interconnection deals sound similar, but theres a key difference. Think of interconnection like the admission fee to Disneyland. Pay or you dont get to play at all, Singel explained. Paid-priority deals, where companies can pay for fast lanes, are more like Disney express passes that get you to the head of the line.
Back in November, tech website Ars Technica reported that Comcast had removed a no paid prioritization pledge from its website on the day that the FCC announced the net neutrality rollback.
However, Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice sought to shut down speculation that the company was interested in pursuing such deals.
Weve said consistently weve not entered into paid-prioritization agreements and have no plans to do so, she told Consumer Reports at the time.
Tiered Internet Plans Could Be a Thing
Right now, if you pay for internet access, you can go to any website you want. It might not always be that way.
I think one core argument is that broadband pricing will become more like airline pricingyou start paying more fees for the different parts of the internet, Tim Wu, the Columbia University law professor who coined the term net neutrality back in 2003, told Consumer Reports by email.
Consumer advocates such as Consumers Unions Schwantes worry that online gaming sites or streaming video services such as Hulu and Netflix may require a premium broadband package that allows video, while basic plans might only include simple tasks such as email and text-based web browsing.
This is how it works in some parts of Europe, where low-tier plans dont include access to services such as VoIP or messaging apps like WhatsApp. Sign up for a midlevel tier or fee-based add-ons, and you might get access a greater variety of services, while only a higher-priced top-tier plan would provide you with unfettered access to the internet.
Plans like that are no longer banned. However, industry watchers say tiered plans are unlikely to take hold in the U.S. anytime soon.
One good thing about this whole debate is that consumers are getting smarter, says Kimball at Goucher College. This would make the internet look more like cable TVand consumers hate cable TV.
Consumers Could See Fewer Startups
If ISPs create fast lanes and slow lanes based on the ability of a company to pay, some startups could have a hard time getting off the ground.
The rollback of net neutrality rules could have a negative impact on newer streaming services, says Colin Petrie-Norris, CEO of advertising-based streaming start-up Xumo. If ISPs are allowed to charge more for certain content providers and paid-prioritization deals become common, this could present significant challenges. As a newer company in the streaming space, I could be at a disadvantage.
That kind of concern prompted a coalition of businesses and trade organizations to send a letter to the FCC in November asking the agency to reconsider its plan to undo net neutrality rules. Airbnb, Etsy, Foursquare, GitHub, Pinterest, Reddit, Shutterstock, Square, Tumblr, Twitter, and Vimeo were among the companies that participated.
Some net neutrality advocates also worry about how nonprofit organizations and educational institutions will cope with the new rules.
Petrie-Norris says the repeal of net neutrality rules gives ISPs more power to control pricing and choose what kind of content consumers can access. End users will also feel the burden of this decision, which could result in limited access to content, increased costs, risk of privacy and low-quality, slow services, he says.
Some Content Might Get Blocked
Internet service providers uniformly promise that they wont block legal web content for commercial purposes.
However, some observers say that ISPs have a history of attempts to push the boundaries of net neutrality.
In 2013, in the course of a lawsuit over an earlier FCC attempt to impose net neutrality rules, Verizon told a federal court that as an information service it had the right to charge any website any amount of money it likedreasonable or notand block that service if it did not pay up, Stanford Laws Singel told Consumer Reports.
In effect, an ISP could withhold access to a website by citing an astronomical fee even while promising no blocking to its subscribers, he said.
And the issue of content-blocking hasnt always been just a debating point. Back in 2005, the FCC used its regulatory authority over phone providers to stop a telecommunications company called Madison River from blocking the Vonage VoIP service. A few years later, the agency intervened to stop Comcast from blocking or slowing BitTorrent files traveling across its network. Several years ago, AT&T sought to restrict the use of Skype and FaceTime over its cellular network.
In a 2003 paper on net neutrality, Columbia Universitys Timothy Wu surveyed the top six DSL and top 10 cable providers, and found that all of them had terms of service that allowed the ISPs to block content they determined to be offensive or immoral.
Yet Kimball at Goucher College says consumers arent likely to see ISPs moving to block websites and services, at least anytime soon. He sees new zero-rating deals and experimentation with paid prioritization as much more likely.
The Fight's Not Over
While the net neutrality rules are now officially repealed, there are still a number of efforts underway to restore those protections for consumers.
One is an effort to use the Congressional Review Act to undo the FCCs repeal. It would also effectively bar that agency from taking a similar action again.
The CRA passed the Senate in May, with three Republicans and all Democrats and independents voting in favor. The next step would be a vote in the House, where it would be an uphill fight, requiring more than 20 Republicans to step across the aisle and support the measure. Even it if it did pass, the measure would face a likely veto by President Donald Trump.
The success of this effort in the Senate was largely attributable to the overwhelming output of public support for net neutrality, says Consumers Unions Schwantes. Its time for the House to follow the Senates leadership and vote to restore net neutrality rules before consumers start paying the price.
Consumer advocates say that because net neutrality is supported by most consumers, Republicans may not want to go on record opposing the measure with midterm elections looming. A nationally representative survey by Consumer Reports found that the majority of Americans support net neutrality rules to prevent internet service providers from blocking or discriminating against lawful content on the internet. More than two-thirds said that providers should not be able to choose which websites, apps, or streaming services customers can access.
In addition, a few net neutrality bills have been introduced in Congress, but they havent gained the widespread support theyd need to pass. There are disagreements about what level of consumer protection they should include, and whether the Federal Trade Commission or FCC should be the agency overseeing net neutrality.
In the interim, at least 29 states have introduced bills that restore some degree of net neutrality. And net neutrality bills have already been signed into law in Washington and Oregon.
Additionally, the governors of about a half-dozen states have passed executive orders banning state agencies from doing business with ISPs that dont abide by net neutrality rules. And more than 20 states and the District of Columbia have joined a lawsuit thats now in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the FCC repeal.
Consumer advocates and ISPs have both called for an end to the back-and-forth approach to ISP regulation of recent years, in which each change in administration brings a fresh approach to the issue. And, they say, state laws could create differentand even conflictingregulations across the country.
Thats why many experts on both sides say that Congress should pass a federal law spelling out net neutrality rules and resolving the issue.
The need for clarity is one thing they do seem to agree on.
More from Consumer Reports:
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Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright 2018, Consumer Reports, Inc.
Morning shows the day
At first sight, the cluster of houses built with corrugate iron sheets in Martadi, the district headquarters of Bajura, resembles a settlement recently hit by the earthquakes.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images. TD Ameritrade is one of the top three retail brokerages, according to capital markets research and consulting firm Tabb.
TD Ameritrade is planning to offer clients access to Cboe's bitcoin futures contract on Monday.
The company is one of the top three retail brokerages, according to capital markets research and consulting firm Tabb.
In order to be eligible to trade the futures, clients must have a minimum balance of $25,000, according to the brokerage. The margin requirement will also be 1 times what the Cboe requires, TD said.
TD Ameritrade will not initially support CME's bitcoin futures, which are set to launch this coming Sunday.
On Sunday, Chicago-based Cboe Global Markets became the first established exchange to offer bitcoin futures. Many see the launch of the derivatives contract as a first step towards establishing cryptocurrencies as a legitimate asset class, paving the way toward an exchange-traded fund.
Interactive Brokers said it handled just over half of the Cboe bitcoin futures trading volume on the first trading day, which saw the highest daily volume so far at 4,127 contracts in total across the products expiring in January, February and March.
Interactive Brokers said Friday that it plans to let customers bet on and against the CME contract.
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Here are four stocks with buy rank and strong income characteristics for investors to consider today, December 15th:
Horace Mann Educators Corporation (HMN): This multiline insurance company has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings advancing 36% over the last 60 days.
Horace Mann Educators Corporation Price and Consensus
Horace Mann Educators Corporation Price and Consensus
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This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company has a dividend yield of 2.51%, compared with the industry average of 1.72%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 2.96%.
Horace Mann Educators Corporation Dividend Yield (TTM)
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BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) Price and Consensus
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Prudential Financial, Inc (PRU): This insurance company has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings advancing 3.2% over the last 60 days.
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This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a dividend yield of 2.63%, compared with the industry average of 1.72%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 2.83%.
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Citizens Financial Services, Inc. (CZFS): This bank holding company has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings increasing 1.5% over the last 60 days.
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Citizens Financial Services Inc. Price and Consensus
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This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a dividend yield of 2.73%, compared with the industry average of 1.41%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 3.09%.
Citizens Financial Services Inc. Dividend Yield (TTM)
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Here are four stocks with buy rank and strong income characteristics for investors to consider today, December 14th:
Meredith Corporation (MDP): This diversified media company has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings advancing 1.2% over the last 60 days.
Meredith Corporation Price and Consensus
Meredith Corporation Price and Consensus
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This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a dividend yield of 2.95%, compared with the industry average of 0.00%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 3.74%.
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This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a dividend yield of 3.39%, compared with the industry average of 0.00%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 3.60%.
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Flowers Foods, Inc. (FLO): This bakery company has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings advancing 2.4% over the last 60 days.
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This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a dividend yield of 3.46%, compared with the industry average of 0.00%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 2.74%.
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Tecnoglass Inc. (TGLS) This seller of architectural glass and windows has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings increasing 4.9% over the last 60 days.
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This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a dividend yield of 7.70%, compared with the industry average of 0.00%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 0.24%.
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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is facing backlash online after the government agency voted Thursday to repeal landmark Obama-era rules that were designed to ensuring a free and open internet, setting up a court fight over a move that could recast the digital landscape.
The plan had not been popular leading up to the vote, with at least one poll from the University of Maryland finding more than 80 percent of respondents opposed the proposed repeal of net neutrality rules ahead of the vote.
SEE ALSO: Federal Communications Commission repeals net neutrality rules
Commission Chairman Pai, who voted in favor of the rollback, had specifically received harsh criticism from some online communities in the weeks leading up to Thursday's meeting, but the backlash took an especially dark turn after the vote, as various Twitter users began chastising him, with many even calling for the chairman to "kill" himself.
"Today Ajit Pai took away our freedom of speech. Our freedom of information. Please, somebody kill this man. Make it painful too," one user tweeted, while another wrote: "Sincerely, and I mean this with 100% seriousness and honesty. Kill Yourself."
Others even went as far as to tweet death threats.
"If I can not open my internet tomorrow and it says I have to pay for anything I will hunt you down and kill you myself," one user fumed, while another tweeter wrote alongside a photo of three men holding guns: "We lost #NetNeutrality now you lose your life."
See more reactions below:
Security has already been a concern for Pai and his colleagues, as the FCC meeting was briefly evacuated and swept by a security team shortly before the vote.
Lawsuits and challenges are expected in the coming weeks and months before the vote has any direct impact on consumers. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a statement shortly after the vote announcing plans to lead a multi-state lawsuit to challenge the reversal.
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However, many support the decision, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, who issued the following statement following Pais actions to undo net neutrality regulations.
Despite its unassuming name, the Obama administrations net neutrality regulation threatens the free and open internet that has done so much to advance modern society. The Trump administrations action to roll back this egregious government overreach into the most innovative space will benefit all users of the internet. As Chairman Pai outlined today, the way to protect consumers is to put the Federal Trade Commission back on the beat to crack down on those who would abuse open access. This new plan of action will open new avenues for telemedicine, distance learning, and future innovations.
Pai has defended the decision, arguing that the original rules established in 2015 were heavy-handed and stifled competition among various service providers. His critics, including the two Democrats on the panel, have argued the protections keep the internet "open" as they prevent service providers from blocking, slowing access to or charging more for certain content.
(Reuters contributed to this report)
As many as 2 million identities were stolen to leave fake comments in support of the FCC's decision to kill net neutrality, according to the New York Attorney General's Office. Based on the 5,000 or so complaints filed with the office, some of the victims are senior citizens, some are minors, while some are already dead. "This is a 13 year old child -- she did not post this comment, nor did anyone else in her household," a report filed by a New Yorker said. A Chicago resident who also filed a complaint called the fake comment made under their mother's name "sickening." Their mother passed away several years ago from cancer.
While it's still not clear how the identities were stolen, the Attorney General's Office has at least figured out where the fake comments came from: New York, Florida, Texas and California produced 100,000 fake comments each. It has released the details of its investigation along with a letter from Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman criticizing the FCC's decision move forward with its net neutrality vote. He's urging the commission to postpone the vote, which is scheduled to take place today at 10:30AM Eastern, and to help further his team's investigation.
He wrote:
"Millions of fake comments have corrupted the FCC public process -- including two million that stole the identities of real people, a crime under New York law. Yet the FCC is moving full steam ahead with a vote based on this corrupted process, while refusing to cooperate with an investigation. As we've told the FCC: moving forward with this vote would make a mockery of our public comment process and reward those who perpetrated this fraud to advance their own hidden agenda. The FCC must postpone this vote and work with us to get to the bottom of what happened."
Schneiderman once called out the FCC for refusing to look into the issue. His office apparently requested for FCC's records nine times between June and November, but it never received any concrete response. Earlier this month, the commission finally agreed to cooperate with the New York Attorney General, giving Schneiderman's team a way to finally start analyzing all the anti-net neutrality spam that flooded the commission's website.
U.S. forces fired warning shots at Russian aircraft Wednesday after a pair of Russian Su-25 aircraft crossed into U.S. coalition airspace over Syria.
The tense 40-minute encounter saw American military firing flares and chaff, metal clouds that are designed to confuse enemy radars, to warn the Russian fighters to move away. According to the Pentagon, one of the U.S. pilots had to pull an aggressive maneuver to avoid a mid-air collision. At one point, one of the U.S. F-22s shadowed one of the Russian Su-25 aircraft.
Encounters like this are occurring more often recently, despite agreements between the countries to avoid this very scenario. Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman, tells the Washington Post that Russians have flown into coalition airspace six to eight times a day, which accounts for about 10% of all Russian and Syrian flights. (Russia agreed in November to keep its aircraft west of the Euphrates river.)
The encounter happened days after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to scale back air operations in Syria. The Pentagon, at the time, was skeptical of the claims.
By Heather Somerville
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar, known for his early bet on Uber Technologies Inc, said on Thursday that he would sever ties with his venture capital company, Sherpa Capital, after being accused of sexual misconduct.
Pishevar, who has denied the accusations, said in a statement provided by his lawyer that he was voluntarily leaving Sherpa Capital, which he co-founded, because of ongoing "untruthful attacks" against him.
Bloomberg reported in November that five women accused Pishevar of exploiting a professional connection or the prospect of a job, mentorship or investment to make unwanted sexual advances.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the accusations.
"I refuse to allow my enemies to drag my Sherpa family into their fight with me," Pishevar said in the statement. "That is why I have decided on my own accord to end my association with Sherpa Capital, effective immediately."
In a statement, Sherpa Capital thanked Pishevar for his contributions to the firm and said it was "deeply committed to our culture of integrity, inclusion, and respect."
The firm previously said it had never received any sexual harassment complaint but was nevertheless launching an independent internal review to ensure its "practices and operations continue to reflect the highest professional and ethical standards."
Pishevar earlier this month took a leave of absence from Sherpa Capital to fight the allegations of sexual assault and harassment and focus on a defamation lawsuit he filed against political consulting firm Definers Public Affairs, which he has accused of orchestrating the accusations.
Pishevar also stepped down from his board responsibilities at various startups, including Hyperloop One, the transportation company he co-founded.
His announcement on Thursday made his departure from Sherpa Capital permanent.
"I plan to focus now on the appropriate ongoing legal actions against those who are unjustly orchestrating the smear campaign against me," Pishevar said.
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Pishevar in November sued Arlington, Virginia-based Definers Public Affairs and its founder, Matt Rhoades, and president, Joe Pounder. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that they orchestrated "a malicious smear campaign, apparently designed to incite false, defamatory, and highly damaging chatter and gossip about Mr. Pishevar."
Tim Miller, a partner at Definers Public Affairs, called Pishevar's accusations "frivolous." The firm countersued Pishevar, alleging that his lawsuit was designed "to intimidate women from coming forward," Miller said.
(Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Document by former Uber security manager details companys alleged unethical, unlawful practices amid legal battle with self-driving car company Waymo
Richard Jacobs says he was demoted after raising concerns about the companys techniques. Photograph: Eric Risberg/AP
Uber allegedly engaged in a range of unethical and unlawful intelligence collections, including the theft of competitive trade secrets, bribery of foreign officials and spying on competitors and politicians, according to an explosive legal document published on Friday.
Its the latest chapter in the discovery process for the companys messy legal squabble with Waymo, Googles driverless car spin-off, which has accused Uber of stealing trade secrets.
The details were outlined in a 37-page demand letter filed by the ex-Uber security manager Richard Jacobs, who left the company earlier this year. The document paints a picture of a team of employees dedicated to spying on rivals and impeding legal investigations into the company.
Jacobs alleges that when he raised concerns over the techniques being used, he was given a poor performance review and demoted as pure retaliation for refusing to buy into the culture of achieving business goals through illegal conduct even though equally aggressive legal means were available.
He had sent the letter to Ubers in-house counsel with his allegations about possible criminal activity carried out by the special group in May this year, threatening to sue the company. Uber did not provide the letter to Waymo as part of legal discovery before the trial started.
An Uber spokeswoman said in a statement: While we havent substantiated all the claims in this letter and, importantly, any related to Waymo our new leadership has made clear that going forward we will compete honestly and fairly, on the strength of our ideas and technology.
Jacobs worked at the ride-hailing company from March 2016 until April 2017. After his attorney sent the demand letter to Uber outlining potentially criminal activities within Ubers strategic services group and marketplace analytics teams, he and Uber reached a $4.5m settlement. This included a non-disparagement clause and a one-year consulting contract to help Uber root out bad behaviour, Jacobs said when he testified in federal court last month.
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The letter alleges, among other things, that Uber planned to use certain hardware devices and software to conceal the creation and destruction of corporate records so they would never be subject to legal discovery. Such records would, the letter states, implicate ongoing discovery disputes such as those in Ubers litigation with Waymo.
The letter also outlines a range of intrusive techniques that Uber allegedly used to extract intelligence from politicians, regulators, competitors, taxi organisations and activists.
Ubers intelligence team allegedly infiltrated private event spaces at hotel and conference facilities that a group of competing executives used during their stay. Jacobs claimed that Uber recorded and observed private conversations among the executives including their real-time reactions to the news that Uber would receive $3.4bn from the Saudi government.
Live updates, photos and videos were then allegedly transmitted back to the War Room at Ubers headquarters, where the companys former CEO, Travis Kalanick, along with other members of Ubers executive team, could observe.
Uber operatives also impersonated taxi drivers, Jacobs said, to infiltrate private Facebook groups and WhatsApp groups of opponents.
Matthew Umhofer, an attorney representing four members of Ubers security team mentioned in the letter, added: The competitive information gathering that was done at the explicit request of management was unremarkable and no different than whats done by law-abiding companies across the country and Ubers own competitors.
Umhofer also described the letter as character assassination for cash and said that Jacobs is nothing more than a failed Uber employee who underperformed and got demoted, and then retaliated against his supervisors.
During his testimony last month, Jacobs repudiated some of the allegations made in his demand letter, saying that he had only reviewed it for 20 minutes before his lawyer had sent it. Among those was the allegation that Uber used the marketplace analytics team to steal trade secrets at least from Waymo in the United States. Jacobs said that the team primarily worked overseas, but in the US had researched protest and threat groups targeting Uber.
Waymo sued Uber in February, alleging that the ride-hail companys acquisition of the self-driving startup Otto, founded by the former Waymo employee Anthony Levandowski, was actually a scheme to acquire secrets stolen from Waymo.
The federal judge William Alsup, who is overseeing the trade secrets case, was only alerted to the existence of the explosive demand letter by federal prosecutors on 22 November in a separate letter in which they confirmed that there was an open criminal investigation into Uber. You should have come clean with this long ago, he subsequently told Ubers lawyers in court.
Because such a key piece of evidence had been withheld, Alsup delayed the start of the trial.
If even half of whats in that letter is true, it would be a huge injustice to force Waymo to go to trial as scheduled, he said.
At the time, a spokeswoman for Waymo called the new evidence significant and troubling and welcomed the trial delay as an opportunity to fully investigate this new, highly relevant information.
But an Uber spokeswoman, Chelsea Kohler, said in a statement then: None of the testimony today changes the merits of the case. Jacobs himself said on the stand today that he was not aware of any Waymo trade secrets being stolen.
Uber maintained that it did not withhold information because the letter was outside of Waymos discovery demands. The special master, a court official helping out with the trial, did not agree, concluding in a report filed on Friday that Uber should have produced the Jacobs demand letter in response to Waymos discovery requests.
Mohan Guragain is a desk editor at The Kathmandu Post. He edited a provincial youth-oriented monthly paper for nearly two years before joining The Himalayan Times in 2008. Guragain also writes occasionally on politics and socio-economic issues. He joined the Post in 2010.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) has set a new series of programs to allow its employees, or "associates" as they are called, access to part of their pay before they get their paychecks. One has to wonder why they need these very short-term, no interest loans. If their compensation was enough to cover day-to-day expenses, the services might not be necessary.
On the other hand, Walmart probably believes these workers perform tasks not worthy of higher pay. If so, the pay plans are among the only way they can help employees financially over the long term.
ALSO READ: The Worst Companies to Work For
The world's largest retailer's management disclosed:
Walmart today announced a suite of new financial wellness services for more than 1.4 million associates nationwide. The new offering was created in collaboration with Silicon Valley-based financial technology startups Even and PayActiv. Associates will access the tools through the Even app, available for both iOS and Android devices.
The joint solution allows Walmart associates to automatically plan ahead for bills and savings goals, eliminating the work of figuring out how much money is okay to spend. When unexpected expenses occur, associates can access earned wages ahead of scheduled paychecks using an Instapay feature, providing greater flexibility and helping them avoid overdrafts, high-fee funding or credit options.
ALSO READ: 20 Most Popular Stores in America
The technology is not the primary part of the program. The fact that people need advances to "plan ahead for bills and savings goals" and "figure out how much money it is okay to spend" are.
Most Americans who make more than the $10 an hour minimum wage do not have to pull money forward to cover their daily expenses. Their base pay is enough to cover these expenses without a very short-term loan. The "financial wellness services" are a means to hold wages low. Walmart does not merely pay these people low wages. It reasons that unskilled labor does not carry enough business value to pay the people more. And, based on Walmart's margins and the large number of unskilled people it employs, the programs may be the best and most the retailer will do to aid its associates.
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Photo credit: Hearst Communications, Inc. All rights reserved
From Esquire
Nothing but the best people, Chapter the Infinity.
I realize that, at this point, theres a certain reluctance on the part of, well, normal experts to take a gig with Camp Runamuck. Hell, that state of affairs existed almost as soon as this administration* was birthed at the Royal Wedding of Stupid and Mean over a year ago. However, now that weve had a year to watch these birds in action, people are hiding under their beds when the phone rings and, if youre an actual expert in anything, that seasonal job at Crate and Barrel is looking awfully good right now. So, as CNN explains, we end up with people like this guy at Homeland Security.
Frank Wuco has served as the White House adviser to DHS since January and now leads a team tasked with helping to enforce President Donald Trump's executive orders, including the administration's travel ban. Before that, he hosted a conservative talk radio show in Florida for several years and appeared as a guest on other talk radio shows. CNN's KFile reviewed more than 40 hours of audio of Wuco's show and his other appearances.
Pro tip: when you become president, do not hire local conservative talk-show hosts. If you do, youre likely to find your DHS peddling auto glass and male-enhancement potions on the side. And, as you might expect from a guy whose qualifications included arguing down Bob On Car Phone, Wucos opinions occasionally swerve into the unconventional and hit it head on.
On the radio, Wuco said Obama knew nothing of the "black American experience," defended the initial speculation in the media that Muslim extremists were responsible for the mass killing in Norway, and said that gay people had hijacked the word "gay" from happy people... Wuco also used his platform as a radio host to promote the debunked conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the US. In August 2011, Wuco hosted Jerome Corsi, author of "Where's The Birth Certificate: The Case That Barack Obama Is Not Eligible to Be President." On his website, Wuco promoted the discussion by calling Obama's then-recently released long-form birth certificate "a questionable document." Wuco said Corsi's book "laid it out in very significant detail, not just why it's important that (Obama) present better credentials on his status as a natural born citizen, but a lot of the things that surrounded it and where it is important as to the constitutionality of just being able to get your name on the ballot." Later, Wuco asked Corsi why people were disengaged with the birth certificate issue, saying Corsi made "a good case" for, and asked why Americans didn't seem to care about "the significance of this."
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This man has access to the personal data of God knows how many of his far less insane fellow citizens. No, Mr. Senior Adviser, I dont want to replace my windshield.
And then, as The Hill tells us, the president*s choice to head the Food and Drug Administration is one of those crank zillionaires who finds a new idea and spends all of their time out in the yard playing with it.
Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that O'Neill, a libertarian and associate of billionaire Peter Thiel, who is close to the Trump team, is under consideration for the FDA position. The agency oversees the approval of new drugs and is responsible for ensuring their safety. O'Neill lacks a medical background, traditionally a prerequisite for the job, and has raised eyebrows with his past comments about overhauling the agency. The most attention has fallen on O'Neill's comments in a 2014 speech, where he called for changing the FDA's mission so that it no longer considers whether drugs are effective when deciding whether to approve them. Instead, O'Neill said the agency should only consider whether drugs are safe
And, I suppose, that all drugs should be sold out of the back of a circus wagon with lovely ladies dancing the hootchie-coo and a half-blind fiddle player sitting on a keg of hard cider. Hell probably get around to that because brother ONeill has plans for the future.
He also has an interest in anti-aging products and has spoken of "immortality" as a possibility. "You can tell a lot about an era by listening to what people whine about," O'Neill said in the same 2014 speech. "If we invest wisely in life extension technologies, in 40 years, we'll all be able to annoy our friends with complaints like 'immortality almost never works.'"
Of course, when ONeill wakes up in the year 3535, he will discover that hes the only living soul left in the country because everyone else died of unregulated patent medicines centuries earlier.
Now, it does look like the Republicans in Congress are noticing that the clown car is full up, so maybe ONeill doesnt get this job, but who found him in the first place? This is a guy who thinks people should be allowed to sell their kidneys. Knowing this administration*, I wouldnt count on getting paid for yours.
Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page.
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Newmarket, Ontario, Dec. 15, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- December 15, 2017, Newmarket, Ontario Curtiss-Wright has been supporting the nuclear industry in Canada since 1980, but it was only shortly after Ontario Power Generation confirmed plans to refurbish its reactors at Darlington Nuclear that the international company established a division in Newmarket, Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Canada to better serve its clients.
With 55 years of experience supporting the industry in both the U.S and Canada, Curtiss-Wright has established a strong reputation for offering a comprehensive range of products and services that help sustain the safe and reliable operation of nuclear plants throughout the world.
Curtiss-Wright supports OPGs Darlington Refurbishment project by providing testing to ensure equipment and components to be installed in the station meet seismic and environmental qualifications; and tests OPG-procured commercial grade components to certify them as nuclear grade, thereby ensuring they meet rigorous industry standards. Recently Curtiss-Wright secured a $2.5 million contract for new nuclear grade valves that will be used in the refurbishment of OPGs Darlington station.
In addition to supporting OPG directly, Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Canada works with other organizations providing components to the refurbishment project by conducting quality testing on those components to ensure theyre ready for installation at Darlington. Beyond the refurbishment project, Curtiss-Wright has worked with OPG on Darlington site safety and infrastructure projects. With a commitment to post-secondary education in nuclear technology, Curtiss-Wright and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) are partnering on seismic research projects related to CANDU nuclear station safety.
Ontario is embarking on a massive nuclear refurbishment program that will see 8,000 jobs created in the province, to add to the 12,000 Ontarians currently employed in the sector. The refurbishment of Ontario Power Generations Darlington Nuclear Station is underway and home to over 5,000 additional workers. Of the $25 billion planned investment in plants at Bruce and at Ontario Power Generations Darlington Nuclear Station, over 90 percent will be spent with Ontario-based suppliers, creating further jobs and opportunities for small- and medium-sized companies across the province.
OPGs Darlington Refurbishment project is Canadas largest clean energy project, generating thousands of jobs and environmental benefits for Ontarians. Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Canada is one of 200 companies located across the province who are supporting this 10-year venture.
Quotes:
"The work that Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Canada is doing at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station is a great addition to Ontarios fight against climate change. By providing low-carbon and low-cost electricity for Ontario families and businesses, this facility is creating important jobs in the energy sector and helping move our province towards a strong, low-carbon economy."
Hon. Chris Ballard, MPP Newmarket Aurora and Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Newmarket is proud to be the home of a network of advanced, innovative companies like Curtiss-Wright. On behalf of the Town of Newmarket, I would like to thank Curtiss-Wright for their continued investment in our community and commitment to clean energy.
Mayor Tony Van Bynen, Town of Newmarket
"We are proud to have a company of international stature like Curtiss Wright invest here in Ontario to support our nuclear industry while creating high value and sustainable jobs.
Dr. Ron Oberth, President and CEO, OCNI
In the big picture, the Darlington Refurbishment project is certainly a flagship opportunity for Curtiss-Wright. On a micro-level, the project has given us the opportunity to learn and improve our processes by working with a large, complex organization like OPG. Weve transitioned a lot in the last five years, and thats in large part because of our work on the Darlington Refurbishment project.
Chris Mitchell, Director, Business Segment, Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Canada
Curtiss-Wright is a great example of the key work being completed through expert suppliers in support of the Darlington Nuclear Refurbishment Project.
John M. Beck, President and Chief Executive Officer, Aecon Group Inc.
Curtiss-Wright has been engaged, and entrusted, to supply critical safety related valves on a number of our key projects, including Darlington Retube & Feeder Replacement. Our continued relationship with them is a testament to their commitment to quality, innovation and the nuclear industry in general.
Preston Swafford, Chief Nuclear Officer and Executive Vice-President, Nuclear, SNC-Lavalin
Refurbishing Darlington Nuclear is Canada's largest clean energy project. It's an investment in clean air, lower energy prices and it creates thousands of high skilled jobs that will drive Ontario's economy. The Darlington Refurbishment project is boosting Ontario's Gross Domestic Product by $15 billion and is having significant impacts on the local economies across the province including Newmarket. Ontario Power Generation and our suppliers and partners are working as one team to deliver the project safely, on time and on budget."
Ted Gruetzner, Vice President, Corporate Relations and Communications, Ontario Power Generation
Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Canada offers a comprehensive range of products and services that support the nuclear power industry. CNWC advanced technologies and innovative solutions have been used in operating reactors for over 55 years, sustaining the safe and reliable operation of nuclear plants throughout the world. For over 30 years, Curtiss-Wright has supplied safety related equipment and services to the international fleet of CANDU utilities by providing engineered solutions for a wide variety of nuclear safety systems.
Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries (OCNI) is an association of more than 200 Canadian suppliers to the nuclear industry that employ more than 12,000 highly skilled and specialized engineers, technologists, and trades people. OCNI companies design reactors, manufacture major equipment and components, and provide engineering services and support to CANDU nuclear power plants in Canada as well as to CANDU and Light Water Reactor (LWR) plants in offshore markets.
-30-
For Further Information Contact:
Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries: Ron Oberth, President and CEO
Tel: (905) 839 -0073 or (647) 407-6081, ron.oberth@ocni.ca
www.ocni.ca
Attachments:
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/93e8fdea-3c7f-46a1-908a-b27088b1de23
Attachments:
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6fb2a641-2220-4777-be5a-b391e4c52d62
New York, Dec 15(Just Earth News): A golden opportunity has been missed to decide the future of Syria at the end of the latest round of United Nations-supported talks in Geneva, UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday.
de Mistura was speaking to journalists in the Swiss city where he has been meeting Syrian Government representatives and for the first time a united opposition delegation.
He added that he was disappointed at the Government's lack of engagement on any issue other than counter-terrorism, before adding that he intended to call a new round of talks in January.
One of the main goals of this eighth round of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva was to get the still-warring parties to consider a new constitution for the war-ravaged country and UN-backed elections.
The opposition delegation had engaged on these issues and others with UN negotiator Staffan de Mistura, he told journalists.
But the Syrian Government representatives chose to focus solely on fighting terrorism, prompting the UN envoy to point out: A big missed opportunity, a golden opportunity at the end of this year, when in fact there is a clear indication from many sides that the military operations are coming to a close, the Da'esh [also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIL] territory is reduced to close to zero.
de Mistura went on to say that at the same time everybody knows [] that without a clear political process we risk to not have learned the lesson of Mosul, and we risk to not have what should be winning the peace not only winning the war against Da'esh.
While the talks have been taking place in Geneva, the dire humanitarian situation inside parts of Syria has remained unchanged particularly in Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus.
de Mistura said he had spoken to the Government delegation about the need to evacuate hundreds of sick people from the besieged area on medical grounds, but he failed to get a satisfactory answer from them.
While acknowledging that this round of discussions with the parties had not seen the progress he would have liked, the UN envoy insisted that the Geneva talks had given an opportunity to hear from Syrian civil society, including the Women's Advisory Board.
He maintained that his efforts to secure peace in the country will continue, until those with the power to stop the fighting realized that there can be no reconstruction in Syria devastated as it is by nearly seven years of war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives without a political
Photo by Violaine Martin
Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, Dec 16(Just Earth News): Expressing deep shock at a mass execution of 38 men at a prison in the Iraqi city of Nassiriya, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called on the country to establish an immediate moratorium and carry out an urgent and comprehensive review of its criminal justice system.
The mass execution [] once again raises huge concerns about the use of the death penalty in the country, Liz Throssell, an OHCHR spokesperson, told the media at a regular news briefing in Geneva Friday.
Given the flaws of the Iraqi justice system, it appears extremely doubtful that strict due process and fair trial guarantees were followed in these 38 cases, she added.
All prisoners had been convicted for terrorism-related crimes. They were executed Thursday.
Also in her briefing, Throssell said that the executions and the fears over due process and fair trial guarantees raised the dangers of irreversible miscarriages of justice and violations of the right to life.
The UN rights office has time and again raised concerns over the continued use of death penalty in the country.
So far this year, it has been informed of 106 executions in the country, including the mass hanging of 42 prisoners in a single day in September, the spokesperson added.
We once again urge the Iraqi authorities to halt all executions, establish an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty and carry out an urgent and comprehensive review of the criminal justice system, she added.
Photo: Andrew Bardwell
Source: www.justearthnews.com
Pileup of empty containers puts dry port in disarray
A huge number of empty containers has been steadily piling up at Sirsiya Dry Port in Birgunj, creating congestion at the dry port as importers are reluctant to clear them.
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1 The tops of tall buildings in Skopje, Macedonia, are above the clouds in this picture taken from Vodno Mountain of an area with a lot of air pollution.
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Bancolombia S.A. provides banking products and services in Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. The company operates through nine segments: Banking Colombia, Banking Panama, Banking El Salvador, Banking Guatemala, Trust, Investment Banking, Brokerage, International Banking, and All Other. It offers checking and savings accounts, fixed term deposits, and investment products; trade financing, loans funded by domestic development banks, working capital loans, credit cards, personal and vehicle loans, payroll loans, and overdrafts; financial support to real estate developers and mortgages for individuals and companies; factoring; and financial and operating leasing services. The company also provides hedging instruments, including futures, forwards, options, and swaps; and brokerage, investment advisory, and private banking services, including selling and distributing equities, futures, foreign currencies, fixed income securities, mutual funds, and structured products. In addition, it offers cash management services; foreign currency transaction services; life, auto, commercial, and homeowner's insurance products; and online and computer banking services. Further, the company provides project and acquisition finance, debt and equity capital markets, principal investments, M&A, hedging strategies, restructurings, and structured financing; money market accounts, mutual and pension funds, private equity funds, payment and corporate trust, and custody; internet-based trading platform; inter-bank lending and repurchase agreements; managing escrow accounts, and investment and real estate funds; and transportation, securities brokerage, maintenance and remodeling, and outsourcing services. As of December 31, 2021, it operated 1,015 branches; 28,676 banking correspondents; 529 PAMs; 210 kiosks in El Salvador and 187 in Colombia; and 6,094 ATMs. Bancolombia S.A. was incorporated in 1945 and is headquartered in Medellin, Colombia.
Pokhara-Baglung road section gets underway
The expansion and upgradation works for the Pokhara-Baglung section of the Mid-Hill highway project has been expedited to tackle the heavy traffic which could become a problem for motorists and daily commuters.
Xerox Holdings Corporation, a workplace technology company, designs, develops, and sells document management systems and solutions in the United States, Europe, Canada, and internationally. It offers workplace solutions, including desktop monochrome, and color and multifunction printers; digital printing presses and light production devices, and solutions; and digital services that leverage workflow automation, personalization and communication software, content management solutions, and digitization services. The company also provides graphic communications and production solutions; and IT services, end user computing devices, network infrastructure, communications technology, and a range of managed IT solutions, such as technology product support, professional engineering, and commercial robotic process automation. In addition, it provides FreeFlow a portfolio of software solutions for the automation and integration to the processing of print job comprises file preparation, final production, and electronic publishing; XMPie, a personalization and communication software that support the needs of omni-channel communications customers; DocuShare, a content management platform to capture, store, and share paper and digital content; and CareAR, an enterprise augmented reality business. Further, the company sells paper products and wide-format systems. The company sells its products and services directly to its customers through its direct sales force, as well as through independent agents, dealers, value-added resellers, systems integrators, and e-commerce marketplaces. Xerox Holdings Corporation was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.
The following companies are subsidiares of General Motors: 2140879 Ontario Inc., ACAR Leasing Ltd., ACF Investment Corp., AFS SenSub Corp., APGO Trust, Adam Opel GmbH, AmeriCredit, AmeriCredit Financial Services Inc., Annunciata Corporation, Argonaut Holdings LLC, Astyx Inc., BOCO (Proprietary) Limited, Banco GM S.A., Boco Trust, BrightDrop LLC, BrightDrop Solutions LLC, BrightDrop Vehicle Distribution LLC, CHEVYPLAN S.A. Sociedad Administradora de Planes de Autofinanciamiento Comercial, Cadillac, Cadillac Europe GmbH, Carve-Out Ownership Cooperative LLC, Chevrolet Deutschland GmbH, Chevrolet Otomotiv Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Chevrolet Sales (Thailand) Limited, Chevrolet Sales India Private Ltd., Chevrolet Sociedad Anonima de Ahorro para Fines Determinados, Controladora General Motors S. de R.L. de C.V., Cruise, Cruise LLC, Cruise Munich GmbH, DCJ1 LLC, DMAX Ltd., Dealership Liquidations Inc., Delphi Energy and Engine Management Systems UK Overseas Corporation, EDS (Electronic Data Systems), GCAR Titling Ltd., GM (UK) Pension Trustees Limited, GM Administradora de Bens Ltda., GM Asia Pacific Regional Headquarters Ltd., GM Components Holdings LLC, GM Corretora de Seguros Ltda., GM Cruise Holdings LLC, GM Defense LLC, GM Eurometals Inc., GM Finance Co. Holdings LLC, GM Financial, GM Financial Bank, GM Financial Canada Leasing Ltd., GM Financial Colombia Holdings LLC, GM Financial Colombia S.A. Compania de Financiamiento, GM Financial Consumer Discount Company, GM Financial Holdings LLC, GM Financial Insurance Company, GM Financial Mexico Holdings LLC, GM Financial de Mexico S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.R., GM Financial del Peru S.A.C, GM Global Technology Operations LLC, GM Global Tooling Company LLC, GM Global Treasury Centre Limited, GM Holdings Australia Pty Ltd, GM Holdings U.K. No.1 Limited, GM Inversiones Santiago Limitada, GM Investment Trustees Limited, GM Korea Company, GM LAAM Holdings LLC, GM Mobility Europe GmbH, GM Personnel Services Inc., GM Philippines Inc., GM Protections LLC, GM Regional Holdings LLC, GM Retirees Pension Trustees Limited, GM Speciality Vehicles UK Limited, GM Subsystems Manufacturing LLC, GM Technical Center Korea Ltd., GM-DI Leasing LLC, GMAC Administradora de Consorcios Ltda., GMAC Prestadora de Servicios de Mao de Obra Ltda., GMCH&SP Private Equity II L.P., GMF Funding Corp., GMF Global Assignment LLC, GMF International LLC, GMF Leasing LLC, GMF Wholesale Receivables LLC, General Motors (China) Investment Company Limited, General Motors - Colmotores S.A., General Motors Advisory Services LLC, General Motors Africa and Middle East FZE, General Motors Asia LLC, General Motors Asia Pacific Holdings LLC, General Motors Asset Management Corporation, General Motors Australia Pty Ltd., General Motors Australia and New Zealand Pty Ltd., General Motors Auto LLC, General Motors Automobiles Philippines Inc., General Motors Automotive Holdings S.L., General Motors Belgique Automobile NV, General Motors Chile Industria Automotriz Limitada, General Motors China LLC, General Motors Daewoo Auto and Technology CIS LLC, General Motors Egypt S.A.E., General Motors Europe Limited, General Motors Financial Chile Limitada, General Motors Financial Chile S.A., General Motors Financial Company Inc., General Motors Financial of Canada Ltd., General Motors Global Service Operations Inc., General Motors Holden Australia NSC Pty Ltd., General Motors Holdings LLC, General Motors IT Services (Ireland) Limited, General Motors India Private Limited, General Motors International Holdings LLC, General Motors International Operations Pte. Ltd., General Motors International Services Company SAS, General Motors International Services LLC, General Motors Investment Limited, General Motors Investment Management Corporation, General Motors Investment Participacoes Ltda., General Motors Investments Pty. Ltd., General Motors Israel Ltd., General Motors Japan Limited, General Motors LLC, General Motors Limited, General Motors New Zealand Limited, General Motors New Zealand Pensions Limited, General Motors Overseas Commercial Vehicle Corporation, General Motors Overseas Corporation, General Motors Overseas Distribution LLC, General Motors Peru S.A., General Motors Research Corporation, General Motors South Africa (Pty) Limited, General Motors Taiwan Ltd., General Motors Technical Centre India Private Limited, General Motors Treasury Center LLC, General Motors Uruguay S.A., General Motors Ventures LLC, General Motors Warehousing and Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., General Motors de Argentina S.r.l., General Motors de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., General Motors del Ecuador S.A., General Motors do Brasil Ltda., General Motors of Canada Company, General Motors-Holden's Sales Pty. Limited, Global Services Detroit LLC, Grand Pointe Holdings Inc., Grand Pointe Park Condominium Association, IBC Pension Trustees Limited, Lease Ownership Cooperative LLC, Lidlington Engineering Company Ltd., Limited Liability Company "General Motors CIS", Maven Drive LLC, Millbrook Pension Management Limited, Monetization of Carve-Out LLC, Motors Holding LLC, Multi-Use Lease Entity Trust, North American New Cars LLC, Omnibus BB Transportes S. A., OnStar Connected Services Srl, OnStar Egypt Limited, OnStar Europe Ltd., OnStar Global Services Corporation, OnStar LLC, OnStar de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., P.T. G M AutoWorld Indonesia, P.T. General Motors Indonesia, PIMS Co., PT. General Motors Indonesia Manufacturing, Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center Company Ltd., Prestadora de Servicios GMF Colombia S.A.S., Rapid Motor Vehicle Company, Reliance Motor Car Company, Riverfront Holdings III Inc., Riverfront Holdings Inc., Riverfront Holdings Phase II Inc., SAIC GM (Shenyang) Norsom Motors Co. Ltd., SAIC GM Dong Yue Motors Company Limited, SAIC GM Dong Yue Powertrain Company Limited, SAIC GM Wuling Automobile Company Limited, SAIC General Motors Corporation Limited, SAIC General Motors Sales Company Limited, SAIC-GMAC Automotive Finance Company Limited, SAIC-GMF Leasing Co. Ltd., Servicios GMAC S.A. de C.V., Shanghai OnStar Telematics Co. Ltd., Sidecar Technologies, Ultium Cells LLC, Vehicle Asset Universal Leasing Trust, WRE Inc., and Zona Franca Industrial Colmotores SAS.
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Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
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 Pfizer: AH Robins LLC, AHP Holdings B.V., AHP Manufacturing B.V., Agouron Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alacer, Alpharma Holdings LLC, Alpharma Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alpharma Specialty Pharma LLC, Alpharma USHP LLC, American Food Industries LLC, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc., Angiosyn, Array BioPharma, Ayerst-Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, BIND Therapeutics Inc., BINESA 2002 S.L., Bamboo Therapeutics, Bamboo Therapeutics Inc., Baxter International - Marketed Vaccines, BioRexis, Bioren, Bioren LLC, Blue Whale Re Ltd., C.E. Commercial Holdings C.V., C.E. Commercial Investments C.V., C.P. Pharmaceuticals International C.V., CICL Corporation, COC I Corporation, Catapult Genetics, Coley Pharmaceutical GmbH, Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc., Continental Pharma Inc., Covx, Covx Technologies Ireland Limited, Cyanamid Inter-American Corporation, Cyanamid de Argentina S.A., Cyanamid de Colombia S.A., Distribuidora Mercantil Centro Americana S.A., Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc., Esperion LUV Development Inc., Esperion Therapeutics, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals Inc., Farminova Produtos Farmaceuticos de Inovacao Lda., Farmogene Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Ferrosan A/S, Ferrosan International A/S, Ferrosan S.R.L., FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Foldrx Pharmaceuticals, Fort Dodge Manufatura Ltda., G. D. Searle & Co. Limited, G. D. Searle International Capital LLC, G. D. Searle LLC, GI Europe Inc., GI Japan Inc., GenTrac Inc., Genetics Institute LLC, Greenstone LLC, Haptogen Limited, Hospira, Hospira (China) Enterprise Management Co. Ltd., Hospira Adelaide Pty Ltd, Hospira Aseptic Services Limited, Hospira Australia Pty Ltd, Hospira Benelux BVBA, Hospira Chile Limitada, Hospira Deutschland GmbH, Hospira Enterprises B.V., Hospira France SAS, Hospira Healthcare B.V., Hospira Healthcare Corporation, Hospira Healthcare India Private Limited, Hospira Holdings (S.A.) Pty Ltd, Hospira Inc., Hospira Invicta S.A., Hospira Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, Hospira Ireland Sales Limited, Hospira Japan G.K., Hospira Limited, Hospira Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Hospira NZ Limited, Hospira Nordic AB, Hospira Philippines Inc., Hospira Portugal LDA, Hospira Produtos Hospitalares Ltda., Hospira Pte. Ltd., Hospira Pty Limited, Hospira Puerto Rico LLC, Hospira Singapore Pte Ltd, Hospira UK Limited, Hospira Worldwide LLC, Hospira Zagreb d.o.o., ICAgen, Idun Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Santa Agape S.A., InnoPharma, InnoPharma Inc., International Affiliated Corporation LLC, JMI-Daniels Pharmaceuticals Inc., John Wyeth & Brother Limited, Kiinteisto oy Espoon Pellavaniementie 14, King Pharmaceuticals Holdings LLC, King Pharmaceuticals LLC, King Pharmaceuticals Research and Development LLC, Korea Pharma Holding Company Limited, Laboratoires Pfizer S.A., Laboratorios Parke Davis S.L., Laboratorios Pfizer Ltda., Laboratorios Wyeth LLC, Laboratorios Wyeth S.A., Laboratorios Pfizer Lda., MTG Divestitures LLC, Mayne Pharma IP Holdings (Euro) Pty Ltd, Medivation, Medivation Field Solutions LLC, Medivation LLC, Medivation Neurology LLC, Medivation Prostate Therapeutics LLC, Medivation Services LLC, Medivation Technologies LLC, Meridian Medical Technologies Inc., Meridian Medical Technologies Limited, Monarch Pharmaceuticals LLC, Neusentis Limited, NextWave Pharmaceuticals, NextWave Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, P-D Co. LLC, PAH USA IN8 LLC, PF Americas Holding C.V., PF Asia Manufacturing B.V., PF PR Holdings C.V., PF PRISM C.V., PF PRISM Holdings S.a.r.l., PF Prism S.a.r.l., PFE Holdings G.K., PFE PHAC Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Pfizer Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Wyeth Holdings LLC, PFE Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) LLC, PHILCO Holdings S.a r.l., PHIVCO Corp., PHIVCO Holdco S.a r.l., PHIVCO Luxembourg S.a r.l., PN Mexico LLC, PT. Pfizer Parke Davis, Parke Davis & Company LLC, Parke Davis Limited, Parke Davis Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Parke-Davis Manufacturing Corp., Parkedale Pharmaceuticals Inc., Peak Enterprises LLC, Pfizer, Pfizer (China) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Pfizer (Perth) Pty Limited, Pfizer (Thailand) Limited, Pfizer (Wuhan) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer AB, Pfizer AG, Pfizer AS, Pfizer Africa & Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Veterinarian Products & Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer Anti-Infectives AB, Pfizer ApS, Pfizer Asia Manufacturing Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., Pfizer Atlantic Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Australia Holdings B.V., Pfizer Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Pfizer Australia Investments Pty. Ltd., Pfizer Australia Pty Limited, Pfizer B.V., Pfizer BH D.o.o., Pfizer Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer Biofarmaceutica Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Pfizer Biologics (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd, Pfizer Biologics Ireland Holdings Limited, Pfizer Biotech Corporation, Pfizer Bolivia S.A., Pfizer Canada Inc., Pfizer CentreSource Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Chile S.A., Pfizer Cia. Ltda., Pfizer Colombia Spinco I LLC, Pfizer Commercial Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Commercial Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Commercial TRAE Trading Kft., Pfizer Consumer Healthcare AB, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare GmbH, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Ltd., Pfizer Consumer Manufacturing Italy S.r.l., Pfizer Corporation, Pfizer Corporation Austria Gesellschaft m.b.H., Pfizer Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Pfizer Croatia d.o.o., Pfizer Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Development LP, Pfizer Development Services (UK) Limited, Pfizer Domestic Ventures Limited, Pfizer Dominicana S.R.L, Pfizer ESP Pty Ltd, Pfizer East India B.V., Pfizer Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer Egypt S.A.E., Pfizer Enterprise Holdings B.V., Pfizer Enterprises LLC, Pfizer Enterprises SARL, Pfizer Europe Finance B.V., Pfizer Export B.V., Pfizer Export Company, Pfizer Export Holding Company B.V, Pfizer Finance Share Service (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Financial Services N.V./S.A., Pfizer France International Investments, Pfizer Free Zone Panama S. de R.L., Pfizer GEP S.L., Pfizer Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer Global Supply Japan Inc., Pfizer Global Trading, Pfizer Group Luxembourg Sarl, Pfizer Gulf FZ-LLC, Pfizer H.C.P. Corporation, Pfizer HK Service Company Limited, Pfizer Health AB, Pfizer Health Solutions Inc., Pfizer Healthcare Ireland, Pfizer Hellas A.E., Pfizer Himalaya Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Holding France, Pfizer Holding Ventures, Pfizer Holdings Corporation, Pfizer Holdings Europe Unlimited Company, Pfizer Holdings G.K., Pfizer Holdings International Corporation, Pfizer Holdings International Luxembourg (PHIL) Sarl, Pfizer Holdings North America SARL, Pfizer Hungary Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Inc., Pfizer Innovations AB, Pfizer Innovations LLC, Pfizer Innovative Supply Point International BVBA, Pfizer International LLC, Pfizer International Markets Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer International Operations, Pfizer International S. de R.L., Pfizer International Trading (Shanghai) Limited, Pfizer Investment Capital Unlimited Company, Pfizer Investment Co. Ltd., Pfizer Investment Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Ireland Investments Limited, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 1 LLC, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 2 LLC, Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Ireland Ventures Unlimited Company, Pfizer Italia S.r.l., Pfizer Italy Group Holding S.r.l., Pfizer Japan Inc., Pfizer LLC, Pfizer Laboratories (Pty) Limited, Pfizer Laboratories Limited, Pfizer Laboratories PFE (Pty) Ltd, Pfizer Leasing Ireland Limited, Pfizer Leasing UK Limited, Pfizer Limitada, Pfizer Limited, Pfizer Luxco Holdings SARL, Pfizer Luxembourg Global Holdings S.a r.l., Pfizer Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer MAP Holding Inc., Pfizer Manufacturing Austria G.m.b.H., Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland Grundbesitz GmbH & Co. KG, Pfizer Manufacturing Holdings LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Manufacturing LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Services, Pfizer Medical Technology Group (Belgium) N.V., Pfizer Medicamentos Genericos e Participacoes Ltda., Pfizer Mexico Luxco SARL, Pfizer Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pfizer Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Animal Health and Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer New Zealand Limited, Pfizer Norge AS, Pfizer North American Holdings Inc., Pfizer OTC B.V., Pfizer Overseas LLC, Pfizer Oy, Pfizer PFE ApS, Pfizer PFE AsiaPac Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Pty Ltd, Pfizer PFE B.V., Pfizer PFE Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Belgium SPRL, Pfizer PFE Brazil Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE CIA. Ltda., Pfizer PFE Chile Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Colombia Holding Corp., Pfizer PFE Colombia S.A.S, Pfizer PFE Commercial Holdings LLC, Pfizer PFE Croatia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer PFE Finland Oy, Pfizer PFE France, Pfizer PFE Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Ireland Pharmaceuticals Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco 2 S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Pfizer PFE Limited, Pfizer PFE Luxembourg S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Mexico Holding 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE Netherlands Holding 1 C.V., Pfizer PFE New Zealand, Pfizer PFE New Zealand Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Norway Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE PILSA Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Peru Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Peru S.R.L., Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer PFE Private Limited, Pfizer PFE S.R.L, Pfizer PFE Service Company Holding Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer PFE Singapore Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Singapore Pte. Ltd., Pfizer PFE Spain B.V., Pfizer PFE Spain Holding S.L., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding 2 S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Switzerland GmbH, Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 2 B.V., Pfizer PFE UK Holding 4 LP, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 1 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 2 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 4 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 5 LLC, Pfizer PFE spol. s r.o., Pfizer PFE Ilaclar Anonim Sirketi, Pfizer Pakistan Limited, Pfizer Parke Davis (Thailand) Ltd., Pfizer Parke Davis Inc., Pfizer Parke Davis Sdn. Bhd., Pfizer Pharm Algerie, Pfizer Pharma GmbH, Pfizer Pharma PFE GmbH, Pfizer Pharmaceutical (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceutical Trading Limited Liability Company (a/k/a Pfizer Kft. or Pfizer LLC), Pfizer Pharmaceuticals B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Global B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea Limited, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals LLC, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Pfizer Pigments Inc., Pfizer Polska Sp. z.o.o., Pfizer Private Limited, Pfizer Production LLC, Pfizer Products Inc., Pfizer Products India Private Limited, Pfizer Research (NC) Inc., Pfizer Romania SRL, Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A. (Belgium), Pfizer S.A. de C.V., Pfizer S.A.S., Pfizer S.G.P.S. Lda., Pfizer S.L., Pfizer S.R.L., Pfizer SRB d.o.o., Pfizer Saidal Manufacturing, Pfizer Sante Familiale, Pfizer Saudi Limited, Pfizer Seiyaku K.K., Pfizer Service Company BVBA, Pfizer Service Company Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Services 1, Pfizer Services LLC, Pfizer Shared Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Shareholdings Intermediate SARL, Pfizer Singapore Holding Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Singapore Trading Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Spain Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Specialties Limited, Pfizer Strategic Investment Holdings LLC, Pfizer Sweden Partnership KB, Pfizer TRAE Holdings Kft., Pfizer Trading Polska sp.z.o.o., Pfizer Transactions Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Transactions LLC, Pfizer Transactions Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer Transport LLC, Pfizer Ukraine LLC, Pfizer Vaccines LLC, Pfizer Venezuela S.A., Pfizer Venture Investments LLC, Pfizer Ventures LLC, Pfizer Worldwide Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Zona Franca S.A., Pfizer spol. s r.o., Pharmacia, Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn Company LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn S.A. de C.V., Pharmacia Brasil Ltda., Pharmacia Hepar LLC, Pharmacia Holding AB, Pharmacia Inter-American LLC, Pharmacia International B.V., Pharmacia LLC, Pharmacia Limited, Pharmacia Nostrum S.A., Pharmacia South Africa (Pty) Ltd, PowderJect Research Limited, PowderMed, Purepac Pharmaceutical Holdings LLC, Redvax, Renrall LLC, Rinat Neuroscience, Rinat Neuroscience Corp., Roerig Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Roerig S.A., Sao Cristovao Participacoes Ltda., Searle Laboratorios Lda., Serenex, Servicios P&U S. de R.L. de C.V., Shiley LLC, Sinergis Farma-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Site Realty Inc., Solinor LLC, Sugen LLC, Tabor LLC, The Pfizer Incubator LLC, Therachon, Thiakis Limited, Treerly Health Co. Ltd, US Oral Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd, Upjohn Laboratorios Lda., Vesteralens Naturprodukter A/S, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AB, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AS, Vesteralens Naturprodukter OY, Vicuron Holdings LLC, Vinci Farma S.A., W-L LLC, Warner Lambert, Warner Lambert Ilac Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Warner Lambert del Uruguay S.A., Warner-Lambert (Thailand) Limited, Warner-Lambert Company AG, Warner-Lambert Company LLC, Warner-Lambert Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Warner-Lambert S.A., Whitehall International Inc., Whitehall Laboratories Inc., Wyeth (Thailand) Ltd., Wyeth AB, Wyeth Australia Pty. Limited, Wyeth Ayerst Inc., Wyeth Ayerst S.a r.l., Wyeth Biopharma, Wyeth Canada ULC, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare LLC, Wyeth Europa Limited, Wyeth Farma S.A., Wyeth Holdings LLC, Wyeth Industria Farmaceutica Ltda., Wyeth KFT., Wyeth LLC, Wyeth Lederle S.r.l., Wyeth Lederle Vaccines S.A., Wyeth Pakistan Limited, Wyeth Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Company, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals FZ-LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Limited, Wyeth Puerto Rico Inc., Wyeth S.A.S, Wyeth Subsidiary Illinois Corporation, Wyeth Whitehall Export GmbH, Wyeth Whitehall SARL, Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) Limited, Wyeth-Ayerst International LLC, and Wyeth-Ayerst Promotions Limited.
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The following companies are subsidiares of Transocean: 15375 Memorial Corporation, Agon Shipping Inc., Aguas Profundas Limitada, AngoSantaFe - Prestacao de Servicos Petroliferos Limitada, Angola Deepwater Drilling Company (Offshore Services) Ltd, Arcade Drilling AS, Asie Sonat Offshore Sdn. Bhd., Barents Rigco Limited, Blegra Asset Management Limited, Blegra Financing Limited, Caledonia Offshore Drilling Services Limited, Challenger Minerals Inc., Covent Garden - Servicos e Marketing Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Deepwater Drilling (Transocean Ghana) Limited, Deepwater Drilling North Africa LLC - Free Zone, Deepwater Pacific 1 Inc., Deepwater Supply Inc., Drillship Alonissos Owners Inc., Drillship Hydra Owners Inc., Drillship Kithira Owners Inc., Drillship Kythnos Owners Inc., Drillship Paros Owners Inc., Drillship Skiathos Owners Inc., Drillship Skopelos Owners Inc., Drillship Skyros Owners Inc., Eastern Med Consultants Inc., Entities Holdings Inc., GSF Leasing Services GmbH, Global Marine Inc., Global Offshore Drilling Limited, GlobalSantaFe (Labuan) Inc., GlobalSantaFe B.V., GlobalSantaFe C.R. Luigs Limited, GlobalSantaFe Denmark Holdings ApS, GlobalSantaFe Drilling (N.A.) N.V., GlobalSantaFe Drilling Company, GlobalSantaFe Drilling Company (North Sea) Limited, GlobalSantaFe Drilling Company (Overseas) Limited, GlobalSantaFe Drilling Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., GlobalSantaFe Drilling Operations Inc., GlobalSantaFe Drilling Services (North Sea) Limited, GlobalSantaFe Drilling Trinidad LLC, GlobalSantaFe Drilling Venezuela C.A., GlobalSantaFe Financial Services (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., GlobalSantaFe Group Financing Limited Liability Company, GlobalSantaFe Holding Company (North Sea) Limited, GlobalSantaFe Hungary Services Limited Liability Company, GlobalSantaFe International Drilling Corporation, GlobalSantaFe International Drilling Inc., GlobalSantaFe International Services Inc., GlobalSantaFe Nederland B.V., GlobalSantaFe Offshore Services Inc., GlobalSantaFe Operations (Mexico) LLC, GlobalSantaFe Saudi Arabia Ltd., GlobalSantaFe Services (BVI) Inc., GlobalSantaFe Services Netherlands B.V., GlobalSantaFe Servicios de Venezuela C.A., GlobalSantaFe South America LLC, GlobalSantaFe Tampico S. de R.L. de C.V., GlobalSantaFe Techserv (North Sea) Limited, GlobalSantaFe U.S. Holdings Inc., Indigo Drilling Limited, Inteliwell JV GP Limited, Inteliwell JV LP, Kalambo Operations Inc., OCR Falklands Drilling Inc., OR Norge Operations Inc., Ocean Rig, Ocean Rig 1 Inc, Ocean Rig 2 Inc., Ocean Rig Canada Inc., Ocean Rig Cuanza Operations Inc., Ocean Rig Cubango Operations Inc., Ocean Rig Deepwater Drilling Limited, Ocean Rig Investments Inc., Ocean Rig Management Inc., Ocean Rig Operations Inc., Ocean Rig UDW Inc., Ocean Rig UDW LLC, Offshore Ghana Transocean Limited, Offshore Rig Operations AS, Olympia Rig Angola Holding S.A., Olympia Rig Angola Limitada, Orion Holdings (Cayman) Limited, Orion RigCo (Cayman) Limited, P.T. Santa Fe Supraco Indonesia, PT. Transocean Indonesia, Platform Capital N.V., Platform Financial N.V., Primelead Limited, R&B Falcon (A) Pty Ltd, R&B Falcon (Caledonia) Limited, R&B Falcon (M) Sdn. Bhd., R&B Falcon (U.K.) Limited, R&B Falcon B.V., R&B Falcon Deepwater (UK) Limited, R&B Falcon Drilling Co. LLC, R&B Falcon Exploration Co. LLC, R&B Falcon International Energy Services B.V., RBF Rig Corporation LLC, Ranger Insurance Limited, Reading & Bates Coal Co. LLC, SDS Offshore Limited, Safemal Drilling Sdn. Bhd., Santa Fe Braun Inc., Santa Fe Construction Company, Santa Fe Drilling Company of Venezuela C.A., Saudi Drilling Company Limited, Sedco Forex International Inc., Services Petroliers Transocean, Servicios Petroleros Santa Fe S.A., Ship Investment Ocean Holdings Inc., Songa Offshore Delta Limited, Songa Offshore Drilling Limited, Songa Offshore Enabler Limited, Songa Offshore Encourage Limited, Songa Offshore Endurance Limited, Songa Offshore Equinox Limited, Songa Offshore Equipment Rental Limited, Songa Offshore Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Songa Offshore Management Limited, Songa Offshore Pte. Ltd., Songa Offshore Rig 2 AS, Songa Offshore Rig 3 AS, Songa Offshore SE, Songa Offshore SE, Songa Offshore Saturn Limited, Songa Offshore T & P Cyprus Limited, Songa Saturn Chartering Pte. Ltd., Spitsbergen Rigco Limited, Sub-Saharan Drilling Inc., T. I. International Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., TILAM Holdings Limited, TRM Holdings Limited, TSSA - Servicos de Apoio Lda., Transocean Africa Drilling Limited, Transocean Asia Services Sdn Bhd, Transocean Asset Holdings 1 Limited, Transocean Asset Holdings 2 Limited, Transocean Asset Holdings 3 Limited, Transocean Atlas Limited, Transocean Barents ASA, Transocean Brasil Ltda., Transocean Britannia Limited, Transocean Canada Drilling Services Ltd., Transocean Conqueror Limited, Transocean Conqueror Opco LLC, Transocean Corporate Services Limited, Transocean Cyprus Capital Management Public Limited, Transocean Cyprus Drilling Operations Public Limited, Transocean Deepwater Drilling Services Limited, Transocean Deepwater Holdings Limited, Transocean Deepwater Inc., Transocean Deepwater Mauritius, Transocean Deepwater Nautilus Limited, Transocean Deepwater Seafarer Services Limited, Transocean Discoverer 534 LLC, Transocean Drilling Enterprises S.a.r.l., Transocean Drilling Israel Ltd., Transocean Drilling Limited, Transocean Drilling Namibia Inc., Transocean Drilling Offshore S.a.r.l., Transocean Drilling Sdn. Bhd., Transocean Drilling Services (India) Private Limited, Transocean Drilling U.K. Limited, Transocean Eastern Pte. Ltd., Transocean Employee Support Fund, Transocean Enabler Limited, Transocean Enabler Rigco Limited, Transocean Encourage Limited, Transocean Encourage Rigco Limited, Transocean Endurance Limited, Transocean Endurance Rigco Limited, Transocean Entities Holdings GmbH, Transocean Equinox Limited, Transocean Equinox Rigco Limited, Transocean Finance Limited, Transocean Financing (Cayman) Limited, Transocean Financing GmbH, Transocean Guardian Limited, Transocean Holdings 1 Limited, Transocean Holdings 2 Limited, Transocean Holdings 3 Limited, Transocean Holdings LLC, Transocean Hungary Holdings LLC, Transocean Hungary Investments LLC, Transocean Hungary Ventures LLC, Transocean Inc., Transocean Innovation Labs Ltd., Transocean International Holdings Limited, Transocean International Resources Limited, Transocean Investimentos Ltda., Transocean Investments Holdings LLC, Transocean Investments S.a.r.l., Transocean Ltd., Transocean Management Services GmbH, Transocean Minerals Holdings Limited, Transocean Nautilus Limited, Transocean North Sea Limited, Transocean Norway Operations AS, Transocean Offshore (North Sea) Ltd., Transocean Offshore Canada Services Ltd., Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc., Transocean Offshore Deepwater Holdings Limited, Transocean Offshore Drilling Limited, Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea II Limited, Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea VI Limited, Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea VII Limited, Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea XII Limited, Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea XIII Limited, Transocean Offshore Holdings Limited, Transocean Offshore International Limited, Transocean Offshore International Ventures Limited, Transocean Offshore Limited, Transocean Offshore PR Limited, Transocean Offshore USA Inc., Transocean Onshore Support Services Limited, Transocean Orion Limited, Transocean Phoenix 2 Limited, Transocean Phoenix 2 Opco LLC, Transocean Pontus Limited, Transocean Pontus Opco Inc., Transocean Poseidon Limited, Transocean Poseidon Opco Inc., Transocean Proteus Limited, Transocean Proteus Opco LLC, Transocean Quantum Holdings Limited, Transocean Quantum Management Limited, Transocean Quantum Rig Holdings Limited, Transocean Quantum Sentry Holdings Limited, Transocean Rig 140 Limited, Transocean Rig Management Limited, Transocean SPSF Holdings Limited, Transocean Sedco Forex Ventures Limited, Transocean Sentry Limited, Transocean Services (India) Private Limited, Transocean Services AS, Transocean Services UK Limited, Transocean Skyros Limited, Transocean Spitsbergen ASA, Transocean Sub Asset Holdings 1 Limited, Transocean Sub Asset Holdings 2 Limited, Transocean Sub Asset Holdings 3 Limited, Transocean Support Services Limited, Transocean Support Services Nigeria Limited, Transocean Support Services Private Limited, Transocean Technical Services Egypt LLC, Transocean U.S. Holdings LLC, Transocean UK Limited, Transocean Voyager 1 Limited, Transocean Voyager 2 Limited, Transocean West Africa Holdings Limited, Transocean Worldwide Inc., Triton Asset Leasing GmbH, Triton Capital I GmbH, Triton Capital II GmbH, Triton Capital Mexico GmbH, Triton Conqueror GmbH, Triton Corcovado LLC, Triton Financing LLC, Triton Gemini GmbH, Triton Holdings Limited, Triton Hungary Asset Management LLC, Triton Hungary Investments 1 Limited Liability Company, Triton Industries Inc., Triton KG2 GmbH, Triton Management Services LLC, Triton Mykonos LLC, Triton Nautilus Asset Leasing GmbH, Triton Nautilus Asset Management LLC, Triton Offshore Leasing Services Limited, Triton Pacific Limited, Triton Poseidon GmbH, Triton Voyager Asset Leasing GmbH, and Wilrig Offshore (UK) Limited.
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Rajbiraj on the go
With the Himalayas hogging so much of the limelight, it sometimes feels like little attention is paid to the open, lush green fields or the golden harvests in Nepals southern plains. But the Tarai has its own cozy and vibrant charms that often go unappreciated.
The following companies are subsidiares of Vodafone Group Public: 360 Connect S.A., 3@ Telecom, A-ccelerator B.V., A-ccelerator Holding B.V, AAA (Euro) Limited, AAA (MCR) Limited, AAA (UK) Limited, Acorn Communications Limited, Africonnect (Zambia) Limited, Ag Mercantile Company Private Limited, Al-Amin Investments Limited, Amsterdamse Beheer- en Consultingmaatschappij B.V., Apollo Submarine Cable System Limited, Array Holdings Limited, Asian Telecommunication Investments (Mauritius) Limited, Aspective Limited, Astec Communications Limited, Autoconnex Limited, Aztec Limited, BelCompany BV, Bluefish Apac Communications Pte. Ltd, Bluefish Communications, Bluefish Communications Limited, Business Serve Limited, C&W Worldwide Nigeria Limited, C.S.P. Solutions Limited, CCII (Mauritius) Inc., CGP India Investments Ltd., CGP Investments (Holdings) Limited, COOP Mobil s.r.o, CT Networks Limited, CWGNL S.A., CWW Operations Limited, Cable & Wireless Access Limited, Cable & Wireless Americas Systems Inc., Cable & Wireless Aspac Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Services Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Svyaz LLC, Cable & Wireless Capital Limited , Cable & Wireless Communications Data Network Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Starclass Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Technical Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd (Beijing Branch), Cable & Wireless Europe Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless GN Limited, Cable & Wireless Global (India) Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Business Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Holding Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Telecommunication Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Holdco Limited, Cable & Wireless Networks India Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Trade Mark Management Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Waterside Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Pension Trustee Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Voice Messaging Limited, Cable & Wireless a-Services Inc, Cable & Wireless a-Services Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited Indian Branch Office, Cable and Wireless Nominee Limited, Cable and Wireless Worldwide South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Cavalry Holdings Ltd, Celfocus Solucoes Informaticas Para Telecomunicacoes S.A, Cellops Limited, Cellular Operations Limited, Central Communications Group Limited, Central Telecom (Northern) Limited, Centurion GSM Limited, Chelys Limited, City Cable (Holdings) Limited, Cobra do Brasil Servicos de Telematica ltda., Commnet Cellular Inc., Complete Network Technology, Connect (India) Mobile Technologies Private Limited, Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited, Dataroam Limited , Device Insight, Digital Island (UK) Ltd, Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, East Africa Investment (Mauritius) Limited, Emtel Europe Limited, Energis (Ireland) Limited, Energis Communications Limited, Energis Holdings Limited, Energis Local Access Limited, Energis Management Limited, Energis Squared Limited, Erudite Systems Limited, Esprit Telecom B.V., Eudokia Limited, Euro Pacific Securities Ltd., Eurocall Holdings Limited, Europolitan Holdings AB (now Europolitan Vodafone AB), FB Holdings Limited, FM Associates (UK) Limited, FinCo Partner 1 B.V., FireFly Networks Limited, Flexphone Limited, GS Telecom (Pty) Limited, Gateway Communications Africa (UK) Limited, Gateway Communications Tanzania Limited, General Mobile Corporation, Generation Telecom Limited, Ghana Telecommunications, Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited, Global Cellular Rental Limited, Globe Limited, GrandCentrix GmbH, Grupo Corporativo ONO S.A.U., H3ga Properties (No 3) Pty Limited, HBO Nederland Cooperatief U.A., HBO Netherlands Channels sro, HBO Netherlands Distribution B.V., Hellas Online, How2 Telecom Limited, Hutchison Essar Ltd, Indus Towers Limited, Intercell Communications Limited, Internet Network Services Limited, Invitation Digital Limited, Ipergy Communications NV, Isis Telecommunications Management Limited, Jaguar Communications Limited, Jaykay Finholding (India) Private Limited, Jupicol (Proprietary) Limited, KABELCOM Braunschweig Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, KABELCOM Wolfsburg Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, Kabel Deutschland, Kabel Deutschland Holding, Kabel Deutschland Holding Erste Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Holding Zweite Beteilgungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Neunte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Siebte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabelfernsehen Munchen Servicenter GmbH & Co. KG, LG Financing Partnership, LGE HoldCo V B.V., LGE HoldCo VI B.V., LGE HoldCo VIII B.V., LGE Holdco VII B.V., LLC Vodafone Enterprise Ukraine, Le Bunt Holdings Limited, Legend Communications Limited, Liberty Global, Liberty Global Content Netherlands B.V., London Hydraulic Power Company, M-PESA Foundation, M-PESA Holding Co. Limited, ML Integration Group Limited, ML Integration Limited, ML Integration Services Limited, MV Healthcare Services Private Limited, Mannesmann AG, MetroHoldings Limited, Mezzanine Ware Proprietary Limited (RF), Mirambo Limited, Misrfone Trading Company LLC, MobiFon S.A., Mobile Commerce Solutions Limited, Mobile Phone Centre Limited, Mobile Wallet VM1, Mobile Wallet VM2, Mobile by Sainsburys Limited, Mobiles 4 Business.com Limited, Mobileworld Communications Pty Limited, Mobileworld Operating Pty Ltd, Mobilvest, Motifpros 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Multi Risk Indemnity Company Limited, Multi Risk Limited, ND Callus Info Services Private Limited, Nadal Trading Company Private Limited, Nat Comm Air Limited, National Communications Backbone Company Limited, Navtrak Ltd, Netforce Group Limited, Netgrid Telecom SRL, Number Portability Company (Proprietary) Limited, ONO, Omega Telecom Holdings Private Limited, Oni Way Infocomunicacoes S.A, Oskar Mobil S.R.O., Oxygen Solutions Limited, P.C.P. (North West) Limited, PPL Pty Limited, PT Network Services Limited, PTI Telecom Limited, Peoples Phone Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Group Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Limited, Plex Limited, Plustech Mercantile Company Private Limited, Prime Metals Ltd., Project Telecom Holdings Limited, Quickcomm Software Solutions, Radio Opt GmbH, Rian Mobile Limited, SBC SMART CITY 1517 B.V., SMMS Investments Pvt Limited, Safaricom Limited, Safenet N.P A., Sarmady Communications, Scarlet Ibis Investments 23 (Pty) Limited, Scorpios Beverages Pvt. Ltd, Silver Stream Investments Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Ltd., Singlepoint Payment Services Limited, Siro Limited, Spar Aerospace (Nigeria) Limited, Sport TV Portugal S.A, Starnet, Stentor Communications Limited, Stentor Limited, Storage Technology Services (Pty) Limited, T.W. Telecom Limited, T3 Telecommunications Limited, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern Beteiligungs GmbH, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern GmbH & Co. KG, TNAS Limited, TSM NZ Limited, Talkland Airtime Services Limited, Talkland Australia Pty Limited, Talkland Communications Limited, Talkland International Limited, Talkland Midlands Limited, Talkmobile Limited, Tele2 Italia SPA, Tele2 Spain, Telecom Investments India Private Limited, Telecommunications Europe Limited, Ternhill Communications Limited, The Cobra Group, The Eastern Leasing Company Limited, The Old Telecom Sales Co. Limited, Thus Group Holdings Limited, Thus Group Limited, Thus Limited, Thus Profit Sharing Trustees Limited, TnT Expense Management LLC, Tomorrow Street GP S.a r.l., Tomorrow Street SCA, Torenspits II B.V., Townley Communications Limited, Trans Crystal Ltd., UMT Investments Limited, UPC Nederland Holding I B.V., UPC Nederland Holding II B.V., UPC Nederland Holding III B.V., Unified Communications, Uniqueair Limited, Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH & Co.KG, Usha Martin Telematics Limited, VAPL No. 2 Pty Limited, VBA (Mauritius) Limited, VBA Holdings Limited, VBA International (SL) Limited, VBA International Limited, VEI S.r.l., VM SA, VND S.p.A, VSSB Vodafone Shared Services Budapest Private Limited Company, Verwaltung Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH, Victus Networks S.A., Vizzavi Finance Limited, Vizzavi Limited, Voda Limited, Vodacall Limited, Vodacash s.p.r.l., Vodacom (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business (Angola) Limitada, Vodacom Business (Ghana) Limited, Vodacom Business (Kenya) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group Services Limited, Vodacom Business Cameroon SA, Vodacom Business Cote Divoire S.A.R.L., Vodacom Congo (RDC) SA, Vodacom Financial Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Group Limited, Vodacom Insurance Administration Company (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Insurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom International Holdings (Pty) Limited, Vodacom International Limited, Vodacom Lesotho (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Life Assurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom Payment Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No.2 (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Tanzania Limited Zanzibar, Vodacom Tanzania Public Limited Company, Vodacom UK Limited, Vodafone (NI) Limited, Vodafone (New Zealand) Hedging Limited, Vodafone (Scotland) Limited, Vodafone 2, Vodafone 4 UK, Vodafone 5 Limited, Vodafone 5 UK, Vodafone 6 UK, Vodafone Albania Sh.A, Vodafone Alternatif Telekom Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Americas 4, Vodafone Americas Virginia Inc., Vodafone And Qatar Foundation L.L.C, Vodafone Asset Management Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Automotive Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Automotive Electronic Systems S.r.L, Vodafone Automotive France S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Iberia S.L, Vodafone Automotive Italia S.p.A, Vodafone Automotive Japan K.K, Vodafone Automotive Korea Limited, Vodafone Automotive SpA, Vodafone Automotive Technologies (Beijing) Co Ltd, Vodafone Automotive Telematics Development S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Telematics S.A, Vodafone Automotive UK Limited, Vodafone Belgium SA/NV, Vodafone Benelux Limited, Vodafone Bilgi Ve Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Vodafone Business Services Limited, Vodafone Business Solutions Limited, Vodafone Canada Inc, Vodafone Cellular Limited, Vodafone Central Services Limited, Vodafone China Limited (China), Vodafone China Limited (Hong Kong), Vodafone Connect 2 Limited, Vodafone Connect Limited, Vodafone Consolidated Holdings Limited, Vodafone Corporate Limited, Vodafone Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Czech Republic A.S., Vodafone DC Pension Trustee Company Limited, Vodafone Dagitim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Data, Vodafone Distribution Holdings Limited, Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications S.A.E., Vodafone Elektronik Para Ve Odeme Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Empresa Brasil Telecomunicacoes Ltda, Vodafone Empresa Mexico S.de R.L. de C.V., Vodafone Enabler Espana S.L., Vodafone Enterprise Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Austria GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Bahrain W.L.L., Vodafone Enterprise Bulgaria EOOD, Vodafone Enterprise Chile SA, Vodafone Enterprise Communications Technical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Denmark A/S, Vodafone Enterprise Equipment Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited Czech Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited DubaiI Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Finland OY, Vodafone Enterprise France SAS, Vodafone Enterprise Germany GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Global Businesses S.a r.l., Vodafone Enterprise Global Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network HK Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network Pte. Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Hong Kong Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Italy S.r.L, Vodafone Enterprise Korea Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Luxembourg S.A., Vodafone Enterprise Netherlands BV, Vodafone Enterprise Norway AS, Vodafone Enterprise Regional Business Singapore Pte.Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Singapore Pte.Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Spain S.L.U. Portugal Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Spain SLU, Vodafone Enterprise Sweden AB, Vodafone Enterprise Switzerland AG, Vodafone Erste Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Vodafone Espana S.A.U., Vodafone Euro Hedging Limited, Vodafone Euro Hedging Two, Vodafone Europe B.V., Vodafone Europe UK, Vodafone European Investments, Vodafone European Portal Limited, Vodafone Finance Limited, Vodafone Finance Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Finance Sweden, Vodafone Finance UK Limited, Vodafone Financial Operations, Vodafone Financial Services B.V., Vodafone Fixed Ltd, Vodafone Foundation, Vodafone Foundation Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Gestioni S.p.A, Vodafone Ghana Mobile Financial Services Limited, Vodafone Global Content Services Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Hong Kong) Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Italy) S.R.L., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Japan) K.K., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Vodafone Global Enterprise Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Russia LLC, Vodafone Global Enterprise Taiwan Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Telecommunications (Hellas) A.E., Vodafone Global Network Limited, Vodafone Global Network Limited Slovakia Branch, Vodafone Global Services Private Limited, Vodafone GmbH, Vodafone Group (Directors) Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Pension Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Services GmbH, Vodafone Group Services Ireland Limited, Vodafone Group Services Limited, Vodafone Group Services No.2 Limited, Vodafone Group Share Trustee Limited, Vodafone Hire Limited, Vodafone Holding A.S., Vodafone Holdings (Jersey) Limited, Vodafone Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Holdings Europe S.L.U., Vodafone Holdings Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Finance Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Receivables Pty Limited, Vodafone IP Licensing Limited, Vodafone India Digital Limited, Vodafone India Limited, Vodafone India Services Private Limited, Vodafone India Ventures Limited, Vodafone Institut fur Gesellschaft und Kommunikation GmbH, Vodafone Intermediate Enterprises Limited, Vodafone International 1 S.a.r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone International 1 S.a r.l., Vodafone International 2 Limited, Vodafone International Holdings B.V., Vodafone International Holdings Limited, Vodafone International M S.a r.l., Vodafone International Operations Limited, Vodafone International Services LLC, Vodafone Investment UK, Vodafone Investments (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Investments Australia Limited, Vodafone Investments Limited, Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Ireland Distribution Limited, Vodafone Ireland Ltd., Vodafone Ireland Marketing Limited, Vodafone Ireland Property Holdings Limited, Vodafone Ireland Retail Limited, Vodafone Italia S.p.A., Vodafone Jersey Dollar Holdings Limited, Vodafone Jersey Finance, Vodafone Jersey Yen Holdings Unlimited, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Field Services GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Kundenbetreuung GmbH, Vodafone Kenya Limited, Vodafone Leasing Limited, Vodafone Libertel B.V., Vodafone Limited, Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone M-PESA SH.P.K., Vodafone M-Pesa S.A, Vodafone M.C. Mobile Services Limited , Vodafone Magyarorszag Mobile Tavkozlesi Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Vodafone Malta Limited, Vodafone Marketing UK , Vodafone Maroc SARL, Vodafone Mauritius Ltd., Vodafone Mobile Commerce Limited, Vodafone Mobile Communications Limited, Vodafone Mobile Enterprises Limited, Vodafone Mobile NZ Limited, Vodafone Mobile Network Limited, Vodafone Mobile Operations Limited, Vodafone Mobile Services Limited, Vodafone Multimedia Limited, Vodafone Nederland Holding I B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding II B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding III B.V., Vodafone Net Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Network Pty Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Foundation Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Limited, Vodafone Next Generation Services Limited, Vodafone Nominees Limited1, Vodafone ONO S.A.U., Vodafone Oceania Limited, Vodafone Old Show Ground Site Management Limited, Vodafone Overseas Finance Limited, Vodafone Overseas Holdings Limited, Vodafone Panafon International Holdings B.V., Vodafone Panafon UK, Vodafone Partner Services Limited, Vodafone Payment Solutions S.a r.l., Vodafone Portugal Comunicacoes Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Procurement Company S.a r.l., Vodafone Property Investments Limited, Vodafone Pty Limited, Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C., Vodafone Retail (Holdings) Limited , Vodafone Retail Limited, Vodafone Roaming Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Romania S.A, Vodafone Romania M - Payments SRL, Vodafone Romania Technologies SRL, Vodafone Sales & Services Limited, Vodafone Satellite Services Limited, Vodafone Servicios SL.U, Vodafone Servizi E Tecnologie S.R.L, Vodafone Servicos Empresariais Brasil Ltda., Vodafone Shared Services Romania SRL, Vodafone Specialist Communications Limited, Vodafone Stiftung Deutschland Gemeinnutzige GmbH, Vodafone Technology Solutions Limited, Vodafone Teknoloji Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Tele-Services (India) Holdings Limited, Vodafone Telecel-Comunicates Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Telecommunications (India) Limited, Vodafone Telekomunikasyon A.S, Vodafone Towers Limited, Vodafone UK Content Services Limited, Vodafone UK Investments Limited , Vodafone UK Limited1 , Vodafone US Inc, Vodafone Ventures Limited1 , Vodafone Vierte Verwaltungs AG, Vodafone Worldwide Holdings Limited, Vodafone Yen Finance Limited , Vodafone m-pesa Limited, Vodafone-Central Limited Vodaphone Limited, Vodafone-Panafon Hellenic Telecommunications Company S.A., VodafoneZiggo Group Holding B.V, Vodata Limited , Vouchercloud SA (Pty) Ltd, Wataneya Telecommunications S.A.E, Waterberg Lodge (Proprietary) Limited, Wayfinder, Wheatfields Investments 276 (Proprietary) Limited, Wireless Interactions & NFC Accelerator 2013 B.V., Woodend Cellular Limited, Woodend Communications Limited, Woodend Group Limited, Woodend Holdings Limited, XB Facilities B.V, XLink Communications (Proprietary) Limited, Your Communications Group Limited, ZUM B.V., ZYB, Zelitron S.A., Zesko B.V., Ziggo B.V., Ziggo Bond Company B.V., Ziggo Deelnemingen B.V., Ziggo Finance 2 B.V., Ziggo Financing Partnership, Ziggo Holding B.V., Ziggo Netwerk B.V., Ziggo Netwerk II B.V., Ziggo Services B.V., Ziggo Services Employment B.V., Ziggo Services Netwerk 2 B.V., Ziggo Zakelijk Services B.V., and Zoranet Connectivity Services B.V..
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The World Health Organization has declared Gabon a "polio-free country", given the lack of new reported or suspected cases in the central African country.
According to a WHO statement obtained by AFP on Saturday, the UN health agency nonetheless recommended taking the necessary steps to continue monitoring for possible signs of the disease.
Gabon's Health Minister Denise Mekam'ne Edzidzie also urged families on Saturday to "continue to immunise children and prevent a resurgence of this disease".
Polio is a highly-infectious viral disease which mainly affects young children and can result in permanent paralysis. There is no cure and it can only be prevented through immunisation.
Cases of polio have decreased by 99 percent since 1988, when polio was endemic in 125 countries and 350,000 cases were recorded worldwide.
Now the disease is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the WHO recorded four cases this yeartwo in each country. Last year, there were 37 cases globally.
2017 AFP
Navantia Spain has been working closely with Saab Australia, and CEA on the CSC program. The capability of both companies will provide a significant technological edge for the Royal Canadian Navy. Saab had to prequalify for the Combat System Integrator role on the Canadian Surface Combatant program.
That Saab was the only local Australian company that qualified as a viable combat system integrator for the Canadian Surface Combatant program, demonstrates the high capability of our local workforce and the credibility of the naval solutions we have delivered to the RAN and for other export markets. The confidence of the Australian Government in mandating Saab combat system and tactical interfaces across the whole RAN fleet demonstrates the strength of our capability says Saab Australia Managing Director Andy Keough.
Saabs expertise in developing high quality solutions for Australian programs in partnership with Navantia, CEA Technologies and others allows us to provide a low-risk, high capability solution for Canada, which will be fully interoperable with partner navies such as the United States and Australia as well as other NATO allies, concludes Patrick Palmer, Head of Saab Canada.
The submission of the CSC bid is also a significant moment for CEA Technologies, providing further opportunities for global partnership and recognition of the radar expertise the company has built in Canberra.
We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Canada in the CSC program, says CEA Technologies CEO Merv Davis.
We can deliver a mature radar which is outperforming the expectations of the RAN and has substantial potential for future growth. Building partnerships through international programs such as CSC is an opportunity for CEA to continue to develop our innovative solutions. We are proud to be able to provide our Australian technologies to our international partners and allies, says CEA Technologies CEO Merv Davis.
Under the CSC program, the Royal Canadian Navy will acquire up to 15 frigates to replace the Iroquois Class destroyers and Halifax Class frigates. Construction of the frigates will begin in the early 2020s.
Prime Minister of Finland: Europe is now too reliant on Chinese technology
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Tomorrow will be the maximum phase of Leonid meteor shower: Where will it be best seen from?
Xi Jinping urges world to abandon any Cold War mentality
Documentary on Rust camerawoman Halyna Hutchins in works
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Armenian financial technologies to enter international market: VISA and Idram sign memorandum in Yerevan
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U.S. general lays flowers at eternal flame at Armenian Genocide memorial
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Aliyev refuses to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh and threatens Armenia with new aggression
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National Assembly Speaker: Armenia is extremely interested in establishing strategic relations with Georgia
Over past seven months, four IT companies liquidated in Armenia, four bankrupt, 17 more are in liquidation, 342 individual entrepreneurs deregistered
Canada provides additional military aid to Ukraine
Representatives of defense agencies of CSTO countries discuss crisis response issues
Armenian Defense Minister and American General discuss defense cooperation
Changes in blood begin two years before breast cancer is detected
Armenian Safe YOU app is winner of BOOST Women Innovators program
Lily Rose-Depp graces cover of Elle magazine
World Cup 2022: Teams with transfer value of more than 1 billion
Tehran accuses Israel and West of trying to organize civil war in Iran
Armenia becomes full member of COST: What opportunities does it offer?
Oppositionist: No guarantees that war with Azerbaijan can be avoided
Issue of biometric passports to Armenian citizens is temporarily suspended
World Cup 2022: Messi names favorites
Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement to be signed till end of year? Pashinyan's associate voices conditions
Erdogan says Russia and US agreed to refrain from using nuclear weapons
Azerbaijani oppositionist complains of torture by police
Kyaram Sloyan and Andranik Zohrabyan posthumously bestowed 'Hero of Artsakh' title
UN Secretary General Guterres welcomes parties' agreement on renewal of food deal
Eurasian Development Bank: Armenia is the leader among EEU countries in terms of economic growth
Greece promises to continue military support to Ukraine
Number of appeals from Azerbaijan to ECHR is growing
Pashinyan: The wheel of processes related to confiscation of illegal property is spinning
Fire hits Baghdad airport
Russian brokers faced most powerful series of DDoS attacks in history
Inter and Juventus target N'Golo Kante
North Korea fires ballistic missile towards Sea of Japan
Istanbul agrees to extend 'grain initiative' for another 120 days
'Hayastan' Fund to build 6 residential houses in Nerkin Khndzoresk village
Vocal as Russophobic propaganda: Azerbaijani singer sings about 'disgusting peacekeepers'
The IV International Congress of Geriatrics and Gerontology will be held on December 1-2
Actress Denise Richards shot at in road rage incident
Biden congratulates Republicans on winning majority in House of Representatives
Legendary Russian figure skater Alexander Gorshkov dies
14 freight cars derailed in Kazakhstan, train traffic suspended
Newspaper: Ruben Vardanyan does not hurry to make changes in composition of Karabakh government
Russia attacks Ukraine with missiles in morning: Explosions heard in Dnieper, air defense works in Kyiv region
U.S. National Security Council: It is clear that the party ultimately responsible for this tragic incident is Russia
Gold prices decline
Russian Trade Representative to Armenia: Situation at Upper Lars checkpoint is not related to geopolitical issues
Trade Representative of Russia: Trade turnover with Armenia sets new record
Flick is dissatisfied with defensive work of his team
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Meteorite that fell in Britain contains key information about how oceans and life formed on Earth
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Supercomputer determines favorites for World Cup 2022
Sweden to provide Ukraine with new military aid worth $287 million
Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania meet conditions for joining Schengen zone
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Zelenskyy receives 'signals' that Putin wants direct talks
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Karen Donfried tries to explain State Department's decision to exempt Azerbaijan from 907th Amendment
Report: Goma Air crash due to very low visibility
Very low visibility prevented the flight crew of Goma Air Flight 409 from seeing the runway at Lukla Airport until seconds before the LET 410 aircraft slammed into a fog-covered mountainside, a government fact-finding committee said on Friday.
YEREVAN. A 13-year-old Karaabakh boy who was wounded in Azerbaijani shelling in the schoolyard during the April war is almost not using the crutches, his mother told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
A metal plate will be removed from Vardan Andreasyans leg next April.
He goes to school in Yerevan and he is almost not using crutches, only when he is too tired. Sometimes he has pain but it is linked to changes in the weather, his mother said.
Vardan is very busy because he works hard at school. The boy dreams of becoming a doctor to help people.
The was wounded during the shelling of the school by Azerbaijani armed forces in April 2016. Another boy, Gevorg Grigoryan, who also wounded in the shelling. Gevork's brother, 12-yeaar-old Vaginak, was killed.
YEREVAN. Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement regarding the Armenian-Turkish relations.
The December 14th comments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey regarding the Armenian-Turkish relations is yet another flagrant example of distortion of the letter and spirit of the Zurich Protocols of 2009.
Our position on President Sargsyans initiative to normalize relations with Turkey was expressed in the well-known approach to normalize relations without preconditions. Based on this common understanding with the Turkish side we launched the negotiation process and reached agreements.
It is well known that right after the signing of the Protocols Ankara backtracked from the agreements. Turkey not only has rejected to ratify those Protocols, but has returned to the same language of preconditions that it had used before the launch of the process. The last statement of the Turkish MFA goes in the same direction.
Ankara doesnt shy away to voice once again its preconditions, linking the Armenian-Turkish relations to the the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement in favor of Azerbaijan, at the same time making redundant reference to the UN Security Council resolutions, which have nothing to do with the negotiation process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution. It is well known, that there is no single word on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or any precondition in the Protocols. By returning once again to the language of preconditions following the signing of Protocols, Turkey has opposed to the international community, which has always supported the normalization of the Armenian Turkish relations without preconditions and continues to do so now.
The Turkish side refused to ratify the Protocols and intentionally moved the whole process to the stalemate. This was the very reason that compelled Armenia to suspend the ratification procedure, while staying in the normalization process, and this was duly acknowledged and welcomed by the leaders of different countries
It is obvious that even today, years after signing of the Protocols, Ankara is not ready yet to normalize the Armenian-Turkish relations.
It does not come as a surprise that the Turkish authorities stick to stereotyped approaches and are trying to voice fabricated allegations. For more than a century the leadership of that country denies the Armenian Genocide. Is it easier to take the sin for the century-old great crime committed in the Ottoman Empire by continuously denying it, instead of recognizing it and thus rendering an important service to its own people, to the future of the region and to the prevention of future genocides?
Ankara goes the opposite direction. The statement of the MFA of Turkey claims that allegedly the efforts to recognize the Armenian Genocide are morally and legally incorrect and ill-intentioned. It turns out that Turkey preaches morality to France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Uruguay, Belgium, Greece and to dozens of other countries, which have recognized the Armenian Genocide.
It is ironic that Turkey, one of the most notorious countries of the world in restricting freedom of expression, tries to justify the genocide denialism on the grounds of freedom of expression.
It has always been clear for different world capitals both after the signing of the Protocols and today that the ball is on the Turkish court, that Armenia has done everything possible for the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations. Ankaras inability to accept this and other realities consolidates the sense throughout the world that Turkey and the international community speak in different languages.
We would like to reiterate that this is the very reason why the President of Armenia declared at the UN General Assembly that since the Protocols continuously lack any positive progress towards their implementation, in the spring of 2018 Armenia will declare them null and void.
Rethinking academic conferences
Every few weeks we seem to have an academic social science conference in Nepal. In November, our sociologists met in Pokhara.
The Pentagon has acknowledged for the first time the existence of a program charged with investigating unidentified flying objects UFOs, Politico reported.
The unidentified aerial phenomena claimed to have been seen by pilots and other military personnel appeared vastly more advanced than those in American or foreign arsenals. In some cases they maneuvered so unusually and so fast that they seemed to defy the laws of physics, according to multiple sources directly involved in or briefed on the effort and a review of unclassified Defense Department and congressional documents.
The $22 million Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program began in 2007 and was funded primarily at the request of former Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has long had an interest in the topic.
The Pentagon told the Times that the program ended in 2012. Its supporters say it is still in existence, but that the Defense Department has stopped funding it.
SC refuses Chaudharys writ petition
The Supreme Court (SC) has refused to register a writ petition, demanding that the Kailali District Election Office should acknowledge power of attorney and issue certificate of election victory to the representative of fugitive murder suspect-turned-parliamentarian Resham Chaudhary.
The deadly game
A majority of the recent crop of plays being staged in Kathmandus theatre circuit bring to stage the stories from a rural landscape. Since many of the directors working today came of age in villages,
Just read the comments, this looks serious af. Apparently the max he'll have to pay is $5000, sets a pretty dangerous precedent.
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Welp.......hefty fine there
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Ah yes the one that whitewashed the true story AND got McConaghey his undeserved Oscar over Chiwetel.
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LOL
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I wish lol
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omg this gif? the tim hortons, I'm done
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Love the Timmies in the background!
Edited at 2017-12-16 12:45 pm (UTC)
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No, let me move to Canada first!!
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Timmies is disgusting, from their food to how they treat their workers
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americans bought it!
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lol if only
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Lmao wtf, dear lord
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the nafta threats are enough
Edited at 2017-12-16 06:39 am (UTC) can amerikkka keep its greedy little fingers to itself and leave us in peace for once tythe nafta threats are enough
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By "interesting" you better mean diplomatic. Don't disrespect the PM.
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What happened to him
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never knew how much i wanted to see JT fall down a flight of stairs
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Is that canadas prime minister? Someone once said he likes to throw himself down the stairs as a party trick lmaooooo
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this sounds like a bad promo stunt for the film
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Idk anyone globally who has watched let alone heard of this movie but go off I guess
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What is with this movie? They tried this in Australia with Dallas Buyers Club too. They wanted the judge to make the ISPs give them the name of downloaders, he said he would if they could prove to him they weren't going to use them for speculative invoicing and only seek the actual financial loss they suffered per movie from parties. Obviously they couldn't, and it wasn't worth them running the case if they were only gonna get back the $30 or so per person they were actually losing, so the case was dropped, lol suck shit production companies.
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Right?! Voltage are really trying it with this shit all over the world its unbelievable. They just keep moving on to new jurisdictions trying to wring money out of people. Was this movie not sufficiently profitable, why are they so hell-bent on doing this?* So glad the Australian legal system doesn't allow speculative invoicing and petty suing!
(*I realise they're probably trying it on as a test case, but c'mon. Give it a fucking rest already lol)
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ikr! Why are they so aggressive about policing piracy over this movie?
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all of the other movies on this flop company's resume have bombed and this is the only way they can get some cash!
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Oh, that explains it lol
I mean what a weird movie to go to bat for
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whaaaaat are you talking about, the canyons is a cinematic masterpiece
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Omfg... who even watches this movie, they should be glad anyone's DLing it at all
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They did it in the US, too. Their initial reverse class action or whatever was thrown out bc there were too many disparities b/w the alleged dlers. They like to sue en masse to keep their court fees low.
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my first thought was never seen it!
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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ
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This is as shitty as patent trolling. Why are people so goddamn desperate to make money this way?
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I have a feeling, with net neutrality gone, ISPs are gonna block all torrent sites and streaming sites. ffffuccckkk
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I want to believe there will always be a way. Like, they take our free access to internet traffic away and someone will invent the new internet. I hope
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Still gotta access the new internet through an isp
Hope you guys beat this one, it's long term dangerous
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:( :( So many americans have like only 1 choice of ISPs. If they block content, there literally is no one else. That's how fucked so many people are.
I really don't see them "improving infrastructure" like they say it's going to do. All the extra money they make will go straight into their executives pockets.
I mean --- Google Fiber MAYBE? But Google fucking sucks too.
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I feel like if they do this some company will come out and say "hey we're not doing that!" and people will all switch to them, forcing the others to give up.
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The fact that we're on PART EIGHT is everything you need to know about Hollywood tbh.
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mte
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For real.
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And there is not limit tbh
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That's exactly what I thought when I saw those "part x x x" all lined up
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and were not EVEN scratching the surface
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omfg part eight. i think i missed a couple
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yes 8 parts in total. i'm done with the series lol.
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i'm def going back and reading the 2 or 3 i missed. this was an amazing series, well done & ty!!
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I don't blame you, lol. At this rate you could've been doing this series for the rest of life, lol
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Your blood pressure must be through the roof from the rage. Mine raises just reading this/
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You could be making this forever, so this is for the best
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It cant have been easy to sit down and read about the awful shit men do, and write about it and probably reread at least once, and do that for 8 posts. So, yeah, your work is noted appreciated. I wish this was on tumblr, if you have one maybe you could post it?
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I love that no one ever bothers to spell DOR's name correctly, lol
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lmao i didnt even try tbh
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OP it's O. Russell. The O is an initial.
I have a special hatred in my heart, he is literally the most clear cut example of someone who should 100% not be working because he has a documented history of physically abusing co-workers. I know the celebs get all the attention in that infamous I heart huckabees leaked video, but at one point there is an assistant crouched down in a corner and he kicks a shit ton of papers and some of it hits her. What the fuck kind of working environment is that?
He's a piece of shit and I hope he never works again.
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omg lmao i changed it
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*refuses to rub yoghurt on harvey weinsteins tiddies* on the blacklist
*physically attacks and verbally abuses cast and crew* an auteur... an enfant terrible if u will...
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If Christian Bale has to tell you to stop being an asshole on set.....
Fuck these men though.
Edited at 2017-12-16 10:20 pm (UTC)
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We can insist on change in Hollywood, and in all industries. But that isn't enough. We must examine and dismantle the system of domination that is Patriarchy, one reliant upon oppression and exploitation. And any call for transformation must include all struggles for liberation. Carrie Brownstein (@Carrie_Rachel) November 11, 2017
Fred is responsible for his own actions but besides that I've always heard Carrie is an asshole. I remember Carrie tweeting this out. The replies ajfhskfaf I wonder if she saw them.Fred is responsible for his own actions but besides that I've always heard Carrie is an asshole.
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From her autobiography she doesn't seem like the nicest person tbh
And I say this as a Sleater-Kinney fan
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I mean she just seems ultra pretentious to me...why do you think shes an asshole?
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talking about your ex-wife's vagina on Howard Stern does make you an asshole
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It's not the same level as assault, but it's still shitty
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In an interview with Jane Magazine, John Stamos admitted to being an asshole.
he admitted to being accomplice to rape is what he did. he and his buddy raped that woman.
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which i acknowledged in the paragraph
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Doin the good Lord's work OP, esp since this series could be infinite.
Edited at 2017-12-16 10:13 pm (UTC)
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could be infinite but i'm stopping right here. the list is endless especially with all these men being exposed everyday.
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U deserve a break sis
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i hate that john stamos story so much. i can't begin to imagine how violated i'd feel.
i know this is shallow but armisen is fug as fuck and elisabeth is adorable, if only for that he should have treated her like a queen or the scientology equivalent
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Even though my favorites are long dead, I still hope they won't turn out to have been assholes.
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Considering how much the studios covered up for actors and actresses, I wouldn't be shocked to hear at least one shitty thing about nearly everyone from the classic era.
Except Vincent Price, always will remain perfect.
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It's really disheartening to think that so few people are really admirable.
And yes, please stay perfect, Vincent.
Edited at 2017-12-16 10:48 pm (UTC)
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The only one that would destroy me at this point is Mr Rogers.
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Men in Hollywood are fucking monsters. What the literal fuck!?
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i'm not equating it with rape or assault. fred armisen has been included as well for being a shitty person. thats why my series is called men are trash. ethan hawke is trash.
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That entire Mark Wahlberg paragraph is just like...
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Yeah I can and yet can't believe (if that makes sense) that Wahlberg isn't doing life in prison for that shit. People like him have no right to be working in the industry, and yet...
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mte, but he forgave himself so it's ok!
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And he's cool with his past because he forgave himself.
I hate how Wahlburgers is successful and that people in Boston have enabled that business to flourish.
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This is so sad. :(
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Ive always been fans of both of them.
Cast them in Big Little Lies, Reese!
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YES OMG I need Mira on that show
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Oh man, Id love for both of them to have a career resurgence. Theyd be great on that show.
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I always thought it was really weird how after Mira won her Oscar her followup film was Romy & Michelle, which is fun, but a little odd choice for someone who just won Best Supporting Actress. Guess now we know she didn't exactly have many offers.
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That movie is a classic, though.
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She has the range!
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I've noticed that too. They'll win an oscar and then some random movie comes out with them and it's like huh?
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I feel bad for Mira. She could've been great. Loved her together with Jet Li.
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I know its generally regarded as a terrible film but I LOVED her and Ashley in Norma Jean and Marilyn.
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Its one of my favourites, actually!
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did you mean Chow Yun-Fat
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Not that I have high hopes but I hope more men realize half the shit they hear from their fellow men is bullshit. It's often coming from a place of misogyny and vindictiveness. So much of their ~gossip~ and ~tips~ comes from a place of spite. idk maybe it's just me but when I hear a guy call their ex crazy I immediately wanna question it and have red flags.
It's all well and good Peter Jackson is honest now but it would've been more meaningful to stand up to Weinstein when it mattered.
Edited at 2017-12-16 10:50 pm (UTC)
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hit us with this brand new info, Matt Damon
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Several times when people have said stuff like that and I've been nosy/got them to go into detail, it's emerged the ex wasn't even being crazy - just pissed as hell and not ready to let it rest. Often with bloody good reason.
Which is just more of the same old gaslighting. What, two whole days later and she's not over your cheating yet, is still texting you to say you're an asshole? Whoa, that crazy bitch, the problem here is clearly her reaction and not the behaviour that caused it...
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Why would he and his wife have "stood up" to Weinstein when they didn't think there was anything untoward about his recommendation? As Jackson notes, this sort of thing isn't unusual in Hollywood (or, really, in employment generally).
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Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh could have stood up but then Miramax would have just fired them from the film, this was before Peter had the clout he does now.
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IA
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when I hear a guy call their ex crazy I immediately wanna question it and have red flags.
This. I always think, 10% chance shes actually crazy, 90% chance hes just a huge dick who emotionally jerked her around.
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I mean hindsight is always 20/20. What you see as something that should have been cross-examined extensively was nothing but a powerful and respected colleague giving what one would assume to be helpful advice.
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I dont think its any coincidence that so many of the women whove spoken out against Harvey were once the hot new thing but disappeared suddenly and had all sorts of nasty rumors spread about them. Its amazing how male actors can literally get away with murder but so many actresses have had their careers derailed just for not fucking Harvey Weinstein
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I'm just taking the story at face value so imma just ask...when they say "oh we've had bad experiences" can you not ask for details?
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Absolutely. And Weinstein, I'm sure, would've provided plenty of lies to answer that question. Personally, I don't blame Peter Jackson; he was not a big Hollywood power player then, and he was given bad information from someone he thought he could trust. I'm glad this is all coming out now.
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yes, but ironically, if someone told me theyve had bad experiences with someone in a professional setting, in a vague way, itd be considered more tasteful than going into details, and Id be more open to believe them.
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That's fair, but if you asked that's different isn't it?
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They could have asked, but that's all they could have done. Miramax would have just fired them from the project if they had objected to the two women being removed from the list. Why would they risk losing all they had worked for? For two people they don't even know and on top of that they had no way of knowing if the rumors were true or not. There are people in Hollywood who are a nightmare to work with.
No one deserves blame here but Harvey and his people.
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Not defending these men, but if the asshole(s) with the cash doesn't want that actress, she won't be in it. It's the same shit whenever an actor, the main lead, get to choose which actress will be in the movie.
There are few directors with the power of doing whatever they want, like Spielberg.
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I hope PJ's new movie is developing as The Untitled Ashley Judd & Mira Sorvino Project.
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Weinstein is such a piece of shit. He needs to fucking die.
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Yes, and he's still denying everything. Gaslighting, acing like these actresses are crazy. He thinks he can get away with it. Such a pig. Prison is too good for him.
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Ugh, I love Mira :(
I thought she was just suffering from the oscar curse but now I see there's more to her lackluster career
She would been a great addition to Bad Santa
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oh wow I knew she was in her forties but I didn't realize Mira was 50
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This really is a great statement by Peter imo. I hope Mira and Ashley get some good offers now with all this coming to light
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Mira seems to be doing fine next year with 10 credits listed on imdb. But this is important, HW big names with a lot of public goodwill corroborating accusations or open secrets might help expose more ppl & help others who have also been blacklisted (regardless of if they're Oscar worthy actors or not).
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If it helps, Mira is also an intelligent woman whose parents are very revered in their field of work.
She went to Harvard studying Chinese!! and living in China (Smart Lady) and graduated with the highest honors Magna Cum Laude.
Same with Ashley Judd, she's intelligent and graduated from Harvard grad school.
This are two smart and fiercely talented ladies, and I'm sad that their careers were ruined by the monster smh :(
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So basically Peter never would have said anything if it wasnt for our current climate. Fuck him.
Edited at 2017-12-16 11:22 pm (UTC)
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That's a bit of a radical interpretation of the text. Maybe, looking at what's been happening, Jackson's all of a sudden realized why Weinstein said what he did about Judd and Sorvino, and he realizes he got snowed by a creep and that's why he's coming out with this statement now.
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Nah, he knew. You dont be part of a corrupt system for decades and not know that HW is who he is.
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mte. But they're always afforded reasons and excuses. There's always some reason why they couldn't or they didn't have the clout. Countless men who are notably difficult don't get the same treatment women do. If people who afford them excuses want to genuinely reckon with it they should be going back to how this bullshit gossip and revenge from vindictive, abusive men derails careers and is deeply rooted in misogyny.
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He didn't have to say anything at all.
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Microsoft announced recently that it would invest $50 million in a program that provides cloud-computing services and other resources to organizations working on climate change and environmental technology.
The Redmond company's AI for Earth program launched in July with $2 million, awarding grants to universities, companies and nongovernmental organizations that gave them free use of Microsoft's artificial-intelligence technology, including Azure cloud services and mapping tools.
Organizations that focus on agriculture, water, biodiversity and climate change are eligible for the grants, which aim to accelerate sustainability research.
"We believe that we need to, with a sense of urgency, address the climate issues for the planet," Microsoft President Brad Smith said. "If you look at the past 200 years, a series of industrial revolutions have radically improved the standards of living for human beings. But it's come at a cost for the planet."
Smith announced the $50 million investment, which is to be awarded over five years, at the One Climate Summit in Paris on Monday, which draws government officials and other leaders from around the world.
Microsoft is one of hundreds of U.S. companies that pledged to remain committed to reducing carbon emissions when President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would pull out of the global Paris Climate Accord. The U.S. is now the only country in the world to reject the pact, after Syria announced last month it would sign the agreement.
Microsoft joined Amazon, Starbucks, Google and others in signing a letter earlier this year in support of the climate agreement and opposing the Trump administration's decision to withdraw.
AI for Earth has supported independent groups as well as those that include Microsoft, such as Project Premonition, which is working on early detection of pathogens that cause diseases. Microsoft partnered with several universities, including the University of Pittsburgh and Johns Hopkins University, to launch that project.
The $50 million investment will be used to provide technology and training to emerging companies, as well as resources to help companies bring products to market.
"The good news is that the world now has vast amounts of digital data about climate-related problems," Smith said. The challenge is that the data is not easy to search and understand, which is where Azure's artificial-intelligence technology comes in.
Microsoft also plans to partner with organizations to help them spin out sustainability products as quickly as possible.
2017 The Seattle Times
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Personalization versus Data Security: Three Questions to Answer
If youre wondering whether your customers would trade some of their personal data for a more personalized shopping experience, its likely that the answer is yes. Multiple studies and surveys have revealed this, including a recent survey by Salesforce Research in which more than half of respondents were willing to share personal data in exchange for personalized shopping experiences.
This isnt a slam-dunk win for retailers, however. Yes, you want a better understanding of your customer base in order to shape a personalized shopping experience. But consumers willingness to give you their data beyond basic contact information comes with the expectation that youll do everything in your power to safeguard it.
When high-profile security breaches are common in the headlines and consumers skepticism about data security is growing, how do you strike a balance between collecting, analyzing and storing the data while securely handling it? Is it best to store it within your company rather than in the cloud? Who do you share the data with, if anyone? What about your customers perceptions of how youre using their information?
There isnt a one-size-fits-all answer to any of these questions, but thinking about each one can help shape how your organization thinks about and balances the needs of data collection and security.
Begin with your business model
A good way to start tackling these questions is by looking at your business model. Your business model can serve as a valuable resource by helping you explore the value of personalization versus the risk of keeping it safe. How much value can you potentially get out of personalization? What data do you need to collect to maximize that value? What are the risks associated your approach? What could mitigate those risks? Can you honestly justify the cost of personalization?
With your business model as a starting point, you can determine the value and needs around customer data, along with the resources required to help make it happen.
Where should you store customers data?
Do you host this sensitive information yourself or let your third-party vendor which perhaps has more security expertise and resources receive, analyze and store it in the cloud? How will the data be transmitted? If you keep it with you, how do you coordinate and decide on the security measures for safeguarding it?
Whether you choose to store the data on premise or in the cloud, there are benefits and drawbacks to each scenario. For instance, one benefit of the cloud is that it enables smaller retailers (that may lack adequate IT resources to host it themselves) to collect information and learn more about their customer base. In addition, you can rely on the security and data expertise of your partner and trust them to handle everything properly. The flipside is that the cloud can be a security liability; someone else (your partner) is receiving and managing your customers data. The more transactions that the data goes through and the more entities that touch the data, the greater the risk of a security breach.
If you host the data within your four walls, you have complete control over it, so security questions are usually more straightforward. Depending on the information youre sending, the integration with your existing systems could potentially be easier as well. On the other hand, you need adequate resources talent and money to support housing customer information. If youre not confident that your IT team has the knowledge and capacity to adequately support the new technology piece, you will either need to build up your team or turn to a partner.
Should you share customers data?
When we think of data sharing, we often think of exchanging lists and data with marketing firms or third parties that want to sell something to your customers. But the question of sharing data can pop up during routine business operations.
For instance, there are many tools to help you collect and analyze data for better personalization, including ones that can be bolted onto your existing transactional systems. A third-party partner may be brought in to analyze your data and provide you with a host of business intelligence information, depending on the quantity and quality of the information youre gathering. That partner may ask for additional data to further segment their work for you.
Just because they ask for more data doesnt mean you have to share it. Providing this extra information to your third-party partner may trigger the need for you to ask customers permission to do so in other words, they will need to opt in or opt out of allowing you to share their information with other companies. This could raise red flags in the minds of your customers (Why are they collecting my data? Is my data safe?), as well as potential security risks due to the greater quantity of sensitive data being handled by your partner. Again, the more times that data is transferred or handled by different parties, the greater the risk.
What will your customers think?
Weighing public perception is no small factor. Even asking customers to agree to a privacy statement may get them thinking How exactly are you using my data? Should I be more worried about data being stolen or misused?
As I noted above, theres a heightened sensitivity to security threats among all of us. So the right answer to your customers questions can only be determined by you. The key here is to consider what you already know about your customer base and their perception of and trust in you. The better understanding you have of your customer base, the better you can gauge how requests or agreements regarding their data will be received. Weigh the business outcomes and ROI that you get from gathering personal details with the customer perceptions that could result.
Striking the balance
Gaining a better understanding of your customer base can help foster more loyalty and help your organization operate more profitably. With willing consumers and appropriate sensitivity around security considerations, you can strengthen customer relationships while safeguarding their privacy.
About the Author
Tom Schoen is president of BTM Global, a provider of retail system integration and development services. Through strategy, development, implementation and support, BTM Global approaches each project as a partnership that helps clients become more seamless, efficient and profitable. For more information, visit www.btmglobal.com.
Other Point-of-Sale articles of interest:
Slovak winemakers gifted 336 bottles to the museum.
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Slovak wines succeeded in getting into the museum La Cite du Vin in Bordeaux.
The museum has been collecting bottle of wine since opening a year and half ago. The first collection of Slovak wine arrived at the museum during the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU. Then an attractive contract appeared: to exhibit samples of the best Slovak wines, Pravda Daily wrote.
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We are a small country with big wines, commented Minister of Agriculture Gabriela Matecna, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
Slovak winemakers gifted 336 bottles to the museum.
Many people who visit the museum of wine may now taste and evaluate Slovak wines that have incredible potential, winning world competitions, Matecna continued, as quoted by TASR. She added that the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture signed a memorandum of cooperation with the director of the museum.
At the end of the day, Slovakia gave two presentations about Slovak vineyard regions and the Small Carpathian Wine Route (Malokarpatska Vinna Cesta).
We presented Slovakia and the high quality of Slovak wines to France and the French people, summed up the Minister for TASR.
Arconic Corporation manufactures and sells aluminum sheets, plates, extrusions, and architectural products in the United States, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Russia, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Rolled Products, Building and Construction Systems, and Extrusions. The Rolled Products segment provides a range of aluminum sheet and plate products for ground transportation, aerospace, industrial, and packaging markets; and roofing, architectural composite panels, ventilated facades and ceiling panels, spacers, culvert pipes, and gutters for building and construction markets. The Building and Construction Systems segment provides various products and building envelope solutions, such as entrances, curtain walls, windows, composite panels, and coil coated sheets for fabricators and glazing subcontractors under the Kawneer, Reynobond, and Reynolux brands. The Extrusions segment offers extruded products, including aerospace shapes, automotive shapes, seamless tubes, hollows, mortar fins, and high strength rods and bars for ground transportation, aerospace, and industrial markets. The company offers its products directly to customers, as well as through distributors. The company was formerly known as Arconic Rolled Products Corporation and changed its name to Arconic Corporation in April 2020. Arconic Corporation was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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
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United Parcel Service, Inc. provides letter and package delivery, transportation, logistics, and related services. It operates through two segments, U.S. Domestic Package and International Package. The U.S. Domestic Package segment offers time-definite delivery of letters, documents, small packages, and palletized freight through air and ground services in the United States. The International Package segment provides guaranteed day and time-definite international shipping services in Europe, the Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, and Africa. This segment offers guaranteed time-definite express options. The company also provides international air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, distribution and post-sales, and mail and consulting services in approximately 200 countries and territories. In addition, it offers truckload brokerage services; supply chain solutions to the healthcare and life sciences industry; shipping, visibility, and billing technologies; and financial and insurance services. The company operates a fleet of approximately 121,000 package cars, vans, tractors, and motorcycles; and owns 59,000 containers that are used to transport cargo in its aircraft. United Parcel Service, Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
It has been nearly two years since our former CTO Arnaud Bailly posted his widely read article on Capital Matchs architecture on November 16, 2015. Since then, we have written about our architecture several times, but they were all were intended for an audience of investors or business people, which necessarily means a high concentration of buzzwords, fancy graphics with impressive-looking diagrams and flow charts, but with a dearth of actual technical details. Today, however, I will write about Capital Matchs architecture for a technical audience. I will largely follow the structure of the original post so it helps to read that post first.
I have read Arnauds article several times recently and a large part of it has remained valid. This is despite a tremendous growth of Capital Match from a business perspective: the total amount of funded loans was around S$3 million when Arnaud wrote that article, but now it is almost S$60 milliona twentyfold growth in two years. On the backend, the amount of data Capital Match is handling is also growing exponentially:
Perhaps surprisingly, what has not grown by twentyfold is the size of source code. To determine how many lines are added and deleted, I ran the following command on our main repo:
git log --no-merges --since=2015-11-16 --numstat --pretty=tformat: | \ awk '{ add += $1; del += $2 } END { print add, del }'
That command means producing numerical statistics (lines added/deleted) on every non-merge commit since November 16, 2015 and add together the two first columns. The result: we have added 515,287 lines of code and deleted 543,408 lines of code. So Capital Matchs code base is smaller compared with two years ago, despite adding tons of new functionalities, improving security and performance in many areas. I was slightly surprised by this result and ran the following to determine where the additions and deletions happen:
git log --no-renames --no-merges --since=2015-11-16 --numstat --pretty=tformat: | \ awk ' { add[$3] += $1; del[$3] += $2 } END { for (f in add) printf "%6d insertions %s
", add[f], f; for (f in del) printf "%6d deletions %s
", del[f], f }' | sort -rn
Some major deletions involve removing certain third-party files like react.js from the repo and making them actual dependencies. Other major deletions involve removing some badly written UI code produced by a contractor (yes, outsourcing work like this was a mistake). But most of the deletions are typical of our workflow: at Capital Match, we vigorously delete unused code and simplify existing code.
Eric Lee of Microsoft argued in 2009 that Source Code Is A Liability, Not An Asset and similar sentiments can be traced back as early as 2001, when Alan Cooper, the father of Visual Basic, also said code is not an asset in an InfoWorld interview (archived from original). Everyone in our team agrees that less code is better code.
Besides deleting code, we also do a lot of refactoring, which explains why we have added half a million lines of code and also deleted half a million lines of code, resulting in relatively high churn. We believe that in the face of constant change, ongoing and continuous refactoring is the only way to have a codebase that remains sane.
Fundamental Design Choices
Haskell
Speaking of refactoring, we are happy that we chose Haskell, a wonderful language that enables large refactoring with ease, perhaps even turning what could be unthinkable architectural changes in other languages into pure tedium. When the business side of the company demands a feature with a tight deadline, we sometimes write some pretty bad code just to get things working, and then later on after the feature has been released take the time to rethink and rewrite the code with good software engineering practices. Naturally this is following the Make it work, make it right, make it fast paradigm:
Meet the minimum requirements for the business to call project a success. (Make it work.) Add bells and whistles to make the program less prone to error and more feature rich. (Make it right.) Find and eliminate waste in the process. Some assumtions from the start will have been incorrect. Remove unecessary business logic. Included in this step is to improve code for better performance. (Make it fast.)
Over time, however, it is easy to succumb to the temptation to make things right at the first time. As a result, there have been cases when we very well could have delivered a feature on time but instead the perfectionist within us took over and the feature was delivered late.
In his famous book JavaScript: The Good Parts, Douglas Crockford started the first chapter with this remark:
When I was a young journeyman programmer, I would learn about every feature of the languages I was using, and I would attempt to use all of those features when I wrote. I suppose it was a way of showing off, and I suppose it worked because I was the guy you went to if you wanted to know how to use a particular feature.
It is perhaps a rite of passage for programmers to realize that not every feature in their language of choice is useful in day-to-day programming. Some Haskell features are just mistakes; others are designed for PL researchers to experiment, but not their usefulness in industrial programming is yet to be proven. For Capital Match, this is a very slow process, but we are gradually getting rid of code that uses language features or advanced patterns that turn out not to be worthwhile. Just like how in The Evolution of a Haskell Programmer Fritz Ruehr pointed out the anti-climatic moment when powerful patterns are used to compute the factorial and Fibonacci numbers, there is a difference between interesting intellectual excursions and simple, maintainable, practical (and mostly value-level) code. As for advanced type-level features, they sometimes eerily remind me of the stereotypical enterprise-y OOP code that cares more about building a superstructure of classes and hierarchies than about getting things done. Sometimes it is easy to forget how joyful it is to write value-level code that is concise, clear, and lucid.
That said, our embrace of Haskell has not been unconditional. We like Haskell, but we are not so delusional as to give up a better tool or library just because its written in another language. In those two years we have given up Bake in favor of an off-the-shelf CI server written in Java. Reliability was an issue, but in the end it just does not seem worthwhile for us to spend effort to maintain code for a CI system when we could have used a CI server with a discoverable GUI (and someone else to maintain it).
Event Sourcing
The use of event sourcing is perhaps more controversial than the use of Haskell; even in the Haskell world there are plenty of developers who continue to use conventional RDBMSs. But our CTO had a bias against RDBMSs and to this day we do not use RDBMSs. The way Capital Match uses event sourcing is mostly unchanged: a flat event file stores events, or individual business-level actions that can affect the state of the system. We have, however, greatly improved the implementation of this subsystem, from better ways to load and persist events, to better queries. Well talk about these improvements in detail later in this blog post.
General Architecture
The general architecture also largely remained intact. Quoting Arnaud,
The main interface to the system is a REST-like API providing various resources and actions over those resources. Most exchanges with the outside world are done using JSON representation of resources, with some CSV. The User Interface is merely a client of the API and is (morally if not to the letter) a single page application. There is also a command-line client which offers access to the complete API and is used for administrative purpose.
There are three main layers involved in Capital Matchs application: Model, Service, and Web.
Model
The Model layer is full of pure code that carries out the requisite business logic in the app. It contains several BusinessModel s that each has their own events and commands. Compared with Arnauds original exposition, this part is almost entirely unchanged, save for minor details like changing from data families to injective type families and changing a few argument orders:
class BusinessModel a where -- | The type of events for this model. type Event a = event | event -> a -- | The type of commands for this model. type Command a = command | command -> a -- | An initial value for this model. init :: a default init :: Default a => a init = def -- | Execute a command against this model and returns an event -- representing the outcome of the command. act :: a -> Command a -> Event a -- | Apply an event to the model resulting in a potentially new -- model. apply :: a -> Event a -> a
Conceptually, a command is an action that an outside request wants to perform, whereas an event is a permanent and immutable record that something has happened. For example there can be a RegisterUser command signaling the desire to register a particular user; in response it may result in UserRegistered recording the fact that the said user has been registered successfully, or another event signaling error. As a result, the act method is a great place to do validation; borrowing the previous example, in act we check whether another user with the same email has already been registered, and other business rules like whether the password meets minimum length/complexity requirements.
One thing weve been considering to add is the ability for a single command to emit a list of events. Being a list of events, there can be zero, one, or even more of them. The possibility to have a command produce zero events is very useful: it can be used whenever a command is not really applicable given that state; we often find ourselves writing NoEvent as one of the constructors for our Event type just to capture this possibility. Occasionally it is also useful to have a single command result in multiple events that will be handled atomically. We usually workaround this issue by creating a new constructor in the Event for this complicated operation, even when we know the end result we want is simply the sequential application of two existing events.
Arnaud lamented that the fact that the original rule of strictly separating the business models was broken quite a few times; in the ensuing years we no longer cared about strictly separating those business models. A lesson learned is that if the goal is to strictly separate the business models with an eye towards being able to deploy them as independent services exchange messages, then perhaps we should in fact build multiple executables actually exchanging messages: a rule written in natural language is the easiest kind of rule to break, because there is little enforcement beyond code reviews. Once we have given up this goal of using event-passing as the manner of coordination across business models, it then becomes obvious to use shared-memory concurrency, a.k.a. STM in the Service layer.
Service
The service layer is conceptually a layer that can carry out actions on these models. There are in fact two sublayers. The first one InSTM is a layer where no IO is allowed, but mutation of data is allowed but restricted to be atomic. It can access multiple different business models safely, thanks to STM:
newtype InSTM s a = InSTM { unInSTM :: ReaderT ( TVar s) STM a } deriving ( Functor , Applicative , Monad )
Here the InSTM monad allows several modifications to a single TVar to be made atomically even across several business models, as well as ephemeral data that is not part of any business model (e.g. certain kinds of feature flags). It is also useful for complicated data accesses across business models that must be atomic, even though STM is not strictly required in this case.
More useful is when we gain the full functionality of IO . The ServiceT monad transformer looks like this:
newtype ServiceT g l m a = ServiceT { unServiceT :: ReaderT ( TVar g, l) m a } deriving ( Functor , Applicative , Monad )
This is essentially the same as the WebStateM type in Arnauds blog post. Over time, there have been some efforts to improve it further, such as sneaking in an ExceptT within it, but those turned out not to be worthwhile. The g type variable refers to the global state, which is called CapitalMatchState that stores all the data, provides some pluggable functions, some configuration values, concurrent channels, and buses (which are just a TQueue endowed with a worker thread to perform actions on things written to the queue). The l type variable captures local state, which in practice means state associated with a particular request, including certain pieces of data from request headers and some other information computed from request headers, such as authentication info. It is in principle quite versatile and a bit like Python Flasks magical g object, but we only make limited use of it because really additional state is just additional complexity.
There are also additional instances for those two types, such as MonadState so code can be written to work with both. There are also a few other instances like MonadBaseControl for ServiceT that are occasionally useful.
One should also note that both of these monads are, at their heart, ReaderT monad transformers. This is why a blog post this June by Michael Snoyman on ReaderT feels familiar to us. We have been using pattern for years before the blog post and we fully agree with Michael Snoyman that this is an excellent way to structure a Haskell program.
That said, in practice, we do find that developers have a tendency to overuse ServiceT , or specifically a type synonym for ServiceT we call Service that includes a MonadIO constraint. Because Service is the default monad to reach for, a lot of times even when we just want to perform some pure computation, developers frequently just use Service which has the full power of IO.
Web
The Web layer is conceptually a simple layer that translates from HTTP requests to Service functions, and then translates the result back to HTTP responses. It handles things like middleware, requests, routing, parsing data from JSON representations and serializing result back into JSON.
We are using a mix of Scotty and Servant. Neither are, in my opinion, perfect: Servant is considerably better conceptually, but with terrible error messages and quite a bit of boilerplate, whereas Scottys general design (especially error handling and its liberal but inappropriate use of lazy Text ) leaves something to be desired.
Physical Organization
In terms of concrete files, we mainly have modules like Capital.X.Model , Capital.X.Service , and Capital.X.Web where X is some name of a business model. Usually we also have Capital.X.Types and/or Capital.X.Types.Y for data types belonging to this model. There are also client-specific types that reside in Capital.X.Web.Types.Z where Z is some client-specific type.
Arnaud in his blog post mentioned splitting code, but he meant splitting into multiple packages. This is sadly misinformed; we have since merged all of our packages that arent really independent into a single one containing hundreds of modules. The reason is that, for inexplicable reasons, GHC still does not default to compiling in parallel. Neither does stack invoke GHC in a way that parallelizes the build effectively. Yes the stack tool has a -j option but that only parallelizes stack s internal invocation of the cabal build process. In other words, it uses package-level parallelism. To have module-level parallelism, it is needed to use stack --ghc-options=-j . It is really surprising how this is often not mentioned when people complain about GHC build times: an obvious remedy is of course to turn on module-level parallelization! In practice we also have several more options passed to GHC, mostly RTS options to control garbage collection for GHC itself which has been shown to improve compile times by up to 50%. Merging all packages back into a single one has demonstrated up to 20% improvement in build times.
Other Tidbits
Persistence & Storage
Although the architecture of the event storage subsystem has not changed, what has changed greatly is the actual implementation: almost every line of code that deals with events and their storage has been rewritten for higher performance. Thanks to GHCs cheap and easy-to-use sparks, the event loading code runs in parallel. Low-level system calls are also used directly to enable higher performance ( mmap -ed files) and better reliability. On the Haskell side, event reading/writing code has also been considerably simplified: the original labyrinth of several TQeueue s and TVars s and TMVar s have been replaced by a single MVar (which, unlike TMVar , has the fairness guarantee).
On a higher level, however, we are still using TVar s, TMVar s and buses, which are (as noted above) just TQueue s endowed with a worker thread to perform actions on things written to the queue. Although designed to be generic and useful in many contexts, this form of message-passing concurrency is heavily used in higher-level event handling and have seen great improvements, especially in the face of exceptions.
Migrations
On the versioning and migration front, logically we have not changed the main architecture but again the implementation is extremely different. We no longer naively use the event version to select a function to deserialize the old data. Our old code of having a function for each version to deserialize the data is terrible:
it has built-in assumptions for how the shape of the old data looks like (which is arguably a fair assumption) and uses partial functions everywhere (which is bad practice); without modern techniques like lens the migration code uses a lot of highly specific data structure traversal code that is verbose and convoluted; the fact that those functions deal with historical data and convert them directly to the data the application currently requires means historical migration code sometimes has to be modified when writing a new migration, and therefore in order to write a migration it is necessary to understand every single previous migration since the beginning of time.
The last point is especially insidious: in the beginning the code is quick and easy to write but gradually it became a nightmare. Asking a human to remember the entire history of how our data types look like is just asking for trouble. After onboarding a few new developers who wrote incorrect migration code and incorrect tests for said migration code that will silently reinterpret old data in the wrong way, we finally embarked on a major refactoring. Somewhat scarily, it is discovered along this refactoring process that some older migration code, written in early 2016, has never been correct in the first place; the tests that accompany them have never caught the issue because they did not check for the semantic interpretation of events, only that no exceptions were thrown during migration (because we were using partial functions extensively).
Gone are the days of extremely brittle migration code that is difficult to read, difficult to write, and require frequent changes. We now use a snazzy lens-based migration system: the lens library makes traversals of deeply nested data structures extremely easy, and here at Capital Match we wholeheartedly embrace it. Well be sharing technical details of this system in a future blog post.
Queries
Even in the original blog post Arnaud mentioned that SQL is great for writing queries, and this is indeed true. We have mostly completed our transition to IxSet s which are simply a set of things together with indices (which are maps of sets). For queries that work within the narrow sweet spot of IxSet s (which are in fact plenty), it is extremely fast. There is a blog post from 2013 that unscientifically compares the performance of Acid (which is more about ixset than acid-state ) and finds it to be extremely fast. This is generally our experience as well. For the code that uses IxSet s, we are never really disappointed at its performance.
For queries with complicated predicates (think where clause in SQL), we also have a BooleanQuery data type:
data BooleanQuery a = And [ BooleanQuery a] | Or [ BooleanQuery a] | Not ( BooleanQuery a) | Prop a | BooleanTrue | BooleanFalse deriving ( Show , Functor , Foldable , Traversable )
There are also several functions that can simplify boolean queries with various options, which not only does simple simplifications like transforming And [BooleanTrue, p] into p , but also proposition-aware simplifiers that look at the proposition in question and performs simplification. Following this simplification and rewriting, there are then functions that turn those queries into actual ixset queries. Some of these functions are not dependent on the specific ixset in question (i.e. a polymorphic function that turns a BooleanQuery a into Endo (IxSet ixs b) ) but others are also ixset -specific ones (for example an Or query that operates on the same index type we can use the @+ operator instead of union ). Of course, the type also supports non- ixset queries: we have code to turn BooleanQuery a into m Bool where m can be any monad (but usually the reader monad) as well as more complicated values like f (g Bool) .
For joins, the story is admittedly not as satisfactory. The containers package introduced map-merging in 2016 and we are using it in a few places, but we would like to see something similar for IxSet s: it really isnt hard to implement. If eventually the naive way of joining ixset s with linearithmic complexity turns out to be a performance bottleneck worth resolving, we will likely fork it and add support on our own.
User Interface
Very little has changed in this regard. We are still using Om in ClojureScript. Thats not to say, however, we are satisfied, but rather it is perhaps too late to change now. Echoing the sentiment from our inaugural post, the lack of type system here makes frontend development rather unsatisfactory, but still that was a choice made by Arnaud back in 2014 and it is well-known that rewriting large chunks of code isnt worthwhile.
Besides the lack of a type system, it is gradually discovered that Om itself has some design issues. The first issue, also explained in this blog post from CircleCI, is that Om assumes that the shape of the UI (the DOM, essentially a tree) fits the shape of the data. In real world, this seems frequently not the case, leading to either a component accessing just the entire state, or avoiding the global state (and cursors) and using local state exclusively (peppered with antipatterns like one component accessing the local state of another component, and manually calling om/refresh! ).
The second issue is really that there is a distinction between global state and local state at all, and that there are different functions to handle them: to apply a function to the global state, we need to use om/transact! and to set it to a value the function is om/update! ; yet to apply a function to local state, the function is om/update-state! and setting it to a value is om/set-state! . Besides the naming inconsistency, the different methods for accessing the global and local states mean that some important basic components have to be available in two forms: one version that works on global state and another that works on local state. Contrast this with reagent, where global state is just an atom at a top-level defined with defonce , and local state is just another atom defined within a let binding and made available in the closure of the render function.
Om Next is a next iteration of Om that is a radically improved way of writing UIs. Unfortunately it has almost reached vaporware status, for having been in development since 2015, with still no actual release. It just reached beta status this year, still with lots of incomplete documentation, and critically, no documented way to gradually migrate from Om to Om Next. Furthermore, it also seems to be difficult to understand, exacerbated by repurposing standard terminology like parsing to mean entirely different things.
Weve also been watching this space for a more Haskell-y solution, from PureScript to GHCJS. Both have made great strides since two years ago, and it is not inconceivable that starting from scratch we would choose PureScript or GHCJS.
Concurrency
As noted by Arnaud, concurrency is mostly handled at the level of requests. For other scenarios, we have fully moved away from forkIO in favor of higher-level abstractions like async and withAsync . Among these two, the former is sparingly used in favor of the latter for automatic killing of children threads when the function returns or throws an exception. In practice, we usually use the ContT r IO monad for ease of handling the continuation-based nature of withAsync , especially in app startup code when we need to launch many threads.
As for coordination between the concurrent threads, a mix of messaging passing and shared memory is used.
Conclusion
This is, once again, a long post but only a brief overview of the system. There are a few pointers mentioned above that Id like to elaborate further in future blog posts, as well as covering what has changed in other parts of the system like infrastructure, CI/CD, testing, containerization, development environment and flow, and project management and coordination with a team in four countries across three timezones. Some of these would be similar to how other teams do things, but I hope some will be unique and insightful.
Michener David William would never know he would be warmly greeted upon landing at Tan Son Nhat International Airport before his arrival on Friday, as he was the six-millionth international guest to visit Ho Chi Minh City this year.
The Australian businessman was welcomed by Bui Ta Hoang Vu, director of the municipal tourism department, and officials from the Vietnam Aviation Corporation and Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
Michener and two other passengers who were the citys 5,999,999th and 6,000,001st visitors, all arriving from Melbourne on Vietnam Airlines flight VN780, also received gifts and souvenirs from the citys representatives.
Haisman Jamesrobin, the 5,999,999th guest, said that this is his first time coming to Ho Chi Minh City and he really enjoys the unique Vietnamese culture, which is much different from what he had imagined before.
It is a big surprise to me and I feel lucky, Haisman said.
I will come back and spend more time in Vietnam to enjoy its many delicious dishes.
The six millionth visitor to Ho Chi Minh City this year, and those who came just before and after him, receive gifts at a ceremony on December 15, 2017. Photo: Tuoi Tre
At around this time last year, Ho Chi Minh City also held a ceremony to welcome its five-millionth international visitor.
The six million international arrivals so far this year marked a huge leap and new milestone for the citys tourism industry.
The full-year foreign tourist numbers are expected to top 6.3 million, an increase of 22.88 percent from 2016, Vu said at the ceremony.
The department is also collecting data of foreign guests such as their stay and spending habits in order to improve service quality.
Check out the news you should not miss today, December 16
Politics
-- Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh highlighted Vietnams active and effective contributions to building the Foreign Ministers Meeting on Mekong Lancang Cooperation as its third meeting kicked off in Dali, China on Friday.
Society
-- A group of car drivers who had been driving on the motorbike lane on Thanh Tri Bridge in Hanoi was seen in a viral video on Facebook removing the barriers to move back to the right lane after noticing traffic police were on patrol ahead.
-- A project to support the development and implementation of policies and programs on prevention and response to gender violence, domestic violence was launched by the ministries of labor and culture in Hanoi on Friday, with technical assistance of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Vietnam.
-- Vietnam marked the tenth year anniversary of a government resolution stipulating that people traveling on motorbike must wear crash helmet, which came into effect on December 15, 2007 and has since helped reduce the number of brain injuries from traffic accidents.
-- All bears raised at farms across the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai have been implanted with tracking system under a program jointly launched by the provincial forest protection and the World Animal Protection.
Business
-- Relevant Vietnamese agencies should take urgent measures to counter the European Commissions yellow card on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, the Directorate of Fisheries urged as it hosted a national conference in the central city of Da Nang on Friday.
-- A wide variety of Vietnamese-made products, from handicrafts to construction materials and power devices, are on show at the 12th Cambodia Import-Export and One Province One Product Exhibition that kicked off in Phnom Penh on Friday.
-- Australian national Michener David William, who arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport on Friday, was welcomed as the six millionth foreign visitor to Ho Chi Minh City.
-- Vietnams largest fuel wholesaler Petrolimex and PV Oil on Friday officially ceased distribution of A92 gasoline and replaced the countrys most popular petro with E5, a biofuel with a five percent content of ethanol.
-- Vietjet launched the inaugural Ho Chi Minh City Phuket flight from Tan Son Nhat International Airport on Friday.
Sports
-- Vietnams U23s beat Thailand 2-1 at the third-place game of the M-150 Cup 2017 in Thailand on Friday.
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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.) 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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.
It was St. Francis of Assisi who in 1223 first publicly expressed dismay that the emphasis on Christmas was shifting to secular materialism and gift gifting and away from the miracle of Christs birth.
According to some historical accounts, Francis set up a Nativity scene in a cave in the Italian village of Grecio, using live animals and people, and then invited the villagers to come and look upon it and ponder.
Over the centuries, the Nativity scene grew in popularity and spread. It is now an icon of the Christmas season, although different countries and cultures have differing portrayals of the manger as well as the individuals and animals who populate it.
Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 16 and 17, the Corrales Historical Society is hosting a Festival of the Nativities at the Historic Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales. Event coordinator Ellen Hatala said more than 100 Nativity scenes will be on display, mostly from around the United States, but also from other countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, China, Denmark, Germany, Guatemala, Ireland, Peru, Puerto Rico and Russia.
The Nativities vary in size from a few inches to a few feet tall and are made from a wide variety of materials.
Shining like a mirror, a Nativity from the Rogers Silver Co. is made from fired clay that is covered with sterling silver plating. A cement Nativity from Ireland features an archway resembling a pre-historic stone formation like those found throughout the British Isles. The offering from Germany depicts a manger shaped like an A-frame ski chalet.
Pandas make an appearance in a Nativity from China while llamas appear in a number of scenes from South American countries.
A Chilean Nativity depicts angels with a ring of flowers in their hair, a floral accessory that people still wear in the Easter Islands, while the Mary and Joseph characters are clearly Indian and the baby Jesus is swaddled in a cradling board.
Wooden Nativity figures from Denmark are actually candle holders, and a Bolivian Nativity is made from bread mixed with glue and painted over after hardening.
The tiniest Nativity scenes come from Peru. One is contained within a small matchbox, and the other inside a walnut shell.
The Festival of the Nativities will be in the setting of an old, historic church decorated with greens, tress and poinsettias. Multiple choirs will perform during the two-day event, as well as solo performers. Light refreshments will be provided.
Volunteer Jan Kunz puts together a Nativity scene at the Historic Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales on Thursday. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Pieces from a Nativity scene from Mexico are prepared for display during the Festival of the Nativities at the Historic Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) The exterior of Historic Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Pictured is a hanging Nativity scene from China, one of the Nativity scenes that will be on display at the Festival of the Nativities. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Johanna Dralle carries two figures for a Nativity scene Thursday at Historic Old San Ysidro Church, which is hosting the Festival of the Nativities on Dec. 16 and 17. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Prev 1 of 5 Next
SANTA FE Democratic U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico says she is pushing hard to win Republican support for an immigration compromise by the end of the year legislation that would protect certain young immigrants from deportation and provide a pathway to citizenship.
In a luncheon speech, Lujan Grisham said her role as head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has thrust her into negotiations aimed at responding to the Trump administrations decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
The program, created administratively by then-President Obama, allowed people brought into the country illegally by their parents to apply for a temporary reprieve from deportation and permission to work and attend school.
President Trump has said Congress should change the law, not rely on executive action, if it wants to protect immigrants covered by DACA.
Lujan Grisham said Friday that it makes no sense to tear apart families and deport young adults working in public safety, construction and other careers.
Leaders in Washington, D.C., have been irresponsible for decades, she said, by failing to pass a comprehensive overhaul of the nations immigration laws.
But Im optimistic that were closer than weve ever been, said Lujan Grisham, a candidate for governor of New Mexico in next years elections.
Whatever is passed will involve some measure of compromise, she said, probably with provisions on border security sought by Republican members of Congress, who hold majorities in both chambers.
If theres ever a season for miracles, this is it, she said.
Her comments came in a speech to an audience of about 60 people gathered at the office of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association. The crowd included business leaders, advocates for immigrant rights and others.
Republican Rep. Steve Pearce, also a gubernatorial candidate in New Mexico, has himself called for Congress to find a permanent solution thats fair and just for young Americans whose legal status is in jeopardy after Trumps decision on DACA.
New Mexico is leading the nation on education reform, according to independent reviewers.
Bellwether Education Partners and the Collaborative for Student Success ranked New Mexicos Every Student Succeeds Act plan No. 1 in the spring when 17 states had submitted documents to the U.S. Department of Education. Now all 50 state plans have been reviewed, and New Mexico is still on top.
Im so proud that New Mexico has once again been recognized as a national leader in education reform, Gov. Susana Martinez said in a statement. I will not stop fighting for reforms that will prepare our students for the future.
Last week, New Mexico unveiled a $50-million support package after identifying more than 200 struggling schools a centerpiece of the State Plan.
The four lowest-performing schools Hawthorne Elementary, Whittier Elementary and Los Padillas Elementary in Albuquerque and Dulce Elementary near the Colorado border must submit turnaround proposals to PED.
Their options are outlined in the ESSA plan: closure, relaunch as a charter school, significant reorganization or championing parents option to transfer students to other schools.
The State Plan also pledges to expand the Teacher-Leader Network, create a Student-Leader Network, strengthen required tribal consultation, hold teacher preparation programs accountable, expand Pre-K services and include STEM-Readiness in school grades.
The group of bipartisan reviewers from Bellwether Education Partners and the Collaborative for Student Success specifically highlighted New Mexicos strong rationale for goals, clear accountability system and extensive stakeholder engagement.
They gave the State Plan the highest possible marks in five out of nine categories.
A separate review from Data Quality Campaign praised PEDs school grading system for providing clear ratings, allowing users to quickly gauge school performance. The grade reports are also easy to find in Spanish, according to Data Quality Campaign.
The states teachers unions are less impressed.
At the end of the day, the NM PED can praise itself all they want, but the fact remains that, so far, all they have utilized this plan to do it threaten school closures, bully districts through reduced funding for early interventions, and scare parents into believing New Mexicos hardworking educators are failing their students, said Stephanie Ly, president of the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico.
Charles Goodmacher, spokesman for the National Education Association of New Mexico, argued that the PED plan is so very out of touch with the direction of most states, and moves away from the practices of the highest performing education systems in the world.
SANTA FE The debate over banning bump stocks devices that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire more rapidly may hit the Roundhouse this session.
State Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, filed legislation Friday that would make it a fourth-degree felony to possess a bump stock, defined as a device that quickens the rate of fire of a semiautomatic weapon.
However, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez would likely have to add the proposal to the agenda of the session that begins Jan. 16 in order for it to be considered, as the session is otherwise limited to budget and tax bills, legislation vetoed in the previous session and constitutional amendments. The governor has power to add other bills or topics to the agenda in 30-day sessions, which are held in even-numbered years.
McQueen said quick consideration of the bill is important after the Las Vegas attack earlier this year, in which a gunman, with help from bump stocks, fired hundreds of rounds into a crowd of concertgoers.
Theres no reason to wait, McQueen said. To me, this is a public safety issue. Lets get it done now.
A spokesman for the governor didnt respond to a request for a comment.
Martinez, a former prosecutor, has repeatedly described herself as a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights. But she also has said shes open to common-sense legislation on firearms.
The National Rifle Association has opposed a full ban on bump stocks at the federal level, arguing that its better to address peoples behavior and that bans are ineffective.
The purchase of fully automatic weapons is restricted, but bump stocks are legal.
The filing of McQueens bill, House Bill 17, came on Friday, the first day legislators could file bills for the legislative session. In all, more than 50 pieces of legislation were filed.
Also Friday, Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, said he will introduce legislation requiring broadband providers to practice net neutrality in New Mexico.
The Federal Communications Commission decided this week to repeal rules that prohibit internet service providers from slowing or blocking websites and apps and charging more for faster speeds.
The authority of states to regulate net neutrality isnt clear, but Morales said New Mexico can impose net neutrality rules as a condition of accessing public rights of way and in-state contracts.
Sandoval County Sheriffs deputies are looking for a 31-year-old man who has been reported missing.
Officer Ray Wilson, a spokesman for the New Mexico State Police, said Armando Partida was last seen on Thursday Dec. 14 around 2 p.m. at the intersection of Ellison and US 528.
A Brittany Alert has been issued in the case. Wilson did not provide any other details about the case.
He said Partida is a 31-year-old Hispanic man. He is five feet eight inches tall, weighs 200 pounds and has long black hair and brown eyes.
Tips: Anyone with any information regarding this New Mexico Brittany Alert is asked to call the Sandoval County Sheriffs Office at (505) 867-4581.
WASHINGTON The National Archives unsealed thousands of pages from the President John F. Kennedy files on Friday, and while assassinations buffs werent likely to find any major revelations no proof of a second gunman, a Cuban plot, or evidence the killer could have been stopped theyll have plenty to chew on.
The 3,539 records include FBI and CIA reports on Soviet spies, the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and Lee Harvey Oswalds trip to Mexico City a few weeks before he murdered Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
This batch likely will be the last released pending a final review of records. Many remain sealed at the request of the FBI, CIA and other agencies that pressed for more time ahead of a deadline set a quarter century earlier.
For decades, debate has raged not only over whether Oswald acted alone but whether the FBI and CIA could have stopped him. The latest documents provide fresh proof that he was in their sights: a 1975 CIA memo marked top secret shows that Oswald was on a watch list of people whose mail would be intercepted from Nov. 9, 1959, to May 3, 1960, and again from Aug. 7, 1961, through May 28, 1962.
The same watch list included Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot shot down on May 1, 1960. His mail was opened until two months after his release by the Soviets. CIA also opened the mail of Earl Browder, the head of the Communist Party of the United States, playwright Edward Albee, novelist John Steinbeck, and a daughter of David Rockefeller, chairman of Chase Manhattan bank.
Another revelation comes from a July 1978 memo to an attorney on the staff of the House Select Committee on Assassinations: The FBI was unable to locate the original fingerprints lifted from the rifle found at the snipers perch on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
Dallas police turned those over a few days after the assassination and never got them back. Top FBI officials told House investigators that finding the prints would be a mammoth research effort.
The head of the bureaus fingerprint section told House investigators that standard procedure would have required returning the original prints to Dallas police, but this case was not routine, nor was it handled as such.
In 1992, Congress set Oct. 26, 2017, for the release of all remaining documents in the Kennedy collection. The National Archives released a batch in July, and five since then, including Fridays. In late October, President Donald Trump gave the agencies six more months to review any material that might damage national security.
We dont pass judgment on the value of the information or draw any conclusions about the content. Thats left for the American people for journalists, researchers, historians and the like, said Jay Bosanko, chief operating officer at the National Archives.
Previous batches of documents have revealed the deep ties between U.S. and Mexican intelligence agencies, and the lengths the United States went to in attempts to undermine or assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
A trove released Oct. 26 included a CIA report showing that Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev believed Dallas police had been an accessory to the assassination, because he found it implausible that presidential security was so inept for Kennedy to be killed without a conspiracy.
The documents have also revealed serious lapses in the surveillance of Oswald, a former Marine sharpshooter who had defected to the Soviet Union, then returned, then sought to go back. He was in Mexico City seeking visas to Cuba and then the Soviet Union.
Much of the material released Friday likely would not be subject to public disclosure under ordinary open records rules. Such materials provide insight into unrelated investigations, law enforcement techniques, foreign relations and intelligence gathering.
One 1990 FBI document, for example, relates a story from a source who claims U.S. Marines had unknowingly brought a Soviet agent into secure areas of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to engage in sexual intercourse. The agent then planted audio devices in the embassy, the source said, and removed the bugs during another sexual encounter.
Some of the documents also detail continued efforts to track the KKK and other white supremacist groups, especially in relation to the assassination of King. One set of FBI reports unsealed Friday details efforts to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1960s with help from an informant a former Imperial officer who has been utilized extensively to cause dissension in Klan ranks.
The FBI scrambled for information on Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in the days after he shot and killed Oswald.
Agents around the country contacted gambling sources for any insights, mostly coming up empty. But in Chicago, agents learned that Ruby had been close with Ross Prio, a top hoodlum in the city. And he was friends with gun shop owner Joe Scaramuzzo, who had sold three of the four guns used in a 1954 shooting at the U.S. House of Representatives by Puerto Rican nationalists.
All documents subject to release have now been released in full or in redacted form, except for 86 records subject to further research by archivists and federal agencies. Records released only in redacted form will be reviewed in coming months by the agencies that generated them.
Most of the 5 million pages of Kennedy records were released in the 1990s, a bonanza for assassination buffs on a host of related topics, including FBI monitoring of anti-war groups, King, the Weathermen and others.
Congress created the five-member Assassination Records Review Board in 1992 as part of a law requiring the release of all Kennedy assassination documents within 25 years. The law authorizes the president the one in office in 2017, that is to block release if he deems it would harm U.S. intelligence, law enforcement, military or diplomacy interests.
Just under a third of the materials released Friday an estimated 85,000 pages worth had been categorized as irrelevant to the JFK assassination itself, and withheld in full until now.
As with previous sets of records, this one provides insight into foreign intrigue and efforts to spy on adversaries.
Theres a memo from the files of Kennedys defense secretary, Robert McNamara, with a juicy geopolitical tidbit, courtesy of an informant close to the mother of Marxist leader Che Guevara. Che has recently returned from Cuba and told his mom that Both he and Castro feel Khrushchev let them down and has no further interest in spreading Communism in South America. Guevara added that he and Castro believe they and the Chinese are better Communists than Khrushchev.
The latest trove includes reports on Soviet and Cuban arms smuggling in the Caribbean, and complaints made to the Dallas FBI office about authors and documentary film makers contacting witnesses from the Grassy Knoll or the killing of Officer J.D. Tippett.
2017 The Dallas Morning News
Visit The Dallas Morning News at www.dallasnews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194): JFK-FILES
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The medical cannabis industry in New Mexico grew by about 77 percent from November 2016 through November 2017, an indication that the industry is strong and expanding, according to updated numbers released earlier this week.
The New Mexico Department of Healths Medical Cannabis Program Patient Statistics report shows there were 45,374 active patients in the program at the end of November 2017, an increase of more than 19,600 over November 2016, when there were 25,697 patients in the program.
Patient enrollment is on track to reach nearly 50,000 by the end of this year and generate $85 million, significantly more than the $50.6 million generated by the industry last year, said Duke Rodriguez president and chief executive officer of Ultra Health, the largest cannabis company in the state.
The current DOH monthly patient numbers were calculated after thousands of patients were disenrolled.
The program transitioned in December 2015 from an older database to a new seed-to-sale tracking system called BioTrack, explained DOH spokesman Paul Rhien.
With the transfer of data, some patients were being counted twice they were being counted in the legacy data and in the new system, he said. We worked with BioTrack to merge any duplicate records so that a patient is only counted once.
Also removed were people who were no longer in the program but were still being counted in monthly DOH patient reports.
Each of the states 35 non-profit producers of medical cannabis, the only people licensed to cultivate the plant on a commercial level, must adhere to a limitation on the number of plants 450 that can be grown at any given time.
Even with the state topping $85 million for the current year, based on the number of enrollees that number should be $100 million, Rodriguez said, but because of the 450 plant limitation patients are seeking additional products outside of New Mexico. The limit for growers needs to be increased, he said.
Further, Rodriguez pointed to research conducted by University of New Mexico economist Kelly ODonnell, indicating that if recreational cannabis were legalized in New Mexico, it would create 11,000 new jobs and generate $415 million the first year and $600 million the second year, not including the medical program.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Democrats in the state Senate stripped their colleague Michael Padilla of his leadership title on Saturday, forcing him to step down as majority whip after decade-old allegations of sexual harassment resurfaced.
Padilla an Albuquerque Democrat who grew up in foster homes and led the push to end lunch shaming in New Mexico will remain a member of the state Senate.
But he is no longer the majority whip, a position that involves building support for Democratic bills in the Legislature.
Padilla has flatly denied the allegations of harassment, which stem from his time as a supervisor for the city of Albuquerque. He says he hasnt faced any similar allegation since leaving city employment about 10 years ago.
Tomorrow is another day, he said in written statement Saturday, and I will work just as hard as I always do.
Senate Democrats met privately in Albuquerque on Saturday to weigh Padillas future as majority whip. A majority of the members voted to vacate the position and meet again next month to pick a successor, according to a written statement released afterward.
The meeting came as allegations against Padilla resurfaced amid the Me Too movement sweeping the country and spotlighting sexual harassment.
The focus on him intensified this fall as Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democratic candidate for governor, called on Padilla to drop out of the race for lieutenant governor because of the allegations.
The two would have been paired together on the gubernatorial ticket if theyd each won their races.
Republican Gov. Susana Martinez also took aim at Padillas leadership role in the Senate. She said last month that it was shocking that Senate Democrats had elected him to the position in the first place, given that hed been accused of harassment in a previous job.
Padilla ended his campaign for lieutenant governor earlier this month. He said he didnt want to be a distraction.
A city investigation in 2007 determined that Padilla had repeatedly asked a dispatcher out on dates and at one point told some of the women who worked at the center that it may be 2006 out here, but in my house, its 1969 and the women make tortillas, take care of the kids and clean the house, according to Journal articles at the time.
Padilla maintains he would never say anything like that. The allegations, he said, arose out of his efforts to improve the 911 call center, a stressful job that naturally made some employees unhappy.
A minefield
The claims against Padilla predate his tenure in the Legislature.
But the Roundhouse has been rocked by its own allegations of harassment, and legislative leaders are working to revise their anti-harassment policy.
Women who work in the Capitol have described it as a minefield of inappropriate comments, leering looks and sexual propositions. State Rep. Kelly Fajardo, R-Belen, has said female lobbyists, in particular, are frequent targets of harassment.
Compassionate
In a written statement Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, called Padilla a valued member of the New Mexico state Senate. We look forward to supporting his ongoing legislative efforts to create jobs and help New Mexico families.
Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, said she appreciated Padillas legislative accomplishments.
He is a strong and compassionate advocate for the people of New Mexico, she said.
Padilla later released his own statement, saying he appreciated the opportunity to serve.
I look forward to continued partnerships with my colleagues to get New Mexico moving in the right direction again, Padilla said.
Registered publications in India witnessed a growth rate of 3.58 per cent in 2016-17, with 4,007 new publications being registered during the year. This was revealed in Press in India 2016-17, an annual publication of the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI). According to the report, Uttar Pradesh topped the list of largest number of registered publications, followed by Maharashtra. The largest number of publications registered in any Indian language is Hindi followed by English.
RNI is mandated under Section 19 (G) of the PRB Act, 1867 to submit an Annual Report to the Government every year on or before December 31.
The Report is a compilation of the data available with RNI and the details submitted in the Annual Statements filed online by the publications across the country for the financial year 2016-17. Press in India presents an indicative picture of facts and trends in the Indian print media. The report is of keen interest to print media, media analysts and research scholars.
The report was presented by Principal Director General Ganeshan to Minister for Textiles and Information & Broadcasting, Smriti Zubin Irani, in the presence of NK Sinha, Secretary, along with other senior officials of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Speaking on the occasion, the I&B Minister said that the publication was an important document to map the progress of the Indian newspaper industry in the last one year. The report gave a comprehensive analysis of the contours of the growth for the industry specially the growth amongst regional language publications. She further said that in this digital era the report has a seminal importance and assumes importance for the student community as well. She emphasised on the need to release this report digitally. She suggested that data in the report should be categorised genre wise. She said that data on publications in regional language should be analysed, for its growth and dispersal.
Highlights of the Indian Press in 2016-17 (As on March 31, 2017):
Firstpost Studio, launched at the iMedia Brand Summit 2017, announced its premier web-series 9 Months Indias first and only comprehensive web-series on pregnancy in September 2017. Season 1 of the digital show recently culminated with 10 million views across platforms. The 18 episode series also garnered much appreciation from the audiences.
The success of the series stands testimony to Firstposts innovative and engaging content delivered on the platform. Firstpost also clocked the highest time spent and has been consistently the highest this year. The average time spent is 6.1 minutes per visit on the portal in October 2017, as per the latest comScore MMX report.
The informative and entertaining web-series, 9 Months, brought experts onboard to address to-be mothers, first-time mothers as well as women looking to get pregnant. The experts shared comprehensive details right from nutrition to exercise and beyond in an attempt to make the viewers pregnancy journey easier and comfortable. This visual how-to pregnancy survival guide was hosted by Meghna Pant, a to-be mother herself. The content was packaged in a compelling format ensuring the viewers stayed tuned in to the show through each 15 minute episode.
In keeping with its legacy of delivering out-of-the-box content, Firstpost stepped out with a never-done-before digital offering for women. The Indias largest and premier digital platform for news, analysis and opinion always stands for delivering clutter-breaking and innovative content to its audience.
Speaking on the occasion, Azim Lalani, Business Head, Firstpost says While others are still undecided on going the IP way, we went ahead and launched it and successfully created an IP which has shown great traction and is the only one of its kind. We worked with wonderful partners and are now launching Season 2 soon. 9 Months has shown brands how to market to Mums. Apart from 9 Months, we have many more interesting IPs coming up across genres. We are very excited and happy to be the first in this space. This is also a very impactful business model.
Please let me know incase you'd require further information on the same.
&Prive HD, the newest destination for nuanced cinema, is all set to bring the Indian television premiere of the much-awaited movie, Elvis & Nixon on 26th November at 1:00pm and 9:00pm. The film is directed by Liza Johnson and stars Michael Shannon as the legendary Elvis Presley and Kevin Spacey as President Richard Nixon.
The drama-comedy is a true story of how the King of Rock and Roll met the President on December 21, 1970 at the White House. The meeting was instigated by Presleys (Shannon) desire to join the FBI as an undercover agent to put a stop to the rising drug culture in America. While Nixon wasnt too pleased to meet Presley initially, he later realized that they have much in common - both being self-made men having worked hard for their success.
To catch the Indian television premiere of Elvis & Nixon, tune in to &Prive HD on Sunday, 26th November at 1:00PM and 9:00PM
December 14, 2017
Just before the 2009 election, the Labor Party candidate for prime minister, Ehud Barak, considered focusing his campaign on the fight against government corruption. These were the final days of the Kadima government led by Ehud Olmert. Olmert would soon be forced to resign because of the criminal investigations into his affairs.
Barak himself led the successful political maneuvering that resulted in Olmert's resignation. It was why he believed that he had a winning campaign. The problem was that in-depth polling showed that government corruption was not a priority for Israeli voters. The truth is that Barak didn't need any polls to reach this conclusion. In 2003, the country voted overwhelmingly for the Likud headed by Ariel Sharon (38 seats), despite the serious criminal cases associated with him, such as the Greek island affair and the Cyril Kern loan. Regardless, people believed that Sharon was the person best suited to steer the country through the security challenges posed by the second intifada (2000-2005). Criminal scandals were not enough to prevent his election.
Now, with 2018 right around the corner, it looks like government corruption, which has popped up everywhere, is the ace that will win the next election. A partial list of the ongoing scandals would include the criminal investigations against the prime minister, but also against other senior Likud members, including Coalition Chairman David Bitan and Welfare Minister Haim Katz. Then there is the criminal investigation into Interior Minister Aryeh Deri of Shas, and reports of the allegedly corrupt political network created by Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, at the taxpayer's expense.
The protests against Netanyahu's corruption have gathered momentum in the last two weeks, ever since they were moved from the sleepy town of Petah Tikva to the heart of Tel Aviv. They are creating the sense that the country is just moments away from the collapse of a corrupt government. The fact that tens of thousands of people have joined these demonstrations testifies to a high level of public involvement. Nevertheless, they draw mainly from the center-left, or what is called, the "anti-Netanyahu" camp. Netanyahu claims that these are actually demonstrations by the left, which wants to bring down his right-wing coalition, and not through the ballot box either. While this is a populist claim, for Netanyahu's voters at least, it is in no way disconnected from reality.
Netanyahu is still seen as the responsible adult in the room, especially after President Donald Trump's declaration concerning Jerusalem.
As of now, the protests against corruption have failed to break through the barrier of political allegiance, at least not according to the polls. They still say that Netanyahu and the Likud will be able to put together the next government. When pollsters ask about Netanyahu's suitability to serve as prime minister, compared with center-left leaders Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid and Avi Gabbay of the Zionist Camp, the results are unequivocal. Despite the criminal investigation and the allegations that he received bribes, Netanyahu has an enormous advantage over both of them. The reasons for this are his considerable political and diplomatic experience, and the relative trust he enjoys for his handling of foreign affairs and security issues. In other words, Netanyahu is still seen as the responsible adult in the room, especially after President Donald Trump's declaration concerning Jerusalem.
Obviously, Gabbay and Lapid, as well as Meretz Chair Zehava Gal-On, are doing what they should as opposition leaders. They are putting up a mirror before the public in an attempt to tell the story of record-breaking government corruption, including attempts to pass laws that would weaken the country's gatekeepers, including the Recommendations Law (preventing police from recommending indictment), and a law to limit the power of the state comptroller.
In the last week, Gabbay, Lapid and Gal-On have shifted gears in their war against corruption. On Dec. 13, for example, Gabbay launched his "State without Corruption" campaign in the Knesset. It is the Zionist Camp's plan to eliminate corruption from politics.
Gabbay's campaign was reminiscent of Lapid's "Nachshon Plan," launched in April to fight public corruption and bolster law enforcement. The Nachshon plan was developed by former police commander Yoav Segalovich (ret.), who led the investigation of Avigdor Liberman when Liberman was foreign minister. Segalovich joined Yesh Atid a year and a half ago and became a prominent symbol of its fight against corruption. To Lapid's credit, it should be pointed out that corruption has long been a core issue for him. Nevertheless, when Gabbay was elected head of the Labor Party in July, Lapid's poll numbers plummeted. In other words, the people would not reward him for his war against corruption. Instead, he was abandoned for the one man who looked like he could bring down Netanyahu, at least at the time.
Lapid has since managed to recover, but not because of his campaign against corruption. Rather, he has Gabbay to thank. The Labor Party leader's mistakes and misstatements caused him considerable harm with his voter base.
Another demonstration against corruption is scheduled for Dec. 16 in Tel Aviv. Judging only on the basis of the previous demonstrations, it should be huge, with the Hanukkah holiday contributing to that as well.
The recent demonstrations are trying to recreate the mood of the "Crooked Politicians: We're Sick of You!" campaign, which led to the fall of the Likud government in 1992 and the election of Yitzhak Rabin. While this is the narrative remembered by the public, it misses the point of what really happened. The government was replaced because Rabin, the candidate of the left, was an experienced security hawk, who offered a diplomatic alternative to (Likud) Yitzhak Shamir's refusal to negotiate with the Palestinians.
At the time, voters, including those on the soft right, trusted Rabin's ability to deal with security matters, but it also connected with him emotionally. The "Crooked Politicians: We're Sick of You!" campaign may have contributed to the mood across the country and the desire for political change, but people also thought that Rabin really was the candidate best suited for the job. Without that, there would never have been a government turnover.
Netanyahu and other senior Likud officials, such as the Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan and former Minister Gideon Saar, have been attacking Gabbay for the last few days over his assertion that the Likud is a corrupt party. Netanyahu, Erdan and Saar know their voters well. Erdan called Gabbay "the head of the movement that invented political corruption: the old Mapai party." He went on to remind everyone that the police interrogated Gabbay under warning as well, and that when he served as general manager of Bezek, he was held under house arrest while the police investigated criminal wrongdoing in the company.
The fight over corruption has yet to break through the barriers of political allegiances, too. Within the Likud and the right, the problem is considered marginal, compared to the possibility of it bringing down the right-wing government. As long as Gabbay and Lapid fail to break past Netanyahu in polls measuring public conceptions of their suitability to serve as prime minister, simply focusing their campaign on government corruption will not be enough.
December 15, 2017
Congress is using a defense cooperation bill with Jordan to encourage investment in the country's private sector.
The House Foreign Affairs panel on Thursday advanced legislation encouraging the Donald Trump administration to establish an enterprise fund for small- and medium-sized Jordanian businesses. The goal of the United States-Jordan Defense Cooperation Extension Act is to jump-start the kingdoms private sector as well as help our economy, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the bills sponsor, said ahead of the markup.
Congress first authorized the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to create enterprise funds for Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia in a 2012 spending bill. The agency subsequently enacted funds for Egypt and Tunisia, but not for Jordan.
Multiple USAID officials told Al-Monitor that Jordanian officials did not want an enterprise fund in 2012 because they feared it would divert US foreign assistance funding from other economic development programs. Enterprise funds typically require initial US investment from economic support accounts over several years, but proponents of the effort argue that Congress can always appropriate additional economic support to offset any potential loses.
Jordans ambassador to Washington, Dina Kawar, attended Thursdays markup. She said Jordan now openly welcomes the establishment of a US enterprise fund.
This resolution reaffirms the importance of authorizing a new and expanded assistance package that would efficiently address Jordans economic needs, including job creation and supporting entrepreneurship and small businesses to achieve sustainable growth and development, Kawar told Al-Monitor.
The United States began establishing enterprise funds in the early 1990s to help former communist countries in Eastern Europe bolster their private sectors as they sought to transition to a market economy. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Congress sought to apply the same solution to Arab countries whose economies are often dominated by the public sector. After initial US government investment, enterprise funds are expected to sustain themselves and generate returns on investment by attracting private investors.
While enterprise funds should not be looked upon as a panacea, it is clear that they can be powerful drivers of economic growth and spur the necessary development of sustainable private sectors and turn a profit at the same time, Ros-Lehtinen said at a June hearing on the topic.
As of June, Egypts enterprise fund had garnered $98 million in US and private sector investment and $110 million in foreign investment, according to testimony offered at the hearing. The Tunisian enterprise fund, meanwhile, had received $100 million in US government investments as of this year.
While the leaders of those two enterprise funds hailed the model as a means of job creation, they both stressed the need for more local buy-in on the funds boards of directors to attract more investment.
"Legislation calls for three Egyptians and six American citizens, said the chairman of the Egyptian enterprise fund, James Harmon, at a panel this week hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. We modified it to three Egyptian-Americans, three Egyptians and three Americans.
Although the original bill, introduced in June, would have required six Americans and three Jordanians to sit on the board, Thursdays markup altered the bill to give the future chairman of the fund greater flexibility to put more Jordanians on the board. While the majority of board members still would have to be private US citizens, the bill does not specify how many people would have to sit on the board.
In addition to creating the enterprise fund, the bill would ensure that current US and Jordanian defense arrangements, set to expire next year, extend through 2022.
Typically, the administration must notify Congress of any foreign military sales worth more than $14 million. However, 2015 legislation from Ros-Lehtinen raised that threshold to $25 million for Jordan. That bill, which expires next year, also paved the way for a faster congressional review process for sales above $25 million.
The new bill also encourages the Trump administration to negotiate a new memorandum of understanding with Jordan running through 2022. The current memorandum resulted in at least $1 billion per year in US assistance to Jordan from 2016 through 2018. It is also set to expire next year.
The United States is in ongoing discussions with Jordanian officials regarding Jordans request for a new memorandum of understanding, and we look forward to continuing our extraordinary partnership with Jordan, a State Department spokesman told Al-Monitor in October.
Kawar praised both the arms sale extension and the call for a new, five-year memorandum of understanding between the two countries.
The United States-Jordan Defense Cooperation Extension Act is a testament to the strong strategic partnership between our two countries, Kawar told Al-Monitor. [Thursdays] markup builds on this robust relationship and allows us to pursue our common vision for peace and stability in the region.
December 13, 2017
One of the sectors hit hard by Hamas rule over the Gaza Strip and the Israeli siege was book publishing, but both publishers and authors see signs of a literary awakening this year.
The political-economic conditions of the Strip in the last decade have led to a cultural stagnation, and few books are being published and fewer still are bought. But since the beginning of the year, publishers, authors and members of the Ministry of Culture have grown hopeful as more books have been published, more cultural events launched and more young people seem eager to read.
Samir Mansour, the owner of Samir Mansour Bookshop for Publishing and Distribution in Gaza, told Al-Monitor that although book sales in Gaza had been good before 2006, over the past 11 years, the economic difficulties caused by the Israeli siege meant that literature and cultural events became a luxury for Gazans.
Each year, we participate in an annual book fair held at the Islamic University in Gaza City, as well as other book fairs in some schools. Due to the harsh economic conditions, book sales are weak. However, sales have started to improve slightly this year, he said.
Several authors share a sense of improvement. Journalist and fiction writer Hidayah Shamoon celebrated the publication of her collection of 15 short stories on Nov. 12. She bore the publishing costs herself in October to get her book published, but she sees the experience as an improvement over the past decade, when very few new writers were published.
After years of cultural deprivation, we finally started to experience a cultural movement in Gaza, she told Al-Monitor. There is a return to reading, to cultural meeting centers and forums especially in the last few months. The turnout at the singing of my collection, Daughter of the Sea, was impressive and outnumbered the available chairs allocated to a humble book signing. Shamoon expected about a 120 people and 200 showed up almost double the capacity of the hall.
Shamoon said that there is a hunger and passion for cultural activities in Gaza, and she expressed hop for more literary activities "to move us from isolation to cultural openness.
Despite the local interest, the closure of the Rafah crossing makes international participation in Gazas book fairs difficult. On Sept. 4, the Ministry of Culture collaborated with local cultural institutions to organize a book fair. But the closure prevented international publishing houses from coming. Back in 2012, when the crossing was open, more than 70 Palestinian and Arab publishing houses attended the book fair held in Gaza City.
In September, young novelist Yousri al-Ghoul published his fifth book, Gaza 87, in which he narrates real-life stories of Gazans under the Israeli occupation during the first intifada, which erupted in 1987.
His publisher handled the printing expenses of some of his books, but some other costs were divided between the publishing house and the author. I earned no money from these novels, Ghoul said, adding that he only broke even.
According to Ghoul, although more books are getting published, there is still artistic progress to be made. I was hoping that the works published would be stronger and more creative, he said. He added that subsidies by the state bodies, such as the Ministry of Culture, will help more books to be published.
Self-help books have made it to print in Gaza this year, including Samir Mansour Library's We Must Change, a collection of articles by highly satirical writer Rasha Farhat.
"A good book with rich content always finds its way to the readership. The Samir Mansour house has granted a golden opportunity to young authors in Gaza as it respects copyrights and the rights of the publisher, Farhat told Al-Monitor in a sad comment on the state of publishing in the region.
According to Farhat, the increase in youth and college students who buy books reflects a cultural movement that was absent in the last 10 years.
Mohammed al-Sharif, the director of the libraries and fairs department at the Gaza Ministry of Culture, told Al-Monitor that the harsh economic, political and social conditions in Gaza have prevented many people from reading. But Sharif has noticed an increase of regular literary events such as book clubs, indicating an increase in book reading among the population. This year, we inaugurated three public libraries in cooperation with local institutions, which is a good thing. In the past, we opened only six public libraries in four years.
He also said that more books are being published, which the ministry tracks. In a count of the number of publications since 2011, we found that more than 700 book titles were published during that period, with 200 of them being published this year alone, he said.
Ahmad Yazji, the owner of Yazji Bookshop Publishers in Gaza, told Al-Monitor that on Oct. 24, the store established a permanent children's book department called Kids Books. The section features more than 1,500 books and has sold more than 1,000 copies in the last two months, according to Yazji.
Yazji added, This year, the publication of literary works increased compared to last year. In 2016, we published 20 titles, but this year, we published 30 new ones. He added that several websites have started to sell books online.
Samir Mansour Bookshop's numbers are up, and the publishing house has produced more than 70 books this year, including novels, short story collections and children's books, Mansour told Al-Monitor.
The assistant secretary-general of the General Union for Palestinian Writers, Ghareeb Asqalani, told Al-Monitor that more young authors are seeking to get their novels or short stories printed. He said while some of those writers are still developing, it is important that they have a market.
Asqalani added, [These new books] have attracted a huge readership among the young generation and drawn the attention of readers and academics. Still, the youth needs to be guided toward good writing. First novels are usually not very mature, but promising. In the union, we try to guide them, [but] we do not have the ability to support them financially due to the lack of budget.
Asqalani explained that cultural activities such as book readings and fairs are ambitious endeavors in Gaza, and he called upon Palestinian cultural unions, nongovernmental organizations and official institutions to allocate spaces to support the writers.
December 15, 2017
A threefold increase in the departure tax proposed by the government has prompted outrage among many Iranians. The proposed hike is part of the administrations new budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year, starting March 21, 2018. President Hassan Rouhani submitted the draft budget to parliament Dec. 10, but the controversy surrounding the document may prevent its approval.
The proposal of a new government budget in Iran has always been accompanied by a great deal of debate. However, the latest draft seems to be drawing more criticism than before, particularly in the parts that involve departure taxes.
But what are departure taxes and how did they come to be? Irans parliament approved this tax in 1985, given the countrys unique situation at the time, namely the Iran-Iraq War and the shortage of government funds. According to the measure, any person who wished to travel abroad via air was required to pay a fee of 50,000 rials ($1.40) to the treasury. Over time, this law became permanent and the fee steadily increased. The current fee is 750,000 rials ($21), but under the new budget plan submitted by Rouhani, this figure would increase to 2.2 million rials ($61.80) for one's first trip abroad. The fee would rise to 3.3 million rials ($92.70) for the second trip and then to 4.4 million rials ($123.60) for all other trips over a 12-month period.
A social media frenzy ensued after news of the proposed fee hike broke, prompting government officials to respond to the situation. The fact that there are twice as many [Iranian] tourists who exit the country as [foreign] ones who enter is not a good thing," said Ali Asghar Mounesan, the head of Irans Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, on Dec. 10. "Previously, some 100,000 rials ($2.80) of each departure tax would go to the Iranian Cultural Heritage Center. With the increase, 400,000 rials ($11.24) [of each departure tax] will be allocated to this organization.
The proposed fee structure is expected to significantly impact middle-class Iranians. We could barely afford to go on a cheap trip to Turkey, which does not require a visa, by saving for several months," Abbas Bahari, a retired Education Ministry employee, told Al-Monitor. "Now, the departure tax fee we must pay for a family of four will be more than the cost of a ticket, hotel and accommodations for more than one person. So, from now on, if a family of four wants to take a small trip abroad, we will have to anticipate the cost for about six people.
The new fee will not have much impact on Iran's wealthy strata, since they can afford even greater fees, but Irans middle class will have no choice but to postpone foreign trips indefinitely.
I have also been faced with these criticisms, especially on social media," Mahmoud Vaezi, the presidential chief of staff, told the media Dec. 11. "Today, we have a large government and every month a significant sum must be paid to government employees as salary. On the other hand, the number of people who have retired over the past seven to eight years has increased, and pension funds cannot cover their salaries, so the government pays their salaries. Therefore, if we really want to implement justice, we need to find new sources [of income] and help retirees through these sources and thus eliminate absolute poverty. However, at the same time, the government is prepared to review its decisions if needed.
Meanwhile, Iranian media outlets compared Iran's tax plan with other countries' and found that Iran's was higher than the rest of the world. Iranian celebrities, artists and athletes also voiced their objections to the proposed hikes on social media, either through satire or outright criticism.
Reactions from Iran's parliament were equally critical. More than 10 million people travel abroad each year for religious or work-related reasons, to study or for leisure," Saeed Bastani, a spokesman for parliaments Industries and Mines Commission, said Dec. 12. "However, there are no exact statistics on how many travel for leisure. If the government's reasoning is that those who travel abroad are wealthy and must pay for their pleasure, then we have to say when it is not clear how many of the trips are for leisure, then why should all strata come under pressure?"
The same day, Ghasem Ahmadi Lashaki, a member of parliaments Cultural Heritage Commission, described the proposal as irrational and unacceptable. At a time when many countries are seeking to eliminate visas, this manifold increase [in the departure tax] is not rational," he said. "Not to mention that not all people travel abroad for leisure and their trip may be for medical purposes, or to study. And this hike will put a great deal of pressure on them.
The government continues to emphasize its shortage of resources for income and seeks to create new resources through innovative approaches. Although these new approaches may give the administration more leeway in paying salaries and subsidies, they risk creating deep dissatisfaction among middle-class Iranians a class that has supported Rouhani and the Reformists in elections.
December 15, 2017
Is the Ministry of Education aligning itself with the ideology of its minister, Naftali Bennett, chair of the right-wing HaBayit HaYehudi party? Based on an assessment of the changes to the education system since Bennett took office, the answer can only be yes.
The nonprofit Secular Forum investigated and found that the Ministry of Education has increased religious studies and introduced images and messages derived from Judaism into textbooks used for unrelated subjects. Bennett himself once said that he considers excellence in Jewish studies more important than math or science.
Over the last few weeks, it has become obvious that in addition to promoting Jewish studies, Bennett also actively suppresses the messages advocated by human rights organizations and the peace movements that conflict with his party's worldview.
HaBayit HaYehudi supports the annexation of territories in the West Bank and rejects the idea of a two-state solution. About a year ago, at an event in memory of settler leader Hanan Porat, Bennett declared, "We must give our lives" to the cause of annexing the West Bank to Israel. He added, "We have to mark the dream, and the dream is that Judea and Samaria will be part of the sovereign State of Israel." In the world that Bennett is trying to create, there seems to be no room for any groups or organization that advocate peace.
Just last month, Bennett canceled a joint conference by the Ministry of Education and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). The conference was intended to prepare teachers to engage their students in activities in honor of International Human Rights Day. One day before the event, however, the minister accused the organization of "acting consistently to defend terrorists who killed Israelis" and ordered schools to sever all contact with it. In his announcement, Bennett wrote, "The Ministry of Education will not cooperate with groups that attack [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers or defend our enemies."
ACRI was founded in the early 1970s by a series of leading jurists and academics. Their goal was to defend civil rights in the country. In the four decades since it was founded, ACRI has been responsible for a series of achievements and legal precedents defending the rights of the individual and society. Even Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit found the decision to brand the group as aiding and abetting terrorists appalling.
In a letter of reprimand to Bennett, Mandelblit pointed out that ACRI can claim a lot of credit for defending human rights in Israel over the years. He even quoted the response to the accusations by the group's director, attorney Sharon Abraham-Weiss, who wrote, "We defend the human rights of all people, whether it be the right of Yigal Amir [who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin] to be married, or the right of Karim Younis [who was an accessory to the 1981 murder of solider Avraham Bromberg] to study at university."
However, Mandelblit's reprimand did nothing to change the Ministry of Education's course of action.
This week, the high school in the town of Nesher was supposed to host a meeting between Palestinian and Israeli students as well as parents who lost children to the violence in the region. As the parents sat down with the principal of the school for a preliminary meeting, she received a phone call from the Ministry of Education, instructing her to cancel the event at once.
Al-Monitor spoke with Aharon Barnea, a member of the Forum of Bereaved Families. His son Noam was killed in the battle for the Beaufort during the First Lebanon War (1982). He said that once the ministry learned that there was a commotion in the school over the cancellation, it claimed that it had not given the order to cancel the event. Barnea refuted the claim, saying that representatives of the parents were present in the principal's office when she received the phone call from the ministry, and that while they were still there, the principal had called the district head to appeal the decision. Her supervisor told her that the activity was forbidden, and that she must cancel it. "There were teachers there who burst into tears," said Barnea. "Two teachers even said that they were ashamed to be Israeli."
The Forum of Bereaved Families has been active within the Ministry of Education since 2000. At its events, parents from both sides tell students that despite their enormous losses, they believe that the only solution is to get to know each other, and that reconciliation, coexistence and peace are possible. Barnea said that despite claims that Israeli youth are undergoing a process of radicalization, he has found that they have an intense desire to listen and to learn.
"One of our greatest achievements is that the students meet Palestinians, many for the first time, and realize that there are human beings behind our stories," Barnea explained. "At every session, we always prefer to give the Palestinian parents more time [to talk], because this is the only chance the students have to hear stories they've never heard before and to see that the other side the Palestinians also dreams of peace, despite its pain and sense of loss."
After the event was canceled, the school's student council wrote a letter to the Education Ministry, asking it to reconsider. "We are intelligent and caring young people who want to dream of peace," they wrote. "Don't take that dream away from us. Don't attack the value of getting to know the other. Dont attack democracy itself!"
The Forum for Bereaved Families is considering finding a way to hold the event in Nesher without the ministry's permission, pitting Bennett's dream of giving lives for the sake of annexing the West Bank against the peaceful dreams of these high school students.
December 15, 2017
Apart from the Palestinians, Jordan stands to lose the most from President Donald Trumps bombshell announcement on Dec. 6 that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israels capital and that it will relocate its embassy there. Jordan's King Abdullah took an accordingly hard-line position denouncing the decision while mobilizing international and regional diplomatic efforts to stand up to it. On Dec. 13, the king told representatives of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at its summit in Istanbul that the US move was dangerous and a threat to peace. He added that there was no alternative to Jerusalem as the key to ending the historical conflict in the Middle East.
Jordan was quick to react after Trump announced his decision, calling for an emergency meeting of the Arab Leagues foreign ministers in Cairo on Dec. 9. Its own foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, announced that Jordan would host an extraordinary Arab summit without specifying a date. Safadi called US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Dec. 11 to present Jordans point of view and traveled to Brussels to meet with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Dec. 12. Mogherini urged support for Abdullah as the custodian of Jerusalems holy places, calling him a very wise man.
The king had traveled to the Saudi capital Riyadh on Dec. 12 to meet King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. The two leaders discussed the ramifications of the US decision on regional security and stability, as well as on peace efforts, according to a royal court statement in Amman. The king had also discussed the US move in separate telephone calls with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Jordans diplomatic offensive to confront the US decision, which it described as illegal, underlines its growing concern over the fate of the two-state solution, which had become a cornerstone of its national security policy. It sees Trumps move as pre-judging the future of occupied East Jerusalem, which is one of the major issues in the final status negotiations. It also sees the move as pre-empting purported efforts by the Trump administration to reach a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Furthermore, it sees the vague US recognition, which did not mention East Jerusalem by name and only referred to freedom of worship in the Holy City, as threatening its own role as custodian of Muslim and Christian sites in the occupied city. Jordan has clashed with Israel over the past few years, most recently in July, over attempts to change the status quo of Haram al-Sharif, or what Israel calls the Temple Mount. Since the Trump announcement, there have been repeated incursions by Jewish zealots of the Noble Sanctuary, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located.
But Abdullahs concerns go beyond the immediate effects of the Trump announcement, which is seen here as having delivered a fatal blow to the two-state solution. The escalation of Jordans diplomatic offensive against its most important financial and military backer underlines its anxiety over the long-term ramifications of the US move. By recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital, the United States delighted Israels far right, which does not conceal its rejection of a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians and goes as far as claiming that Jordan is a Palestinian state.
The so-called Jordan Option, first suggested after the 1967 war and later popularized by right-wing Israeli parties in the 1980s, was put to rest after Jordan and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1994. But the claim was echoed by key Israeli ministers under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right and ultranationalist coalition partners.
Trumps yet-to-be disclosed ultimate deal to reach a regional settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict has amplified Jordanian existential fears. Jordan has not commented on recent reports that Trumps Middle East peace team was coordinating with Saudi Arabia to force a take-it-or-leave-it proposal on Abbas, one that precludes Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem and drops demands of an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders. More importantly, it could include an option to tie Palestinian urban centers to Jordan through a confederation formula.
This consideration explains why Abdullah has chosen to up the ante through a sustained diplomatic offensive and why he is backing Abbas, who has adopted extreme anti-US positions. But the big question here is: How far would the king go in opposing the US move, and Trump in particular, without risking a backlash that could hurt his strategic relationship with Washington? At a time when Jordan is becoming increasingly dependent on US economic and military aid, estimated at $1.2 billion in 2017, and as Amman and Washington seek to fortify a long-term security agreement, the kings gambit looks risky at best.
December 13, 2017
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The Israeli government gave funding approval Nov. 26 for a new hiking trail for tourists and Israelis that passes through the West Bank and the Golan Heights, which were occupied by Israel in June 1967. It would be the first Israeli national trail that traverses the Golan Heights, which was seized from Syria, or the West Bank.
The trail was proposed by Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, who approved the new path and will submit a final plan to the government within 120 days. The project is expected to cost $2.8 million.
The current route, built in 1995, only passes through Israeli land. The Israeli government had previously refrained from having a national trail go into the West Bank for fear of international criticism; Palestinian government officials say the new trail would in essence redraw Israel's borders to include the West Bank.
The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities issued a press statement Nov. 27 denouncing the Israeli governments approval of the new route, which it sees as an attempt to impose a de facto policy and consider the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 to be Israeli territory. The Palestinian ministry said the Israeli measures are aimed at controlling tourism in the Palestinian territories and exploiting Palestinian sites to develop Israeli tourism at the expense of the Palestinian travel industry.
The director of the domestic tourism department at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Ahmed al-Nairat, told Al-Monitor that the Israeli government has prepared a list of 23 Jewish cultural sites it would like added to UNESCO's World Heritage list, including sites located in the West Bank.
He said the seriousness of this move lies in Israel's claiming of Palestinian heritage sites as its own, indicating that it falls in line with other Israeli attempts to impose its control and Judaize the West Bank in full. We have denounced the ratification of the route and we believe it is a violation of all international conventions and treaties, Nairat said.
Nairat said the ministry will employ all available legal, popular and tourism-related resources to oppose this route. He said the ministry has a plan to consolidate its routes in the West Bank, as it is developing new benchmarks in order to accommodate tourists from all over the world and show them touristic, archaeological and historical sites.
He said the ministry is implementing its plan by launching new routes in zones with great biodiversity and in marginalized areas, and said the tour guides are chosen from among nearby residents who receive training from the Ministry of Tourism. The ministry is also deploying more security guards around Palestinian archaeological sites and is working on these routes in cooperation with student and youth groups, as well as civil society institutions.
We are trying to support the resilience of the residents, provide jobs for them and include all areas of the West Bank, especially those classified as Area C that fall under the full control of the Israeli government in virtue of the 1993 Oslo Accord and constitute 61% of the total area of the West Bank, Nairat said.
He added, Tourism in Palestine is [typically] categorized as religious tourism, since most sites include holy monuments from different religions and are linked to certain holidays. Thus we worked to revitalize the tourist routes during the recent period, which has helped attract increasing numbers of traditional tourist groups coming to Palestine."
Nairat said Palestine ranked first in terms of tourism growth during the first half of this year, according to the UN World Tourism Organization. He also said that registering Palestinian archaeological sites on the World Heritage list helps protect those sites against Judaization. The Old City of Hebron and the Ibrahimi Mosque were the most recent sites to be added to UNESCOs list July 7.
However, Nairat said this registration raised the ire of Israel, prompting it to protest UNESCOs support of Palestinians by reducing its financial contribution to the organization.
The director of the legal department of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Ayed Marar, told Al-Monitor that implementing this route would be illegal because it passes through land and property belonging to the Palestinians, putting the area at risk.
He described the move as an attack on this property, while denying Israel's claim that the route passes through areas with historical Jewish origins.
Marar called on the Palestinian government to appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court and international courts. He urged Palestinians who hold foreign passports and through whose land the route passes through to file complaints in the courts of their respective countries. He also stressed that this route must be fought by all means available to the Palestinians, making a point of all international conventions that have granted them this right.
As for popular resistance, Marar emphasized the Palestinians ability to protest by organizing sit-ins and marches, noting that while registering Palestinian archaeological sites with UNESCO confers protection for their rights, the body cannot be relied upon to protect them from Israeli attacks.
This route may be a clear indication that the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights remain under Israeli sovereignty, Omar Jaara, a professor of history and archaeology at An-Najah University, told Al-Monitor. Israel is trying to expand its territory and influence at the expense of Palestinian property, as it works to create routes and build outposts on their land to limit Palestinian demographic growth.
Jaara said Palestinian negotiators must maintain the peoples rights stipulated in the resolutions issued by the UN and the UN General Assembly, noting that Security Council Resolution 242 provides for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories occupied in the 1967 conflict. But the Palestinians need to defend their right to remain in their territories and have complete sovereignty over them, he said.
Razer has officially released the kernel source code for the Razer Phone earlier today which means that any developers who have been hoping to get their hands on this data will now be able to begin work (or perhaps further their work) on developing software for the device specifically. While there are more than a few things that the kernel source code could end up being useful for, its commonly used by developers to create third-party ROMs and custom firmware for the device that would let users customize it should they want to do so. You see this fairly often from companies like Motorola and HTC as they both tend to release the kernel source code for a fair amount of the phones that launch from their brands.
As an end user, the kernel source code really wont do much good as its not meant to be software that can be used by the consumer, but it can lead to software that the consumer can get a hold of and install onto their own devices. As mentioned above the source code can be used by developers and those who like to tinker with their devices to create custom firmware for that device, so if youre a consumer who has purchased the Razer Phone and you have loaded custom firmware onto your past devices, this is something that will soon be possible to do with Razers first smartphone too, all that remains is to wait for developers to take the source code and work with it to create a ROM that you can flash to the phone.
For those that are interested or for developers, there are four different builds of kernel source code that Razer has made available for download. There are two listed under an MR1 label, which are listed as builds 853 and 851, and there are two listed under a production label, which are listed as builds 8822 and 813. All of the builds are exactly 138MB in file size, so the files shouldnt take too long to download. In addition to that it shouldnt be a huge deal if you download them while connected to a mobile network as 138MB is quite small in the scheme of things. If you can find the kernel source code useful, you can grab the necessary files from the source link below.
A new video on YouTube appears to show off Samsungs upcoming Galaxy A8 (2018) series in all its glory. Its been rumored for some time now that Samsungs Galaxy A series would be receiving a major redesign next year, among other things. Today, a video posted on the YouTube account Cambo Report appears to confirm all of the rumors and, considering the video looks to have been uploaded ahead of time, the eventual launch of the updated series is likely near.
As the title of the video confirms, the new duo of devices will do away with the previous Galaxy A5 and A7 monikers, in favor of the Galaxy A8 and A8 Plus names. In addition to this, Samsung appears to have scrapped the successor to the smaller Galaxy A3 altogether. As the video commences, the re-positioned rear fingerprint scanner is confirmed, with the sensor now sitting directly beneath the rear cameras of both devices, the latter of which is accompanied by a single-LED flash in both cases. In terms of the selfie-sensor, it appears the dual-camera rumor was accurate, with the main sensor sporting a 16-megapixel resolution, and the secondary camera being an 8-megapixel sensor. Further into the video, the new rumored front design is also shown off, with the new 18:9 displays present, though the top and bottom bezels remain pretty thick. Also confirmed is the availability of the devices in both Black and Gold colors, as well as an unspecified IP rating. Just like this years Galaxy A series, the 2018 line will once again include side-facing speakers, though, interestingly, Samsung hasnt included a dedicated Bixby button as was previously rumored. Also, on the software side of things, Samsung has jumped on the face-detection hype train and looks to have included its own alternative in the devices.
Regarding specifications, it appears the South Korean giant will be taking a similar approach to the Galaxy S8 line. Both the Galaxy A8 and A8 Plus will be powered by Samsungs own Exynos 7885 processor, with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage also included. The only major differences being in the display size and the batteries, with the smaller model including a 3000mAh pack, and the larger option housing a 3500mAh one. Samsung is yet to confirm an official release date for the device, but considering the devices shown in the video are likely review units sent out by the company, the release is likely to be sometime next month.
A new leak suggests the successor to the Xperia XZ1 will be yet another incremental update for the Xperia lineup. Sony has gained recognition for its dedication to their Omnibalance design language which originally debuted at CES 2013 with the original Sony Xperia Z. Now, nearly 5 years on, the company is still churning out devices with similar designs and, just like previous iterations, Sonys next device is likely to be a minimal update over the previous device according to new information.
The device, which is known as the Sony H8216, looks set to once again stick with a 1080p panel, but the information does state that the size will be stretched to 5.5-inches. However, the actual size of the new device expected to be called the Xperia XZ2 is identical to that of its predecessor, at 148mm tall, 73.4mm wide and 7.4mm thick, meaning a taller screen aspect ratio is a possibility. The only apparant difference is in weight, with the Xperia XZ2 listed as weighing 156g, thats one gram heavier than the Xperia XZ1. Regarding internal specifications, Qualcomms Snapdragon 845 is set to power the device and looks to be coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Also, Sony appears to have increased the battery size significantly, with a 3130mAh power pack that supports Quick Charge. Moving on to the camera department, the Japanese company looks to have included a number of upgrades. The rear camera setup has been modified to include two 12-megapixel sensors, instead of the traditional single lens, while up front the Xperia XZ1s 13-megapixel sensor is listed as having received a slight bump to 15-megapixel on the new device. In terms of software, the Xperia XZ2 looks set to come with Android 8.1 Oreo straight out of the box with Sonys minimal overlay on top.
Sony is yet to confirm the existence of the device, but considering the companys history of releasing upgrades pretty quickly, the Xperia XZ2 will likely make its debut at MWC 2018 alongside a successor to the Xperia XZ Premium. Nonetheless, its worth taking the leak with a grain of salt. After all, the size of the listed device remains identical to that of the companys current flagship, yet the display and battery are significantly bigger and a dual-camera setup is also said to have been crammed into the same body. Another odd detail is the fact that the USB port is listed as microUSB, instead of USB Type-C. However, it is possible that the dimensions are simply a mistake.
Fans of Chrome OS who also happen to be running the operating system on one of Toshibas now 2-year-old Chromebook 2 devices appear to finally be gaining access to Android Apps on Chrome OS. Unfortunately for the time being, the change will only be arriving on those devices that are running their laptop-like device on the beta channel and who have updated to version 64 of Chrome OS. With that said, there is a lot to love about the ability to run full Android apps on a device that ordinarily only has access to web apps. Looking past that particular model of Chromebook, it has also been reported that some other devices that have been updated to version 64 of the OS via the beta channel are also now seeing an appearance of the Play Store. One such device has been noted to be Acers Chromebook 15 C910.
With no official list as to which devices will be getting Android apps from this update, in particular, there could be any number of other Chromebook models set to receive the Google Play Store on the beta channel. For those adventurous enough to switch channels to see if it is appearing on their devices yet, it bears mention that users on that channel are more likely to experience bugs. Users who choose to switch to the beta will, upon going back to the stable channel, also need to completely reset their Chromebook via a powerwash. That means that after switching back their Chromebook will be returned to factory settings. That isnt necessarily a problem, aside from the need to sign back in, unless a given user is not taking advantage of the backup features available via the cloud-based system. However, the appearance of apps on the beta channel should mean the change will be available once the update goes stable as well, so it may be best holding off for those feeling a bit more wary about the process.
In the meantime, for those who really want to switch, moving to the beta channel on any Chromebook is easy enough. Users simply need to access their settings menu by clicking on their profile picture in the taskbar, followed by the gear icon. From there, clicking the menu icon in the top left corner of the screen will reveal a hamburger menu. Users will want to click on About Chrome OS. Finally, by selecting detailed build information and then change channel, users will be able to select the beta channel.
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The biggest fault in General Motors European presence was Opel, which has been losing money every single year since 1999. After billions of dollars went down the drain, chief executive officer Mary Barra decided to call it quits, selling Opel and British division Vauxhall to Groupe PSA.Following the sale of Opel and Vauxhall, the French supergroup vaulted into second place in Europe as far as market share is concerned, right after the Volkswagen Group. With careful planning and reorganization, the perpetually money-losing carmaker could turn a profit by the end of 2020.The thing is, where does this leave General Motors? Barra told the Detroit Automotive Press Association that the company is considering a return to Europe, highlighting that nothing keeps us from going back. As per the most powerful woman in the automotive industry, an appropriate return is most desirable. If we dont see a path to generate appropriate returns were going to invest where we see better opportunities, Barra added.What about the cryptic wording? Well, thats a reference to transformative products General Motors will roll out in the following decade, vehicles with all-electric powertrains and self-driving technology. As for the brands that could re-establish GM in the Old Continent, its anybodys guess if Chevrolet will be coming back or something else is in the pipeline.On the flip side, bear in mind that chevroleteurope.com is still online, and the choice of products is a-OK for the most driving-minded enthusiasts among us. The Camaro and Corvette arent enough strenghten General Motors' market share in Europe, though, so heres hope the volume-oriented products that may or might not come in the 2020s will be worth the wait.
Americans are pessimistic about Washington and think the country is on the wrong track (69%), but are optimistic about their local communities.
That's the encouraging finding of an AP-NORC (University of Chicago) poll:
The Trump administration's decision to roll back access to birth control under the Affordable Care Act has been blocked temporarily by a federal judge in Pennsylvania, Buzzfeed reports. The new rules went into effect in October and allowed employers and universities to decline providing birth control coverage for "religious or moral" reasons.
Why it matters: The ruling is one of several recent court orders blocking a Trump administration law. Trump's series of travel bans as well as his order preventing transgender troops from serving in the military have also been halted in court.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone agreed to grant Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro's motion for a preliminary injunction, ruling that the Trump administrations decision could potentially result in enormous and irreversible harm to the women of Pennsylvania. The injunction is applicable to all 50 states.
What's next: The block will remain in place until all arguments in the case are heard, which means the ACA requirement that all employers pay for contraception will stay in effect in the interim.
The Pennsylvania ruling joins a handful of similar lawsuits, including one in California, filed against the Trump administration's contraception rules.
Pyongyang citizens gathering to mourn in front of a portrait of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at the Pyongyang Gymnasium. Photo: KCNA / AFP / Getty Images
Sanctions against North Korea could increase cases of acute malnutrition among children, and hamper humanitarian efforts, according to a Washington Post report.
Why it matters: While sanctions were enforced with the intent of punishing the regime for its nuclear threats and missile launches, an American neurosurgeon who operates in North Korea, Kee Park, told the Post "they're hurting the wrong people."
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued an order yesterday that approved a $10 million agreement between Paul Manafort's lawyers and special counsel Robert Mueller, which would end his current house arrest, Politico reports.
Manafort has been hoping to relocate to his property in South Florida. He is currently facing several charges, including money laundering and failing to register as a foreign lobbyist; he has no set court date, but Jackson suggested it could be announced at the next hearing in mid January.
The specifics on his bail agreement:
The Tianzi Hotel with the shape of Chinese deities. Photo: VCG/VCG via Getty Images
As part of an assertive "America First" national security strategy that President Trump will unveil Monday, he will accuse China of "economic aggression," the Financial Times' Demetri Sevastopulo and Shawn Donnan scoop:
One person familiar with the strategy says it is "likely to define China as a competitor in every realm. Not just a competitor but a threat, and therefore, in the view of many in this administration, an adversary."
familiar with the strategy says it is "likely to define China as a competitor in every realm. Not just a competitor but a threat, and therefore, in the view of many in this administration, an adversary." What it means : This is "a strong sign that he has become frustrated at his inability to use his bond with Chinas President Xi Jinping to convince Beijing to address his trade concerns."
: This is "a strong sign that he has become frustrated at his inability to use his bond with Chinas President Xi Jinping to convince Beijing to address his trade concerns." Why it matters ... Michael Allen, a former Bush official, now a Beacon Global Strategies managing director: "The national security strategy is the starting gun for a series of economic measures against the Chinese ... the Rosetta Stone for translating campaign themes into a coherent governing document.
Winner: Steve Bannon. When I texted him the FT article, he replied: "#winning."
Flashback: This is what Jonathan Swan forecast when he reportedthat the National Security Strategy will "explain how Trump's 'America First' mantra applies to the vast range of threats America faces, including Chinese economic competition, Russian influence operations, and the weaponization of space."
Losers: Several top officials within the Trump adminstration's national-security apparatus, who opposed adding what one called a "political lens" to the strategy.
A senior Trump national-security official tells me: "This was added to be one of the headlines of the Strategy, for domestic political audiences."
national-security official tells me: "This was added to be one of the headlines of the Strategy, for domestic political audiences." The official added: "The Trump China trip didn't reflect this policy, both the public reported comments and the private conversations. ... If we truly believe China is 'aggressor,' there is a while suite of policy shifts that would need to correspond" that aren't currently planned."
CFR President Richard Haass author of "A World in Disarray" (paperback out Jan. 2) tells Axios from in-flight Wi-Fi that slapping Beijing could be costly:
The Trump administration's plans to publicly debate climate-change science is on indefinite hold, E&E News reports.
Why it matters: This is the latest sign the administration is not looking to overtly challenge mainstream climate-change science, despite a few vocal skeptics of the science in and close to the administration.
The other signs:
The administration released in November a congressionally mandated report confirming human-influenced climate change.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in recent congressional testimony he plans to issue a rule cutting carbon emissions from power plants, which is replacing a more sweeping such rule President Obama issued. The fact he's issuing a replacement at all is a subtle but clear sign the agency isn't going to review a 2009 scientific finding Obama's EPA issued that concluded greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The finding is the scientific and legal underpinning of most climate-related regulations.
Go deeper:
Workers seen by solar panels of the Isyangulovo solar power plant in Zianchurinsky District, the Republic of Bashkortostan. Vadim Braidov/TASS Photo: Vadim Braidov\TASS via Getty Images
A White House document circulating within the Trump administration lays out a case for imposing new trade restrictions on imports of solar panel equipment from Asia, according to a report in Politico.
Why it matters: It's the latest sign that President Trump's hawkish trade stance toward China will soon lead to tariffs that U.S. solar energy developers fear will sharply drive up costs and curtail new project development.
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) concluded in September that low-cost imports many of which come from Chinese owned companies operating in Asia were a cause of "serious injury" to domestic panel manufacturers.
The finding came in response to a petition from two financially distressed manufacturing companies, Suniva and SolarWorld.
What's next: The White House is slated to make a decision as soon as next month on whether to impose tariffs or perhaps some other forms of solar trade restrictions.
In November the ITC recommended tariffs that are less aggressive than what the petitioners sought. But the White House has wide latitude to decide what form of penalties, if any, to impose.
16 December 2017 11:13 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend
Notable improvements have been made in social protection and labor markets in Azerbaijan, Chief of the International Monetary Funds (IMF) Mission to Azerbaijan Mohammed El Qorchi said following the completion of the visit to the country.
An IMF team led by Mohammed El Qorchi visited Baku from November 30 to December 14 to hold discussions in the context of the 2018 Article IV Consultation.
Qorchi said that the mission welcomes the authorities progress in implementing the structural reform agenda.
Notable improvements have been made in social protection and labor markets, including a new unemployment insurance fund, implementation of pension reform, and a shift from passive to active labor market programs, he said, adding that follow through and implementation of structural reforms are critical.
The impact of measures will be heavily diluted if they are not fully and vigorously applied, Qorchi explained.
The IMF office was opened in Baku in 1992. In 1995-2005, the Fund allocated loans worth $577.3 million to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan fully repaid the loans.
There has been no need for Azerbaijan to apply to the IMF for financial resources since 2005. Therefore, since 2006, the IMF and Azerbaijan have cooperated within the framework of consultations and technical assistance missions in main areas of macroeconomic policy.
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16 December 2017 11:42 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend
The most pressing challenge facing Azerbaijan is to address the vulnerabilities in the banking sector and to restart the credit intermediation process.
Chief of the International Monetary Funds (IMF) Mission to Azerbaijan Mohammed El Qorchi announced about this following the completion of the visit to the country.
16 December 2017 13:06 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend:
Transporting goods from Far East and China via Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is in direct interest of the Netherlands and it already considers the ways of joining the railway, Dutch ambassador to Azerbaijan Onno Kervers told Trend.
We are trying to look at how we can profit by linking to Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, said the ambassador.
He added that nearly a month ago an expert from Limburg, a southern province of the Netherlands, visited Azerbaijan to participate in a seminar related to exploring and implementing important transport corridors, including Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, and he was very enthusiastic regarding the fact that the Netherlands can connect to Azerbaijan to have goods from China, from the Far East, and other regions.
So, we see a lot of possibilities here. I think the Netherlands will more and more connect to such an important transport corridor as Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, said Kervers.
The BTK railway was constructed on the basis of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey intergovernmental agreement. The main purpose of the project is to improve economic relations between the three countries and gain foreign direct investment by connecting Europe to Asia. The railway is intended to transport one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight at the first stage. This capacity will then reach 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo.
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16 December 2017 14:25 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend:
Policy pursued by Armenia aimed at resettling Syrian refugees of Armenian origin on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is a grave breach of the international humanitarian law, reads a statement by the Delegation of Azerbaijan at the United Nations High Commissioners Dialogue on Protection Challenges.
The statement is addressed to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva.
Azerbaijans sensitivity to IDPs cause are understandable, the statement noted. We host one of the largest internally displaced populations per capita in the world as a result of the ongoing military aggression and occupation of the Azerbaijani lands by Armenia.
It is also crucial to pay careful attention to the attempts of some political leaders to misuse suffering migrants in their own malicious interests, reads the statement. For instance, policy pursued by Armenia aimed at resettling Syrian refugees of Armenian origin on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in a grave breach of IHL is a vivid example to these attempts. The ultimate purpose of the statements made by Armenian delegation in international forums is to try to secure funding for illegal resettlement of Armenian origin refugees from Syria in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
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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The following hospital and health system credit rating and outlook changes and affirmations took place in the last week, beginning with the most recent.
1. Moody's assigns 'Aa3' to Stanford Health Care
Moody's Investors Service assigned its "Aa3" rating to Stanford (Calif.) Health Care's proposed $462 million series 2017A and $500 million series 2018.
2. Moody's downgrades Doylestown Hospital to 'Baa3'
Moody's Investors Service downgraded Doylestown (Pa.) Hospital to "Baa3" from "Baa2," affecting $98 million of debt.
3. Fitch affirms 'A-' rating on Washington Hospital
Fitch Ratings affirmed its "A-" rating on Washington (Pa.) Hospital's 2007A, 2007B and 2013A bonds, affecting a total of $42.34 million of debt.
4. Moody's revises Stormont-Vail Healthcare's outlook to negative
Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A2" rating on Topeka, Kan.-based Stormont-Vail Healthcare's bonds, affecting $189 million of outstanding debt.
5. Moody's upgrades Bethesda Healthcare System to 'A1'
Moody's Investors Service upgraded Boynton Beach, Fla.-based Bethesda Healthcare System's rating to "A1" from "Baa2," reflecting a change in bondholder security.
6. Moody's downgrades Baptist Health South Florida to 'A1'
Moody's Investors Service downgraded South Miami-based Baptist Health South Florida to "A1" from "Aa3," affecting $1.3 billion of outstanding debt.
7. Moody's assigns 'Aa3' to Sharp Healthcare's bonds
Moody's Investors Service assigned its "Aa3" rating to San Diego-based Sharp Healthcare's proposed $150 million series 2017A, $74.5 million series 2017B and $74.6 million series 2017C.
8. Moody's affirms 'Aa3' rating on Piedmont Healthcare
Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Aa3" rating on Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare, affecting $842 million of outstanding debt.
The following health IT vendor contracts and go-lives were reported by Becker's Hospital Review during the past week.
1. Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health recently partnered with Babyscripts, a mobile solution that enables obstetrics and gynecology physicians to remotely monitor their pregnant patients.
2. Cerner filed a protest with the state of Illinois' executive ethics commission's chief procurement office for higher education over the $62 million seven-year contract Chicago-based University of Illinois Health awarded to Epic.
3. The Vancouver-area EHR overhaul, which seeks to transition the medical records of nearly 1 million Canadians to Cerner, is facing additional delays driven by unexpected cost increases.
4. Arlington Heights, Ill.-based Amita Health plans to implement a patient-provider matching and online patient appointment scheduling solution from DocASAP, the company announced Dec. 7.
5. Sandusky, Ohio-based Firelands Regional Medical Center went live on Meditech's Web EHR, the company announced Dec. 12.
6. The University of Kansas Health System, based in Kansas City, plans to deploy Redivus Health's mobile clinical decision support platform at Kansas hospitals and emergency medical services providers.
The following were among the three most-read transactions and valuations stories published by Becker's Hospital Review during the past week.
1. Ascension, Providence St. Joseph in talks to merge, dethrone HCA as largest hospital operator: 5 takeaways
St. Louis-based Ascension and Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph Health are reportedly discussing a potential merger that, if successful, would make the combined nonprofit entity the largest hospital operator in the nation.
2. CHI, Dignity Health to merge into $28.4B nonprofit system: 7 takeaways
Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives and San Francisco-based Dignity Health signed a definitive agreement Dec. 7 to combine into a single Catholic health system comprising 139 hospitals across 28 states.
3. Carolinas HealthCare, UNC Health Care merger discussions to stretch into 2018
Officials at Charlotte, N.C.-based Carolinas HealthCare System and Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health Care said merger discussions between the two systems will continue into 2018.
Miss Iraq Sarah Idan and her family were reportedly forced to escape from their country as they feared for their lives after a selfie which she took with Miss Israel Adar Gandelsman received a huge backlash, including death threats. Notably, Iraq and Israel have no diplomatic relations and are extremely hostile towards each other. Iraqis hence were offended by Miss Iraqs selfie with Miss Israel and accused her of supporting the Israelis.
Dominic Grieve protests that he is "a most unlikely rebel leader". The former Attorney General and Conservative MP hasn't stopped working, or seen his wife, since Wednesday, when he and 10 other MPs defied a three-line whip to secure a vote for MPs on the final deal to leave the EU, in the Prime Minister's first defeat on Brexit.
Thanking his assistant for the mince pie she's brought him "to cheer me up", Grieve, aged 61, says he has had two death threats this week. "One by email and one was an answerphone message. It's not very nice, and worrying. There are people who are mad, bad or both, who are homicidal.
"What worries me is that when you have a political atmosphere that becomes fevered, with vitriol directed at certain figures, those mad people start to be disinhibited by the atmosphere, which can lead to criminal acts."
"Going against the Government troubles me", he adds, straightening his tie. "I've been in Parliament for 21 years and in that time I have only voted against the Government once - over HS2. But this is the riskiest thing that the Government has done in its entire history outside of going to war; it's as serious as that. Therefore, we should try to manage it successfully."
Grieve sees himself as a victim of circumstance. "I have lost sleep due to the issues posed by the Brexit problems. I am troubled about how this great risk to the country's wellbeing is going to be successfully managed. I get constituents who say, 'You're much too negative', but, I'm sorry, it should be something we are concerned about. Regretful as I am that I had to do it, I have no regrets at having done it at all."
His amendment states that the Government can only make provision for implementing the withdrawal agreement if it is subject to the prior enactment of a statute by Parliament approving the final terms.
"The Government could have avoided rebellion if it had done what I asked," the MP says.
Theresa May has noted Grieve's argument that setting a final date for Brexit is damaging - she is now expected to back away from plans to do this, in order to avoid a second Commons defeat next week.
There were reports of MPs left "agitated" by the whips at the vote. Vicky Ford, Tory MP for Chelmsford, was seen wavering between both voting lobbies before Philip Hammond guided her to the Government lobby.
"Some colleagues felt the whips acted in a bullying manner," says Grieve. "I hope it doesn't escalate - it's counter-productive. In the debate I felt there had been a closing down of reasonable discussion, and once you get to that point, where the temperature rises, it starts to feel like a trial of strength, which it shouldn't be. You close down sensible discussion."
Afterwards, Grieve found himself with people who had voted the other way. "We had a perfectly amicable conversation. Some people criticised me, but they are entitled to that. The colleagues with whom I had been working were down the corridor with a glass of wine waiting for me, which was fortuitous, so I then wandered along for a glass of wine with them. I've been surprised to see how resilient colleagues have been, particularly new recruits, who are generally more susceptible to pressure."
Colleagues have told him he's trending on Twitter. "I won't do social media, so I'm unable to see whether trending is good or bad."
Grieve campaigned for Remain. He felt "gloomy" about the referendum result and the splits it revealed between the political class and the electorate, "which we must take responsibility for". But while he sees it "as a historic mistake with no benefits in the short or medium term", he has "no intention of sabotage". "The only people who can stop Brexit are the public," he says.
He admires Gina Miller for challenging the Government's authority to implement Brexit without Parliament: "She is a courageous lady. I told anyone who asked me that she was going to win her case. What was regrettable is that she was subjected to far worse vilification than I've ever encountered. The Government was not robust enough in countering the vitriol thrown at her."
Grieve's office is packed with trinkets - a figurine of St Ivo ("a good man, patron saint of lawyers, a Breton", he pronounces it with a French accent) and a clock that belonged to a French doctor ancestor. He assures me: "I have plenty of British things as well." The shelves are full of books, including Call Me Dave, the biography of the former PM, and A A Milne's poetry book Now We Are Sixty.
He chuckles at the pastiche of the Daily Mail's front page on Thursday, which turned its headline about the rebels "Proud of yourselves?" into "Proud of our elves". "That was delightful, it made us all happier. The Daily Mail is the Grinch. Its vitriol doesn't help the national debate."It's not that Grieve is afraid of confrontation, rather that he wants debate and due process.
"The Government is having to take some of the most extensive powers ever obtained by government in peace time to carry the Brexit process through. We've got to be capable of having a reasonable dialogue on that to accommodate difference. It's not so much that a cultural change is needed, although it might be helpful, but people should pay attention to what we are discussing." That means the nitty gritty of Article 50. "We need to debate on how to leave the EU in a way that minimises risk and maximises opportunities."
Before Wednesday's vote he discussed his actions with his wife, the barrister Caroline Hutton. "She's a helpful sounding board. She applies her take, and it won't necessarily be identical to my own. I don't think she disagrees with me on this, though.
"Setting a date for Brexit, which we are voting about next Wednesday, is a big mistake. It unnecessarily fetters the Government's range of action at the end of the Brexit process. It's noteworthy that a few colleagues who supported the Brexit vote agree. This is not just a leave/remain split. The idea is counter-productive to Brexit."
There's already a date for Brexit provided in Article 50. "It's two years after we trigger the official notice period, or indeed it can be earlier. Article 50 does provide for that being extended. That's why I think it's silly to prevent that process being available if necessary by insisting we have to leave as a matter of law by March 29, 2019."
Would he prefer us not to leave? "Going against the votes of 17.4 million would be extraordinary and I wouldn't support it under any circumstances. My ideal scenario is that we wouldn't be where we are, but the best we can hope for is that the Government is able to arrive at a good deal with the EU."
Does he think the other prominent rebel of the moment, Jeremy Corbyn, could be the next Prime Minister? "I hope not. He is undoubtedly very Left-wing, if not Marxist, and a Corbyn-led Labour government would be catastrophic. He has a long history of rebellion and he's leading a party that's disunited. The risk to us is that we don't get re-elected because the challenges that Brexit poses are so dominant that other important issues like economic growth, that affect things like spending on the NHS, are ones we can't deliver on, so people go to another party, or worse lose faith in mainstream politics and go to extremes.
"In a sense, Jeremy Corbyn represents an extreme group within Labour that's become dominant. That's the real challenge, not an individual defeat for the Government at the committee stage."
Still, it will take more than a rebel MP from Islington to defeat the Tories. "The Conservative Party has been around for more than 200 years," Grieve says. "It's a rather resilient organism. Clearly, how we manage Brexit has put immense strain on the entire political system."
He's off for a panel discussion about human rights sponsored by the "horribly Left-wing" Doughty Street Chambers. Over Christmas he plans a break from Brexit with "clifftop walks at our house in Brittany, snoozes by the fire and a swim in the sea to celebrate New Year's Eve". He might even take his two grown-up sons to see the other rebel army, in the new Star Wars film, but that's as close to a coup as he plans to get. "I hope this is the last of me being an unlikely rebel," he smiles.
Pope Francis has created a theological stir by supporting moves already underway in the Catholic Church to change one of the key statements in the Lords Prayer.
Instead of reciting the traditional words of the Authorised Version, And lead us not into temptation, he suggests the phrase Dont let me fall into temptation.
With a typical Franciscan twist, the Pope also suggests that, Its Satan who leads us into temptation. Thats his department.
The Popes words made international headlines last week partly because of who he is. If these words had been uttered by the Principal of a Theological College few people would have taken notice.
The Popes words about the Lords Prayer were nothing new. Other versions offer the same thought. The Good News Bible states: Do not bring us to hard testing; The Contemporary English Version says: Keep us from being tempted; the New Living Version underlines Dont let us yield to temptation; and the Christian Science Church interpretation by Mary Baker Eddy, dating from 1875, states: And God leadeth us not into temptation but delivereth us from sin, disease and death.
Nevertheless, the Popes intervention has made many people think again.
I have often wondered what was meant by the familiar King James Version, And lead us not into temptation, which could imply that God was deliberately putting us to the test to satisfy His own motives.
How much more comforting it is to ask God in prayer: Dont let me fall into temptation. This suggests that we all have our testing points almost every day and that we need Gods help to stay on the right path.
However, the Popes recent comments raise a much more fundamental point, namely how many of the Bible translations can we actually believe?
This will challenge those people who state that every word in the Bible is true. If that is so, what are we to think then if the Pope himself challenges one of the key translations of the words of the Lords Prayer?
Of course, there are those evangelical Protestants who will refuse to believe anything the Pope says, like a Donald Trump allegation of fake news.
Sometimes I wonder how many people in an Anglican or Catholic service merely repeat the prayers and responses parrot-like without really thinking of their meaning.
On occasions I have been in churches where the words of hymns, or songs, were displayed out of sequence on a screen, but the congregation sang away happily, despite the wrong sequence of words.
Maybe they were thinking of their lunch rather than what they were singing. Perhaps one of the lessons in all of this is to pay much more attention to what is going on in a Church service, and also to be more aware of every word you are reading or praying in your private worship.
That said, however, there are certain phrases in the Bible or in prayers which will never change or lose their meaning for me.
One of them is that lovely passage in Psalm 23: He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.
The other phrase, which I will always remember, has a deep connection with Christmas.
Many years ago I returned to London in mid-December after nearly three long hard months in the outback in Africa, working for Christian Aid. On the Sunday morning I attended worship in Westminster Abbey and I was struck by the ornate opulence of this church, compared to the poverty I had seen in Africa.
I wondered to myself How will the preacher bridge that gap?.
However, Canon Colin Semper did so admirably in his very first sentence. He said: I am going to talk to you about the four most important words in the Bible they are The Word Became Flesh, from the Gospel of St John.
That is at the heart of every Christmas, and the meaning never changes, whatever the translation. As a controversial Catholic Bishop once told a former editor of mine: Truth is indivisible.
And so it is.
New book tells fascinating story of NIs mission halls
A new book presents a photographic record of more than 100 mission halls in Northern Ireland, showing in vivid detail how each one of these buildings, built to preach the gospel, is unique.
Many of the halls were established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in the decades following the 1859 spiritual revival when, it is believed, around 100,000 people here came to faith in Christ. Many cottage meetings were established as a result, partly because people couldnt travel long distances to church and partly because they were looking for a more evangelical message than existed in the churches. Subsequently, as more and more people joined these cottage meetings, purpose built mission halls were constructed.
Many of these halls are still preaching the gospel today and the photographs show the love and care which has gone into creating every piece of furniture and artefact. The hardback, 362-page book also records a history of each hall and reveals the great inventiveness of the people: for example, the folk of Ballynafie Mission Hall, Portglenone, used an old railway carriage in which to meet before finding a wooden building; at The Commons, near Carrickfergus, seating came from utility buses used during the Second World War; and at Derrycrew Mission Hall, near Loughgall, the seats came from Belfast International Airport which was getting rid of its old furniture to prepare for a refurbishment.
And the people were undeterred should any obstacles arise in their way. One example of this indefatigable spirit was among the people of Camagh Mission Hall, Armagh, which was established in the 1930s. The people originally met in an old disused outhouse in a farmyard and theirs was the only regular Sunday evening meeting for miles around. However, in 1939, a Presbyterian man who was strongly opposed to the meetings stuffed the chimney with hay before a meeting in an attempt to smoke the people out. While deeply saddened, the people were offered a piece of ground six miles away to build a hall and from then on the meetings flourished, with attendees coming from some distance away on foot and bicycle.
History of Mission Halls throughout Northern Ireland, by Judith Cole, Ambassador International, 25, available from Judith by telephoning 0788 428 1235
Fashion expert Gok Wan tells Gabrielle Fagan about his passion for work, his health battles and why he no longer worries about what other people think of him.
Fashion expert Gok Wan is one of the nations most popular TV personalities, best known for presenting How To Look Good Naked. Cheeky, charismatic and versatile, hes demonstrated his expertise on a host of programmes on weight, cooking and self-confidence. He also recently toured his one-man stage show, Gok Wan Naked & Baring All, and will appear in panto in Cinderella this Christmas.
The Leicester-born 43-year-old, whose parents ran a Chinese restaurant, has spoken openly about the bullying he endured in his younger years and his subsequent struggles with an eating disorder.
Given those past battles, what concerns him most about his health today?
He is typically frank: My biggest failing is being a workaholic. I push myself too much because I love what I do, but it means looking after myself comes bottom of the list until I get ill. Then I panic and try to be better.
Five years ago I had seven operations on my back because of slipped discs. My backs much better than it was, but I dont think it will ever be back to what it was. I still have good days and bad days.
What does he do to keep himself in good physical shape?
My new years resolution is to slow down a little mind you, I say that every year. Walking my bulldog, Dolly, is both exercise and pleasure and, of course, shopping is my therapy.
He always seemed super-confident on television, but that was far from the truth as he actually had issues with how he looked. So was there a light-bulb moment when he decided to needed to change his attitudes and care more for himself?
Leaving my career working as a stylist in fashion and music and moving into television for How To Look Good Naked, Gok says. I was anorexic while I was filming the programmes.
Filming them made me realise I needed help and made me question why I had this dysfunctional relationship with food. So I was going on a journey with my body confidence issues, just as much as the women on the show. Sharing their problems about body image really helped me to confront my own.
So does he now think he has overcome his issues with anorexia?
In the darkest moments of my life I was definitely battling anorexia, but now Ive come to live with it, Gok replies. In a way, Ive almost made with friends it. Ive come to terms with the fact it could come back, but I know now that I have the right skills to control it if it does.
Theres a myth that once you no longer have anorexia you are fixed, but eating disorders lie dormant within you like parasites.
Anorexia is part of my tapestry. The only times Ive really struggled with it was when I tried to get rid of it or ignore it. Its important to help get rid of the stigma around these sorts of illnesses by talking about them.
It has been a long journey from his darkest days, but he admits he is now in a much better place, and his relationships have improved as a result.
Im in the happiest place Ive ever been in my life and I feel Im a better friend and family member these days, Gok says. I regard my biggest achievement as my relationship with my family. I really love them and work hard to keep those relationships which has been hard with my lifestyle of working and travelling.
My parents were totally accepting about me being gay. They went through so much social persecution themselves when they first got together, as my dads Chinese and my mums English.
The biggest problem for them came when I became well-known, because they had to share me with the rest of the world, which was hard for them. Theyd always thought of me as the baby of the family, and suddenly I wasnt around any more and the world intruded on our close unit. Ive missed loads of family occasions and sometimes Ive even been too busy to speak to them, but theyre massively supportive and understanding.
It might seem then that Gok harbours regrets, but that is not the case.
Ive worked hard at not having regrets as its a waste of time, he insists. Lifes short so its very important to take opportunities and see what happens.
I never think of myself as a celebrity that lifestyle doesnt appeal to me at all. Im just a fashion stylist who works on TV sometimes.
I have my values and beliefs and nowadays I dont need everyone to agree with those to reassure me. Im confident enough in who I am.
I have a very fulfilled life. I think I probably wont have children now because Im 43 and I have a lot on my plate as it is. I actually have more godchildren than shoes, which is lovely.
A survivor of institutional abuse has said the failure to sign off on compensation packages for victims ultimately lies with Secretary of State James Brokenshire and not at the feet of the head of the Civil Service, David Sterling.
Jon McCourt gave evidence to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry about the abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of the Catholic clergy in St Joseph's Home, Termonbacca, Londonderry, in the late 1950s and 60s.
Yesterday it emerged that financial compensation packages recommended for survivors by HIA chair Sir Anthony Hart could not be paid out because of the political hiatus at Stormont.
Mr Sterling wrote to victims explaining that any such payments would be open to legal challenge without ministerial approval. But Mr McCourt said that the delay in the process is an excuse that could be bypassed by Mr Brokenshire.
"James Brokenshire is ultimately responsible in the absence of the Executive and he could sign off on this if he wanted to. We keep hearing that this is a devolved matter. It's nothing but an excuse. Look at the Grenfell tragedy. Theresa May, quite rightly, was able to sign off a 5m contingency fund within 48 hours."
Ulster Unionist MLA Mike Nesbitt said the logic behind the decision is flawed, adding: "There is no reason not to make an interim payment. It is negligible money for the Government but hugely important for victims and survivors, both in practical and symbolic terms."
Sinn Fein MLA Linda Dillon said she did not accept Mr Sterling's analysis that legislation was required to sign off on the compensation payments.
However, the Northern Ireland Office reiterated Mr Brokenshire's position that the matter of payments to victims was up to a devolved administration.
"The Secretary of State has been very clear that in the absence of an Executive, he will not interfere in devolved matters in Northern Ireland except to the extent that it is absolutely necessary to do so in order to allow public administration to continue and public services to be maintained," a spokeperson said.
They added that Mr Brokenshire recognised the frustration being felt by victims and "his sympathies go out to all individuals affected by the horrendous abuse outlined in Sir Anthony Hart's report".
Almost 60,000 homes and offices in Northern Ireland still struggle to get a decent broadband connection, it has emerged,
However, the number of premises which can't get a good service has fallen by 7,000 in the last 12 months.
The findings emerge in Ofcom's Connected Nations 2017 report.
Jonathan Rose, Ofcom's Northern Ireland director, said this year's findings show progress on the availability of broadband and mobile services.
"Broadband coverage is improving, but our findings show there's still urgent work required before people and businesses get the services they need," he said. "We expect the picture to continue to improve on the back of a number of government funded UK-wide and regional initiatives that have and are being undertaken to improve broadband speeds, especially in rural areas.
"Everyone should have good access to the internet, wherever they live and work. So we are supporting plans for universal broadband, and promoting investment in full-fibre technology that can provide ultrafast, reliable connections."
Some 56,000 homes and offices - around 7% of properties in Northern Ireland - still cannot get the broadband speeds needed to meet a typical household's needs, with most located in rural areas.
This is down from 63,000 premises in 2016.
The communications watchdog currently defines this as broadband offering a download speed of at least 10Mbit/s, with an upload speed of at least 1Mbit/s - although it expects these requirements to increase over time.
Ofcom's report also shows that broadband remains worse in rural areas, where properties are often situated a long way from the telephone exchange or local street cabinet.
Around 23% of rural premises in Northern Ireland (53,000) are not getting basic broadband services, compared to just 1% in urban areas.
Local authorities that are more rural and with more dispersed properties have a higher number of premises that cannot access 10Mbit/s. Although significant, the number has reduced over the last year.
Nearly a quarter of premises (10,800) in the Fermanagh and Omagh council area can't get a service delivering more than 10Mbit/s.
Mid Ulster (7,900) and Newry, Mourne and Down (7,900) also have significant numbers of premises that fall into this category.
Ofcom is supporting the UK Government's plans for universal broadband, so homes and businesses across the country - including in rural and remote areas - have the right to request a broadband connection with a download speed of at least 10Mbit/s, and an upload speed of at least 1Mbit/s.
Superfast broadband - defined as a download speed of 30Mbit/s or more - was available to 85% of Northern Ireland homes and small businesses by May 2017, up from 83% a year earlier. That compares to a UK-wide figure of 91%. However, availability is lower in rural areas, where 57% of premises have access to a superfast service.
The Connected Nations report shows average download speed of a connected broadband service in Northern Ireland rose by 15% in the year, from 34 Mbit/s to 39 Mbit/s.
Average download speeds are lower in rural areas but have increased to 24Mbit/s in 2017, compared to 21Mbit/s in 2016.
A man from Cameroon has appeared at Londonderry Magistrates Court charged with raping a woman in the city nine years ago.
Chinedu Oniyenike (40), whose address was given as Cliff View Hostel in Donegal Town, is alleged to have raped the woman on September 21, 2008.
A detective said she could connect the defendant to the charge.
She said that the defendant was detained by police on Monday night in London after they became aware that both local and international arrest warrants had been issued against him.
There was no bail application and the defendant was remanded in custody to appear again on January 4.
Warm tributes were paid to Sir William Hastings last night from a diverse range of voices - inclduing those from a bishop, politicians and the business community.
Bishop of Down and Dromore Harold Miller expressed his sympathies. "I am so sorry to hear of the death of Sir Billy Hastings. Billy contributed enormously to the development of the hospitality sector in Northern Ireland during and after the Troubles," he said in a statement last night.
"Most people would have given up, but Billy's steely determination and love for his homeland meant that he kept going - sometimes almost alone. He was a regular worshipper in Down Cathedral, and gave priority to Sunday worship when he was away from home. He will be greatly missed."
Former UUP leader Lord Empey described him as "the leading light in Northern Ireland's tourism and hospitality industry when it wasn't such a popular path to follow", while councillor Jim Rodgers recalled: "He was a man I looked up to and I held him in the highest regard. You could have called Billy at any time of the day or night to seek help or advice and he never turned you away."
Janice Gault, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Hotel Federation, said: "Sir William Hastings was a true visionary and well ahead of his time. He will be remembered as a real champion of tourism and a stalwart of the local hotel sector."
Colin Neill, CEO Hospitality Ulster paid tribute to Mr Hasting's role in kick-starting an industry here. He said: "...he has left a legacy which has formed the foundation for our now successful tourism industry. It is suiting that with his family so embedded in the industry, his legacy will be carried on for generations to come."
Visit Belfast said: "We unite in honouring his lifetime of exemplary and inspiring business achievement, and, in particular, his exceptional contribution to Belfast and Northern Ireland's tourism and hospitality success."
The father of a teenager killed in a car crash hit out yesterday after the driver who caused his death was given a suspended sentence.
Gerard Farrell, whose son Eoin was killed on Kilbroney Road in Rostrevor in September 2015, said he was "dumbfounded" that 19-year-old Brian Che Kane walked free from court.
Eoin and James Miskelly, who were both 17, died when Kane lost control of his Volkswagen Bora and it ploughed into an oil tank and boiler house before eventually coming to rest in a field on its roof.
Kane, from St Anne's Park in Mayobridge, pleaded guilty to causing the deaths by driving carelessly. He was sentenced to 12 months, suspended for three years. He was also banned from driving for two years.
Relatives of James and Eoin had packed into the public gallery of Newry Crown Court, sitting in Downpatrick, to hear Judge Paul Ramsey tell Kane "the consequences of your driving proved to be cataclysmic".
He said: "I appreciate this will be of little comfort to the relatives, family and friends of the two dead boys because their boys are gone.
"But there is no doubt that Che Kane will have to live with and carry for the rest of his days the knowledge that he is responsible for causing the deaths of two young men."
Outside the court Gerard Farrell described the sentence as "a joke" and said the past two years had been "an absolute nightmare".
He said: "Its ongoing every day. We have to get on with our lives, go to work and pay our bills and get on. It's not fair. There's nothing there for us. It feels that the Farrells and Miskellys are on trial. The justice system has done nothing for us, absolutely nothing in my eyes. We are all hurting. We miss the boys greatly."
Judges are bound by sentencing guidelines and must take into account mitigating circumstances, such as early guilty pleas, co-operation with police and remorse, as well as aggravating factors such as intent and excessive violence.
Passing sentence, Judge Ramsey told the court that although the emergency services had given a graphic description of the "horrific and confusing scene" they had been confronted with, he would not cause upset to the families by repeating the details.
Kane was also seriously injured, including a broken right arm, and spent over a week in hospital, including four days in the intensive care unit.
Judge Ramsey said: "Two major questions arise from the facts of the tragedy - what caused the car to leave the road with such devastating consequences, and the significance of the defendant's memory loss?"
The judge said there had been much debate over the cause of the crash, but outlined how he had two expert engineer reports which estimated the car was travelling between 37mph and 39mph in the 60mph zone when Kane lost control.
Initially the prosecution expert had put the speed at around 45mph, but the judge said that, as with any expert report, there is an undertaking that conclusions can be looked at again in the light of fresh evidence.
Judge Ramsey said that he could not ignore the expert evidence which said the loss of control was caused by oversteer coupled with low tyre pressure, the relative inexperience of the driver and the camber of the road.
These were "a lethal cocktail of circumstances" which, in his view, given the only aggravating feature was the multiple deaths caused, put Kane's culpability towards the lower end of the scale.
Kane, continued Judge Ramsey, cannot remember the circumstances leading up to the fatal crash, but two reports from consultant neuro-psychologists deemed that to be genuine amnesia, brought about due to the "emotional and mental" stress of the situation.
The judge added that the teenager had expressed genuine "shame, regret and remorse" and is "haunted" that his actions caused the untimely deaths of his two acquaintances.
Turning to James and Eoin, Judge Ramsey said it often appeared to the public that cases focus on the defendant "to the detriment of the victims".
In this case, however, he told the court he had victim impact statements from the boys' parents and siblings which were "without exception eloquent, moving and heartrending."
Indeed, Judge Ramsey said a person would "have to have a heart of stone" not to be moved by what was said about the boys.
He told the court that it was unusual to come across a case where the single aggravating feature was that multiple deaths were caused, with no other features such as excessive speed or alcohol associated with the offending.
"The Farrell and Miskelly families are not the first to be visited with the grief and sorrow which arises from the carnage on our roads, and sadly they will not be the last," said the judge.
Little Lucas, who is now three months old
Northern Ireland musician Rodney Beggs already knows who is going to be number one this Christmas - his beautiful new son Lucas.
And it will be an extra special Yuletide for the Beggs family because this time last year the Co Antrim businessman and his wife Sinead (37) were grieving the loss of their baby daughter.
Mary was only 20 months old when she succumbed to Cloves syndrome - an incurable one in 50 million disorder - on February 27, 2016.
She died in her mother's arms at the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice in Newtownabbey, for which the couple have now raised more than 30,000, courtesy of the Mary Beggs tribute fund.
Her parents are still trying to cope with the devastating loss of Mary, but there is little doubt that precious Lucas, who was born just three months ago, has brought untold joy into their lives.
"The pregnancy went smoothly, but it was still a very worrying time until he was born and in our arms and we were told that everything was okay," said Rodney.
Describing how it felt to hold Lucas for the first time after his birth on September 12, Rodney (35) added: "It was emotional on both levels of happiness and sadness.
"It brought back a lot of memories.
"It was surreal, it wasn't that long ago I was holding Mary for the last time."
Shortly after Mary came into the world on June 20, 2014, she was diagnosed with the rare neurological condition that required her to have an operation at only two weeks old.
Seven days later she suffered her first seizure and from that moment on she had 50 or 60 of them a day.
Mary wasn't discharged from hospital until she was two months old and the family's life then became a series of hospital appointments and consultations.
But Rodney and Sinead, a former driving instructor, never thought that Christmas 2015 would be their infant's last, which makes this year with new son Lucas all the more poignant.
"He's thriving, he's a good, settled baby," Rodney said.
"Lucas is very interactive, very personable and has developed a character and cheeky grin very quickly. He's developing really well."
The father added: "He smiles a lot, more than most babies, which is lovely because we got very little reaction from Mary due to her condition."
Having Lucas has brought them closer together as a couple, and a family, but Rodney admitted that it continues to be a balancing act when it comes to their emotions.
"It has definitely healed a lot of wounds and brought a wee bit of joy back to us," he said.
Rodney - who is stepdad to Sinead's two sons Tiarnan (11) and seven-year-old Johnny -said everyone was looking forward to Christmas, but admitted that Mary's death still casts a long shadow.
"I love everything that surrounds Christmas, but there's a part of our family missing and it's hard to take; it's still quite raw," he said.
Rodney, proprietor of The Music Rooms, an instrument and music workshop business which now has shops in Antrim, Ballymena and, since September, Coleraine, said that business is booming.
He also does a lot of work in 20 schools across Northern Ireland, supplying music teachers and running workshops.
Raising money for the hospice is very important to the couple, who have now hit the 30,000 mark - most recently donating 1,200 from a Christmas charity night.
"We wanted to give something back," Rodney said.
"We're proud that the spirit of Mary lives on by helping other wee boys and girls who have life-limiting illnesses.
"We're content to give something to the hospice which helped us so much whenever we were going through a really difficult time in our lives.
"The Music Rooms runs a charity gig every year where kids from our music schools perform in a concert in the Braid Arts Centre in Ballymena.
"We always used to give to the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) before what happened with Mary. What we do now is split whatever we raise 50-50 - so this year we gave 1,200 to the RNIB and 1,200 to the hospice."
In the spirit of "having fun with music" Rodney arranged for the children, aged seven to 17, to record a single in a Coleraine studio, with a music video, for Christmas "to give them a platform and get them up online".
So, for the first time, 20 pupils from his private music schools joined those from schools they teach in and can be seen on Youtube and Facebook singing All I Want For Christmas Is You. It has had over 100,000 views now.
Around the same time, Rodney's folk and bluegrass band, The Coves, which plays at weddings and corporate events all over Northern Ireland, did a video and cover version of Fairytale Of New York for Christmas, with Ashleigh Kilgore singing.
"We put it out there. It hasn't been as successful as the kids one because we're obviously all not young and cute, but we've got about 15,000 views, which is great," he added.
While Mary's memory is omnipresent, the Randalstown couple don't have far to look for a physical reminder of the child they lost way too soon.
"Lucas is very like Mary; there are massive resemblances," said Rodney.
"This Christmas we'll be celebrating a new life while quietly mourning Mary. But Lucas is definitely the best present we could have had."
Watch the videos online at https://youtu.be/LTdipkP87rY music rooms Christmas Single and https://youtu.be/QeKUa0DyIzg the coves Fairytale Of New York
The disappearance of Spencer the cat has left his owners Michael McGrath and Marta Larkin distraught
The west Belfast "family" of missing cat Spencer have been inundated with support following their 1,000 search for their beloved pet.
Michael McGrath (47) and his fiancee Marta Larkin (36) launched the desperate appeal after Spencer vanished nearly a month ago.
"We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received, the amount of people who have gone out of their way to tell us they are rooting for us has restored our faith in humanity," Michael said last night.
He added: "Unfortunately we have had no news on Spencer, but it's early days." The couple are remaining optimistic after drafting in a pet detective who is convinced that Spencer is alive and well.
Robert Kenny, lead investigator of the Happy Tails pet detective agency, who obtained his credentials in the United States between 2007 and 2008, is one of about 200 pet detectives worldwide.
The Missing Animal Response (MAR) expert suspects that Spencer may have been accidentally transported some distance from his home near the Springfield Road.
"There has been no sighting of the animal, which in my experience would suggest it has been taken out of the area or it has managed to get into someone's property and they don't know it yet," he said. "There's certainly no conclusive evidence to suggest that Spencer has been hurt or killed, so we presume he is still alive."
Ireland's very own Ace Ventura, who strayed from his accountancy studies to pursue his unusual career, has rescued almost 4,500 missing pets throughout Europe, Asia, South Africa and the USA.
In his highest profile case he came to the aide of Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock after her beloved pooch disappeared from its plush Los Angeles kennel.
The animal kingdom's Columbo quickly established that the Oscar winner's Staffordshire pit bull had been kidnapped in a dispute between the A-list star and another member of the film industry.
"I worked with other detectives in LA and I was able to return her pet within nine days," he said.
Mr Kenny praised Michael and Marta for going above and beyond in their efforts to get Spencer home and said he plans to nominate them for the Pet Owner of the Year 2017 award.
"Michael and Marta have both been through the mill in their struggle to find answers," he said.
"Every year we nominate someone who has been to the ends of the earth to find their pet and they have certainly done that."
Distraught pet lover Michael made an emotional appeal to anyone who may have decided to adopted the timid tom cat.
"Spencer is extremely friendly, he's a complete caricature of a cat so we both understand that someone else could fall completely in love with him, but there's no reason to keep a member of our family," he said.
"If anyone has him, please bring him back."
A music teacher has appeared in court charged with the sexual abuse of five girls, all of them under the age of 13.
Brian Bergin, from Brookhill in the Culmore Road area of Londonderry, appeared at a preliminary enquiry hearing at Derry Magistrates Court yesterday.
He faces a total of 10 charges involving five complainants. The defendant is charged with indecently touching them in a sexual manner while in a position of trust.
The offences are alleged to have been committed on various dates between August 2011 and May 2014.
When asked by a court clerk if he had anything to say in answer to the 10 charges, the defendant replied "not at this stage".
A submission by a solicitor for the Public Prosecution Service that, based on the papers, the defendant had a prima facie case to answer, was accepted by the defendant's solicitor. The defence solicitor said that his client, a father-of-three, was now at risk of losing his employment given the nature of the allegations against him.
"There is also a real likelihood of the defendant losing his liberty and livelihood if convicted," he said.
There was no objection to bail and the defendant was released on his own bail of 500 to appear before the Crown Court for his arraignment on January 16.
As part of his bail conditions he was ordered by District Judge Barney McElholm not to have any direct or indirect contact with any of the complainants or witnesses.
The accused was also ordered to continue to reside at his current home address.
The Chief Constable has warned that outsourcing an investigation into the UVF's Glenanne Gang would cost 60m and called on politicians to do more to help resolve issues of the past.
George Hamilton published an open letter to MLAs in which he expressed his growing frustration over their failure to deliver a series of mechanisms to deal with historical cases as outlined in the Stormont House Agreement three years ago.
And he said that a new "independent" probe into the activities of the notorious loyalist gang would place his budget under even more strain.
"Some may presume the remedy to this dilemma would be to outsource the investigation to an external police service," Mr Hamilton wrote.
But he cautioned that such a move would likely result in around 60m being taken from the policing budget over a five to six-year period - a budget that has already been cut by 180m over the past three years.
Mr Hamilton claimed that even if unresolved cases were to be outsourced, there are "insufficient detective resources" in the UK to carry them out.
Speaking yesterday - within 24 hours of filing an appeal against a High Court ruling last month - he said he regretted the decision but had been left with no choice.
In the ruling, Mr Justice Treacy outlined his intention to compel the Chief Constable to complete a thematic investigation into suspected collusion with loyalist terrorists. The Glenanne Gang, which included RUC and UDR members, was responsible for more than 100 murders between 1972 and 1980.
"We have seen a number of judgments recently from the High Court that make it almost impossible for me," Mr Hamilton claimed.
"From declarations that we are not suitable to do investigations along with orders and directions that we should get on with it - but I can't do both of those things."
He expressed his sympathy for the families bereaved by the notorious UVF gang, who in their own open letter last week pleaded with him not to appeal the High Court decision. "I feel sorry for the families but I believe the best way through this is a clear statement of intent that actually follows through on delivery of the Stormont House Agreement, whether that's from a devolved Executive or the Government in London," he said.
"It will bring answers to families, which is most important, but we will also pursue criminal justice outcomes where it is achievable and we will bring people some degree of closure and ability to tell their story." Mr Hamilton said the delay is exacerbating the hurt of victims and leaving the PSNI to "soak up" issues that should be dealt with through new mechanisms which include an independent investigatory unit, a truth recovery body and an oral archive.
He denied suggestions that it was inappropriate for him to be making political comments.
"I don't think it's overstepping the mark to come out and declare our position," he said.
"I acknowledge the hard work of our politicians but they simply haven't come far enough."
Addressing them directly, Mr Hamilton said: "You haven't delivered on institutions you said you were going to deliver and I need those - this is having an adverse affect on public confidence in policing."
Responding to allegations of collusion which emerged during the Gary Haggarty trial, he said it had not been "easy listening" for the PSNI and insisted a Historical Investigations Unit is the best way to deal with misconduct by police, other state actors and terrorists.
"I have no question around the independence of this organisation but I accept that many others do. If that is how we are perceived, and if there is an alternative way set out in the Stormont House infrastructure, then lets get on with it," he said.
Detectives are appealing for information after a burglary in Belfast.
Two people have been attacked after two men wearing balaclavas broke into a house in Belfast.
Cash and a wallet was stolen from the property in the Forfar Street area before 6.15pm.
It is believed one of the males was armed with a weapon.
Detective Sergeant Ruston said "Fortunately, although the two people attacked were shaken neither was seriously injured as a result of this.
"I would appeal that anyone with information contact 101 quoting reference 1105 of 15/12/2017. Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.
A Co Tyrone man has denied involvement in a bomb attack on a police station
A Co Tyrone man has denied involvement in a bomb attack on a police station.
Paul Campbell (38) appeared at Belfast Crown Court yesterday where he was charged with two offences arising from the terrorist attack on Coalisland police station over 20 years ago.
From The Mills in Coalisland, Campbell denies causing an explosion with intent to endanger life, on March 26, 1997.
Defence counsel asked of Judge Gordon Kerr QC that Campbell's bail conditions be varied and requested that the current curfew condition be removed.
A Crown prosecutor raised concerns about varying Campbell's bail conditions, telling the court "he left this jurisdiction and did not return" for some time.
An agreement was then reached that the tagging and curfew element of Campbell's bail would be lifted if he agreed to sign in with police five times a week. Campbell was then released on continuing bail.
The Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Councillor Joan Baird OBE, holds the tiny pocket bible as Steven Chambers, Ernest Crawford and Laurence Chambers look on
A tiny pocket Bible belonging to a First World War hero wounded at the Somme has been returned to the soldier's son after more than 100 years, thanks to detective work by a local museum.
On Christmas Day 1915, Edwin RL Chambers of the Royal Fusiliers signed and dated the little Bible. Thirty years later, it was discovered in a chest of drawers in a second hand furniture shop in Fintona, Co Tyrone, by Ernest Crawford.
Mr Crawford tried for years to find the Bible's rightful owners, without success.
But now, with the help of Causeway Coast and Glens Museum Services staff, the Bible has been returned to the war hero's son Laurence.
This week at Ballymoney Museum, Ernest, now aged 93, met Laurence Chambers and his nephew Steven, Edwin's son and grandson, and the bible was finally handed over.
Ernest said he was delighted that the mystery had finally been solved: "I never thought that, after 70 years, we would get the bible back where it belonged, with the Chambers family."
Laurence Chambers said: "Our family is very grateful that Ernest kept the Bible safe all this time and we are very thankful for his efforts in seeking out the family to return it."
Edwin RL Chambers' war record is impressive and dramatic. He was a Lance Corporal with the Royal Fusiliers and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, later achieving the rank of Lieutenant, and was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War and Victory medals for his service.
In 1915, he suffered gas poisoning while on the front line and was later wounded by shrapnel at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. After the war and the completion of his military service in 1919, Lieutenant Chambers married his wife Kathleen and had six children, settling in the Cavehill area of Belfast.
The couple were firm supporters of the Royal British Legion and were founding members of the Cavehill Men and Women's branches.
Yesterday's historic handover was witnessed by Causeway Coast and Glens Mayor Joan Baird, who said: "With Christmas Day approaching, I think it is hugely significant that the Bible has now been returned to the family of its owner.
"I was delighted to meet his son and nephew, along with Ernest - it was clear how much the occasion meant to all involved."
David Cameron is to take on a role leading a billion dollar investment initiative between the UK and China.
The former prime minister played a key role in leading efforts to boost trade links with Beijing while he was in Downing Street and Chancellor Philip Hammond welcomed his new role during an official visit to China.
Mr Cameron will take charge of the 750 million fund to improve ports, roads and rail networks between China and its trading partners, the BBC reported.
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The private fund is supported by the British Government but will not involve any taxpayers money.
Its launch was announced as part of a series of deals hailed by Chancellor Philip Hammond during a trade visit to China.
A spokesman for Mr Cameron said the former prime ministers role had been discussed with the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which considers roles taken up by ex-ministers.
David Cameron remains very proud of his work as prime minister launching the Golden Era between the UK and China with President Xi, and strengthening the UK/China trade and investment relationship, the spokesman said.
In an effort to build on that work out of office, he wishes to play a role in a new UK-China bilateral investment fund that will invest in innovative and sustainable growth opportunities in both the UK and China to create jobs and further boost trade links.
Having now received official advice from Acoba, work is continuing on establishing the fund including holding discussions with a number of financial institutions in the UK and China. There is still a lot of work to do.
Expand Close China's Premier Li Keqiang with Chancellor Philip Hammond (Fred Dufour/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook
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Around 1.4 billion worth of commercial deals were announced at the UK-China economic and financial dialogue in Beijing attended by Mr Hammond.
The measures included accelerating the final preparations for the London-Shanghai stock connect initiatives which will mean investors in each country will be able to trade shares listed on the others stock exchange.
Mr Hammond said: These successful talks are an example of global Britain at its best, demonstrating that we can work with our friends and partners across the world to support jobs, businesses and prosperity.
This is testament to our strong and dynamic economy, and the world class talent and expertise we have to offer.
These talks show the UK is truly open for business and we look forward to continuing the golden era of UK-China relations.
A hopeful Cambridge University applicant is searching for a stranger who sent him an unexpected note of encouragement on a train.
Joe Wren, 17, from Ashington, Northumberland, was travelling from Peterborough to Morpeth with his parents when they got talking to another passenger about the interview he had just undertaken to study for a Masters in Mathematics at Robinson College, Cambridge.
As they were chatting, Joe noticed a man in his forties working away but was not expecting what came next.
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As we got up to get off the train at Morpeth, this man stood up said Good luck with Cambridge and shook my hand, in his hand was this envelope, Joe told the Press Association.
On the envelope was written a heartfelt message of encouragement and inside was a gift of 10.
Hello, the note read. We havent ever spoken but I really wanted to wish you luck with your application to Cambridge.
He goes on to say the cash is a small token of how I believe great students like you should have the chance to study.
Joe said he was dumbfounded by the note, which he shared on Twitter on Tuesday. His tweet has received over 141 retweets so far.
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Sadly as the train was stopping I didnt have time to talk to this man, I just went back in the carriage and shook his hand, said he was a very nice man and then we had to leave.
Since Joes thank you was so hurried, he would love the chance to meet the generous stranger and tell them how amazing they are and that they embody what is nice about humanity.
I would love this man to get the recognition he deserves, so many times these kind of things go completely unnoticed.
Joes brother also got behind the hunt, retweeting his brothers original tweet.
Whether or not Joes application is successful, he has certainly learned something from this experience.
When I read the note all I could think to myself was how amazing this man was and that this was an incredible act of kindness I will never ever forget this experience and it has inspired me to try to be kind to everyone I meet.
Joe will find out if he has gained a place at Cambridge in January.
Honour guard next to the coffin of late King Michael during the funeral ceremony outside the former royal palace in Bucharest, Romania (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
European royalty have joined tens of thousands of Romanians who wept and applauded as they said farewell to Romania's last monarch, King Michael, who was buried next to his wife after a state funeral.
Michael, who ruled Romania twice before being forced to abdicate by the communists in 1947, was remembered for his dignity and morality. He died aged 96 in Switzerland on December 5.
Britain's Prince of Wales, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, and Spain's former King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were among those at a pre-funeral service at the Royal Palace where Michael's body had been lying in state for two days.
Non-European royals attending the funeral included Princess Muna al-Hussein, mother of King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Other royals including Henri, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz of Belgium were joined by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis for a funeral service, led by the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Daniel.
Bishops wafted incense in the small cathedral where Michael was crowned for the second time on September 6 1940.
Michael, who was a great-great grandson of Queen Victoria, first became king aged five after his father Carol II eloped with his mistress and abdicated.
Michael's reign is best remembered for the August 23 1944 coup he led to oust pro-Nazi leader Marshal Ion Antonescu, a move that took Romania into the war on the side of the Allies.
For this, the king was awarded made a Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit by US president Harry S Truman and he was decorated with the Soviet Order of Victory by Joseph Stalin.
After his abdication, Michael spent decades in exile working as a chicken farmer and aircraft pilot, living in Britain and settling in Switzerland. He finally got his Romanian citizenship back in 1997, eight years after the collapse of communism.
The Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen dynasty that ruled Romania from 1866 until Michael's reign ended in 1947 no longer enjoys special status, but its heirs enjoy a certain prestige and hand out honours.
Successive Romanian governments have returned castles and other properties that were seized from the royal family when the communists came to power.
The funeral procession carrying the Michael's coffin drove slowly through the capital to a railway station, where, accompanied by a phalanx of priests, the casket was put on a royal train.
It later arrived in the central town of Curtea de Arges, where priests performed a service before the late king was buried next to his late wife, Anne de Bourbon-Parme, who died last year.
Earlier, thousands of ordinary Romanians crowded the streets to see the procession go by, while others threw flowers as the royal train bearing the coffin passed through railway stations on its way to burial in central Romania.
AP
President Donald Trump has been seeking to change the rules around free birth control for women (AP)
A federal judge in Philadelphia has ordered the Trump administration not to enforce new rules that could significantly reduce women's access to free birth control.
Judge Wendy Beetlestone issued the injunction, temporarily stopping the government from enforcing the policy change to former president Barack Obama's healthcare law.
The law required most companies to cover birth control at no additional cost, though it included exemptions for religious organisations.
The new policy would allow more categories of employers, including publicly traded companies, to opt out of providing free contraception to women by claiming religious or moral objections.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said that Donald Trump broke the law to undermine women's health and that the ruling will protect women.
"This is just the first step, but today is a critical victory for millions of women and families and for the rule of law," Mr Shapiro said.
Attorneys for the Trump administration had argued in court documents that the rules are about "protecting a narrow class of sincere religious and moral objectors from being forced to facilitate practices that conflict with their beliefs".
The US Department of Health and Human Services issued the new policy in October. It marked another step in the Trump administration's rollback of the Affordable Care Act, and supporters say it promotes religious freedom.
California, Washington and Massachusetts have also sued the Trump administration over the rules. Delaware, Maryland, New York and Virginia joined California in its effort.
AP
Contrary to what most people have been told, the only battle we ever lost was right here at home! Read moreWhat being a veteran means to me
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The California Superbike School, widely regarded as worlds most comprehensive rider training program, has announced the schedule for its annual Indian program for 2018. The program will be conducted at the Madras Motor Race Track in Chennai, in two batches.
Both the batches will have three-level training programs. The first will take place between 9 February and 11 February, while the second batch will be conducted between 16 February and 18 February. The cost for the three-level program is Rs 70,000. CSS will not be providing riding gear as a part of this package, although it does include a race-spec TVS Apache RTR 200 4V. Nevertheless, participants can bring their own motorcycles along for the training. However, the motorcycles must be prepped according to regulations before they can be ridden on the track, the list of which can be found here.
We were a part of the 2017 CSS and found it to be a very comprehensive program which makes you a calmer, more focused and smoother rider. Those interested in being a part of the 2018 CSS can fill out the form over here. The last date for signing up is 25 January. With limited slots available, we suggest you hurry up!
Mitch McConnell selected to lead the Senate Republicans, 40-percent of households pay nothing to the IRS, 75-percent of workers need a second job to offset inflation, food prices hit a record high.
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/12/2017 (1797 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A man who broke his tooth on what he believes was a piece of metal in a wine gum says he has been getting the runaround by the company and doesnt know where to turn.
Robert Healy bought a pack of Maynards Wine Gums at a gas station in Souris approximately six weeks ago, he said, when he popped one in his mouth and bit down on something hard.
Im pretty sure it was metal, as crazy at it sounds, because it was that hard there was no give at all, said Healy, a truck driver who splits his time between Brandon and Saskatoon. You could hear that kind of click sound and a chunk of my tooth was gone.
Erin DeBooy/The Brandon Sun Robert Healy broke a tooth after biting into a wine gum he says had pieces of metal in it.
Healy spat out the candy and a piece of his tooth came with it, he said, leaving what felt like one-quarter of his back, left tooth missing.
I held (the candy) up to the light and you can see there were four pieces of metal in it in total, Healy said.
Healy is now unable to eat using the left side of his mouth, he said, and its painful to eat or drink anything hot or cold. The jagged edge where his tooth cracked is also cutting up the side of his tongue.
Having just started a new job, Healy said he does not yet have dental insurance, so he started phoning around to see what his options were.
After calling lawyers in Souris, Brandon, Winnipeg and even Toronto, Healy said half of them didnt take personal injury claims, and the other half said they couldnt help him or didnt call him back.
Healy then called Mondelez International, the company that owns Maynards, and was told to send them the candy.
To this date, no one has asked me where the candy came from. People could still be eating metal does anyone even care theres metal in this candy? Healy said.
After he bit into the candy, Healy said he did go back into the gas station and informed the associate, who said she would take the box off the shelves.
Submitted Robert Healy holds up a piece of Maynards Wine Gums that appears to have something inside it. Healy says he broke a tooth when he popped one of the wine gums in his mouth and bit down on something hard.
A Mondelez representative did call Healy back and told him to send the candy to them, Healy said, but flip-flopped on whether he would get the candy back.
The representative also told him he wasnt eligible for compensation in Canada, Healy said, but if the company was found guilty it would cover his dental bills.
She just kept repeating send the candy to us theyre basically asking me to send them the evidence, and they couldnt tell me what the process is, Healy said. I just want to know what my options are. I dont want to send them the evidence for it to possibly vanish.
Mondelez International did not respond to The Brandon Suns request for comment by press time.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency encouraged anyone who finds something they shouldnt in a piece of food to report it to them immediately, so they can investigate.
Whether someone thinks they got sick from a product or they find something strange when they open the product, they should get in touch with us, the spokesperson said. We hear about all kinds of strange things.
CFIA will follow up with the manufacturer to try and determine where the problem arose and if a recall needs to be issued, the spokesperson said.
Submitted Robert Healy holds up a piece of Maynards Wine Gums that appears to have something in it.
With it being the Christmas season, Healy said not only will his fight for justice have to wait while he goes home to Ireland for the holidays, but he will probably have to pay out of pocket to see a dentist if the problem keeps getting worse.
I love candy, but theres no way Im ever buying wine gums again, Ill tell you that much, Healy said.
edebooy@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @erindebooy
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/12/2017 (1797 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Opening up a slice of Ukraine in the Wheat City, married couple Dmytro and Liudmyla Artemchuk are offering products one might expect to find at the average corner store in their native country.
A couple weeks ago, they opened a small grocery store, called Your Home Store, at 320 10th St., which features various grocery items from Ukraine, Poland and Russia.
The stores name comes from the idea of bringing a piece of their homeland to Brandon, Liudmyla said.
Tyler Clarke/The Brandon Sun Your Home Store owners Liudmyla and Dmytro Artemchuk are seen at the Eastern European grocery store they opened at 320 10th St. in Brandon approximately two weeks ago.
We like living here very much, and we want it to feel like home, she said. We like everything here, and if something from Ukraine can make you happy, thats OK, you can have your candy.
The couple came to Brandon in 2014 and 2015, with Dmytro settling first after landing a job at Morris Industries in Minnedosa. Liudmyla followed, securing a job at Brandons Fabricland.
Liudmyla said it was Dmytros idea to relocate to Canada, which was described as a young country without any corruption, where its easier to work thanks to its wealth of opportunity.
In the end, Liudmyla found herself agreeing with this sentiment. While she said that working at Fabricland was an enjoyable experience, she found herself wanting to take on an even greater challenge.
Another factor was the couples two young children, whose school schedules did not jive well with the couples work hours.
With Dmytro working during the week and Liudmyla working on weekends, they rarely saw one another.
By opening up their own store, Liudmyla is able to be with the kids after school, with Dmytro picking them up from the family business on his way home from his workday.
The store is open Monday through Saturday, leaving Sunday as family time, and time for church, Liudmyla said.
Proud of their culture, Liudmyla said its also nice to bring Ukrainian products to a community where there are so many other Ukrainians who might also feel homesick.
They arent alone in this endeavour, with fellow Ukrainian immigrant Tetiana Kalashnyk opening the Chocolate Dreams shop at 711 Rosser Ave. in downtown Brandon a couple months ago.
According to Statistics Canadas 2011 census count, there were 9,390 people in Brandon with Eastern European origins, of whom 6,540 had Ukrainian ties. The 2015 count cites 350 Brandon residents as being Ukrainian immigrants.
At Your Home Store, people can find those goods they used to buy and eat when they were in Ukraine, Dmytro said. You can find a part of your native country, your homeland.
Although the stores shelves currently incorporate goods from only a few Eastern European nations, Dmytro said that they plan to expand to accommodate products from other nations from the region as the duo find their footing as business owners.
tclarke@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
A woman in the UK repeatedly gave her son anti-psychotic drugs and poison in a desperate bid to avoid being forced to travel to Syria by her jihadi husband, a court heard.
The 27-year-old mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, deliberately gave the medication to the boy to make him unwell over a period of six weeks between August and October 2015.
On several occasions, while he was treated in hospital, she contaminated intravenous tubes used to administer antibiotics with an unknown noxious substance, believed to have been faeces or sink cleaner.
The woman, from London, claimed she was seeking to keep the young boy in hospital as she believed he would be safer there, Kingston Crown Court was told.
She was jailed for four years and six months on Friday after previously pleading guilty to eight charges, including administering a noxious substance to endanger life.
Defending, Kate O'Raghallaigh said the woman decided to deliberately make her son poorly after he spent time in hospital for an unrelated illness.
She said the woman was in "total panic" and under pressure to take her son to join the Caliphate in Syria from her now-former husband.
"That is how the idea came to life," Ms O'Raghallaigh told the court.
"Because it coincided with that period of pressure and panic ... she began to realise that if she made him ill, the hospital would have to take him in.
"As long as he was admitted, so she thought, he was safe, perverse as that thought process."
The boy, who was admitted to hospital on multiple occasions between August 23 and October 29, suffered severe neurological symptoms and bacterial infections, and at one point fell into a coma.
The bacteria in his blood is also found in the bowel and in hospital sinks and drains, tests revealed.
He has since recovered and has shown no long-term damage as a result of his illness.
The woman admitted one count of endangering life by administering olanzapine and four lesser counts of administering the anti-psychotic drug at earlier hearings.
She also pleaded guilty to three counts of administering an unknown noxious substance using a cannula while the boy was in hospital.
The woman was caught when hospital staff noticed the boy's condition would improve during the day and worsen again in the evening when his mother was present.
His unexplained illness stopped when 24-hour nursing was introduced.
Sentencing, Judge Peter Lodder QC said: "This was repeated behaviour. It was not isolated.
"You knew that your son would have to undergo painful invasive procedures and on October 29, what you gave your son was a potentially lethal dose."
He acknowledged that the woman had decided to pursue the "extreme course of action" to avoid what she perceived as the "greater harm" of travelling to Syria.
But he said she could have raised her concerns with hospital staff, instead choosing to persist with making her son ill.
Judge Lodder said: "What you were inflicting on that young child threatened the very life you claim you were seeking to protect and that must have become apparent to you."
The woman's husband went to Syria from the UK in April 2015.
Isobel Larkin had side effects from the hormonal IUD, including hair loss and anxiety. Credit:Janie Barrett "The whole experience felt like a scam. I never wanted it in the first place and then once I wanted it out, I felt like I had this thing stuck inside me without consent." Many women say their doctors have been reluctant to attribute problems to the IUD, despite many of the side-effects being listed in the device's pamphlet. The prescribing information of Bayer hormonal IUD, Mirena, states more than one in 20 women presented with a depressive mood or depressive episodes while using the device, yet many women aren't informed about this risk. Law and Journalism student Isobel Larkin, 27, had the hormonal IUD inserted to treat endometriosis last year. Without any warning about the potential side-effects, she suffered from acne, hair loss, anxiety, and intense abdominal pain.
We need to keep pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to develop alternatives ... Dr Deborah Bateson, Family Planning NSW. "I'd never been an anxious person, even with a lot on my plate. I told my GP how anxious I was, and about the fact that I was throwing up before work some mornings from anxiety, and he just said it was unrelated." Ms Larkin says her doctor conducted tests for diseases like coeliac to explain her abdominal pain, and that it was only when all options were exhausted that her doctor linked the issues with the IUD. "I feel like I've lost 12 months of my life because I haven't been living my life the way that I normally would, I feel like an idiot for not putting my foot down earlier and making someone take it out of me." Like many women whose concerns about their IUD were dismissed by doctors, Isobel sought out advice from non-medical support groups on the hormonal IUD online.
One online forum, Mirena IUD Support Group, has over 12,500 members, and includes a range of threads as members seek validation for the symptoms they are experiencing, such as hair loss and depressive episodes. Many women express frustration that their doctor isn't listening to them. Another, though less active, support page has over 55,000 likes. Experts say that most women find IUDs to be both safe and effective. But for the small group of women who do experience harmful side effects, it is imperative that they are believed and that their concerns are taken seriously, says Dr Deborah Bateson from Family Planning NSW. "The key thing is that women are given enough information to make an appropriate choice about what is going to suit them best at their stage of reproductive life, and then if they do have side-effects they don't like that they know that they can come and talk to their doctor to discuss it, knowing there are lots of options available." Dr Bateson emphasised that if women are experiencing side effects such as mood changes, they should consult their doctor rather than internet forums. She added that it is important that new forms of contraception continue to be developed. "We need to keep pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to develop alternatives, we want to make sure there is plenty of research going on to create new types of contraceptives, with lower doses or no hormones at all, and even the male contraceptive."
A study from Denmark last year suggested links between hormonal contraception and a higher likelihood to be prescribed antidepressants for the first time. Another Danish study this year found that women using hormonal contraception are at a higher risk of suicide. Dr Bateson said it would be remiss to condemn IUDs completely on the back of anecdotal reports, or the recent database studies from Denmark, and emphasised that for the vast majority of women, the hormonal IUD is the most effective birth control, and also safe. A recent CHOICE study in the United States found 88 per cent of women continued using the hormonal IUD after 12 months, and 79 per cent after 24 months. The study was conducted with over 9000 women over three years, and suggests methods like the IUD are among the most recommended. Associate Professor Kirsten Black, a contraceptive expert and the joint head of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Neonatology at the University of Sydney, says in her 10 years practicing she has removed fewer than 10 IUDs due to hormone-related side effects but acknowledges that women need to be counseled about all potential side-effects including mood changes. "With the hormonal IUD only a very small dose of hormone is released but women need to be counseled about all the potential side effects- including the possibility of depression- before consenting to the device. Any side effects are reversed as soon as the hormonal IUD is removed."
LARC contraception: How it works Contraceptive implant A small, flexible rod inserted under the skin of the inner upper arm that slowly releases a progestogen hormone to prevent ovulation for up to three years (99.9 per cent effective). Copper IUD A small, plastic T-shaped device with copper wire wrapped around its stem. The IUD is placed inside the uterus by a doctor. Two types of copper IUDs are available in Australia; one lasts up to five years, the other lasts up to 10 years (99 per cent effective). Hormone-releasing IUD The same T-shaped device releases the hormone levonorgestrel, which makes the mucus in the cervix thicker so that sperm cannot get into the uterus. It also affects the ability of the sperm and egg to move through the uterus and fallopian tubes, which reduces the chance of an egg being fertilised (99 per cent effective). Loading
2pm Flying from Brisbane to Melbourne and back today. I grab a hot chocolate with almond milk in the terminal before take-off.
11.45am An early Vietnamese lunch: vegetarian pho of rice noodles, mushrooms, tofu and Asian greens. Sparkling mineral water.
8.30am I go to the gym for an hour.
Qantas First Officer, Natasha Perry, 42, shares her day on a plate.
4.30pm On board I have a brown rice and tuna sushi roll I bought in the terminal, and the crew snack of coconut and quinoa salad with lemon dressing. Sparkling mineral water.
5.20pm A handful of warmed smoked almonds in Melbourne.
7pm Crew dinner is penne pasta in garlic tomato sauce with aubergine, zucchini and peppers, a mixed green side salad and a small bowl of fruit salad. Sparkling mineral water.
7.55pm Just before descent into Brisbane, a cup of cranberry and pomegranate herbal tea.
Dr Joanna McMillan says:
The ACT's four federal politicians have billed taxpayers more than $300,000 in parliamentary expenses during the second quarter of 2017, according to new documents.
Figures published recently by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority show more than $366,894 was claimed as expenses between April 1 and June 30 this year.
Zed Seselja claimed the most expenses out of the four ACT MPs. Credit:Graham Tidy
As an assistant minister in the government, Liberal senator Zed Seselja recorded the highest expenses for the time period, coming in at $146,500, the only ACT MP to have a six-figure bill to taxpayers.
Senator Seselja was the only ACT MP to record international travel among his expenses, which included more than $18,000 for a ministerial visit for bilateral meetings with both Thailand and the UK.
Canberrans were left shocked and scared after leaflets promoting white supremacy were dropped in letterboxes in the capital's south this week.
ACT police have confirmed they are now investigating the material.
Supplied pictures of the white supremacy material found in letterboxes in Tuggeranong and Greenway.
The leaflets laden with anti-semitic, racist text, described diversity as "white genocide" and directed readers to a website for the supposed group, 'Hussaric Dawn'.
But the mother of the man who authored the leaflets said her son had autism and was "easily led".
A Canberra man who was a NSW police sergeant when he tasered an unarmed Nowra man has been found guilty of perjury and common assault.
Magistrate Michael Antrum found the former-NSW police officer Nigel Alfred Davey, 47, guilty in the Queanbeyan Local Court on Tuesday.
Davey had been suspended previously for an incident involving a taser. Credit:Craig Abraham
Mr Antrum found Davey had lied to a Nowra court on October 1, 2014 when he said Regan Sutton was armed with a knife and had tried to attack him before Davey Tasered him on June 14, 2013.
It was found Mr Sutton had told Davey "f--- you" before the then-police sergeant, still seated in his squad car, tasered an unarmed Mr Sutton from five metres away.
Potentially more than 200 Centrelink debts in Canberra have been reduced or wiped by the welfare agency since the beginning of the controversial "robo-debt" recovery program.
The Gungahlin postcode of 2911, which has the lowest percentage of welfare recipients, had the highest percentage of debts that were later recalculated.
Canberra's total amount of debts wiped or reduced represents less than half a per cent of the total number of welfare recipients in the ACT.
The amount of debts wiped or reduced by postcode were tabled in federal parliament in September. For privacy reasons, postcodes with five or fewer miscalculations couldn't be totalled, so The Canberra Times counted them as five miscalculations.
As temperatures soar across Sydney, the battle grounds for the highly contested seat of Bennelong are also heating up, as campaigns on both sides double down in the last few hours of voting.
The byelection, which is seeing a face-off between former state premier Kristina Keneally and member of parliament John Alexander, is proving to be a hotly contested and closely watched race.
A loss for Mr Alexander on Saturday would leave the government with 75 seats, meaning the Coalition would no longer have a majority in the House of Representatives.
Yet on the day of polling, the voting centres in the northern Sydney electorate have been plastered with a series of negative campaign posters against each party.
NSW's first "pop-up prison" has opened in a bid to ease the pressure on the state's overcrowded jails but critics say the new centres are unnecessary and could lead to outbreaks of violence.
The Macquarie Correctional Centre in Wellington, in the state's west, opened on Friday as the first of two 'rapid-build' prisons that will each provide open-plan, dormitory style accommodation for 400 maximum- and medium-security male inmates
NSW's newest prison, the Macquarie Correctional Centre at Wellington in western NSW. The "pop-up prison" was built in 12 months.
It is part of the of the NSW government's $3.8 billion spend on expanding prison capacity.
The centres will have 16 dormitories, or 'pods', housing 25 inmates in individual cubicles rather than cells, somewhat like an open-plan office.
The Vatican has released a statement saying that the final report from the child abuse royal commission "deserves to be studied seriously."
The 17-volume document from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse marks the end of one of the world's biggest inquiries into child abuse and leaves it to the Australian government to decide whether to enact its recommendations.
The Vatican says the report from the royal commission into child abuse needs to be studied seriously. Credit:Fabio Frustaci
The commission's final report on Friday recommended the Australian Catholic Church should request permission from the Vatican to introduce voluntary celibacy for the clergy to reduce the risk of harm to children.
While not addressing the recommendations specifically, the press office of the Holy See did acknowledge the report in a brief statement.
It's the moment more than a decade of schooling has been building towards and on Saturday morning the results for the outgoing year 12 cohort were released online.
Bridgette Ryan, 17, graduated from Loreto College Coorparoo in 2017 with an OP7.
After the results were released students and their families shared the news.
Loreto graduates Bridgette Ryan and Sara McLennan both achieved the results they needed to guarantee a place in their first-preference courses.
Ms Ryan was awarded an OP7 and easily made the cut for primary teaching at the University of Queensland, which was her first choice course with a minimum requirement of OP11.
A male motorcyclist's leg has been severed in a collision with a car on Saturday morning.
Emergency services were called about 8.40am to Drayton-Wellcamp Road at Wellcamp in the Toowoomba region.
The rider, aged in his thirties, was taken to Toowoomba Base Hospital with serious injuries and the female driver of the car was treated at the scene for shock.
The Forensic Crash Unit was investigating.
By next year you could build a mobile app within 10 minutes thanks to a Brisbane-based start-up.
Codebots is a software development platform that was created to take the stress and time out of building mobile and web-based apps by writing 92 per cent of the softwares code.
Codebots founder Eban Escott launches Beta application.
Co-founder Eban Escott launched Codebots beta program this week to iron out kinks before its public release early next year.
He said the aim of the platform was to make technology more accessible for everyone.
Many of us need to use it, for research or to contact lost friends. In some parts of the world, it helps, in a limited way, to spread democracy.
But it stresses us, even while it is temporarily calming us. Like a poker machine, its unpredictability invites us back for hit after hit until we are so full of chemicals we suffer "disconnection anxiety" when we are away from the screen. We all know people who grieve how much time social media sucks up and how angry or upset they feel after sessions on it, but they still go there.
Further, it normalises deception. The late sociologist Ben Agger described social media as an "electronic prosthesis" for identity. It allows, and often requires, us to fabricate identities.
Like its younger cousin Twitter, it encourages polarisation as much as discussion, often functioning as an echo chamber. Twitter's co-founder, Evan Williams, told The New York Times in May that he had thought that once everyone could speak freely and exchange ideas, the world would automatically become "a better place". He added: "I was wrong about that."
At the Canberra launch of her biography in November, former Greens leader Christine Milne said it wasn't that long ago that people talked about the same things. Media consumption was shared. Now, there are fewer conversations, fewer common stories. It's harder to get people in the same room. Politicians use Facebook to create their own separate news channels, shielded from scrutiny.
Thirty men, woman and children fleeing gang violence in El Salvador have been granted asylum in Australia by the Turnbull government. The seven families are the first to arrive in Australia from Central American as refugees under a deal struck by Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull and then US president Barack Obama last year. A Manus demonstration hosted by Refugee Action Coalition Sydney and GetUp! in First Fleet Park, Circular Quay on November 26. Credit:Anna Kucera Although few other details are available about the 30 individuals in part to preserve their safety Fairfax Media understands the main applicants and their family had been living in hiding in El Salvador and faced gang-related intimidation and violence before being transferred to Costa Rica. The UNHCR, International Organisation for Migration and US government have established a "Protection Transfer Arrangement" in Costa Rica and, after referral by the UNHCR, the Australian government assessed the 30 people and granted them humanitarian visas.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton who has been criticised by asylum seekers, the UN and human rights groups for Australia's offshore detention system and a hardline approach to people attempting to arrive by boat said the Turnbull government had "restored integrity to our refugee and humanitarian program". As a result, "the dividend of this is that we can provide the most vulnerable in the world the new start to their life that they deserve. This intake provides deserving people with an opportunity to start a new life in our country. It's a Christmas gift they could never have imagined possible a few years ago," he said. "Australia remains one of the top three countries for resettlement of refugees. The 2016-17 offshore humanitarian program was the largest in over 30 years." According to the UNHCR, the number of people fleeing gang violence in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras has skyrocketed in recent years. Most head to Mexico or Costa Rica and then on to the United States. As part of the Turnbull-Obama deal, the US agreed to take as many as 1250 asylum seekers who were sent to Nauru or Manus Island by the Australian government; after sharply criticising the "dumb deal", US President Donald Trump eventually backed down and agreed to honour the agreement struck by his predecessor.
Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, speaks during the ANC conference. Credit:Waldo Swiegers Two front-runners are locked in a tight race to succeed him, embodying starkly different strains within a deeply divided party. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a medical doctor and anti-apartheid veteran who served in several roles in previous governments, is also a former wife of Zuma. She has his support and that of many of his allies and has adopted his populist rhetoric. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, wife of former president Nelson Mandela, greets the audience during the 54th national conference of the African National Congress party. Credit:Waldo Swiegers Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president, has won the support of some of Jacob Zuma's fiercest opponents: business groups and middle-class black voters in cities. His own record in business, however as a former trade union leader whose ANC connections helped him become one of the country's richest men has made him a representative of the gulf between South Africa's tiny new black elite and its poor.
Critics have focused on Zuma, 75, to explain the ANC's precipitous decline. And Zuma, who has six wives and as deputy president was tried and acquitted on a rape accusation, makes an easy target. But the problems go beyond just one man. Like other liberation parties in southern Africa, including those in Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Mozambique, the ANC has never lost power since ousting white rulers and has come to focus on retaining that power and the access it provides. In South Africa where the economy has stagnated under Zuma patronage and corruption have built a system that will be difficult to dismantle. In many of the ANC's rural strongholds, the party remains the main source of business and jobs. Nationwide, access to state enterprises has been the reward for Zuma's allies, including friends with few professional skills and the Guptas, a wealthy family who have acquired widespread business interests. State enterprises, through the awarding of contracts, or tenders, have created an entire class of ANC loyalists sometimes derided as "tenderpreneurs."
"There is nothing exceptional in what has happened to the ANC because it is the path that all African liberation parties have taken," said Ralph Mathekga, a political analyst. "It has failed to modernise from liberation politics to managing a complex modern society." "People personalise it to say it's all about Zuma, but every post-liberation African society risks having a Mobutu," he said, referring to Mobutu Sese Seko, the notoriously corrupt former ruler of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. "What makes this different is that people's expectations of the ANC were higher because it was a latecomer and because of Mandela." Apartheid ended in 1994, well after liberation had swept the rest of the continent. Mandela served as South Africa's first democratic president from 1994 to 1999. His successor, Thabo Mbeki ??? whose Pan-African vision was encapsulated in his phrase "African Renaissance"??? was forced out of power in 2008 before the end of his second term by Zuma and his allies. As the ANC and other liberation parties have remained virtually unchallenged, the nation's fiercest political fighting has occurred inside the governing party. As ANC delegates from across the country converged in Johannesburg, the closeness of the leadership contest underscored the deep fissures inside the party.
Should Dlamini-Zuma win and she has the support of the party's youth and women's leagues most experts predict a continuation of the Zuma era. Analysts point out that Zuma, who is still dogged by a multitude of corruption charges, would probably be protected under a government she led. Dlamini-Zuma has adopted some of her ex-husband's populist language, railing against "white monopoly capital," the term used by critics of the concentration of wealth in the hands of white South Africans. She has said that, as president, she would focus on "radical economic transformation" by redistributing the country's wealth from whites to blacks and that she did not care about getting the backing of the country's business groups. "I'm not surprised white minority capital is not endorsing me," she said last month. Dlamini-Zuma has defended her public record "I don't loot government coffers," she said but she has said little about the widespread corruption under her former husband.
A victory for Ramaphosa, in contrast, would be likely to give the economy a quick boost and prevent a further downgrade of the country's national sovereign debt, which has fallen to junk level because of Zuma's efforts to gain direct control over the country's treasury and other policies that have driven away investors. Ramaphosa could also win back some black middle-class voters who, in recent years, have begun abandoning the ANC. Last year, in the greatest shock to the party since it gained power with the end of apartheid in 1994, the ANC lost control over the nation's largest cities, including Johannesburg, Pretoria and Nelson Mandela Bay, after black middle-class voters disillusioned with Zuma's ANC abstained from voting or jumped to the opposition. A key negotiator in the talks that led to the end of apartheid, Ramaphosa was Mandela's chosen successor as president. But after losing to Mbeki, Ramaphosa entered business, where his career has given him a more troubling legacy. In 2012, in the worst killing of civilians since the end of apartheid, the police shot dead 34 wildcat strikers at a platinum mine in Marikana belonging to Lonmin, a company where Ramaphosa sat on the board.
An official inquiry into the massacre found that he had tried to intervene with the authorities on behalf of the company, though it eventually absolved him of guilt. Nevertheless, to many, Ramaphosa became the symbol of an ANC elite that had betrayed the people it once fought for. Ramaphosa, who returned to politics in 2012, has pledged to fight corruption. But during the more than three years he has served as deputy president under Zuma, he remained largely silent on the issue and stood behind the president, though he has tried to distance himself in recent months. Last month, in a speech on South Africa's ailing economy, he said, "We must acknowledge that our ability to overcome these challenges has been undermined over the last decade by a failure of leadership and misguided priorities." Neither candidate has inspired people the way past leaders have done over the ANC's 105-year history. Africa's oldest liberation party, it once captured minds and hearts across the continent. "For people in my generation, we grew up in the anti-apartheid struggle," said Owei Lakemfa, a veteran labor activist in Nigeria, where many ANC leaders sought refuge before the end of apartheid. "The ANC held a lot of promise for us then. Now, it does not."
Bangkok: Police have arrested a 72 year-old retired Australian man after he was allegedly caught with drugs in the southern riverside Cambodian town of Kampot.
Gary Robert Knowles, from Canberra, faces years in Cambodia's notoriously harsh jails if convicted of drugs charges.
Gary Robert Knowles. Credit:Cambodian Police
Police said they discovered nine boxes of ecstasy and other drugs in a raid on a rented house in the town on Friday.
Police also arrested a 28 year-old Cambodian women identified as Meas Phary.
Berlin: More emphasis should be placed on the Holocaust in integration courses for migrants, Germany's justice minister said, reflecting heightened unease among leading politicians about a spate of anti-Semitic acts including Israeli flag burnings.
More than a million migrants have arrived in Germany in the last three years, many of them fleeing conflict in the Middle East, causing concern that anti-Semitism could increase.
Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, right, and Rabbi Segal Shmoel, left, inspect a giant Hanukkah Menorah, set up by the Jewish Chabad Educational Centre, at the Pariser Platz in Berlin. Credit:Markus Schreiber
German police have reported protesters setting Israeli flags ablaze and using anti-Semitic slogans in Berlin and other cities in demonstrations against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
In a piece for weekly magazine Der Spiegel, Justice Minister Heiko Maas wrote that the Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed six million Jews, and its significance needed to become an even more important part of integration courses and migrants should be tested on it in the examination at the end of their course.
Number of stories by ethnic group & type of reporting
CHRISTINA HO | The Conversation | Pacific Media Watch
Read the complete article here
SYDNEY- Half of all race-related opinion pieces in the Australian mainstream media are likely to contravene industry codes of conduct on racism.
In research released this week, the Who Watches the Media report found that of 124 race-related opinion pieces published between January and July this year, 62 were potentially in breach of one or more industry codes of conduct, because of racist content.
Despite multiple industry codes of conduct stipulating fair race-related reporting, racist reporting is a weekly phenomenon in Australias mainstream media.
We define racism as unjust covert or overt behaviour towards a person or a group on the basis of their racial background. This might be perpetrated by a person, a group, an organisation, or a system.
An American child predator who lured a 16-year-old Sydney girl to the US "to satisfy his own sordid desires" has been found guilty in a New York court.
Sean Price, 39, faces life in prison after a Brooklyn jury found him guilty on four counts, including attempted sexual exploitation of a child and foreign transportation of a minor to engage in sexual activity.
Price began an online relationship with the girl, who lived in Sydney's upper north shore, in 2016 and by January 2017, they were communicating daily on Facebook.
Prosecutors said much of the discussion involved Price's desire to engage in sex with the girl despite knowing her age, and finding a way for her to travel to New York without authorities or her parents finding out.
A powerful magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the island of Java in Indonesia, with authorities reporting three deaths and damage to hundreds of buildings.
The US Geological Survey said the epicentre of the quake just before midnight on Friday was located at a depth of 92 kilometres, about 52 kilometres south-west of Tasikmalaya.
A man inspects the damage at a school building after an earthquake in Tasikmalaya, West Java, on Saturday. Credit:Erwin Widiagiri
Indonesia's national disaster management agency said the quake activated early tsunami warning systems in the south of Java, prompting thousands to evacuate from some coastal areas, but no tsunami was detected.
Tremors were felt in central and west Java.
Community Bookstores pick: Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
Mrs. Caliban is a brilliant cult classic, long out of print and recently republished by New Directions. Despondent housewife Dorothy, navigating suburban tedium and a cheating husband, wakes up one morning to discover a six-foot lizard man in her backyard. He has escaped from a research facility after killing his captors. Shes intrigued. A setup worthy of a B-movie or an episode of The Twilight Zone is instead played for pathos. A surprisingly poignant and ultimately tragic meditation on identity and relationships.
Samuel Partal, Community Bookstore [43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 7833075, www.communitybookstore.net].
Greenlight Bookstores pick: The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson
This book is both a genre-bender and a page-turner, a cocktail of memoir, true crime, and psychoanalysis. Author Maggie Nelsons aunt Jane was murdered in 1969, and the case remained unsolved until late 2004, when DNA evidence revealed a new suspect, who would be arrested and tried in front a court. At the time, Nelson was about to publish her book Jane: A Murder, which told the story of her aunts life and death in narrative verse. Nelson decided to attend the trial, and The Red Parts details all that follows. It is an examination of our cultural fascination with sexualized violence, and an inquiry into the nature of dread, grief, justice, and empathy.
Melissa Hohl, Greenlight Bookstore [686 Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 2460200, www.greenlightbookstore.com].
Words pick: Catboy by Benji Nate
This book is pure delight! Webcomic-turned-graphic novel Catboy centers on friendless art school grad Olive, who wishes on a falling star for her cat Henry to come hang out with her like a person. He does, but hes still kind of a cat and thus hijinks ensue including sardines, dog-sitting, figure drawing, and slumber parties with a mix of cat and human participants. Catboy is a bubblegum pop of a read sugary-sweet, loud, and (if youre like me), it will leave you in a sticky film of nostalgia for your early 20s.
Ashanti White-Wallace, Word [126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 3830096, www.wordbookstores.com].
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.
Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.
Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.
You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
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California wildfire update: Thomas fire claims its first victim
California firefighters had to bid farewell to one of their fellow fighters after he died in the middle of his duty to contain the Thomas fire. Fire Engineer Cory David Iverson, 32, is the first firefighter fatality in what is believed to be one of the worst wildfires in history.
As of Friday, firefighters are able to contain 35 percent of Thomas fire that is wreaking havoc in the Ventura County. Iverson was in the middle of driving a fire along the east flank of the Thomas Fire when he was pronounced dead on Dec. 14.
Iverson left behind his wife, his 2-year-old daughter, and his unborn child. His friends, families, and fellow firefighters held a procession on the day of his death to honor his years of service. Iverson had been with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or Cal Fire since 2009.
Cal Fire officials released a message via Twitter for their fallen comrade. The post reads, "Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of Cal Fire Fire Engineer Cory Iverson of the @CALFIRESANDIEGO Unit. Please keep his family and fellow firefighters in your thoughts, as we all grieve this devastating loss."
The Thomas fire continues to burden firefighters due to its size. All other wildfires are either contained or about to be. Lilac fire in the San Diego County is 99 percent contained, and the Coast fire across the Santa Barbara is fully contained.
According to a Los Angeles Times article, Thomas fire might go down in history as the largest wildfire in California. The largest wildfire in record is the Santiago Canyon fire back in 1889 that scorched over 300,000 acres.
The Thomas fire has been ablaze for almost two weeks now, since Dec. 4. Firefighters are having a hard time battling the fire due to dry environment conditions and high winds.
Chinese drills near North Korea commenced; conflict between US and North Korea escalating; US seeks Russia's help to end crisis
China's Navy has commenced live-fire drills along the coast of North Korea amid the tension between the rogue nation and the United States. The drills are launched in order to prepare the country for a potential nuclear war in the region between the U.S. and North Korea.
Several publications are stating that China's decision to hold drills near North Korea is an indication that the country will side with the hermit country in times of war. The dual suspension proposal by China and Russia earlier was also disregarded by the United States. Earlier in November, China and Russia presented an idea for the U.S. to cancel the ongoing drills with South Korea in exchange for North Korea hitting the breaks in its weapons programs.
North Korea is not slowing down with its missile program. Before November ends, North Korea Leader Kim Jong-Un released new photos of their biggest missile that could reach the United States.
There is still no confirmation if China's decision to hold drills of its own near North Korea is predicated on United States' dual suspension refusal. United States is still seeking the assistance of Russia and President Vladimir Putin to convince North Korea to abandon its weapons program. Trump mentioned that he recently had a conversation with Putin regarding the issue with North Korea. The President is indicating that Russia should exert more effort in mending the crisis.
"We would love to have his (Vladimir Putin) with North Korea. China is helping. Russia is not helping. We'd like to have Russia's help, very important," the POTUS said.
"We're gonna see what happens with North Korea, we have a lot of support. There are a lot of nations that agree with us. Almost everybody," he added.
Putin has not released a public statement regarding Trump's comment about the lack of effort from his government to resolve the problem with North Korea.
Former POTUS Barack Obama and wife Michelle pay surprise visits to few schools in D.C.
As the holiday spirit heats up, former US President Barack Obama visits a few schools around Washington D.C. to share happiness and gifts. Obama even puts on a Santa hat to cheer up the young ones.
Last Thursday, Obama with her wife and former First Lady Michelle Obama paid the Jelleff Club a surprise visit. Obama spent some time with over 50 middle school students, giving out gifts and a few jokes. Obama also had a long conversation with the kids hearing and asking about their own stories.
Obama also posted a picture of him with the kids on Twitter, showing they are all smiles. Obama rocked a Santa hat paired with a leather jacket to give a Cool Santa Clause vibe.
Obama captioned the photo with, "There's no better time than the holiday season to reach out and give back to our communities. Great to hear from young people at the Boys & Girls Club in D.C. today."
A video posted by Obama's communication director, Katie Hill, showed the former President being treated like a celebrity as he walks in. Children are seen shaking his hands and taking photos as he carries a sack full of gifts. Hill then wrote the hashtag "ObamaAndKids."
According to the reports, Obama and Michelle had four other surprise visits to different schools in D.C. According to Also, last month, Obama together with Michelle and the prominent Prince Harry surprised a high school in Chicago with gifts.
Several netizens praised the 44th President of the United States for what he has been up to these past few weeks.
In a tweet, Obama also greeted the Hanukkah holiday and everyone celebrating it. "Happy Hanukkah, everybody, from the Obama family to yours, Chag Sameach."
People are waiting for more surprise visits from Obama as they wait for Christmas day and the New Year's.
Indian priest arrested, seminary investigated after hardline Hindus denounce them for 'conversion' activities
Indian police arrested a Christian priest and were questioning members of a seminary after a hardline Hindu group accused them of trying to convert villagers to Christianity by distributing Bibles and singing carols, police said on Saturday.
The priest was arrested on Friday after a member of the Bajrang Dal, a powerful Hindu group associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party, accused 50 members of a seminary of distributing the Bible, photos of Jesus Christ and singing carols in a village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
'Our members have registered a criminal case because we have proof to show how Christian priests were forcibly converting poor Hindus,' said Abhay Kumar Dhar, a senior member of the Bajrang Dal in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh.
The Bajrang Dal has direct links with Modi's ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Madhya Pradesh, governed by the BJP, has strict religious conversion laws. People must give formal notice to local administrators in order to change religion.
'We have arrested the priest but have not booked him under the anti-conversion law because the probe into the allegations is still on,' said Rajesh Hingankar, the investigating official in Satna district, where the incident occurred.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India said they were 'shocked, and pained at the unprovoked violence against Catholic priests and seminarians'.
'We were only singing carols, but the hardline Hindus attacked us and said we were on a mission to make India a Christian nation ... that's not true,' said Anish Emmanuel, a member of the St Ephrem's Theological College in Satna.
The college's website says: 'On the eve of Christmas, we go to the villages to stage a Christmas drama, to sing carols, and to give a thought provoking Christmas message. We present the drama in their cultural context and integrate in it the great message of Christmas... As part of great joy and happiness, we share Christmas cakes with the villagers.'
Two senior police officials in Bhopal said they had detained six members of the Bajrang Dal who had allegedly torched a car owned by a Christian priest in Satna, 480 km (300 miles) northeast of Bhopal.
Religious conversion is a sensitive issue in India, with Hindu groups often accusing Christian missionaries of using cash and marriage to lure poor villagers to convert to their faith.
Modi's government has been criticised for failing to do enough to stop attacks on minority Christians and Muslims by hardline Hindu groups.
The government rejects the allegation and denies any bias against Christians or Muslims.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
PlayStation 4 update 5.03 features: New upgrade only brings minor improvements
Sony has released a new firmware update for all PlayStation 4 consoles. However, it looks like the console's users will have to keep their expectations low as the new firmware version does not bring major upgrades.
Version 5.03 is said to be just a minor update, although Sony promised that it will improve system performance.
The upgrade will be mandatory installed. Users just have to turn their PlayStation 4 on, and then the upgrade will be downloaded automatically when the device is in Rest Mode.
The update's file size is about 375 MB. However, if the user is going to download the update's backup version to a flash drive, it will be about 910.4 MB.
Compared to the new 5.03 firmware update, October's version 5.0 upgrade for PlayStation 4 brought along a lot of improvements and new features, including built-in streaming capabilities and a much better Friends Lists. Also, the device's Quick Menu became handier and new and improved parental control features were added.
On the other hand, the 5.03 firmware update for PlayStation 4 does not bring the upgrades that users have been waiting for. Specifically, players have been wanting to change their PSN names. At the recent PlayStation Experience 2017, Sony teased that this might finally happen within a year.
According to reports, PlayStation 4 definitely had a good year in terms of total sales, but, unfortunately, 2017 has not been a great one. Sony has even faced a major blow in the latest Google search rankings.
As the search engine revealed the greatest consumer tech searches of 2017, PlayStation 4 did not make it to the top 10. The most searched gadget of the year was Apple's iPhone 8 followed by the iPhone X.
Nintendo Switch landed the third spot, while the Samsung Galaxy 8 is seated at fourth and the Xbox One X is at fifth place. The sixth to tenth ranks were filled by other smartphones.
Mortgage Bankers Association (The MBA) is a 2,400-member trade association for the real estate finance industry, which includes both the residential single-family lender side and the commercial multifamily side. The organizations members range from small community banks and credit unions to the largest lenders in the country, and it also has vendors for the industry including technology, law firms, and the big consulting companies who work with banks and mortgage lenders. The organization provides four main services. First, it provides advocacy for the community it serves in the lending space. Second, it organizes around 20 conferences for the industry, across a range of disciplines. Third, the organization provides industry education. Fourth, the MBA has a research in economics arm that focuses on data collection, analysis, reporting, and forecasting.
Peter Grace is the CIO and Senior Vice President of Strategy and Member Services. In this role, he has the traditional CIO responsibilities, but he has leveraged his background as consultant and as a process expert to branch into new areas of value to the MBA and to its customers, as he tells CIO Insight contributor, Peter High.
Peter High: When you joined the MBA, the organization had gone roughly five years without a CIO. Interestingly, they chose someone who had not been a CIO. What about your background suggested that you were the right choice?
Peter Grace: I studied mechanical engineering as an undergrad, and I have been involved in tech throughout my career. I started my career at Anderson Consulting. This was back when they put you through programmer training. I was trained as a COBOL programmer right out of college. I programmed my first couple of years at Anderson/Accenture, then I moved into process and strategy work. I never quite shook my technology chops from those early days though. Technology was a thread in all of the work I did at Accenture.
After graduate school I worked for the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Similar to what happened here, my role ended up growing to include the IT department. When I went to Housing and Urban Development (HUD), we set up a new strategic management office. At HUD, I was not wholly in tech, but I worked closely with the CIO. Coming here, initially my position was strategy focused, but then our CEO recognized we had a gap on the technology side and he knew enough about my background to know I could step into that, as well. It was a rebuilding process for the MBA at that time. Our first step on the technology side was building our internal infrastructure and stabilizing our ecosystem.
High: How long did that take?
Grace: The building and stabilization was two to three years. We focused a lot initially on
desktop and network infrastructure. We moved all of our servers into the cloud because we run an almost completely virtual server and desktop environment. Being that virtualized enables us to work with a smaller staff. The key was getting out of the server business, as many organizations have done or are struggling to do. I do not want to be worried about what the latest hardware need is. Those early years we were also working on our process infrastructure, which included simple things like how you submit a tech request for assistance, whether it is for one of our applications or a desktop. Processes had to be put in place to create transparency and clarity.
High: If the first three years were about stabilization and establishing standards, presumably in the most recent two years of your tenure, you have been able to focus more on the strategic side and adding value. What are some of the strategic uses of technology that are now blossoming?
Grace: You hit it on the head. That was the pivot. We are in the middle of contract negotiation to move off our current association management system, which is like a CRM for associations.
In our education arm, we recently invested in a content management system, and now we are looking at moving to a new learning management system.
On the Marketing and external presence side, we worked with our Marketing team to revamp our web presence. That was a significant deal that coincided with the rebranding of the MBA itself. We have introduced more mobile capabilities for our conferences and for our advocacy efforts. For instance, we developed a mobile app that allows people to take action on pending legislation.
We have gotten into data and analytics and begun to embrace concepts around big data. We invested in Salesforces artificial intelligence platform, Einstein. We created a member engagement index that looks at a host of ways members can be involved in the MBA. Through some weighting and scoring, we come up with a number based on that particular companys activities over the past period. It is not the score in and of itself we are looking at, but more where a company stacks with their peers. It is a tool that tells us what is going on. For example, we can use the score to anticipate who might be at risk. That tells us whom we may want to focus on and do more proactive outreach for. It is a great example of technology and strategy and some of the organizational changes we have made in the member services space all coming together.
High: How do you think about strategy? Is it largely at an enterprise level or does it cascade to the different business portions of the organization you described?
Grace: When I joined the MBA, in 2012, they had recently completed a strategic planning exercise with a consultant and created a five-year road map. It was not terribly prescriptive. We took that plan and evolved it year over year. Annually, we engaged a pretty significant portion of the organization, typically in one or two-day off-site events, to look at the broad framework of the five-year strategic plan. We did environmental scans of the marketplace and explored what was going on from a regulatory perspective; all of the classic stuff. It also involved a lot of discussion and brainstorming.
Over the years, I have learned that for strategy, less is more, particularly for an organization of our size. The more we can focus on a few things and do them well, and then move on to the next thing, the better it is for employees and the organization. When you create a five-year plan, you do not know exactly what is going to come out the back end. That was a classic example of evolving initiatives within a broader set of priorities the leadership team and the board set out for the organization.
We have a fairly broad based process for engagement and a lot of board engagement too. We just did another five-year plan. It is a broad outline more than a prescriptive set of initiatives. From a program management perspective, I have to think about how to manage those initiatives. I have also learned that, particularly in a smaller organization, there is not much appetite for a lot of reporting or structure around status updates. In response to this, we have come up with a few simpler ways to gauge and report on progress that are fairly light touch but still do the job.
High: Are there other topics you would like to shine a light on?
Grace: Like every other organization, and certainly among our members, cyber security is a massive topic. We have a Vice President for Industry Technology that I work closely with. Our members are trying to navigate what is going on in the fintech space and the RegTech space. Our role as a facilitator of information is increasing. The MBA works as a clearinghouse of information and connects with our members to help them navigate these areas.
High: In relation to some of the innovation topics you talked about, like fintech innovation, how do you educate yourself and make sure that your team remains current so that you know who is who, what is what, and are well situated to provide advice?
Grace: There is no shortage of information on what is going on in the fintech space. My team and I take part in conferences and as many events as we can. There are a couple of folks on my team, more on the membership side, who are passionate about this area. They talk to members and people on all sides of the issues, and then we make sure the information flows through the team.
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. His latest book is Implementing World Class IT Strategy. He is also the author of World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs. Peter moderates the Forum on World Class IT podcast series. He speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.
The disorder that has long dominated the streets of Portland, Oregon reached a new low earlier this month, when Columbia Sportswear, a major retailer headquartered just outside of nearby Beaverton, had to close its flagship store downtown for a day after protestors blocked shoppers from entering. The protestors were reacting to an op-ed by Tim Boyle, Columbias CEO, in which he confessed that relocating his company to downtown Portland may have been a mistake, citing the crimes and indecencies his employees have endured, including daily defecation by transients in the stores lobby. Certain repeat offenders of the citys vagrant population, along with other agitators, have issued death threats and broken into cars; one Columbia employee had to run into moving traffic after a stranger followed her and threatened to kill her.
Boyle, who is considering closing his store permanently, was right to call these events outrageous and unacceptable, yet Portland mayor Ted Wheeler has offered excuses rather than confronting the issue. On Thursday, Wheeler blamed his citys wave of homelessness on the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, attacking Secretary Ben Carson for failing to provide solutions. Meanwhile, the city has been reluctant to deploy the crime-prevention resources that it already has at its disposal to address the homelessness wave.
The situation faced by Columbia Sportswear represents a broader problem facing progressive cities like Portland, which have increasingly tolerated vagrancy and tent cities, pressuring law-enforcement to take a hands-off approach to policing homelessness and other social disruptions. While this approach may be kindhearted, residents and businesses shouldnt have to suffer the consequences. The harassment faced by Columbia Sportswear employees is no outlier; similar abuses have roiled the small-business community across Portland. On Black Friday, Anne Bocci, who owns an upscale art and jewelry boutique that prides itself on not being a big corporate business, encountered the same type of terrifying situation when her store was robbed. He stole from me and he threatened my life, twice, said Bocci of her assailanta repeat offender in downtown Portland. She added that, the police came and then he came back four minutes later after they left.
Judith Arnell, another jeweler, will be closing her doors after doing business in Portland for over 20 years. The biggest problem is that the customers feel unsafe, so I cant afford to save this, Arnell noted. She also recalled that a surveillance camera caught a man defecating outside of her front door, and that this wasnt the first time that it had happened.
Business owners recently took their outrage directly to Mayor Wheelers administration. Kevin Pilla, owner of the home-goods store Budd and Finn, gave a scathing critique of city government, his store having been broken into just a few nights before. Crime is literally killing my business, Pilla announced. There are no consequences. Business owners are right to be outraged.
The citys policies on street homelessness have had disastrous results not just for the business community but also for average Portlanders. An urgent shift to enforce standards in public safety is needed. For starters, Wheeler should dramatically boost police presence in the parts of downtown Portland that contain most of the transient camps. The mayor has announced plans to install no camping signs and heighten security, but these have yet to materialize. Meantime, his plan to offer security training to small business may be well-intentioned, but it also signals surrender. Mom-and-Pop shops should not have to take classes on how to secure their businesses, and their customers should not accept harassment as normal. Wheeler should give police the go-ahead to take a more hands-on approach to dealing with transient residents and agitators who threaten public safety. Police shouldnt feel constrained. New standards in sanitation enforcement must be implemented throughout the city, too.
Having allowed the crisis to grow to this scale, the city government will need to take bold steps to demonstrate its commitment to shaping up the city. Genuinely needy citizens deserve help, but harassment or violence by transients and vagrants is unacceptable. Wheelers response thus far has been shameful. Businesses and residents should demand an urban bill of rights, holding their leaders accountable for guaranteeing standards of safety that everyone should be able to take for granted.
Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
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Books that can help increase your financial prowess could make a great stocking stuffer this holiday season. We asked financial advisors what books they recommend to boost your financial acumen and improve your understanding of money and the markets. Here are their picks .
"The Richest Man in Babylon"
This book by George S. Clason, which was originally published in 1926, "holds financial truths that are still applicable today," said financial advisor Scott Hanson, senior partner at McClain Advisors in Sacramento, California. The book teaches personal finance lessons through stories. It shows that becoming financially independent is not based on stock picking or market timing, according to Hanson. "This is a good one for a young person who is trying to figure out how to be financially secure," Hanson said.
"The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need"
This book by Andrew Tobias is a primer on budgeting, saving, investing in the stock market and more. "A reader of this book will come away with the wisdom that trying to outsmart the financial markets is a fool's game," Hanson said. The book is suited for "anyone who is concerned about how to best save for the long-term, whether it's retirement or a newborn's college savings," Hanson said.
"The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing"
This book, along with "The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning," is based on the investment philosophy of John C. Bogle, index fund pioneer and founder of The Vanguard Group. These books are good for new investors and those who want to strengthen their knowledge of fundamental investing and financial planning strategies, said Roger Ma, founder of lifelaidout. "The Bogleheads series does a great job of breaking down what the average person needs to know while drowning out extraneous details," Ma said. Of course, if you want advice directly from Bogle himself, his book titled "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" is considered a classic.
"The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous and Smart About Money"
In this book, New York Times columnist Ron Lieber discusses how parents can positively shape their children's views and behaviors tied to money. The book also offers practical advice on the right ways to handle everything from cell phone to college expenses to avoid spoiling your children. "It makes parents take stock of their own values around spending, saving and giving which can help change their behavior for the better, too," said Carolyn McClanahan, director of financial planning at Life Planning Partners.
"Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time"
Susan Scott's "Fierce Conversations" focuses on how to best get your message across in everyday conversations at home and at work. Though this book is not about money, it can help you learn to better wade through difficult discussions about finances, McClanahan said. "It will definitely help in the financial realm for people having issues with money and their spouse/family," McClanahan said.
"The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea"
This book by Bob Burg and John David Mann tells the story of one young man and a group of successful business professionals he meets. Together, their stories help the young man identify five laws of success. One key takeaway is how "helping others obtain success opens the door for you to receive gifts that help you to obtain success," said Zaneilia Harris, president of Harris & Harris Wealth Management Group. "This reminds you that the more you give, the more you receive," Harris said.
"The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money"
People often let their behavior get in the way of smart financial decisions, according to Carl Richards, author of "The Behavior Gap." In the book, Richards shows how you the decisions you make could be sabotaging your financial success. This book is great for getting beginners in the right investing mindset, said Dana Anspach, founder and CEO of Sensible Money in Scottsdale, Arizona. "It helps you understand how to think about money and investing," Anspach said. "This book can keep you from making big mistakes."
"Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth"
This book by David G. Thomson explores the seven things business leaders have done to build billion-dollar companies like Microsoft, Google, Starbucks and Nike. The lessons can help you work toward exponential growth for your business or yourself. "Anyone focused on growing an organization would benefit from these blueprint lessons," said Paul Pagnato, founder and CEO at PagnatoKarp in Reston, Virginia.
"Non-Obvious 2018 Edition: How to Predict Trends and Win the Future"
Rohit Bhargava updates his book annually to reflect today's trends and what you can learn from them. The volume highlights everything from 3-D printing to the differences between augmented and virtual realities, according to Barry Glassman, president of Glassman Wealth Services in Vienna, Virginia. "Non-Obvious is perfect for the curious," said Glassman, who plans to include it with the books he gives to clients this holiday season.
"Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending"
For those looking to winterize their portfolios, CNBC's Jim Cramer recommended looking no further than two cozy coat makers.
"I want to highlight two of the most prominent winter weather apparel plays. I bet you know these: Columbia Sportswear ... and its new challenger, although I think there's room for everybody, Canada Goose , which came public earlier this year," the "Mad Money" host said. "Both of these stocks are on fire."
After some serious gains Columbia ran from the mid-$50s in August to over $70 on Friday and Canada Goose has seen a 64 percent gain since Cramer recommended it in March Cramer wondered if they still have more room to run.
Columbia, a boot- and coat-focused manufacturer of high-tech gear that keeps you warm without making you sweat, has seen some tough times in the last few years.
In 2015, the retailer's growth dramatically slowed, kicking off an earnings decline that lasted until early 2017.
"Columbia had two main problems: the annihilation of bricks-and-mortar retailers that sell so many of their products and the fact that we had two really warm winters in a row," Cramer said. "However, after spending a couple of years in the penalty box, Columbia seems to be getting its groove back."
With the best holiday season in years underway, investors have once again warmed to the retail sector. Plus, Columbia has been helping itself by spreading brand awareness, expanding its direct-to-consumer channels and improving the customer experience.
When Columbia reported a top- and bottom-line beat in November but management cut its full-year guidance, the stock still rallied, showing Wall Street's confidence in the business.
Canada Goose, on the other hand, is more of a luxury brand, producing high-quality coats that sell for hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars.
The company came public in March, and while the stock sold off over the summer, it has made a roaring comeback, hitting a new high earlier this week.
"The beauty of this story is that there's really not much noise here. What you see with Canada Goose is what you get, and what you see are some truly fantastic earnings reports," Cramer said.
Canada Goose's earnings reports in June, August and November were all strong. Its most recent report showed sales growth of 34.7 percent, and management upped its full-year earnings growth forecast from 20 percent to 35 percent.
Better yet, Canada Goose is opening new stores to great enthusiasm, putting out well-received collections and is boosting its profitability.
"Put it all together and this company's growing like a weed and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon," the "Mad Money" host said.
So as what looks to be a cold winter gets going, Cramer liked the look of these winter wear plays, though Canada Goose's stock is very expensive at 62 times 2018 earnings estimates.
"You could do a lot worse than owning either of these stocks," he said. "But ... it depends on you, not me, frankly. Columbia Sportswear is more steady-eddie. Solid risk-reward here, although I'd like it more on a pullback. Canada Goose is a classic momentum stock: the potential rewards are much greater, but so is the risk if they somehow mess things up."
"If you bought Goose on my recommendation, here's what I think: I think you ring the register on some of the position, because no one ever got hurt taking a profit," Cramer continued. "Use it to go buy yourself a nice sweater, or maybe a Canada Goose jacket. And I'd still keep some on because the story is downright fabulous."
Global space company, Maxar, rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. President and chief executive officer, Howard Lance, was joined by the Maxar team to celebrate the company's value to investors, customers and employees.
In October, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) and DigitalGlobe merged in a $2.4 billion deal. But before that deal, MDA and DigitalGlobe each had acquisitions of their own in the past few years. This basically means Maxar is the culmination of four companies rolled into one.
Maxar is a leading commercial supplier of advanced satellite systems, optical imagery and geospatial analytics to commercial and government customers worldwide.
The company has designs to grow earth observations and to advance the geospatial segment to better support commercial customers, the U.S. Department of Defense and Intelligence Community and International Governments.
On Friday, one of Maxar's business units, signed four contracts valued at about $42 million with the Canadian Space Agency.
It has more than 6,500 employees in over 21 global locations.
Maxar dual-listed its stock. It trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (MDA ) and the New York Stock Exchange (MAXR ).
The company will pay a dividend of $0.37 per common share payable on December 29.
Media mergers and acquisitions are a hot button topic. And while Lions Gate Chairman Michael Burns applauds the recent deal between Disney and Twenty-first Century Fox , he says not all media deals are created equal.
Burns had nothing but good things to say about Disney's more than $52 billion deal with Fox, arguing the mega-merger serves Lions Gate, a production and distribution company known for such films as the "Hunger Games" series.
"I think the deal is good for us, it certainly validates content," Burns said on CNBC's "Fast Money."
Lions Gate, which not only produces films, but has 45 shows on 90 different platforms is diverse enough to survive, Burns said. And it helps that the big deal will strengthen smaller players, like Hulu, which can then purchase more content from Lions Gate.
"Lions Gate thrives in chaos," he added.
It also helps Lions Gate, Burns said, by reducing competitors in the market.
"I would guess they'll stick to big franchises, the movies they can promote in theme parks," he said. "I think the movies will have fewer big, wide releases than the two as separate companies."
When it comes to Time Warner and AT&T , the two companies whose talks have been called "illegal" by the Justice Department, Burns isn't quite so confident. He said he worries the deal would give the conglomerate a monopoly, and create incentive to hurt smaller companies.
"What's most important to us is to make sure that we, if approved, are treated fairly. If we're not going to be treated fairly, then of course we would be against it," Burns said.
And Lions Gate isn't just sitting idly by. Burns said the company has been approached by regulators to give their opinions on the matter.
"We are more than an interested party," he added.
For people facing costly medical bills, there's some good news in the final version of tax-overhaul legislation unveiled on Friday. Instead of eliminating the deduction for medical expenses as proposed in an earlier version of the sweeping legislation, the bill actually expands the deduction for two years. All taxpayers who itemize their deductions would be able to write off qualifying medical expenses that exceed 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income for tax years 2017 and 2018. After that, the threshold would return to the current 10 percent.
Photo by BSIP/UIG via Getty Images
The bill might be voted on as early as next week in both the House and Senate. If both chambers pass the final version, the measure will head to President Donald Trump for his signature. People age 65 and older already have been using the lower threshold for years: Before the Affordable Care Act of 2010, all taxpayers used the 7.5 percent amount. The health care reform legislation raised the threshold to 10 percent for everyone in 2013 except that group of older taxpayers. The exclusion, however, was scheduled expire after tax year 2016, meaning the tax bill effectively extends it for two years and allows younger taxpayers to take advantage of it. While the medical-expense deduction is one of the few tax breaks for individual taxpayers retained in the bill, it's important to remember it's only available to those who itemize. And for itemizing to make financial sense, the value of all your deductions need to exceed the standard deduction.
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President Donald Trump will accuse China, America's largest trade partner, of "economic aggression" when his administration rolls out its national security strategy on Monday, according to a report by the Financial Times.
However, a White House official told CNBC that the Financial Times report is "not accurate."
"The phrase is not specifically linked to China," the official said.
Several people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that Trump would propose a much tougher stance on China than past administrations.
Trump repeatedly slammed China on the campaign trail over trade, but he softened his stance after meeting with President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this year, as Washington sought Beijing's assistance in dealing with North Korea.
Since taking office, Trump has said he doesn't blame Beijing for the U.S. trade deficit with China, and he has declined to label China a currency manipulator.
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But Trump has grown frustrated with what he views as a lack of progress in convincing China to help reduce the trade deficit and reign in North Korea, a person familiar with the matter indicated to the Financial Times.
"The national security strategy is likely to define China as a competitor in every realm," the person said. "Not just a competitor but a threat, and therefore, in the view of many in this administration, an adversary."
"This is not something that they just cooked up," the person said. "Mar-a-Lago interrupted the campaign rhetoric, and Xi Jinping took a little gamble and came here and embraced Trump. Trump said 'fine, do something on North Korea and on trade', but that didn't work out so well."
China's U.S. embassy was not immediately available for comment.
Hi
I try to compile this cs app
RegEx Tester - Regular Expression Tester
Pablo Oses, 22 May 2011
I'm converted the original project to one file as shown below
and when I command line compile it I get thes errors:
The name 'HttpUtility' does not exist in the current context
The name 'interaction' does not exist in the current context
Please can someone help me in this.
C# using System; using System.Text; using System.Drawing; using System.Diagnostics; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.Text.RegularExpressions; using System.Threading; using System.IO; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using Microsoft.Win32; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; using System.Web; using Microsoft.VisualBasic; namespace RegExTester { public class Program { [STAThread] public static void Main() { Application.EnableVisualStyles(); Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault( false ); Application.Run( new frmMain()); } } } namespace RegExTester { partial class frmMain { protected override void Dispose( bool disposing) { if (disposing) { if (components != null ) { components.Dispose(); } } base .Dispose(disposing); } #region Windows Form Designer generated code private void InitializeComponent() { this .components = new System.ComponentModel.Container(); System.ComponentModel.ComponentResourceManager resources = new System.ComponentModel.ComponentResourceManager( typeof (frmMain)); this .statusBar = new System.Windows.Forms.StatusBar(); this .statusStatusBarPanel = new System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanel(); this .matchesStatusBarPanel = new System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanel(); this .executionTimeStatusBarPanel = new System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanel(); this .contextStatusBarPanel = new System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanel(); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer = new System.Windows.Forms.SplitContainer(); this .aboutButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .regExLibraryButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .regExCheatSheetButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .replaceModeButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .indentedInputButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .singleLineButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .multiLineButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .cultureInvariantButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .ignoreCaseButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .replaceModeCheckBox = new System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox(); this .indentedInputCheckBox = new System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox(); this .copyButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .testButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .singleLineCheckBox = new System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox(); this .multiLineCheckBox = new System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox(); this .ignoreCaseCheckBox = new System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox(); this .cultureInvariantCheckBox = new System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox(); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer = new System.Windows.Forms.SplitContainer(); this .regExLabel = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .regExTextBox = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox(); this .repExLabel = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .repExTextBox = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox(); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer = new System.Windows.Forms.SplitContainer(); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer = new System.Windows.Forms.SplitContainer(); this .textLabel = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .textRichTextBox = new RegExTester.CustomRichTextBox(); this .resultsLabel = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .resultsRichTextBox = new RegExTester.CustomRichTextBox(); this .exportResultsButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .resultListView = new System.Windows.Forms.ListView(); this .matchColumnHeader = new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader(); this .positionColumnHeader = new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader(); this .lengthColumnHeader = new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader(); this .resultsListLabel = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .copyButtonContextMenu = new System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenuStrip( this .components); this .copyGeneric0MenuItem = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .copyGeneric1MenuItem = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .copyGeneric2MenuItem = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .copyGeneric3MenuItem = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .exportSaveFileDialog = new System.Windows.Forms.SaveFileDialog(); ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)( this .statusStatusBarPanel)).BeginInit(); ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)( this .matchesStatusBarPanel)).BeginInit(); ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)( this .executionTimeStatusBarPanel)).BeginInit(); ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)( this .contextStatusBarPanel)).BeginInit(); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.SuspendLayout(); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel2.SuspendLayout(); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.SuspendLayout(); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel1.SuspendLayout(); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel2.SuspendLayout(); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.SuspendLayout(); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Panel1.SuspendLayout(); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Panel2.SuspendLayout(); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.SuspendLayout(); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Panel1.SuspendLayout(); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Panel2.SuspendLayout(); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.SuspendLayout(); this .copyButtonContextMenu.SuspendLayout(); this .SuspendLayout(); this .statusBar.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 0 , 435 ); this .statusBar.Name = " statusBar" ; this .statusBar.Panels.AddRange( new System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanel[] { this .statusStatusBarPanel, this .matchesStatusBarPanel, this .executionTimeStatusBarPanel, this .contextStatusBarPanel}); this .statusBar.ShowPanels = true ; this .statusBar.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 592 , 22 ); this .statusBar.TabIndex = 1 ; this .statusBar.Text = " statusBar" ; this .statusStatusBarPanel.AutoSize = System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanelAutoSize.Spring; this .statusStatusBarPanel.Name = " sbpStatus" ; this .statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Nothing searched yet." ; this .statusStatusBarPanel.Width = 546 ; this .matchesStatusBarPanel.AutoSize = System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanelAutoSize.Contents; this .matchesStatusBarPanel.MinWidth = 0 ; this .matchesStatusBarPanel.Name = " sbpMatches" ; this .matchesStatusBarPanel.Width = 10 ; this .executionTimeStatusBarPanel.AutoSize = System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanelAutoSize.Contents; this .executionTimeStatusBarPanel.MinWidth = 0 ; this .executionTimeStatusBarPanel.Name = " sbpExecutionTime" ; this .executionTimeStatusBarPanel.Width = 10 ; this .contextStatusBarPanel.AutoSize = System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanelAutoSize.Contents; this .contextStatusBarPanel.MinWidth = 0 ; this .contextStatusBarPanel.Name = " sbpContext" ; this .contextStatusBarPanel.Width = 10 ; this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.Fixed3D; this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill; this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.FixedPanel = System.Windows.Forms.FixedPanel.Panel1; this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.IsSplitterFixed = true ; this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 0 , 0 ); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Name = " topAndMiddleSplitContainer" ; this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Orientation = System.Windows.Forms.Orientation.Horizontal; this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .aboutButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .regExLibraryButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .regExCheatSheetButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .replaceModeButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .indentedInputButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .singleLineButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .multiLineButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .cultureInvariantButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .ignoreCaseButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .replaceModeCheckBox); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .indentedInputCheckBox); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .copyButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .testButton); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .singleLineCheckBox); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .multiLineCheckBox); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .ignoreCaseCheckBox); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .cultureInvariantCheckBox); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1MinSize = 100 ; this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel2.Controls.Add( this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 592 , 435 ); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.SplitterDistance = 100 ; this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.TabIndex = 0 ; this .aboutButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .aboutButton.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control; this .aboutButton.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat; this .aboutButton.Font = new System.Drawing.Font( " Verdana" , 8 . 25F , System.Drawing.FontStyle.Underline, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, (( byte )( 0 ))); this .aboutButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue; this .aboutButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 438 , 1 ); this .aboutButton.Name = " aboutButton" ; this .aboutButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 25 ); this .aboutButton.TabIndex = 31 ; this .aboutButton.Text = " About This Program" ; this .aboutButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .aboutButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .aboutButton_Click); this .regExLibraryButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .regExLibraryButton.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control; this .regExLibraryButton.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat; this .regExLibraryButton.Font = new System.Drawing.Font( " Verdana" , 8 . 25F , System.Drawing.FontStyle.Underline, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, (( byte )( 0 ))); this .regExLibraryButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue; this .regExLibraryButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 328 , 1 ); this .regExLibraryButton.Name = " regExLibraryButton" ; this .regExLibraryButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 102 , 25 ); this .regExLibraryButton.TabIndex = 30 ; this .regExLibraryButton.Text = " RegEx Library" ; this .regExLibraryButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .regExLibraryButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .regExLibraryButton_Click); this .regExCheatSheetButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .regExCheatSheetButton.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control; this .regExCheatSheetButton.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat; this .regExCheatSheetButton.Font = new System.Drawing.Font( " Verdana" , 8 . 25F , System.Drawing.FontStyle.Underline, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, (( byte )( 0 ))); this .regExCheatSheetButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue; this .regExCheatSheetButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 186 , 1 ); this .regExCheatSheetButton.Name = " regExCheatSheetButton" ; this .regExCheatSheetButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 127 , 25 ); this .regExCheatSheetButton.TabIndex = 28 ; this .regExCheatSheetButton.Text = " RegEx CheatSheet" ; this .regExCheatSheetButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .regExCheatSheetButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .regExCheatSheetButton_Click); this .replaceModeButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .replaceModeButton.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control; this .replaceModeButton.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat; this .replaceModeButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue; this .replaceModeButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 375 , 73 ); this .replaceModeButton.Name = " replaceModeButton" ; this .replaceModeButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 22 , 22 ); this .replaceModeButton.TabIndex = 24 ; this .replaceModeButton.Text = " ?" ; this .replaceModeButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .replaceModeButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .replaceModeButton_Click); this .indentedInputButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .indentedInputButton.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control; this .indentedInputButton.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat; this .indentedInputButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue; this .indentedInputButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 380 , 51 ); this .indentedInputButton.Name = " indentedInputButton" ; this .indentedInputButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 22 , 22 ); this .indentedInputButton.TabIndex = 23 ; this .indentedInputButton.Text = " ?" ; this .indentedInputButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .indentedInputButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .indentedInputButton_Click); this .singleLineButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .singleLineButton.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control; this .singleLineButton.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat; this .singleLineButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue; this .singleLineButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 243 , 73 ); this .singleLineButton.Name = " singleLineButton" ; this .singleLineButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 22 , 22 ); this .singleLineButton.TabIndex = 22 ; this .singleLineButton.Text = " ?" ; this .singleLineButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .singleLineButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .singleLineButton_Click); this .multiLineButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .multiLineButton.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control; this .multiLineButton.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat; this .multiLineButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue; this .multiLineButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 232 , 51 ); this .multiLineButton.Name = " multiLineButton" ; this .multiLineButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 22 , 22 ); this .multiLineButton.TabIndex = 21 ; this .multiLineButton.Text = " ?" ; this .multiLineButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .multiLineButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .multiLineButton_Click); this .cultureInvariantButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .cultureInvariantButton.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control; this .cultureInvariantButton.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat; this .cultureInvariantButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue; this .cultureInvariantButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 130 , 73 ); this .cultureInvariantButton.Name = " cultureInvariantButton" ; this .cultureInvariantButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 22 , 22 ); this .cultureInvariantButton.TabIndex = 20 ; this .cultureInvariantButton.Text = " ?" ; this .cultureInvariantButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .cultureInvariantButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .cultureInvariantButton_Click); this .ignoreCaseButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .ignoreCaseButton.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control; this .ignoreCaseButton.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat; this .ignoreCaseButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue; this .ignoreCaseButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 102 , 51 ); this .ignoreCaseButton.Name = " ignoreCaseButton" ; this .ignoreCaseButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 22 , 22 ); this .ignoreCaseButton.TabIndex = 19 ; this .ignoreCaseButton.Text = " ?" ; this .ignoreCaseButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .ignoreCaseButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .ignoreCaseButton_Click); this .replaceModeCheckBox.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .replaceModeCheckBox.CausesValidation = false ; this .replaceModeCheckBox.Checked = true ; this .replaceModeCheckBox.CheckState = System.Windows.Forms.CheckState.Checked; this .replaceModeCheckBox.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.System; this .replaceModeCheckBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 275 , 73 ); this .replaceModeCheckBox.Name = " replaceModeCheckBox" ; this .replaceModeCheckBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 127 , 22 ); this .replaceModeCheckBox.TabIndex = 15 ; this .replaceModeCheckBox.Text = " Replace mode" ; this .replaceModeCheckBox.CheckedChanged += new System.EventHandler( this .replaceModeCheckBox_CheckedChanged); this .indentedInputCheckBox.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .indentedInputCheckBox.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.System; this .indentedInputCheckBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 275 , 51 ); this .indentedInputCheckBox.Name = " indentedInputCheckBox" ; this .indentedInputCheckBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 127 , 22 ); this .indentedInputCheckBox.TabIndex = 13 ; this .indentedInputCheckBox.Text = " Indented Input" ; this .indentedInputCheckBox.CheckedChanged += new System.EventHandler( this .indentedInputCheckBox_CheckedChanged); this .copyButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .copyButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 405 , 56 ); this .copyButton.Name = " copyButton" ; this .copyButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 75 , 34 ); this .copyButton.TabIndex = 17 ; this .copyButton.Text = " Copy" ; this .copyButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .copyButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .copyButton_Click); this .testButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .testButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 486 , 56 ); this .testButton.Name = " testButton" ; this .testButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 92 , 34 ); this .testButton.TabIndex = 18 ; this .testButton.Text = " Test [F5]" ; this .testButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .testButton_Click); this .singleLineCheckBox.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .singleLineCheckBox.Checked = true ; this .singleLineCheckBox.CheckState = System.Windows.Forms.CheckState.Checked; this .singleLineCheckBox.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.System; this .singleLineCheckBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 160 , 73 ); this .singleLineCheckBox.Name = " singleLineCheckBox" ; this .singleLineCheckBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 109 , 22 ); this .singleLineCheckBox.TabIndex = 11 ; this .singleLineCheckBox.Text = " Single Line" ; this .multiLineCheckBox.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .multiLineCheckBox.Checked = true ; this .multiLineCheckBox.CheckState = System.Windows.Forms.CheckState.Checked; this .multiLineCheckBox.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.System; this .multiLineCheckBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 160 , 51 ); this .multiLineCheckBox.Name = " multiLineCheckBox" ; this .multiLineCheckBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 109 , 22 ); this .multiLineCheckBox.TabIndex = 9 ; this .multiLineCheckBox.Text = " Multi Line" ; this .ignoreCaseCheckBox.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .ignoreCaseCheckBox.Checked = true ; this .ignoreCaseCheckBox.CheckState = System.Windows.Forms.CheckState.Checked; this .ignoreCaseCheckBox.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.System; this .ignoreCaseCheckBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 11 , 51 ); this .ignoreCaseCheckBox.Name = " ignoreCaseCheckBox" ; this .ignoreCaseCheckBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 142 , 22 ); this .ignoreCaseCheckBox.TabIndex = 5 ; this .ignoreCaseCheckBox.Text = " Ignore Case" ; this .cultureInvariantCheckBox.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); this .cultureInvariantCheckBox.Checked = true ; this .cultureInvariantCheckBox.CheckState = System.Windows.Forms.CheckState.Checked; this .cultureInvariantCheckBox.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.System; this .cultureInvariantCheckBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 11 , 73 ); this .cultureInvariantCheckBox.Name = " cultureInvariantCheckBox" ; this .cultureInvariantCheckBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 142 , 22 ); this .cultureInvariantCheckBox.TabIndex = 7 ; this .cultureInvariantCheckBox.Text = " Culture Invariant" ; this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 11 , 5 ); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Name = " regExAndRepExSplitContainer" ; this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .regExLabel); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .regExTextBox); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel2.Controls.Add( this .repExLabel); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel2.Controls.Add( this .repExTextBox); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 567 , 42 ); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.SplitterDistance = 283 ; this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.TabIndex = 4 ; this .regExLabel.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .regExLabel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 0 , 3 ); this .regExLabel.Name = " regExLabel" ; this .regExLabel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 283 , 16 ); this .regExLabel.TabIndex = 1 ; this .regExLabel.Text = " Regular Expression" ; this .regExTextBox.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .regExTextBox.HideSelection = false ; this .regExTextBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 0 , 21 ); this .regExTextBox.Name = " regExTextBox" ; this .regExTextBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 283 , 21 ); this .regExTextBox.TabIndex = 0 ; this .repExLabel.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .repExLabel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 0 , 3 ); this .repExLabel.Name = " repExLabel" ; this .repExLabel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 284 , 16 ); this .repExLabel.TabIndex = 2 ; this .repExLabel.Text = " Replacement Expression" ; this .repExTextBox.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .repExTextBox.HideSelection = false ; this .repExTextBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 0 , 21 ); this .repExTextBox.Name = " repExTextBox" ; this .repExTextBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 280 , 21 ); this .repExTextBox.TabIndex = 0 ; this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.Fixed3D; this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill; this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 0 , 0 ); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Name = " middleAndBottomSplitContainer" ; this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Orientation = System.Windows.Forms.Orientation.Horizontal; this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .textAndResultsSplitContainer); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Panel1MinSize = 61 ; this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Panel2.Controls.Add( this .exportResultsButton); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Panel2.Controls.Add( this .resultListView); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Panel2.Controls.Add( this .resultsListLabel); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Panel2MinSize = 89 ; this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 592 , 331 ); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.SplitterDistance = 191 ; this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.TabIndex = 0 ; this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 11 , 9 ); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Name = " textAndResultsSplitContainer" ; this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .textLabel); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Panel1.Controls.Add( this .textRichTextBox); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Panel2.Controls.Add( this .resultsLabel); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Panel2.Controls.Add( this .resultsRichTextBox); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 567 , 166 ); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.SplitterDistance = 283 ; this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.TabIndex = 1 ; this .textLabel.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .textLabel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(-3, 0 ); this .textLabel.Name = " textLabel" ; this .textLabel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 286 , 16 ); this .textLabel.TabIndex = 1 ; this .textLabel.Text = " Test Text" ; this .textRichTextBox.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .textRichTextBox.HideSelection = false ; this .textRichTextBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 0 , 19 ); this .textRichTextBox.Name = " textRichTextBox" ; this .textRichTextBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 283 , 147 ); this .textRichTextBox.TabIndex = 0 ; this .textRichTextBox.Text = " " ; this .resultsLabel.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .resultsLabel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(-3, 0 ); this .resultsLabel.Name = " resultsLabel" ; this .resultsLabel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 287 , 16 ); this .resultsLabel.TabIndex = 2 ; this .resultsLabel.Text = " Test Results" ; this .resultsRichTextBox.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .resultsRichTextBox.HideSelection = false ; this .resultsRichTextBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 0 , 19 ); this .resultsRichTextBox.Name = " resultsRichTextBox" ; this .resultsRichTextBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 280 , 147 ); this .resultsRichTextBox.TabIndex = 0 ; this .resultsRichTextBox.Text = " " ; this .exportResultsButton.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .exportResultsButton.FlatAppearance.BorderColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control; this .exportResultsButton.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat; this .exportResultsButton.Font = new System.Drawing.Font( " Verdana" , 8 . 25F , System.Drawing.FontStyle.Underline, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, (( byte )( 0 ))); this .exportResultsButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue; this .exportResultsButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 473 , 1 ); this .exportResultsButton.Name = " exportResultsButton" ; this .exportResultsButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 102 , 25 ); this .exportResultsButton.TabIndex = 32 ; this .exportResultsButton.Text = " Export Results (CSV)" ; this .exportResultsButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true ; this .exportResultsButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .exportResultsButton_Click); this .resultListView.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .resultListView.Columns.AddRange( new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeader[] { this .matchColumnHeader, this .positionColumnHeader, this .lengthColumnHeader}); this .resultListView.FullRowSelect = true ; this .resultListView.GridLines = true ; this .resultListView.HeaderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.ColumnHeaderStyle.Nonclickable; this .resultListView.HideSelection = false ; this .resultListView.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 11 , 27 ); this .resultListView.MultiSelect = false ; this .resultListView.Name = " resultListView" ; this .resultListView.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 567 , 91 ); this .resultListView.TabIndex = 1 ; this .resultListView.UseCompatibleStateImageBehavior = false ; this .resultListView.View = System.Windows.Forms.View.Details; this .resultListView.SelectedIndexChanged += new System.EventHandler( this .resultListView_SelectedIndexChanged); this .matchColumnHeader.Text = " Match" ; this .matchColumnHeader.Width = 350 ; this .positionColumnHeader.Text = " Position" ; this .lengthColumnHeader.Text = " Length" ; this .resultsListLabel.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); this .resultsListLabel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 8 , 9 ); this .resultsListLabel.Name = " resultsListLabel" ; this .resultsListLabel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 570 , 15 ); this .resultsListLabel.TabIndex = 0 ; this .resultsListLabel.Text = " Test Results" ; this .copyButtonContextMenu.Items.AddRange( new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem[] { this .copyGeneric0MenuItem, this .copyGeneric1MenuItem, this .copyGeneric2MenuItem, this .copyGeneric3MenuItem}); this .copyButtonContextMenu.Name = " btnCopyContextMenuStrip" ; this .copyButtonContextMenu.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 163 , 92 ); this .copyGeneric0MenuItem.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.CSharpSnippet; this .copyGeneric0MenuItem.Name = " copyGeneric0MenuItem" ; this .copyGeneric0MenuItem.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 162 , 22 ); this .copyGeneric0MenuItem.Tag = " csharp snippet" ; this .copyGeneric0MenuItem.Text = " C# code &snippet" ; this .copyGeneric0MenuItem.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .copyGeneric0MenuItem_Click); this .copyGeneric1MenuItem.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.CSharp; this .copyGeneric1MenuItem.Name = " copyGeneric1MenuItem" ; this .copyGeneric1MenuItem.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 162 , 22 ); this .copyGeneric1MenuItem.Tag = " csharp" ; this .copyGeneric1MenuItem.Text = " &C# escaped string" ; this .copyGeneric1MenuItem.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .copyGeneric0MenuItem_Click); this .copyGeneric2MenuItem.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.Html; this .copyGeneric2MenuItem.Name = " copyGeneric2MenuItem" ; this .copyGeneric2MenuItem.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 162 , 22 ); this .copyGeneric2MenuItem.Tag = " html" ; this .copyGeneric2MenuItem.Text = " &HTML encoded" ; this .copyGeneric2MenuItem.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .copyGeneric0MenuItem_Click); this .copyGeneric3MenuItem.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.Plain; this .copyGeneric3MenuItem.Name = " copyGeneric3MenuItem" ; this .copyGeneric3MenuItem.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 162 , 22 ); this .copyGeneric3MenuItem.Tag = " plain" ; this .copyGeneric3MenuItem.Text = " &Plain text" ; this .copyGeneric3MenuItem.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .copyGeneric0MenuItem_Click); this .exportSaveFileDialog.DefaultExt = " csv" ; this .exportSaveFileDialog.Filter = " Comma Separated Values|*.csv|All files|*.*" ; this .AutoScaleBaseSize = new System.Drawing.Size( 6 , 14 ); this .ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size( 592 , 457 ); this .Controls.Add( this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer); this .Controls.Add( this .statusBar); this .Font = new System.Drawing.Font( " Verdana" , 8 . 25F , System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, (( byte )( 0 ))); this .Icon = ((System.Drawing.Icon)(resources.GetObject( " $this.Icon" ))); this .KeyPreview = true ; this .MinimumSize = new System.Drawing.Size( 600 , 390 ); this .Name = " frmMain" ; this .StartPosition = System.Windows.Forms.FormStartPosition.CenterScreen; this .Text = " RegEx Tester" ; this .Load += new System.EventHandler( this .MainForm_Load); this .KeyUp += new System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventHandler( this .MainForm_KeyUp); ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)( this .statusStatusBarPanel)).EndInit(); ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)( this .matchesStatusBarPanel)).EndInit(); ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)( this .executionTimeStatusBarPanel)).EndInit(); ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)( this .contextStatusBarPanel)).EndInit(); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel1.ResumeLayout( false ); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.Panel2.ResumeLayout( false ); this .topAndMiddleSplitContainer.ResumeLayout( false ); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel1.ResumeLayout( false ); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel1.PerformLayout(); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel2.ResumeLayout( false ); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel2.PerformLayout(); this .regExAndRepExSplitContainer.ResumeLayout( false ); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Panel1.ResumeLayout( false ); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.Panel2.ResumeLayout( false ); this .middleAndBottomSplitContainer.ResumeLayout( false ); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Panel1.ResumeLayout( false ); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.Panel2.ResumeLayout( false ); this .textAndResultsSplitContainer.ResumeLayout( false ); this .copyButtonContextMenu.ResumeLayout( false ); this .ResumeLayout( false ); } #endregion private StatusBar statusBar; private StatusBarPanel statusStatusBarPanel; private StatusBarPanel contextStatusBarPanel; private SplitContainer topAndMiddleSplitContainer; private SplitContainer middleAndBottomSplitContainer; private Button copyButton; private Button testButton; private CheckBox cultureInvariantCheckBox; private CheckBox singleLineCheckBox; private CheckBox multiLineCheckBox; private CheckBox ignoreCaseCheckBox; private Label resultsListLabel; private ListView resultListView; private ColumnHeader matchColumnHeader; private ColumnHeader positionColumnHeader; private ColumnHeader lengthColumnHeader; private CheckBox indentedInputCheckBox; private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components; private ContextMenuStrip copyButtonContextMenu; private ToolStripMenuItem copyGeneric1MenuItem; private ToolStripMenuItem copyGeneric2MenuItem; private ToolStripMenuItem copyGeneric3MenuItem; private CheckBox replaceModeCheckBox; private SplitContainer textAndResultsSplitContainer; private CustomRichTextBox resultsRichTextBox; private CustomRichTextBox textRichTextBox; private SplitContainer regExAndRepExSplitContainer; private TextBox regExTextBox; private TextBox repExTextBox; private ToolStripMenuItem copyGeneric0MenuItem; private Label textLabel; private Label resultsLabel; private Label regExLabel; private Label repExLabel; private StatusBarPanel matchesStatusBarPanel; private StatusBarPanel executionTimeStatusBarPanel; private Button ignoreCaseButton; private Button cultureInvariantButton; private Button multiLineButton; private Button singleLineButton; private Button replaceModeButton; private Button indentedInputButton; private Button aboutButton; private Button regExLibraryButton; private Button regExCheatSheetButton; private SaveFileDialog exportSaveFileDialog; private Button exportResultsButton; } } namespace RegExTester { public partial class frmMain : Form { private const string STOPPED_MODE_BUTTON_TEXT = " Test [F5]" ; private const string RUNNING_MODE_BUTTON_TEXT = " Stop [Esc]" ; private Thread worker; public frmMain() { InitializeComponent(); ActiveControl = regExTextBox; } private void MainForm_Load( object sender, System.EventArgs e) { this .Text += " - v" + Application.ProductVersion.ToString(); contextStatusBarPanel.Text = string .Format( " CLR {0}.{1}" , Environment.Version.Major, Environment.Version.Minor); Control.CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = false ; replaceModeCheckBox.Checked = false ; } private void MainForm_KeyUp( object sender, KeyEventArgs e) { if (e.KeyCode == Keys.F5 && testButton.Text == STOPPED_MODE_BUTTON_TEXT && !e.Control && !e.Alt && !e.Shift) { StartTest(); } else if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Escape && testButton.Text == RUNNING_MODE_BUTTON_TEXT && !e.Control && !e.Alt && !e.Shift) { AbortTest(); } } private void testButton_Click( object sender, System.EventArgs e) { if (testButton.Text == STOPPED_MODE_BUTTON_TEXT) { StartTest(); } else if (testButton.Text == RUNNING_MODE_BUTTON_TEXT) { AbortTest(); } } #region Test/Evaluate Feature implementation private void StartTest() { statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Creating the Test Thread..." ; worker = new Thread(AsyncTest); worker.IsBackground = true ; worker.Start(); } private void AbortTest() { if (worker.IsAlive) worker.Abort(); } private void AsyncTest() { int rtbSelectionStart = int .MinValue; int rtbSelectionLength = int .MinValue; int matchesFound = 0 ; int matchesProcessed = 0 ; DateTime startMoment = DateTime.Now; try { statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Making UI Adjustments..." ; testButton.Text = RUNNING_MODE_BUTTON_TEXT; matchesStatusBarPanel.Text = string .Empty; executionTimeStatusBarPanel.Text = string .Empty; statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Configuring the RegEx engine..." ; RegexOptions regexOptions = new RegexOptions(); if (ignoreCaseCheckBox.Checked) regexOptions |= RegexOptions.IgnoreCase; if (cultureInvariantCheckBox.Checked) regexOptions |= RegexOptions.CultureInvariant; if (multiLineCheckBox.Checked) regexOptions |= RegexOptions.Multiline; if (singleLineCheckBox.Checked) regexOptions |= RegexOptions.Singleline; if (indentedInputCheckBox.Checked) regexOptions |= RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace; statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Creating the RegEx Engine and parsing the RegEx string..." ; Regex regex = new Regex(regExTextBox.Text, regexOptions); statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Evaluating the RegEx against the Test Text..." ; MatchCollection matchCollection = regex.Matches(textRichTextBox.Text); matchesFound = matchCollection.Count; if (replaceModeCheckBox.Checked) { statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Evaluating the RegEx Replace against the Test Text..." ; resultsRichTextBox.Text = regex.Replace(textRichTextBox.Text, repExTextBox.Text); } statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Preparing the Results grid..." ; resultListView.Items.Clear(); for ( int i = resultListView.Columns.Count; i > 3 ; i--) resultListView.Columns.RemoveAt(i-1); int[] groupNumbers = regex.GetGroupNumbers(); string[] groupNames = regex.GetGroupNames(); string groupName = null ; foreach ( int groupNumber in groupNumbers) { if (groupNumber > 0 ) { groupName = " Group " + groupNumber; if (groupNames[groupNumber] != groupNumber.ToString()) groupName += " (" + groupNames[groupNumber] + " )" ; resultListView.Columns.Add(groupName, 100 , HorizontalAlignment.Left); } } rtbSelectionStart = textRichTextBox.SelectionStart; rtbSelectionLength = textRichTextBox.SelectionLength; textRichTextBox.SuspendLayout(); resultListView.SuspendLayout(); resultListView.BeginUpdate(); textRichTextBox.SelectAll(); textRichTextBox.SelectionColor = Color.Black; statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Processing the " + matchesFound + " matchs..." ; foreach (Match match in matchCollection) { ListViewItem lvi = resultListView.Items.Add(match.ToString()); lvi.SubItems.Add(match.Index.ToString()); lvi.SubItems.Add(match.Length.ToString()); for ( int c = 1 ; c < match.Groups.Count; c++) { Group group = match.Groups[c]; if ( group .Captures.Count == 1 ) lvi.SubItems.Add( group .Value); else { StringBuilder capturedValues = new StringBuilder(); foreach (Capture capture in group .Captures) { if (capturedValues.Length > 0 ) capturedValues.Append( " " ); capturedValues.Append(capture.Value); } lvi.SubItems.Add(capturedValues.ToString()); } } textRichTextBox.Select(match.Index, match.Length); textRichTextBox.SelectionColor = Color.Red; matchesProcessed++; } statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Test success." ; } catch (ThreadAbortException) { statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Test aborted by the user." ; } catch (Exception e) { statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Test aborted by an error." ; MessageBox.Show(e.Message, " Error" , MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error); } finally { testButton.Text = STOPPED_MODE_BUTTON_TEXT; if (rtbSelectionStart != int .MinValue && rtbSelectionLength != int .MinValue) textRichTextBox.Select(rtbSelectionStart, rtbSelectionLength); if (matchesProcessed == matchesFound) matchesStatusBarPanel.Text = string .Format( " {0} match(es)." , matchesProcessed); else matchesStatusBarPanel.Text = string .Format( " {0} match(es) of {1} found." , matchesProcessed, matchesFound); TimeSpan executionTimeSpan = DateTime.Now.Subtract(startMoment); if (executionTimeSpan.TotalHours > 1 ) executionTimeStatusBarPanel.Text = string .Format( " {0} hs." , executionTimeSpan.TotalHours.ToString( " ##.##" )); else if (executionTimeSpan.TotalMinutes > 1 ) executionTimeStatusBarPanel.Text = string .Format( " {0} mins." , executionTimeSpan.TotalMinutes.ToString( " ##.##" )); else if (executionTimeSpan.TotalSeconds > 1 ) executionTimeStatusBarPanel.Text = string .Format( " {0} s." , executionTimeSpan.TotalSeconds.ToString( " ##.##" )); else if (executionTimeSpan.TotalMilliseconds > 1 ) executionTimeStatusBarPanel.Text = string .Format( " {0} ms." , executionTimeSpan.TotalMilliseconds.ToString( " #" )); resultListView.EndUpdate(); resultListView.ResumeLayout(); textRichTextBox.ResumeLayout(); } } private void resultListView_SelectedIndexChanged( object sender, System.EventArgs e) { if (resultListView.SelectedItems.Count == 0 ) return ; textRichTextBox.Select( 0 , 0 ); int position = Convert.ToInt32(resultListView.SelectedItems[0].SubItems[1].Text); int length = Convert.ToInt32(resultListView.SelectedItems[0].SubItems[2].Text); textRichTextBox.Select(position, length); } #endregion #region IndentedInput and ReplaceMode UI adjustments private void indentedInputCheckBox_CheckedChanged( object sender, EventArgs e) { if (indentedInputCheckBox.Checked) { regExTextBox.Multiline = repExTextBox.Multiline = true ; regExTextBox.AcceptsTab = repExTextBox.AcceptsTab = true ; regExTextBox.ScrollBars = repExTextBox.ScrollBars = ScrollBars.Vertical; topAndMiddleSplitContainer.IsSplitterFixed = false ; topAndMiddleSplitContainer.SplitterDistance = 160 ; } else { regExTextBox.Multiline = repExTextBox.Multiline = false ; regExTextBox.AcceptsTab = repExTextBox.AcceptsTab = false ; regExTextBox.ScrollBars = repExTextBox.ScrollBars = ScrollBars.None; topAndMiddleSplitContainer.SplitterDistance = 100 ; topAndMiddleSplitContainer.IsSplitterFixed = true ; } } private void replaceModeCheckBox_CheckedChanged( object sender, EventArgs e) { if (replaceModeCheckBox.Checked) { regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel2Collapsed = false ; textAndResultsSplitContainer.Panel2Collapsed = false ; regExCheatSheetButton.Visible = false ; regExLibraryButton.Visible = false ; aboutButton.Visible = false ; } else { regExAndRepExSplitContainer.Panel2Collapsed = true ; textAndResultsSplitContainer.Panel2Collapsed = true ; regExCheatSheetButton.Visible = true ; regExLibraryButton.Visible = true ; aboutButton.Visible = true ; } } #endregion #region Copy Feature implementation private void copyButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { copyButtonContextMenu.Show(copyButton, new Point( 0 , copyButton.Height)); } private void copyGeneric0MenuItem_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { string regex = regExTextBox.Text; string format = ((ToolStripMenuItem)sender).Tag.ToString(); if (format == " html" ) { regex = HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(regex); } else if (format.StartsWith( " csharp" )) { regex = string .Format( " @\"{0}\"" , regex.Replace( " \"" , " \"\"" )); if (format.EndsWith( " snippet" )) { StringBuilder regexsb = new StringBuilder(); regexsb.Append( " Regex regex = new Regex(" ); if (indentedInputCheckBox.Checked && regex.Contains( "
" )) { regexsb.Append( " \r
" ); regexsb.Append(Regex.Replace(regex, @" \r?
" , " $0 " , RegexOptions.Singleline)); } else regexsb.Append(regex); if (ignoreCaseCheckBox.Checked || multiLineCheckBox.Checked || singleLineCheckBox.Checked || cultureInvariantCheckBox.Checked || indentedInputCheckBox.Checked) { regexsb.Append( " , " ); if (indentedInputCheckBox.Checked && regex.Contains( "
" )) regexsb.Append( " \r
" ); if (ignoreCaseCheckBox.Checked) regexsb.Append( " RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | " ); if (cultureInvariantCheckBox.Checked) regexsb.Append( " RegexOptions.CultureInvariant | " ); if (multiLineCheckBox.Checked) regexsb.Append( " RegexOptions.Multiline | " ); if (singleLineCheckBox.Checked) regexsb.Append( " RegexOptions.Singleline | " ); if (indentedInputCheckBox.Checked) regexsb.Append( " RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace | " ); regexsb.Remove(regexsb.Length - 3 , 3 ); } regexsb.AppendLine( " );" ); regexsb.AppendLine( " MatchCollection matchCollection = regex.Matches( [Target_string] );" ); regexsb.AppendLine( " foreach (Match match in matchCollection)" ); regexsb.AppendLine( " {" ); regexsb.AppendLine( " do some work;" ); regexsb.AppendLine( " }" ); regex = regexsb.ToString(); } } if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(regex)) Clipboard.SetText(regex); } #endregion #region Export Feature implementation private void exportResultsButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { if (resultListView.Items.Count < 1 ) { MessageBox.Show( " There are no results to export." , " Export failed" , MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation); statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Export failed." ; return ; } if (exportSaveFileDialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); bool firstColumn = true ; foreach (ColumnHeader columnHeader in resultListView.Columns) { if (!firstColumn) sb.Append( " ," ); sb.AppendFormat( " \"{0}\"" , columnHeader.Text); firstColumn = false ; } sb.AppendLine(); foreach (ListViewItem listViewItem in resultListView.Items) { firstColumn = true ; foreach (ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem listViewSubItem in listViewItem.SubItems) { if (!firstColumn) sb.Append( " ," ); sb.AppendFormat( " \"{0}\"" , listViewSubItem.Text); firstColumn = false ; } sb.AppendLine(); } File.WriteAllText(exportSaveFileDialog.FileName, sb.ToString()); statusStatusBarPanel.Text = " Export saved." ; } } #endregion #region Help links, Web Links and About private void ignoreCaseButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { MessageBox.Show( " This option makes the RegEx case-insensitive which means that 'a' and 'A' are treated as the same letter." , " Ignore Case Option" , MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information); } private void cultureInvariantButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { MessageBox.Show( " If you use the Ignore Case Option you should always keep in mind the Culture Invariant Option because (\"file\" == \"FILE\") is True for many cultures (e.g. en-US) but it's False on some of them (e.g. tr-TR Turkish). Turning On this option is generally safer." , " Culture Invariant Option" , MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information); } private void multiLineButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { MessageBox.Show( " This option makes ^ and $ match beginning and end of each line insted of the beginning and end of the whole text." , " Treat as Multi Line Option" , MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information); } private void singleLineButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { MessageBox.Show( " This option makes . match every character including newline." , " Treat as Single Line Option" , MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information); } private void indentedInputButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { MessageBox.Show( @" If you activate this option the RegEx will be stripped of \r
\t \v and spaces before execution. This allows you to write thouse ugly, long and cryptic RegEx in an indented and spaced fashion. The whitespace characters still works inside character classes." , " Indented Input Option" , MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information); } private void replaceModeButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { MessageBox.Show( @" You will be able to test a RegEx replacement expression. Remember that $0 represents the match and $N represents the Nth capture group." , " RegEx Replace Option" , MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information); } private void regExLibraryButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { if (MessageBox.Show( " This would open the uri http://regexlib.com/ in your default browser." , " RegEx Library" , MessageBoxButtons.OKCancel) == DialogResult.OK) Process.Start( " http://regexlib.com/" ); } private void regExCheatSheetButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { if (MessageBox.Show( " This would open the uri http://www.addedbytes.com/cheat-sheets/regular-expressions-cheat-sheet/ in your default browser." , " RegEx CheatSheet" , MessageBoxButtons.OKCancel) == DialogResult.OK) Process.Start( " http://www.addedbytes.com/cheat-sheets/regular-expressions-cheat-sheet/" ); } private void aboutButton_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { frmAbout af = new frmAbout(); af.ShowDialog(); af.Dispose(); } #endregion } } namespace RegExTester { partial class CustomRichTextBox { private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null ; protected override void Dispose( bool disposing) { if (disposing && (components != null )) { components.Dispose(); } base .Dispose(disposing); } #region Component Designer generated code private void InitializeComponent() { this .components = new System.ComponentModel.Container(); this .contextMenuStrip = new System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenuStrip( this .components); this .tsmiUndo = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .tsmiRedo = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .tsmiSeparator1 = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripSeparator(); this .tsmiCut = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .tsmiCopy = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .tsmiPaste = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .tsmiDelete = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .tsmiSeparator2 = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripSeparator(); this .tsmiFind = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .tsmiFindNext = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .tsmiSeparator3 = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripSeparator(); this .tsmiSelectAll = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .tsmiSeparator4 = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripSeparator(); this .tsmiWordWrap = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem(); this .contextMenuStrip.SuspendLayout(); this .SuspendLayout(); this .contextMenuStrip.Items.AddRange( new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem[] { this .tsmiUndo, this .tsmiRedo, this .tsmiSeparator1, this .tsmiCut, this .tsmiCopy, this .tsmiPaste, this .tsmiDelete, this .tsmiSeparator2, this .tsmiFind, this .tsmiFindNext, this .tsmiSeparator3, this .tsmiSelectAll, this .tsmiSeparator4, this .tsmiWordWrap}); this .contextMenuStrip.Name = " rtbTextContextMenuStrip" ; this .contextMenuStrip.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 138 , 248 ); this .tsmiUndo.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.Undo; this .tsmiUndo.Name = " tsmiUndo" ; this .tsmiUndo.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 22 ); this .tsmiUndo.Text = " &Undo" ; this .tsmiUndo.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .tsmiUndo_Click); this .tsmiRedo.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.Redo; this .tsmiRedo.Name = " tsmiRedo" ; this .tsmiRedo.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 22 ); this .tsmiRedo.Text = " &Redo" ; this .tsmiRedo.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .tsmiRedo_Click); this .tsmiSeparator1.Name = " tsmiSeparator1" ; this .tsmiSeparator1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 134 , 6 ); this .tsmiCut.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.Cut; this .tsmiCut.Name = " tsmiCut" ; this .tsmiCut.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 22 ); this .tsmiCut.Text = " Cu&t" ; this .tsmiCut.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .tsmiCut_Click); this .tsmiCopy.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.Copy; this .tsmiCopy.Name = " tsmiCopy" ; this .tsmiCopy.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 22 ); this .tsmiCopy.Text = " &Copy" ; this .tsmiCopy.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .tsmiCopy_Click); this .tsmiPaste.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.Paste; this .tsmiPaste.Name = " tsmiPaste" ; this .tsmiPaste.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 22 ); this .tsmiPaste.Text = " &Paste" ; this .tsmiPaste.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .tsmiPaste_Click); this .tsmiDelete.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.Delete; this .tsmiDelete.Name = " tsmiDelete" ; this .tsmiDelete.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 22 ); this .tsmiDelete.Text = " &Delete" ; this .tsmiDelete.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .tsmiDelete_Click); this .tsmiSeparator2.Name = " tsmiSeparator2" ; this .tsmiSeparator2.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 134 , 6 ); this .tsmiFind.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.Find; this .tsmiFind.Name = " tsmiFind" ; this .tsmiFind.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 22 ); this .tsmiFind.Text = " &Find..." ; this .tsmiFind.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .tsmiFind_Click); this .tsmiFindNext.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.FindNext; this .tsmiFindNext.Name = " tsmiFindNext" ; this .tsmiFindNext.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 22 ); this .tsmiFindNext.Text = " Find &Next" ; this .tsmiFindNext.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .tsmiFindNext_Click); this .tsmiSeparator3.Name = " tsmiSeparator3" ; this .tsmiSeparator3.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 134 , 6 ); this .tsmiSelectAll.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.Plain; this .tsmiSelectAll.Name = " tsmiSelectAll" ; this .tsmiSelectAll.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 22 ); this .tsmiSelectAll.Text = " Select &All" ; this .tsmiSelectAll.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .tsmiSelectAll_Click); this .tsmiSeparator4.Name = " tsmiSeparator4" ; this .tsmiSeparator4.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 134 , 6 ); this .tsmiWordWrap.Checked = true ; this .tsmiWordWrap.CheckOnClick = true ; this .tsmiWordWrap.CheckState = System.Windows.Forms.CheckState.Checked; this .tsmiWordWrap.Image = global ::RegExTester.Properties.Resources.WordWrap; this .tsmiWordWrap.Name = " tsmiWordWrap" ; this .tsmiWordWrap.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 137 , 22 ); this .tsmiWordWrap.Text = " &WordWrap" ; this .tsmiWordWrap.CheckStateChanged += new System.EventHandler( this .tsmiWordWrap_CheckStateChanged); this .ContextMenuStrip = this .contextMenuStrip; this .contextMenuStrip.ResumeLayout( false ); this .ResumeLayout( false ); } #endregion private System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenuStrip contextMenuStrip; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem tsmiUndo; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem tsmiRedo; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripSeparator tsmiSeparator1; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem tsmiCut; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem tsmiCopy; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem tsmiPaste; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem tsmiDelete; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripSeparator tsmiSeparator2; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem tsmiFind; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem tsmiFindNext; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripSeparator tsmiSeparator3; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem tsmiSelectAll; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripSeparator tsmiSeparator4; private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem tsmiWordWrap; } } namespace RegExTester { public partial class CustomRichTextBox : RichTextBox { public CustomRichTextBox() : base () { InitializeComponent(); } #region Custom extension of the SuspendLayout feature [DllImport( " user32.dll" )] private static extern int SendMessage( IntPtr hWnd, Int32 wMsg, bool wParam, Int32 lParam); private const int WM_SETREDRAW = 11 ; public new void SuspendLayout() { base .SuspendLayout(); SendMessage( base .Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, false , 0 ); } public new void ResumeLayout() { this .ResumeLayout( true ); } public new void ResumeLayout( bool performLayout) { SendMessage( base .Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, true , 0 ); base .ResumeLayout(performLayout); base .Refresh(); } #endregion #region ContextMenu feature private string _lastFindString = " " ; private void tsmiUndo_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { base .Undo(); } private void tsmiRedo_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { base .Redo(); } private void tsmiCut_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { base .Cut(); } private void tsmiCopy_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { base .Copy(); } private void tsmiPaste_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { base .Paste(); } private void tsmiDelete_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { SendKeys.Send( " {DEL}" ); } private void tsmiFind_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { string findString = Interaction.InputBox( " Insert text to find..." , " Find Function" , _lastFindString, -1, -1); if ( string .IsNullOrEmpty(findString)) return ; int position = base .Find(findString, 0 , RichTextBoxFinds.None); if (position == -1) { MessageBox.Show( " Text not found" , " Find Function" , MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information); } else { base .Select(position, findString.Length); _lastFindString = findString; } } private void tsmiFindNext_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { string findString = _lastFindString; if ( string .IsNullOrEmpty(findString)) return ; int position = base .Find(findString, base .SelectionStart + base .SelectionLength, RichTextBoxFinds.None); if (position == -1) { MessageBox.Show( " No more occurrences found" , " Find Next Function" , MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information); } else { base .Select(position, findString.Length); } } private void tsmiSelectAll_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { base .SelectAll(); } private void tsmiWordWrap_CheckStateChanged( object sender, EventArgs e) { base .WordWrap = tsmiWordWrap.Checked; } #endregion } } namespace RegExTester { partial class frmAbout { private System.ComponentModel.Container components = null ; protected override void Dispose( bool disposing) { if (disposing) { if (components != null ) { components.Dispose(); } } base .Dispose(disposing); } #region Windows Form Designer generated code private void InitializeComponent() { System.ComponentModel.ComponentResourceManager resources = new System.ComponentModel.ComponentResourceManager( typeof (frmAbout)); this .llHomepage1 = new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel(); this .label1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .titleLabel = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .label3 = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .label4 = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .llProject1 = new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel(); this .closeButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); this .label5 = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .label6 = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .llProject2 = new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel(); this .llProject3 = new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel(); this .llTCPArticle3 = new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel(); this .linkLabel1 = new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel(); this .label2 = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); this .SuspendLayout(); this .llHomepage1.AutoSize = true ; this .llHomepage1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 367 , 155 ); this .llHomepage1.Name = " llHomepage1" ; this .llHomepage1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 112 , 13 ); this .llHomepage1.TabIndex = 5 ; this .llHomepage1.TabStop = true ; this .llHomepage1.Text = " Davide Homepage" ; this .llHomepage1.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.TopRight; this .llHomepage1.LinkClicked += new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabelLinkClickedEventHandler( this .llHomepage1_LinkClicked); this .label1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 13 , 81 ); this .label1.Name = " label1" ; this .label1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 506 , 45 ); this .label1.TabIndex = 2 ; this .label1.Text = resources.GetString( " label1.Text" ); this .titleLabel.Font = new System.Drawing.Font( " Verdana" , 18F , System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, (( byte )( 0 ))); this .titleLabel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 11 , 9 ); this .titleLabel.Name = " titleLabel" ; this .titleLabel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 508 , 32 ); this .titleLabel.TabIndex = 0 ; this .titleLabel.Text = " RegEx Tester" ; this .label3.AutoSize = true ; this .label3.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 13 , 41 ); this .label3.Name = " label3" ; this .label3.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 157 , 13 ); this .label3.TabIndex = 1 ; this .label3.Text = " Regular Expression Tester" ; this .label4.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 12 , 155 ); this .label4.Name = " label4" ; this .label4.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 247 , 20 ); this .label4.TabIndex = 3 ; this .label4.Text = " Originally written by Davide Mauri (2003)" ; this .label4.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.TopRight; this .llProject1.AutoSize = true ; this .llProject1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 265 , 155 ); this .llProject1.Name = " llProject1" ; this .llProject1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 96 , 13 ); this .llProject1.TabIndex = 4 ; this .llProject1.TabStop = true ; this .llProject1.Text = " Project Website" ; this .llProject1.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.TopRight; this .llProject1.LinkClicked += new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabelLinkClickedEventHandler( this .llProject1_LinkClicked); this .closeButton.Anchor = System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom; this .closeButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 438 , 290 ); this .closeButton.Name = " closeButton" ; this .closeButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 75 , 23 ); this .closeButton.TabIndex = 0 ; this .closeButton.Text = " Close" ; this .closeButton.Click += new System.EventHandler( this .btnClose_Click); this .label5.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 12 , 178 ); this .label5.Name = " label5" ; this .label5.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 247 , 20 ); this .label5.TabIndex = 6 ; this .label5.Text = " Enhanced by Kurt Griffiths (2006)" ; this .label5.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.TopRight; this .label6.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 12 , 201 ); this .label6.Name = " label6" ; this .label6.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 247 , 20 ); this .label6.TabIndex = 8 ; this .label6.Text = " Turbocharged by Pablo Oss (2009)" ; this .label6.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.TopRight; this .llProject2.AutoSize = true ; this .llProject2.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 265 , 178 ); this .llProject2.Name = " llProject2" ; this .llProject2.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 96 , 13 ); this .llProject2.TabIndex = 7 ; this .llProject2.TabStop = true ; this .llProject2.Text = " Project Website" ; this .llProject2.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.TopRight; this .llProject2.LinkClicked += new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabelLinkClickedEventHandler( this .llProject2_LinkClicked); this .llProject3.AutoSize = true ; this .llProject3.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 265 , 201 ); this .llProject3.Name = " llProject3" ; this .llProject3.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 96 , 13 ); this .llProject3.TabIndex = 9 ; this .llProject3.TabStop = true ; this .llProject3.Text = " Project Website" ; this .llProject3.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.TopRight; this .llProject3.LinkClicked += new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabelLinkClickedEventHandler( this .llProject3_LinkClicked); this .llTCPArticle3.AutoSize = true ; this .llTCPArticle3.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 367 , 201 ); this .llTCPArticle3.Name = " llTCPArticle3" ; this .llTCPArticle3.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 146 , 13 ); this .llTCPArticle3.TabIndex = 10 ; this .llTCPArticle3.TabStop = true ; this .llTCPArticle3.Text = " The Code Project Article" ; this .llTCPArticle3.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.TopRight; this .llTCPArticle3.LinkClicked += new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabelLinkClickedEventHandler( this .llTCPArticle3_LinkClicked); this .linkLabel1.AutoSize = true ; this .linkLabel1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 265 , 224 ); this .linkLabel1.Name = " linkLabel1" ; this .linkLabel1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 159 , 13 ); this .linkLabel1.TabIndex = 12 ; this .linkLabel1.TabStop = true ; this .linkLabel1.Text = " E-mail: opablo@gmail.com" ; this .linkLabel1.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.TopRight; this .linkLabel1.LinkClicked += new System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabelLinkClickedEventHandler( this .linkLabel1_LinkClicked); this .label2.Location = new System.Drawing.Point( 16 , 265 ); this .label2.Name = " label2" ; this .label2.Size = new System.Drawing.Size( 497 , 20 ); this .label2.TabIndex = 13 ; this .label2.Text = " Feature contributions: Eric Lebetsamer (2010)" ; this .AutoScaleBaseSize = new System.Drawing.Size( 6 , 14 ); this .ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size( 531 , 325 ); this .Controls.Add( this .label2); this .Controls.Add( this .linkLabel1); this .Controls.Add( this .llTCPArticle3); this .Controls.Add( this .llProject3); this .Controls.Add( this .llProject2); this .Controls.Add( this .label6); this .Controls.Add( this .label5); this .Controls.Add( this .closeButton); this .Controls.Add( this .llProject1); this .Controls.Add( this .label4); this .Controls.Add( this .label3); this .Controls.Add( this .titleLabel); this .Controls.Add( this .label1); this .Controls.Add( this .llHomepage1); this .Font = new System.Drawing.Font( " Verdana" , 8 . 25F , System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, (( byte )( 0 ))); this .FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.FixedToolWindow; this .Name = " frmAbout" ; this .StartPosition = System.Windows.Forms.FormStartPosition.CenterParent; this .Text = " About" ; this .Load += new System.EventHandler( this .frmAbout_Load); this .ResumeLayout( false ); this .PerformLayout(); } #endregion private System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel llHomepage1; private System.Windows.Forms.Label label1; private System.Windows.Forms.Label titleLabel; private System.Windows.Forms.Label label3; private System.Windows.Forms.Label label4; private System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel llProject1; private System.Windows.Forms.Button closeButton; private Label label5; private Label label6; private LinkLabel llProject2; private LinkLabel llProject3; private LinkLabel llTCPArticle3; private LinkLabel linkLabel1; private Label label2; } } namespace RegExTester { public partial class frmAbout : Form { public frmAbout() { InitializeComponent(); } private void llHomepage1_LinkClicked( object sender, System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e) { Process.Start( " http://www.davidemauri.it/" ); } private void llProject1_LinkClicked( object sender, System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e) { Process.Start( " http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/regextest" ); } private void llProject2_LinkClicked( object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e) { Process.Start( " http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/dotnetregextest.aspx" ); } private void llProject3_LinkClicked( object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e) { Process.Start( " https://github.com/opablo/RegExTester" ); } private void llTCPArticle3_LinkClicked( object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e) { Process.Start( " http://www.codeproject.com/KB/string/regextester.aspx" ); } private void btnClose_Click( object sender, System.EventArgs e) { Close(); } private void linkLabel1_LinkClicked( object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e) { Process.Start( " mailto://opablo@gmail.com" ); } private void frmAbout_Load( object sender, EventArgs e) { titleLabel.Text += " - v" + Application.ProductVersion.ToString(); } } } namespace RegExTester.Properties { [global::System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute( " System.Resources.Tools.StronglyTypedResourceBuilder" , " 2.0.0.0" )] [global::System.Diagnostics.DebuggerNonUserCodeAttribute()] [global::System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CompilerGeneratedAttribute()] internal class Resources { private static global ::System.Resources.ResourceManager resourceMan; private static global ::System.Globalization.CultureInfo resourceCulture; [global::System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis.SuppressMessageAttribute( " Microsoft.Performance" , " CA1811:AvoidUncalledPrivateCode" )] internal Resources() { } [global::System.ComponentModel.EditorBrowsableAttribute( global ::System.ComponentModel.EditorBrowsableState.Advanced)] internal static global ::System.Resources.ResourceManager ResourceManager { get { if ( object .ReferenceEquals(resourceMan, null )) { global ::System.Resources.ResourceManager temp = new global ::System.Resources.ResourceManager( " RegExTester.Properties.Resources" , typeof (Resources).Assembly); resourceMan = temp; } return resourceMan; } } [global::System.ComponentModel.EditorBrowsableAttribute( global ::System.ComponentModel.EditorBrowsableState.Advanced)] internal static global ::System.Globalization.CultureInfo Culture { get { return resourceCulture; } set { resourceCulture = value ; } } internal static System.Drawing.Icon App { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " App" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Icon)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap Copy { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " Copy" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap CSharp { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " CSharp" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap CSharpSnippet { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " CSharpSnippet" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap Cut { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " Cut" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap Delete { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " Delete" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap Find { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " Find" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap FindNext { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " FindNext" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap Html { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " Html" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap Paste { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " Paste" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap Plain { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " Plain" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap Redo { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " Redo" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap Undo { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " Undo" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } internal static System.Drawing.Bitmap WordWrap { get { object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject( " WordWrap" , resourceCulture); return ((System.Drawing.Bitmap)(obj)); } } } }
Developers with blockchain skills have become the hottest commodity in the freelance marketplace, according to a new study.
Freelance employment website Upwork released its latest quarterly index of the 20 hottest job skills, which shows that job postings for workers with blockchain skills have grown exponentially this year.
In its last quarterly report, blockchain technologists were in second place behind those with skills in robotics.
"Blockchain appears to be the next uncharted, highly talked about technology similar to what the 'cloud' was back in the mid-2000's," the Upwork report says. "Its growth exceeded 2,000% for three quarters in a row on Upwork.com, and in Q1 it experienced more than 6,000% year-over-year growth, making it the fastest-growing skill out of more than 5,000 skills on the site."
According to another recent report from Upwork, 53% of hiring managers surveyed cite access to skills as their biggest hiring challenge, and the majority (59%) are already utilizing flexible talent.
Demand for workers with computer/mathematical skills exceeded supply by 17% this year, according to job data analytics firm Burning Glass Technologies.
There were 5,743 mostly full-time job openings calling for blockchain skills in the last 12 months, according to Burning Glass Technologies; that represents a growth of 320%.
The initial hype around blockchain has evolved as more enterprises take the distributed ledger technology seriously, according to Upwork. "Major companies such as Samsung and IBM are already leveraging it in innovative ways, while Salesforce is planning on unveiling a blockchain offering for its customers during Dreamforce in September," the report said.
Burning Glass Technologies
Bitcoin cryptocurrency developers were in third place for freelance skills in Upwork's previous quarterly report, but those technologists have since dropped out of the top 20 job skills list. Meanwhile, blockchain technologists are advertising their services for as much as $250 per hour, according to Upwork's listing site.
As skills become more specialized, companies either need to invest in re-skilling to prepare workers for the jobs of tomorrow or leverage freelance professionals who are nearly twice as likely as traditional employees to proactively take re-skilling upon themselves, Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork, said in a statement. Many of todays Fortune 500 companies are already doing this, and adoption of flexible workers will increase as hiring gets harder.
The median income for fulltime blockchain developers in the U.S. is $140,000 a year, compared to general software developers, whose annual median pay is $105,000, according to Matt Sigelman, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies.
In high-tech regions of the U.S. such as Silicon Valley, blockchain developers earn as much as $163,000; in New York City, they can earn as much as $150,000, according to Sigelman.
"Most of the demand for blockchain developers is still concentrated [in high-tech regions]," Sigelman said.
Upwork
Blockchain becomes a disruptive skill
It's not hard to imagine blockchain as a "disruptive skill" that is both fast-growing and hard to find, according to Burning Glass. While the technology and hiring patterns are in their early stages, employers need to start figuring out where they will find blockchain talent, "even as they are still considering how the technology will change their business.
"Because of its connection with 'cryptocurrencies,' blockchain is associated with finance, and major banks like Liberty Mutual, Capital One and Bank of America have posted openings," Burning Glass Technologies said in its blog. "There are also companies devoted to building blockchain applications, like Consensys Corporation. But the demand for blockchain is much broader, including major consulting firms like Accenture and Deloitte and technology companies like IBM and SAP.
"This is additional evidence that the business world is starting to take blockchain seriously."
CME Group Inc., for example, announced this week it plans to launch bitcoin futures.
Cryptocurrency market capitalization has grown in recent years to $172 billion, with bitcoin representing $94 billion, or more than half of the total, according to CME Group.
Gartner forecasts the business value-add of blockchain will exceed $3.1 trillion by 2030, indicating that it shows promise in terms of utility for business and is a technology thats here to stay, the Upwork report said.
A recent survey by SAP found that 92% of business leaders view blockchain as an opportunity, with the most promising use cases ranked as:
Supply chain and IoT 63% Legal and regulatory 19% Cryptocurrency 8% Sustainability 3%
Additionally, the World Economic Forum just released a toolkit to help executives better understand whether blockchain is an appropriate and helpful tool for their business needs. As more executives try to navigate this technology, there is soaring demand for talented experts familiar with it who can help demystify it and explore potential uses, Upwork noted.
SAP
Enterprises are considering the ways blockchain distributed ledgers can create more efficiency by eliminating the need for central administration, as is required with a relational database.
Enterprises are also asking their tech vendors about blockchain for audit logging and/or verifiable logs, which is viewed as a reliable way of tracking what happened in an organization to satisfy regulatory auditors, according to Zulfikar Ramzan, CTO of RSA Security, a subsidiary of the Dell EMC Infrastructure Solutions Group.
"It's a very hot topic right now," Ramzan said in an earlier interview with Computerworld. "We are definitely getting a lot of inbound inquiries around blockchain and its implication within enterprise environments. I think it's driven largely by the fact that when there's a new technology out there, to some degree people want to be buzzword compliant with the latest and greatest."
The 20 fastest-growing freelance skills in the first three months of 2018 saw more than 130% year-over-year growth in demand, while demand for the top 10 skills grew more than 400% compared to the same time period last year (Q1 2017).
The top 20 fastest-growing skills, Q1 2018:
Blockchain Tensorflow Amazon DynamoDB Voice over Subtitling Art direction Content strategy Computer vision Microsoft Power BI Augmented reality Chatbot development React native Media buying Go development Information security Scala development Instagram API Adobe Premiere Machine learning AngularJS development
Banks are moving toward blockchain in droves for its ability to create an open, cross-border system for clearance and settlement of financial transactions. IBM, for instance, has built a new blockchain-based financial service for use as a cross-border currency exchange by several banks.
Last year, IBM partnered with a Polynesian payments system provider and an open-source FinTech payment network to implement a new international exchange based on the blockchain electronic ledger. The ledger will serve 12 different currencies across Pacific Islands as well as Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Mastercard is launching its own blockchain-based network to enable partner banks and merchants to make cross-border payments faster and more securely. The Mastercard blockchain service can be used to clear credit card transactions and eliminate administrative tasks using smart contract rules thus, speeding transaction settlement.
JP Morgan Chase last October rolled out a blockchain pilot program for global payments. The financial services giant said the blockchain-based Interbank Information Network "will enhance the client experience, decreasing the amount of time from weeks to hours and costs associated with resolving payment delays."
Blockchain explained
Blockchain is an electronic ledger similar to a relational database that can be openly shared among disparate users to create an unchangeable record of their transactions, each one time-stamped and linked to the previous one. It can also be used as a private electronic ledger.
Each digital record or transaction in the thread is called a block (hence the name), and it allows either an open or controlled set of users to participate in the electronic ledger. Each block is linked to a specific participant.
Maersk Ninety percent of goods in global trade are carried by the ocean shipping industry each year. A new blockchain solution from IBM and Maersk will help manage and track the paper trail of tens of millions of shipping containers across the world by digitizing the supply chain process.
Blockchain can only be updated by consensus between participants in the system, and once new data is entered, it can never be erased. The blockchain contains a true and verifiable record of each and every transaction ever made in the system.
While blockchain skills initially showed up in artificial intelligence and automation fields, they've now spread into other, more traditional roles, such as software developers, financial quantatitive analysts, and network engineers.
"What's interesting here is what we refer to as the hybrid-job economy; that's the notion that increasingly jobs are combining skill sets. If you look at some of the jobs growing the fastest and are highest value to companies are those with a sort of mixed-skill genome," Sigelman said.
For example, mobile app developers may be asked if they have marketing and commerce skills that web developers aren't typically expected to have.
"And, blockchain is having a lot of the same characteristics for some reasons that aren't all that surprising becuase it's a foundational technology and fundemental re-think of the underpinnings of how we transact and connect," Sigeman said.
How to become a blockchain developer
The path to becoming a blockchain developer is relatively simple, said Sigelman, who has noticed online courses being offered by universities, such as Princeton, UC Berkeley and Stanford.
For example, Stanford University's Coursara, its venture-backed education-focused technology company, is offering online courses.
Many companies seeking blockchain developers are advertising for workers with Java Script and Python language coding experience, which are standard software skill sets. Others, however, are looking for developers with skills in cryptography and machine learning, Sigelman said.
"I think somebody who is on the leading edge of software development is not going to feel like these blockchain skill sets are new ground for them," Sigelman said.
While fiinancial services (see Bitcoin) was the first industry to jump on board the blockchain wagon, industries such as technology service providers, international shipping, healthcare, power utilities and real estate have been quick to explore its use, too, for everything from smart contracts that automatically execute when certain conditions are met to controlling security access to sensitive control systems.
One new company, ShelterZoom, created a blockchain for buying and selling real estate online thats in beta-testing now.
IBM Watson Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are exploring the use of blockchain for secure patient data exchange, including sensitive electronic medical records, clinical trials and data culled from mobile devices and wearables.
Blockchain is also making inroads into industries as diverse as retail sales, administrative services, transportation and warehousing, where it's being used as way to manage distributed supply chains.
Karim Lakhani, a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School, compared blockchain's impact to that of the Internet because it creates an open, distributed network that allows anyone to share data in a secure manner.
"Settlement of [stock trades] takes time because you're going from one system to the next... and it can take days and cost a lot to transfer money across the world and across multiple systems...versus a direct message system on a network," Lakhani said. "If we have an open, distributed ledger where we can verify transactions taking place and we can build in a programmed logic of how actions take place, that the reduction in transactions costs and increase in the number of new novel applications that can be developed far outweighs the purported benefits of relational database systems."
"It's a whole new paradigm for the way information is stored, shared and acted upon," Lakhani added.
SOUTH DUNDAS, Ontario On Dec. 11, 2017 at approximately 11:18 a.m., SD&G OPP officers responded to a report of a Break and Enter in progress at a former business on County Road 2, South Dundas Township. SD&G officer located the suspects at the location and the investigation indicated that the culprits forcibly entered the business and removed several items.
SD&G OPP Officers arrested two male in connection with the break-in.
A 15-year-old male of South Dundas, Ontario was arrested and is charged with;
Break and Enter
Possession of Property Obtained by Crime
Fail to Comply with conditions of Probation Order (3 counts)
Possession of a Controlled substance marihuana
A 14-year-old Male of South Dundas, Ontario was arrested and is charged with;
Break and Enter
Both Males were released and are scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Cornwall on Jan. 25, 2018.
The name of the accused are being withheld in accordance with the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).
EXCESSIVE SPEEDS
SOUTH DUNDAS, Ontario On Dec. 13, 2017, Highway Safety Division Ontario Provincial Police officers conducted speed measuring enforcement on Highway 401, South Dundas Township and intercepted the following vehicle for traveling at excessive speeds. The vehicle was impounded and the drivers permit seized for seven days in accordance to policy.
Dec. 13, 2017 1:35 p.m. (South Dundas) vehicle stopped travelling 159km/h (100km/h zone). Male driver (31) from Toronto, Ontario was charged with Stunt Driving (Highway Traffic Act).
BREAK IN
SOUTH STORMONT, Ontario On Dec 13, 2017 at approximately 5:12 p.m., Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Ontario Provincial Police officers responded to a report of a break-in progress at a residence on Kent Crescent, South Stormont Township. The homeowner returned home to find an unknown male inside the home. The suspect then fled the location without removing any property. The male is described as: white male, 30-40 years old, wearing a black jacket and white Nike running shoes. SD&G K9 Unit attended with negative results.
(ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION ON THE ABOVE IS ASKED TO CALL SD&G OPP AT 1-888-310-1122 OR CRIME STOPPERS AT 1-800-222-8477).
An investigation continues.
The final ship set to sail during the 2017 season will depart from Vancouver on Saturday, marking the end of the 31st consecutive cruise season at Canada Place terminal at the Port of Vancouver.
In 2017, Vancouver welcomed almost 843,000 cruise passengers on 236 vessel visits, which was up 2 percent, the port said.
As a top global destination, Vancouver continues to attract a wide spectrum of cruise lines and passengers from around the world and has increasingly become the homeport of choice for Alaska-bound cruises, said Peter Xotta, vice president of planning and operations at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
The Star Princess was the first ship to kick off the 2017 season and is also the last, having called on Canada Place 17 times this year, according to the port.
The ship is fresh off a drydock at Seaspan Shipyards.
Seaspan Shipyards successful completion of work on the Star Princess demonstrates the capabilities of Canadas shipbuilding and marine industries. Our company is proud to support the cruise industry while providing highly-skilled jobs for Canadians. We anticipate that this will remain an important part of our business in the years to come, said Brian Carter, President & CEO of Seaspan Shipyards.
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Thats what Tim Herbst is telling his Republican rivals in the governors race who skipped last weeks debate, the first of five organized by the state GOP in each congressional district.
The no-shows were Mark Boughton and Mark Lauretti, the mayors of Danbury and Shelton; Greenwich hedge fund mogul David Stemerman; and one-time UBS and General Electric executive Bob Stefanowski, of Madison.
The next time Republicans will face off is Jan. 10 at RHAM High School in Hebron, which southeast of Hartford in Tolland County.
Herbst, who served as Trumbulls first selectman for the past eight years but did not seek re-election this fall, said some of his rivals havent been vetted and put through the meat grinder like he has.
These debates are critical because theyre job interviews, said Herbst, who left office at the beginning of December. Were going to select the 89th governor of Connecticut, not through a coronation, not through an auction.
Seven Republicans shared the stage at the opening debate Dec. 6 in Windsor, mixing it up over how to cut billion-dollar budget deficits and keep companies such as GE and Aetna from fleeing Connecticut - and their outsider credentials.
Now, the arena is about to get even more crowded. Before Herbst issued his challenge Tuesday, Boughton had already confirmed his participation in the next debate to Hearst Connecticut Media. He cited scheduling conflict with the first debate his exploratory committee held a fundraiser the same night.
Look, just because someone throws a temper tantrum doesnt change my campaign schedule, Boughton said. This is the big leagues.
Since the rules for exploratory committees prohibit politicians from using them to campaign for a specific office, there has been some speculation that those like Boughton would seek to avoid debates for governor. But Boughton, who has run for governor twice before, said that didnt play a role in his absence.
Youve got to be very clear that youve got an exploratory committee for statewide office that is unspecified, he said.
Stefanowski bypassed the first debate to do a roadshow promoting his economic blueprint with Reaganomics guru Art Laffer, who has endorsed the action plan. It calls for the state income, the corporate income and business entity taxes to be phased out, as well as the elimination of the gift and estate taxes.
I am focused on rolling out a comprehensive economic plan to rebuild Connecticut and look forward to a healthy discussion at the debates next year on how we return our state to prosperity, Stefanowksi said in a text message.
Pressed whether he will participate in the Jan. 10 debate, he responded, Schedule permitting.
Lauretti skipped the first debate to attend a brownfields cleanup conference in Pittsburgh, while Stemerman sat out because he is still disentangling himself from his $1.6 billion Conatus Capital Management firm.
As we've said before, David is focused on winding down his company right now and studying state issues, Stemermans campaign said in a statement. No scheduling decisions have been made yet. Remember, we are basically a year away from the election. Voters dont like a permanent campaign.
Lauretti, who has raised more than $250,000 from at least 2,500 donors to qualify for public campaign financing, said he wont have other candidates such as Herbst dictate debate terms.
I am not sure I feel obligated to go to a debate with people who are not at the same status, he said. Raise to $250,000 and demonstrate your value at least in one category. Qualifications and experience matter, and being employed would help. Perhaps a different career would serve him better.
Every year, millions of children enter Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals seeking treatment for serious illnesses and injuries. Read on to discover just how vitally important these resources are to communities, and how the world-class care they provide brings healing and peace of mind to families in need.
Vanessas Story
It was the first day of school 2013 when 11-year-old Vanessa Desrosiers life took an unexpected turn. Struck by a car in her Los Angeles neighborhood while walking to school, Vanessa suffered multiple injuries so severe, she was immediately airlifted to a local trauma center for evaluation and treatment.
While Vanessas medical team quickly identified her broken femur and foot injuries, and swiftly moved her into surgery to put her leg in traction, it soon became clear to her parents that Vanessa needed more care than the busy trauma unit could provide.
The staff treated her well, but with every gunshot and stab wound victim unfortunately common injuries in Los Angeles we just kept getting bumped from the schedule and were soon nothing more than a number, said Veronica Desrosiers, Vanessas mother and vice president, enterprise risk management, for CO-OP Financial Services.
Nancy Pelosi's legacy: From passing Obamacare to impeaching Trump
Congressional scholars and modern politicians rate Speaker Nancy Pelosi as one of the most consequential legislative leaders in U.S. and House history.
Fundamental Forecast for USOIL: Bullish
Crude Oil Price News Talking Points:
A market divided was the takeaway this week after OPEC & IEA have differing demand views
The temporary shutdown of the North Sea pipeline that underlies Brent provided price volatility
Per BHI, U.S. Oil Rig Count falls by 4 to 747, first drop in six weeks
Oil Market Insight From IG UK: Net-short retail trader bias provides a Bullish price outlook
Will they or wont they? That is, will US Shale producers out produce OPEC and strategic alliances that agreed to a production cut in 2018 in such a manner that the agreement loses its positive effect? If you asked the two most credible entities in the oil market about their views, you would hear different answers.
A Market (Forecast) Divided
In the prior week, two energy market giants, OPEC and the EIA, have differing views on the strength of demand and how that will affect whether the oil market will continue to be oversupplied or should demand rise strongly enough next year in whether the market will be in a deficit.
The OPEC view is that their efforts will pay off and they will have finally cleared through the supply glut whereas the EIA sees US production as too aggressive to win the war so that the progress made in eliminating the glut next year will be negligible. Naturally, which forecast is right whether it is glut eliminated or glut remaining in force will significantly determine how the price of oil will end 2018. Either way, traders can expect volatility to increase as positioning is likely to be spread around and whoever is wrong may need to aggressively shift their exposure if they followed the wrong forecast.
A side note worth considering is that options traders seem to favor OPECs view. When looking at ICE Brent $80 call options for June 18 onward, the volume surged this week to over 30,000 contracts, which would be good for a
Hey, Did You See That Crack?
A key driver of the price volatility over the last week was the halting of the Forties Pipeline, which affects ~50% of the UK oil production that underlies the Brent market due to a hairline crack discovered. The announcement was made by the owner of the pipeline, INEOS on Monday who bought the pipeline in late October from BP. The flow of the oil through the pipe helps to determine the price of different grades of crude, which means the front-month futures contract value will likely be volatile though this week ended flat.
Brent Crude Price Forecast Analysis
Despite the news flow, the Brent oil price has traded sideways toward the end of the week even though it hit an intraweek high trade in 2015. On the Brent oil price chart, traders will likely continue to keep an eye on price action holding above $61/bbl on a closing basis (50-DMA) to show the uptrend is at play and that a possible double-top is not playing out.
A break below $57.56/bbl (100-DMA) would be a key breakdown that would support the double-top pattern view, but above there, the Bullish trend is expected to slowly continue as the options traders looking at $80/bbl are betting toward. The 3-5 week bullish price target is $68-$69.60/bbl, and the bearish target is the May higher and October low near $55/bbl but remains an alternative view if the Bullish scenario fails.
Theres a global rise in oil demand! Click here to see our Q4 forecast on what outcomes we're watching!
Brent Crude Price Chart Works To Avoid Double-Top
Chart Created by Tyler Yell, CMT
Next Weeks Data Points That May Affect Energy Markets:
The fundamental focal points for the energy market next week:
Monday 2:00 PM ET: EIA monthly Drilling Productivity Report
Monday (time uncertain): JODI issues world oil exports
Tuesday 4:30 PM ET: API issues weekly U.S. oil inventory forecast
Wednesday 10:30 AM ET: EIA weekly US Oil Inventory Report
Fridays 1:00 PM ET: Baker-Hughes Rig Count at
Friday 3:30 PM ET: Release of the CFTC weekly commitments of traders report on U.S. futures, options contracts
Crude Oil Market Insight from IG UK Client Positioning
We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-short suggests Oil - US Crude prices may continue to rise. Traders are further net-short than yesterday and last week, and the combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a stronger Oil - US Crude-bullish contrarian trading bias.
-TY
Once they happen, elections make two types of politicians - those in government, and those not. Euphemistically, they are also "in power", and not, because the chosen ones are the elected representatives of the people who are there to govern by law, their powers deriving from the constitutionally created institutions, and the people's mandate; nothing else. However, elections also ensure that one set of people do not hold on to power for too long, and that organised churns throw up challengers in democratic leadership. Precisely why, elections are sacrosanct, cornerstone of a democratic republic.
The job of the Election Commission of India, and its officers on the ground, is to ensure that during elections, the distinction between those in power and those not is completely gone, that free and fair elections are held, offering each and every candidate an equal chance to make his/her case, and each and every citizen the opportunity to make an informed decision. The ECI, along with the judiciary, have been called "institutions of restraint", required to observe strict political neutrality, bolstering democracy in the process. Conversely, when the EC fails to do its job well, as spectacularly as the one led by chief election commissioner Achal Kumar Joti, then the very foundations of democracy are shaken.
Joti, who was the chief secretary of Gujarat when Narendra Modi was the chief minister, has succeeded Nasim Zaidi as the CEC, taking over on July 6 this year. That his biography has become a talking point while judging the conduct of the ECI in the wake of how the Gujarat Assembly polls were supervised, is an unfortunate enough development. While too many Gujarat cadre officers are now occupying the top posts in India's sprawling executive, with some calling this the "Gujaratification of Indian bureaucracy", Joti's place is unique because his position directly impacts the well-being of Indian democracy and its federalism.
Model code of misconduct
From delaying the announcement of the dates for Gujarat Assembly elections that allowed the ruling BJP in the Centre to announcing sops worth Rs 11,000 crore, to casting a blind eye to Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoking "mandir-masjid" in his campaign speeches, to letting the BJP get away with releasing its election manifesto, "Sankalp Patra" one day before the phase one of the polls on December 9, to PM Modi directly appealing to voters polling in the first phase while campaigning for constituencies going to polls in the second, to the one-kilometre-long road-show televised as a "post-poll walk" by PM Modi - the occasions on which EC, to put it very mildly, accommodated the BJP's high-on-stakes, low-on-principles gambles for Gujarat have been way too many.
The election rhetoric has seen unprecedented toxicity from none other than the elected prime minister himself, tarnishing the PM's office, insinuating that a former PM, with a decade at the PMO, was indulging in conspiracy with a nuclear neighbour to swing the Gujarat polls in favour of a "Muslim" CM candidate. A rattled Modi seemed to have gone back to his Gujarat CM days of "hum paanch, humare pachees" against Muslims, taking potshots at former vice-president Hamid Ansari every now and then, basically equating Muslims with Pakistan, the old bogey. At every point of PM Modi's gross misconduct, the Election Commission of India led by AK Joti looked the other way.
If someone unwittingly faltered in the Congress camp, like the veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar did and witnessed his uncharitable but not unparliamentary remark twisted and turned into instant political capital by the electorally shrewd PM and his lieutenants, he was suspended immediately by a no-nonsense president-elect in Rahul Gandhi. Yet, the Joti-led Election Commission of India, when it finally decided to act, picked the weaker party in the Opposition and a handful of Gujarati TV channels over an innocuous interview with Gandhi.
Can anyone explain: election rallies while voting is on in phase one in Gujarat fine; but interviews before phase 2 not fine! Manifesto can be released hours before polling but no interviews! #BattlegroundGujarat Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) December 13, 2017
The show-cause notice sent by EC to Rahul Gandhi and the TV channels, particularly Gujarat Samachar, issued for violation of Para1 (4) of the model code of conduct along with Section 126 (1) (b) of the Representation of People Act, 1951, is about an interview aired on December 13, clips of which are still available on YouTube and social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. In this age of instant communication, a short interview in which Gandhi talks about his formally taking charge of Congress and a "sari gifted to Sonia Gandhi" by a temple priest in Gujarat was hardly going to swing voters in either direction.
Election Commission looking bafflingly, sadly inept--threatening FIRs on the one hand, allowing road shows on polling day on the other. An unfortunate fall-out of the Gujarat poll has been way the EC is now perceived Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) December 14, 2017
The Chief Election Commissioner AK Jyoti was Gujarat's Chief Secretary from 2009-2013 under Narendra Modi. No wonder he is scared of the Prime Minister and has forever sullied the office of the EC Anand Kochukudy (@AnandKochukudy) December 14, 2017
Yet, the EC took offence to Gandhi talking to sections of media in a pre-recorded interview, but not PM Modi giving a well-choreographed political speech at the FICCI one day before the polling day in the national capital that was televised live, and of course also reached the Gujarati voters. Where is the "election silence" in the case of the BJP when not just the PM - its biggest brand - but a bevy of Union ministers, the party's national president ritually issued politically loaded messages taking on the Opposition and accusing them of swaying the Gujarat elections by colluding with Pakistan?
Glitches in the matrix
It's not just the serial flouting of the model code of conduct, but the increasing distrust in the very technologies of delivering democracy through fair and transparent voting mechanism that's now come under a cloud, which should be of primary concern for the Election Commission. There have been over 100 reported instances of gross malfunctioning of the electronic voting machines, especially in constituencies that saw large-scale protests led by youth leaders Hardik Patel, Alphesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani.
Social media bloggers and dedicated chroniclers of the Gujarat polls from the site of action, such as Twitter user @iScrew, have corroborated the reports in mainstream TV and print media that large-scale EVM malfunctioning had resulted in stalling the voting process in a number of booths. Each and every time, the malfunctioning was attributed to the vote going to the BJP despite the voter pressing the button belonging to a different party. On several occasions, the Congress button just failed to light up, or the VVPAT didn't match. But the chief electoral officer of Gujarat brushed aside these extremely valid concerns, grossly underreporting the cases while saying that EC would "probe the matter" in a future indefinite sleight-of-hand.
I can't keep up with EVM failures reporting. This is an epidemic of monumental proportions. Wonder how EC will explain in their presser after voting is over. EVM failures or EC failure in a crucial election? Mind boggling!!! TheAgeOfBananas (@iScrew) December 14, 2017
EC BB Swaine addressing a presser. As expected releasing data of EVM malfunctions at 0.8%. Says there have been 'couple of' incidents of machine failures, fixed or replaced already. Says cluster system was used in mock poll and it was successful ???? TheAgeOfBananas (@iScrew) December 14, 2017
If the Congress appealed to the EC to take these concerns with the required gravitas that they desperately need, since the very foundations of democracy are at stake here, it was to deaf ears of an unbelievably supine institution, a blot on its once illustrious history under the commanding TN Seshan. When the Congress knocked the doors of the Supreme Court in a last-minute plea to have random checks to match EVMs-VVPATs in at least 25 per cent booths in every constituency in Gujarat, the apex court shot the request down saying it "cannot question the wisdom of the EC", which wants to restrict the exercise to just one booth per constituency.
Gujarat Congress Secy's 11th hour plea in SC to have random checks to match EVMs-VVPAT paper trail in atleast 25% booths in every constituency in the State falls apart.SC holds it cannot question wisdom of EC to restrict the exercise to just 1 booth in a constituency @the_hindu Krishnadas Rajagopal (@kdrajagopal) December 15, 2017
J. Chandrachud to AM Singhvi: 1. Candidate has right to question vote count before the RO.2. SC cant interfere unless EC's decision to restrict EVM-VVPAT paper trail to 1 booth per constituency is proved arbitrary3. Cant discredit EC's call without cogent material#Gujarat Krishnadas Rajagopal (@kdrajagopal) December 15, 2017
Naturally flummoxed and upset observers and public figures closely watching the rapid disintegration of India's democratic institutions have red-flagged this ludicrous decision to check the VVPAT in only one booth per constituency, putting the figure at 182 checks against 24,689 polling stations, calling into question the very need to have compulsory paper trail matching votes registered electronically. The latest decision by the EC flies in the face of earlier assurances of having VVPAT at very booth, so as to assuage growing anxiety among citizens over whether or not they could trust the technologies of delivering and upholding democracy via free and fair elections.
The EC tried to allay fear of EVM manipulation by saying that paper trail in the shape of VVPATs were being used in Guj. Now EC says paper trail in VVPATS will not be counted. And SC refuses to order counting in even 25%. What's the use of VVPATS then? https://t.co/EoQSG7iYtS Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) December 15, 2017
The great inter-dependence of India's once-robust institutions now seems to be the perfect alibi for the ruling regime's inordinate excesses. If doubts are being raised at the efficacy and impartiality of institutions that are constitutionally mandated to safeguard and bolster the democratic republic, shouldn't it be in the interest of preserving the sanctity of these flailing bodies to look into the matter impartially and dispel the just concerns?
EVM !! / EVM EVM EVM Hardik Patel (@HardikPatel_) December 15, 2017
A particularly damning report has also come in a news website that looks at the allegedly interlocking finances of the company manufacturing the frequently faltering EVMs in Gujarat and the strange balance sheet of the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited (GSPCL) which ran into "losses" worth Rs 20,000 crore searching for natural gas that never existed in the first place. How to know if the report "connecting the dots", as it were, of the faulty EVMs and an alleged "gas scam" is a case of imagination run wild unless there's a thorough investigation into the matter? And, who after all would investigate, since the Gujaratification of Indian bureaucracy is almost complete, as the precedents amply show?
Bank of America has a rich history dating back to 1800 and even earlier. It was begun by immigrants as a group of separate and unrelated banks that, over the years, merged and grew together. One such is the Bank of Italy which was founded in 1904 by Amadeo Giannini to serve Italian immigrants that were facing discrimination. He later buys out the Banca de America e de Italia (Bank of America and Italy) which was also located in San Francisco. Over the years additional mergers and changes in Federal banking legislation, as well as the boom brought on by WWI and then WWII, helped boost the bank to national prominence.
Things turned sour, however, in 1998 with a major bond default that led to yet another merger, this time with Charlotte, NC-based Nations Bank to officially become the Bank of America that exists today. At the time, the merger was the largest bank merger in history and the company has only grown in the time since.
Other additions to the new Bank of America include MBNA (a major credit card operator), Fleet Boston (then the US 7th largest and one of its oldest banks), and Merril Lynch, now Merril, which was added to the group in 2008 to provide an investment banking branch. Together the company dominates as one of the Big Four Banks in America. Bank of America lays claim to nearly 11% of all US deposits which ranks in line with its peer group and Bank of America Securities is listed as the worlds 3rd largest investment bank.
Today, Bank of America Corporation provides banking and financial services for individuals, small businesses, institutions, corporations, and governments worldwide. The bank operates in three segments Consumer Banking, Global Wealth & Investment Management, and Global Banking bringing in a combined revenue greater than $90 billion in 2022.
As of 2022, Bank of America serves approximately 67 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,200 retail financial centers. The bank also operates more than 16,000 ATMs and digital banking platforms with approximately 41 million active users.
Its Consumer Banking segment offers traditional banking and investment products for retail clients. These range from deposit accounts to savings, credit cards, consumer loans, and IRAs. The Global Wealth & Investment Management segment offers investment and wealth management solutions including, brokerage, banking, and trust and retirement products. The Global Banking segment provides lending products and services, including commercial loans and leases for businesses of all varieties. The Global Markets segment offers market-making, clearing, settlement, and custody services, as well as risk management, derivatives, and FX exchange services.
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.
PVH Corp. operates as an apparel company worldwide. The company operates through six segments: Tommy Hilfiger North America, Tommy Hilfiger International, Calvin Klein North America, Calvin Klein International, Heritage Brands Wholesale, and Heritage Brands Retail. It designs, markets, and retails men's, women's, and children's apparel and accessories, including branded dress shirts, neckwear, sportswear, jeans wear, performance apparel, intimate apparel, underwear, swimwear, swim-related products, handbags, accessories, footwear, outerwear, home furnishings, luggage products, sleepwear, loungewear, hats, scarves, gloves, socks, watches and jewelry, eyeglasses and non-ophthalmic sunglasses, fragrance, home bed and bath furnishings, small leather goods, and other products. The company offers its products under its own brands, such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Van Heusen, IZOD, ARROW, Warner's, Olga, Geoffrey Beene, and True&Co., as well as various other owned, licensed, and private label brands. It also licenses its own brands over various products. The company distributes its products at wholesale in department, chain, and specialty stores, as well as through warehouse clubs, mass market, and off-price and independent retailers; and through company-operated full-price, outlet stores, and concession locations, as well as through digital commerce sites. It markets its products to approximately 40 countries. PVH Corp. was founded in 1881 and is based in New York, New York.
The newly established Rural Health Council means good things for health care in New York, advocates say.
The Iroquois Healthcare Association initiative was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo Nov. 30.
The Rural Health Council will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2018, however, this statutory establishment in law is important because it creates a platform for rural health issues to be discusses and examined, IHA President Gary J. Fitzgerald said in a press release.
The council is made up of local rural area health care providers in New York state, including Central New York, who will advise the state Health Commissioner on all aspects of rural health care and delivery. The council will also contribute biennial reports to the governor, Legislature, and regional economic councils on the status of health-care workforce supply in their regions.
Rural areas of upstate New York present unique health-care challenges as needed care ranges from primary to emergency care, sometimes to the most vulnerable populations, state Sen. Kemp Hannon said in a press release. Some families in rural communities don't even have the necessary transportation to access quality health care, and this law will help change that by ensuring the council's work is thorough and truly takes into account our needs, Assemblyman Billy Jones said in a press release.
Officially establishing this council into law affirms the importance of health care providers in rural areas, and strengthens their ability to voice the unique challenges of their geographic locations and influence new policy development, regulations, and best practices, the council said.
Ingredion Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells starches and sweeteners for various industries. It operates through four segments: North America; South America; Asia-Pacific; and Europe, Middle East and Africa. The company offers sweetener products comprising glucose syrups, high maltose syrups, high fructose corn syrups, caramel colors, dextrose, polyols, maltodextrins, and glucose syrup solids, as well as food-grade and industrial starches, biomaterials, and nutrition ingredients. It also provides edible corn oil; refined corn oil to packers of cooking oil and to producers of margarine, salad dressings, shortening, mayonnaise, and other foods; and corn gluten feed used as protein feed for chickens, pet food, and aquaculture, as well as fruit and vegetable products, such as concentrates, purees and essences, pulse proteins, and hydrocolloids systems and blends. The company's products are derived primarily from processing corn and other starch-based materials, such as tapioca, potato, and rice. It serves food, beverage, brewing, and animal nutrition industries. The company was formerly known as Corn Products International, Inc. and changed its name to Ingredion Incorporated in June 2012. Ingredion Incorporated was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Westchester, Illinois.
Bay Banks of Virginia, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various banking products and services to businesses, professionals, and consumers in Virginia. The company accepts checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, cash management accounts, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts. Its loan products include commercial and industrial loans, such as small business loans, asset based loans, and other secured and unsecured loans and lines of credit; purchased loans; residential and commercial mortgages; home equity loans; consumer installment loans; and consumer loans comprising automobile and boat financing, home improvement loans, and unsecured personal loans. The company also provides credit cards; and insurance, online banking, telephone banking, mobile banking, analysis checking, cash management deposit, wire, direct deposit payroll, lockbox, positive pay, and remote deposit services, as well as a line of commercial lending options. In addition, it offers management services, including estate planning and settlement, as well as trust administration, investment, and wealth management services; and revocable and irrevocable living trusts, testamentary trusts, custodial accounts, investment planning, brokerage services, investment managed accounts, and managed and self-directed rollover individual retirement accounts for personal and corporate trusts. As of March 9, 2020, the company operated 17 banking offices located throughout greater Richmond region, the Northern Neck region, Middlesex County, and the Hampton Roads region. Bay Banks of Virginia, Inc. was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.
The Clorox Company manufactures and markets consumer and professional products worldwide. It operates through four segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment offers cleaning products, such as laundry additives and home care products primarily under the Clorox, Clorox2, Scentiva, Pine-Sol, Liquid-Plumr, Tilex, and Formula 409 brands; professional cleaning and disinfecting products under the CloroxPro and Clorox Healthcare brands; professional food service products under the Hidden Valley brand; and vitamins, minerals and supplement products under the RenewLife, Natural Vitality, NeoCell, and Rainbow Light brands in the United States. The Household segment provides cat litter products under the Fresh Step and Scoop Away brands; bags and wraps under the Glad brand; and grilling products under the Kingsford brand in the United States. The Lifestyle segment offers dressings, dips, seasonings, and sauces primarily under the Hidden Valley brand; natural personal care products under the Burt's Bees brand; and water-filtration products under the Brita brand in the United States. The International segment provides laundry additives; home care products; water-filtration systems; digestive health products; grilling products; cat litter products; food products; bags and wraps; natural personal care products; and professional cleaning and disinfecting products internationally primarily under the Clorox, Ayudin, Clorinda, Poett, Pine-Sol, Glad, Brita, RenewLife, Ever Clean and Burt's Bees brands. The Clorox Company sells its products primarily through mass retailers; grocery outlets; warehouse clubs; dollar stores; home hardware centers; drug, pet and military stores; third-party and owned e-commerce channels; and distributors, as well as a direct sales force The company was founded in 1913 and is headquartered in Oakland, California.
Nucor Corporation manufactures and sells steel and steel products. The company's Steel Mills segment produces hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and galvanized sheet steel products; plate steel products; wide-flange beams, beam blanks, and H-piling and sheet piling products; and bar steel products, such as blooms, billets, concrete reinforcing and merchant bars, and special bar quality products. It also engages in the steel trading and rebar distribution businesses. This segment sells its products to steel service centers, fabricators, and manufacturers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Its Steel Products segment offers hollow structural section steel tubing products, electrical conduits, steel racking, steel joists and joist girders, steel decks, fabricated concrete reinforcing steel products, cold finished steel products, steel fasteners, metal building systems, insulated metal panels, steel grating and expanded metal products, and wire and wire mesh products primarily for use in nonresidential construction applications. This segment also engages in the piling distribution business. The company's Raw Materials segment produces direct reduced iron (DRI); brokers ferrous and nonferrous metals, pig iron, hot briquetted iron, and DRI; supplies ferro-alloys; and processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal, as well as engages in the natural gas drilling operations. This segment sells its ferrous scrap to electric arc furnace steel mills and foundries for manufacturing process; and nonferrous scrap metal to aluminum can producers, secondary aluminum smelters, steel mills and other processors, and consumers of various nonferrous metals. It serves agriculture, automotive, construction, energy and transmission, oil and gas, heavy equipment, infrastructure, and transportation industries through its in-house sales force; and internal distribution and trading companies. Nucor Corporation was incorporated in 1958 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The following companies are subsidiares of Centene: AT Learning Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, AT Medics Holdings LLP an English and Welsh LLP, AT Medics Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, AT Technology (Private) Ltd. a Pakistan private company, AT Technology Services Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, AWC of Syracuse Inc. a New York corporation, Absolute Total Care Inc. a South Carolina corporation, AcariaHealth Inc. a Delaware corporation, AcariaHealth Pharmacy #11 Inc. a Texas corporation, AcariaHealth Pharmacy #12 Inc. a New York corporation, AcariaHealth Pharmacy #13 Inc. a California corporation, AcariaHealth Pharmacy #14 Inc. a California corporation, AcariaHealth Pharmacy #26 Inc. a Delaware corporation, AcariaHealth Pharmacy Inc. a California corporation, AcariaHealth Solutions Inc. a Delaware corporation, Access Medical Acquisition LLC a Delaware LLC, Access Medical Group of Florida City LLC a Florida LLC, Access Medical Group of Hialeah LLC a Florida LLC, Access Medical Group of Lakeland LLC a Florida LLC, Access Medical Group of Miami LLC a Florida LLC, Access Medical Group of North Miami Beach LLC a Florida LLC, Access Medical Group of Opa-Locka LLC a Florida LLC, Access Medical Group of Perrine LLC a Florida LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa II LLC a Florida LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa III LLC a Florida LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa LLC a Florida LLC, Access Medical Group of Westchester LLC a Florida LLC, Accountable Care Coalition Direct Contracting LLC a Florida LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Chesapeake LLC a Maryland LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Community Health Centers II LLC a Texas LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Community Health Centers LLC a Texas LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers II LLC a Delaware LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers III LLC a Delaware LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers IV LLC a Delaware LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers LLC a Hawaii LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers V LLC a Delaware LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers VII LLC an Arizona LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Florida Partners LLC a Florida LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Georgia LLC a Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Maryland LLC a Maryland LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Maryland Primary Care LLC a Maryland LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of New Jersey Inc. a New Jersey corporation, Accountable Care Coalition of North Texas LLC a Texas LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northeast Georgia LLC a Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northeast Partners LLC a Pennsylvania LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northwest Florida LLC a Florida LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Prime Health LLC an Oregon LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health II LLC a Delaware LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health III LLC a Delaware LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health LLC an Oregon LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Partners LLC a Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Physician Partners LLC a South Carolina LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Texas Inc. a Texas corporation, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Wisconsin LLC a Wisconsin LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Tennessee LLC a Tennessee LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Texas Inc. a Texas corporation, Agate Resources Inc. an Oregon corporation, AirLogix, Ambetter of Magnolia Inc. a Mississippi corporation, Ambetter of North Carolina Inc. a North Carolina corporation, Ambetter of Peach State Inc. a Georgia corporation, America's 1st Choice California Holdings LLC a Florida corporation, American Progressive Life and Health Insurance Company of New York a New York corporation, Apixio, Apixio Inc a Delaware corporation, Arch Personalized Medicine Initiative LLC a Missouri LLC, Arkansas Health & Wellness Health Plan Inc. an Arkansas corporation, Arkansas Total Care Holding Company LLC a Delaware LLC, Arkansas Total Care Inc. an Arkansas corporation, B2B Gestion Integra S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., B2B Salud S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., BMI Healthcare Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, BMI Hospital Decontamination Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, BMI Imaging Clinic Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, BMI Southend Private Hospital Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, BMI Syon Clinic Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Bankers Reserve Life Insurance Company of Wisconsin a Wisconsin corporation, Bishopswood SPV Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Bridgeway Health Solutions LLC a Delaware LLC, Bridgeway Health Solutions of Arizona Inc. an Arizona corporation, Buckeye Community Health Plan Inc. an Ohio corporation, Buckeye Health Plan Community Solutions Inc. an Ohio corporation, CCTX Holdings LLC a Texas LLC, CEF Holding Company Limited a limited liability Malta company, CMC Real Estate Company LLC a Delaware LLC, CT Poprad s.r.o. a Slovakia S.R.O., CT Presov s.r.o. a Slovakia S.R.O., California Health and Wellness Plan a California corporation, Cantina Laredo Clayton LP a Delaware limited partnership, Cardium Health Services, Care 1st Health Plan of Arizona Inc. an Arizona corporation, Care1st Health Plan Administrative Services Inc. an Arizona corporation, Carolina Complete Health Holding Company Partnership a Delaware partnership, Carolina Complete Health Inc. a North Carolina corporation, CeltiCare Health Plan Holdings LLC a Delaware LLC, CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts Inc. a Massachusetts corporation, Celtic Group Inc., Celtic Group Inc. a Delaware corporation, Celtic Insurance Company an Illinois corporation, Cenpatico Behavioral Health LLC a California LLC, Centene Center I LLC a Delaware LLC, Centene Center II LLC a Delaware LLC, Centene Center LLC a Delaware LLC, Centene Company of Texas LP a Texas limited partnership, Centene Europe Finance Company Limited a limited liability Malta company, Centene Health Plan Holdings Inc. a Delaware corporation, Centene Institute for Advanced Health Education LLC a Delaware LLC, Centene International Financing Company Limited a limited liability Malta company, Centene International Ventures LLC a Delaware LLC, Centene Management Company LLC a Wisconsin LLC, Centene Technology Europe S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., Centene Technology UK Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Centene Venture Company Alabama Health Plan Inc. an Alabama corporation, Centene Venture Company Florida Inc. a Florida corporation, Centene Venture Company Illinois Inc. an Illinois corporation, Centene Venture Company Indiana Inc. an Indiana corporation, Centene Venture Company Kansas Inc. a Kansas corporation, Centene Venture Company Michigan Inc. a Michigan corporation, Centene Venture Company Tennessee Inc. a Tennessee corporation, Centene Venture Insurance Company Texas Inc. a Texas corporation, Centro Inmunologocia De La Comunidad Valenciana S.L. a Spanish S.L., Centurion Correctional Healthcare of New Mexico LLC a New Mexico LLC, Centurion Detention Health Services LLC a Delaware LLC, Centurion LLC a Delaware LLC, Centurion of Arizona LLC an Arizona LLC, Centurion of Delaware LLC a Delaware LLC, Centurion of Florida LLC a Florida LLC, Centurion of Indiana LLC an Indiana LLC, Centurion of Kansas LLC a Kansas LLC, Centurion of Minnesota LLC a Minnesota LLC, Centurion of Mississippi LLC a Mississippi LLC, Centurion of New Hampshire LLC a Delaware LLC, Centurion of Pennsylvania LLC a Pennsylvania LLC, Centurion of Tennessee LLC a Tennessee LLC, Centurion of Vermont LLC a Vermont LLC, Centurion of West Virginia LLC a West Virginia LLC, Centurion of Wyoming LLC a Wyoming LLC, Chrysalis Medical Services LLC a New Jersey LLC, Circle Birmingham Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Circle Clinical Services Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Circle Harmony Health Ltd. a Hong Kong private company, Circle Health 1 Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Circle Health 2 Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Circle Health 3 Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Circle Health 4 Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Circle Health Holdings Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Circle Health Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Circle Holdings Ltd. a Jersey private company, Circle Hospital (Reading) Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Circle International an English and Welsh PLC, Circle Nottingham Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Circle Rehabilitation Services Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Clinica Santo Domingo De Lugo S.L. a Spanish S.L., Collaborative Health Systems IPA LLC a Florida LLC, Collaborative Health Systems LLC a New York LLC, Collaborative Health Systems of Maryland LLC a Maryland LLC, Collaborative Health Systems of Virginia LLC a Virginia LLC, Community Medical Group, Community Medical Holdings Corporation a Delaware corporation, Comprehensive Health Management Inc. a Florida corporation, Coordinated Care Corporation an Indiana corporation, Coordinated Care of Washington Inc. a Washington corporation, DELMARVA Collaborative Care LLC a Delaware LLC, Discare CZ a.s. a Czech Republic A.S., District Community Care Inc. a Washington D.C. corporation, Dr Magnet s.r.o. a Slovakia S.R.O., Elche-Crevillente Salud a Spanish S.A., Envolve Benefits Options Inc. a Delaware corporation, Envolve Dental IPA of New York Inc. a New York corporation, Envolve Dental Inc. a Delaware corporation, Envolve Dental of Florida Inc. a Florida corporation, Envolve Dental of Texas Inc. a Texas corporation, Envolve Health, Envolve Holdings Inc. a Delaware corporation, Envolve Inc. a Delaware corporation, Envolve Optical Inc. a Delaware corporation, Envolve PeopleCare Inc. a Delaware corporation, Envolve Pharmacy IPA LLC a New York LLC, Envolve Pharmacy Solutions Inc. a Delaware corporation, Envolve Total Vision Inc. a Delaware corporation, Envolve Vision Benefits Inc. a Delaware corporation, Envolve Vision IPA of New York Inc. a New York corporation, Envolve Vision Inc. a Delaware corporation, Envolve Vision of Florida Inc. a Florida corporation, Envolve Vision of Texas Inc. a Texas corporation, Essential Care Partners LLC a Texas LLC, Fidelis Care, Forensic Health Services LLC a Delaware LLC, Foundation Care LLC a Missouri LLC, GHG (DB) Pension Trustees Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, GHG Healthcare Holdings Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, GHG Intermediate Holdings Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, GHG Leasing Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, GHG Mount Alvernia Hospital Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, General Healthcare Group Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, General Healthcare Holdings 2 Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, General Healthcare Holdings 3 Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Generale de Sante International Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Golden Triangle Physician Alliance a Texas not-for-profit corporation, Granite State Health Plan Inc. a New Hampshire corporation, HHS Texas Management Inc. a Texas corporation, HHS Texas Management LP a Texas limited partnership, HLM Strategic Investment Fund L.P. a Delaware limited partnership, Hallmark Life Insurance Company an Arizona corporation, Harmony Health Management Inc. a New Jersey corporation, Harmony Health Plan Inc. an Illinois corporation, Harmony Health Systems Inc. a New Jersey corporation, Health Care Enterprises LLC a Delaware LLC, Health Net Access Inc. an Arizona corporation, Health Net Community Solutions Inc. a California corporation, Health Net Community Solutions of Arizona Inc. an Arizona corporation, Health Net Federal Services LLC a Delaware LLC, Health Net Health Plan of Oregon Inc. an Oregon corporation, Health Net LLC, Health Net LLC a Delaware LLC, Health Net Life Insurance Company a California corporation, Health Net Life Reinsurance Company a Cayman Islands corporation, Health Net of Arizona Inc. an Arizona corporation, Health Net of California Inc. a California corporation, Health Plan Real Estate Holdings Inc. a Missouri corporation, HealthSmart Benefit Solutions Inc. an Illinois corporation, HealthSmart Benefits Management LLC a Texas LLC, HealthSmart Care Management Solutions LP a Texas partnership, HealthSmart Information Systems Inc. a Texas corporation, HealthSmart Preferred Care II LP a Texas partnership, HealthSmart Preferred Network II Inc. a Delaware corporation, HealthSmart Primary Care Clinics LP a Texas partnership, HealthSmart Rx Solutions Inc. an Ohio corporation, Healthy Louisiana Holdings LLC a Delaware LLC , Healthy Missouri Holdings Inc. a Missouri corporation, Healthy Washington Holdings Inc. a Delaware corporation, Heritage Health Systems Inc. a Texas corporation, Heritage Health Systems of Texas Inc. a Texas corporation, Heritage Physician Networks a Texas not-for-profit corporation, Home State Health Plan Inc. a Missouri corporation, HomeScripts.com LLC a Michigan LLC, Hospinet S.L. a Spanish S.L., Hospital Polusa S.A. a Spanish S.A., Hospital Povisa S.A. a Spanish S.A., Illinois Health Practice Alliance LLC a Delaware corporation, Infraestructuras y Servicios de Alzira S. L. a Spanish S.L., Integrated Mental Health Services a Texas corporation, Interpreta Holdings Inc. a Delaware corporation, Interpreta Inc. a Delaware corporation, Iowa Total Care Inc. an Iowa corporation, Kentucky Spirit Health Plan Inc. a Kentucky corporation , LifeShare Management Group LLC, LifeShare Management Group LLC a New Hampshire LLC, Louisiana Healthcare Connections Inc. a Louisiana corporation , MH Services International Holdings (UK) Limited an English and Welsh private company, MHM, MHM Correctional Services LLC a Delaware LLC, MHM Health Professionals LLC a Delaware LLC, MHM Services Inc. a Delaware corporation, MHM Services of California LLC a California LLC, MHM Solutions LLC a Delaware LLC, MHN Government Services LLC a Delaware LLC, MHN Services LLC a California LLC, MHS Consulting International Inc. a Delaware corporation, MHS Travel & Charter Inc. a Wisconsin corporation, MR Centrum Melnick s.r.o. a Czech Republic S.R.O., MR Poprad s.r.o. a Slovakia S.R.O., MR Zilina s.r.o. a Slovakia S.R.O., Magellan Health Inc, Magnolia Health Plan Inc. a Mississippi corporation, Managed Health Network LLC a Delaware LLC, Managed Health Network a California corporation, Managed Health Services Insurance Corporation a Wisconsin corporation, Marina Salud S.A. a Spanish S.A., Maryland Collaborative Care LLC a Maryland LLC, Maryland Collaborative Care Transformation Organization Inc. a Delaware corporation, Mauli Ola Health and Wellness Inc. a Hawaii corporation, Medicina NZ spol s.r.o. a Slovakia S.R.O., Meriden Hospital Advanced Imaging Centre Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Meridian Health Plan of Illinois Inc. an Illinois corporation, Meridian Health Plan of Michigan Inc. a Michigan corporation, Meridian Management Company LLC (a/k/a Meridian Administration Company LLC) a Michigan LLC, Meridian Network Services LLC a Michigan LLC, MeridianRx IPA LLC a New York LLC, MeridianRx LLC a Michigan LLC, MeridianRx of Indiana LLC a Michigan LLC, Michigan Complete Health a Michigan corporation, Mid-Atlantic Collaborative Care LLC a Maryland LLC, Mount Alvernia PET CT Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Nations Healthcare Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Nebraska Total Care Inc. a Nebraska corporation, Network Providers LLC a Delaware LLC, New York Quality Healthcare Corporation a New York corporation, Next Door Neighbors Inc. a Delaware corporation, Next Door Neighbors LLC. a Delaware LLC, North West Cancer Clinic Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Northern Maryland Collaborative Care LLC a Maryland LLC, Novasys Health Inc. a Delaware corporation, OB Care a Czech Republic S.R.O., OB Klinika a.s. a Czech Republic A.S., Ohana Health Plan Inc. a Hawaii corporation, Oklahoma Complete Health Holding Company LLC a Delaware LLC, Oklahoma Complete Health Inc. an Oklahoma corporation, One Care by Care 1st Health Plans of Arizona Inc an Arizona corporation, Operose Health (Group) Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Operose Health (Group) UK Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Operose Health Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, OptiCare Health Systems - Managed Vision Business, PANTHERx Rare Pharmacy, PRIMEROSALUD S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., Panther Pass Co LLC a Pennsylvania LLC, Panther Specialty Holding Co LLC a Pennsylvania LLC, Pantherx Access Services LLC a Pennsylvania LLC, Pantherx Specialty LLC a Pennsylvania LLC, Parker LP LLC a Nevada LLC, Peach State Health Plan Inc. a Georgia corporation, Penn Marketing America LLC a Delaware LLC, Pennsylvania Health and Wellness Inc. a Pennsylvania corporation, Preamed s.r.o. a Slovakia S.R.O., Premier Marketing Group LLC a Delaware LLC, Primary Care Partners Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Pro Diagnostic Group A.S. a Slovakia A.S., Pro Magnet CZ s.r.o. a Czech Republic S.R.O., Pro Magnet s.r.o a Slovakia S.R.O., Pro Nuclear a.s. a Slovakia A.S., Pro RTG s.r.o a Slovakia S.R.O., Progress Medical A.S. a Czech Republic A.S., Prowl Holdings LLC a Delaware LLC, QCA Healthplan Inc. an Arkansas corporation, Qualchoice Life and Health Insurance Company and Arkansas company, Quincy Coverage Corporation a New York corporation, Rhythm Health Tennessee Inc. a Tennessee corporation, Ribera Diagnostics S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., Ribera Healthcare S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., Ribera Lab S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., Ribera Management S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., Ribera Salud II a Spanish UTE, Ribera Salud Proyectos S.L. a Spanish S.L., Ribera Salud S.A. a Spanish S.A., Ribera Salud Tecnologias S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., Ribera Slaud Infraestructuras S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., Ribera-Quilpro UTE a Spanish UTE, Runnymeade SPV Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Salus Administrative Services Inc. a New York corporation, Salus IPA LLC a New York LLC, Secure Capital Solutions 2000 S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., SelectCare Health Plans Inc. a Texas corporation, SelectCare of Texas Inc. a Texas corporation, Servicios De Mantenimiento Prevencor S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., Shanghai Circle Harmony Hospital Management Limited a Chinese private company, SilverSummit Healthplan Inc. a Nevada corporation, Social Health Bridge LLC a Delaware LLC, Social Health Bridge Trust a Delaware trust, Specialty Therapeutic Care GP LLC a Texas LLC, Specialty Therapeutic Care Holdings, Specialty Therapeutic Care Holdings LLC a Delaware LLC, Specialty Therapeutic Care LP a Texas limited partnership, Sunflower State Health Plan Inc. a Kansas corporation, Sunshine Health Community Solutions Inc. a Florida corporation, Sunshine Health Holding LLC a Florida LLC, Sunshine State Health Plan Inc. a Florida corporation, Superior Health Management Advisors LLC, Superior HealthPlan Community Solutions Inc. a Texas corporation, Superior HealthPlan Inc. a Texas corporation, TKH Holding Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, Terapias Medicas Domiciliarias S.L. a Spanish S.L., The Pavilion Clinic Ltd. an English and Welsh private company, The Practice Properties Limited an English and Welsh private company, The WellCare Management Group Inc. a New York corporation, Three Shires Hospital LP an English and Welsh limited partnership, Torrejon Salud S.A. a Spanish S.A., Torrevieja Salud S.L.U. a Spanish S.L.U., Torrevieja Salud UTE a Spanish UTE, Transplant Health Solutions IPA Inc. a New York corporation, Trillium Community Health Plan Inc. an Oregon corporation, UAM Agent Services Corp. an Iowa corporation, US Script, Universal American Corp. a Delaware corporation, Universal American Financial Services Inc. a Delaware corporation, Universal American Holdings LLC a Delaware LLC, Vivamed s.r.o. a Slovakia S.R.O., WCG Health Management Inc. a Delaware corporation, WellCare Health Insurance Company of America an Arkansas corporation, WellCare Health Insurance Company of Kentucky Inc. a Kentucky corporation, WellCare Health Insurance Company of Louisiana Inc. a Louisiana corporation, WellCare Health Insurance Company of Nevada Inc. a Nevada corporation, WellCare Health Insurance Company of New Hampshire Inc. a New Hampshire corporation, WellCare Health Insurance Company of New Jersey Inc. a New Jersey corporation, WellCare Health Insurance Company of Oklahoma Inc. an Oklahoma corporation, WellCare Health Insurance Company of Washington Inc. a Washington corporation, WellCare Health Insurance of Arizona Inc. an Arizona corporation, WellCare Health Insurance of Connecticut Inc. a Connecticut corporation, WellCare Health Insurance of Hawaii Inc. a Hawaii corporation, WellCare Health Insurance of New York Inc. a New York corporation, WellCare Health Insurance of North Carolina Inc. a North Carolina corporation, WellCare Health Insurance of Southwest Inc. an Arizona corporation, WellCare Health Insurance of Tennessee Inc. a Tennessee corporation, WellCare Health Plans, WellCare Health Plans Inc. a Delaware corporation, WellCare Health Plans of Arizona Inc. an Arizona corporation, WellCare Health Plans of Kentucky Inc. a Kentucky corporation, WellCare Health Plans of Massachusetts Inc. a Massachusetts corporation, WellCare Health Plans of Missouri Inc. a Missouri corporation, WellCare Health Plans of New Jersey Inc. a New Jersey corporation, WellCare Health Plans of Rhode Island Inc. a Rhode Island corporation, WellCare Health Plans of Vermont Inc. a Vermont corporation, WellCare National Health Insurance Company a Texas corporation, WellCare Prescription Insurance Inc. an Arizona corporation, WellCare of Alabama Inc. an Alabama corporation, WellCare of Arkansas Inc. an Arkansas corporation, WellCare of California Inc. a California corporation, WellCare of Connecticut Inc. a Connecticut corporation, WellCare of Georgia Inc. a Georgia corporation, WellCare of Illinois Inc. an Illinois corporation, WellCare of Indiana Inc. an Indiana corporation, WellCare of Maine Inc. a Maine corporation, WellCare of Michigan Holding Company a Michigan corporation, WellCare of Mississippi Inc. a Mississippi corporation, WellCare of Missouri Health Insurance Company Inc. a Missouri corporation, WellCare of New Hampshire Inc. a New Hampshire corporation, WellCare of New York Inc. a New York corporation, WellCare of North Carolina Inc. a North Carolina corporation, WellCare of Ohio Inc. an Ohio corporation, WellCare of Oklahoma Inc. an Oklahoma corporation, WellCare of Pennsylvania Inc. a Pennsylvania corporation, WellCare of South Carolina Inc. a South Carolina corporation, WellCare of Texas Inc. a Texas corporation, WellCare of Virginia Inc. a Virginia corporation, WellCare of Washington Inc. a Washington corporation, Western Sky Community Care Inc. a New Mexico corporation, Windsor Health Group Inc. a Tennessee corporation, Winning Security S.L. a Spanish S.L., and Worlco Management Services Inc. a New York corporation.
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The following companies are subsidiares of PerkinElmer: 2Cure LLC, Analytica of Branford, Applied Biosystems, Arnel Inc., ArtusLabs, Beijing Huaan Magnech Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Testing Lab Co. Ltd., Beijing OUMENG Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Bio Evolution SAS, BioLegend, BioLegend CNS Inc., BioLegend China Beijing Ltd., BioLegend Europe B.V., BioLegend France SAS, BioLegend GmbH, BioLegend Inc., BioLegend Japan KK, BioLegend Shenzhen Ltd., BioLegend Taiwan Ltd., BioLegend UK Ltd., BioLegend Ventures LLC, Bioo Scientific Corporation, Biosense Technologies Pvt Ltd., Boulder Diagnostics Europe GmbH, Caliper Life Sciences, Caliper Life Sciences Inc., Cambridge Research & Instrumentation Inc., CambridgeSoft, Ceiba Solutions, Chengdu PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Cisbio Asia Pacific Ltd, Cisbio Bioassays SAS, Cisbio China Ltd., Cisbio.com, DIA.Metra S.R.L., DNA Laboratories Sdn. Bhd., Dani Analitica S.r.l., Dexela, Dharmacon Inc., EUROIMMUN AG, EUROIMMUN Brasil Medicina Diagnostica Ltda., EUROIMMUN Diagnostics Espana S.L., EUROIMMUN France SAS, EUROIMMUN Hangzhou Medical Laboratory Diagnostics Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Italia Diagnostica Medica S.r.l., EUROIMMUN Japan Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics Canada Inc., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics China Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Laboratory Diagnostics South Africa Pty Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, EUROIMMUN Polska Sp. z o.o., EUROIMMUN Portugal Unipessoal Lda., EUROIMMUN Schweiz AG, EUROIMMUN South East Asia Pte Ltd., EUROIMMUN Tianjin Medical Diagnostic Technology Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Turkey Tibbi Laboratuar Teshisleri A.S., EUROIMMUN UK Ltd., EUROIMMUN US Inc., EUROIMMUN US Real Estate LLC, Geospiza, Guangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Hangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Horizon Diagnostics Limited, Horizon Discovery, Horizon Discovery Biosciences Limited, Horizon Discovery Group Ltd., Horizon Discovery Inc., Horizon Discovery KK, Horizon Discovery Limited, Horizon Genomics GmbH, IDS Brasil Diagnosticos Ltda., Immunetics Inc., Immunodiagnostic Systems, Immunodiagnostic Systems Deutschland GmbH, Immunodiagnostic Systems France SAS, Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings Limited, Immunodiagnostic Systems Inc., Immunodiagnostic Systems Limited, Immunodiagnostic Systems SA, Inochem S.A. de C. V., Integromics S.L., Jiangsu Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., LabMetrix Technologies, Labtronics, Nexcelom Bioscience, Nexcelom Bioscience Holdings LLC, Nexcelom Bioscience Instruments Shanghai Co. Ltd., Nexcelom Bioscience LLC, Nexcelom Bioscience Ltd., NovaScreen Biosciences Corporation, OZ Systems International SARL, OZ Systems USA LLC, Omni International Inc., Optimization Zorn Corporation, Opto Technology, Orchid Biomedical Systems Pvt Ltd., Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories UK Limited, Oxford Immunotec, Oxford Immunotec Asia Ltd, Oxford Immunotec Global Limited, Oxford Immunotec Ireland Limited, Oxford Immunotec KK, Oxford Immunotec Limited, Oxford Immunotec Shanghai Medical Device Co. Ltd., Oxford Immunotec USA Inc., Pediatrix Medical Group - Newborn Metabolic Screening Business, Perkin Elmer Chile Ltda., Perkin Elmer Instruments Philippines Corporation, Perkin Elmer Italia SpA, Perkin Elmer Sdn. Bhd., Perkin Elmer Yuhan Hoesa, Perkin-Elmer Argentina S.R.L., Perkin-Elmer de Mexico S.A., PerkinElmer Argentina Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Automotive Research Inc., PerkinElmer BV, PerkinElmer CV Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Cellular Technologies Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer Danmark A/S, PerkinElmer Diagnostics Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Diagnostics Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Espana S.L., PerkinElmer Finance Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Finland Oy, PerkinElmer Genetics Inc., PerkinElmer Genomics Sweden AB, PerkinElmer Germany Diagnostics GmbH, PerkinElmer Global Diagnostics S.C.A., PerkinElmer Global Financing S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Health Sciences B.V., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Canada Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences FZ-LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Puerto Rico LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Healthcare Diagnostics Shanghai Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Holding Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Hong Kong Ltd., PerkinElmer IVD Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Inc., PerkinElmer India Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Informatics Inc., PerkinElmer Instruments Suzhou Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer International C.V., PerkinElmer Investments Ky, PerkinElmer Ireland Ltd., PerkinElmer Israel Ltd., PerkinElmer Japan Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer LAS Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer LAS UK Ltd., PerkinElmer Life Sciences International Holdings, PerkinElmer Life Sciences Singapore Pte. Ltd., PerkinElmer Limited, PerkinElmer Ltd., PerkinElmer Management Chengdu Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Management Shanghai Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Nederland B.V. , PerkinElmer Norge AS, PerkinElmer Oy, PerkinElmer Polska Sp. z o.o., PerkinElmer Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer SAS, PerkinElmer Saglk ve Cevre Bilimleri Ltd., PerkinElmer Schweiz AG, PerkinElmer Shanghai Equity Investment Fund L.P., PerkinElmer Shanghai Equity Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Shared Services Sp. z o.o., PerkinElmer Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer South Africa Pty Ltd., PerkinElmer Sverige AB, PerkinElmer Taiwan Corporation, PerkinElmer UK Holdings Ltd., PerkinElmer VertriebsgmbH, PerkinElmer chemagen Technologie GmbH, PerkinElmer do Brasil Ltda., Perten Instruments, Perten Instruments AB, Perten Instruments GmbH, Perten Instruments of Australia Pty Ltd., Qognit Inc., RHS Ltd, RayAl Ltd., SIRION Biotech, SIRION Biotech GmbH, SIRION Biotech International Inc., Sage Labs LLC, Shandong Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Haoyuan Biotech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Signature Genomic Laboratories, Singapore Biosciences Pte Ltd., Solus Scientific Solutions Ltd., SonoVol Inc., Suomen Bioanalytiikka Oy, Surendra Genetic Labs, Suzhou PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Suzhou Sym-Bio LifeScience, Suzhou Sym-Bio Lifescience Co. Ltd., Synthetx Limited, Tulip Diagnostics, Tulip Diagnostics Pvt Ltd., Vanadis Diagnostics, Vanadis Diagnostics AB, ViaCell, ViaCord LLC, VisEn Medical, VisEn Medical Inc., Wallac Oy, Wellesley B.V., Xenogen Corporation, ZeLab SAS, and chemagen Biopolymer-Technologie AG.
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Conagra Brands, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer packaged goods food company in North America. The company operates in four segments: Grocery & Snacks, Refrigerated & Frozen, International, and Foodservice. The Grocery & Snacks segment primarily offers shelf stable food products through various retail channels in the United States. The Refrigerated & Frozen segment provides temperature-controlled food products through various retail channels in the United States. The International segment offers food products in various temperature states through retail and foodservice channels outside of the United States. The Foodservice segment offers branded and customized food products, including meals, entrees, sauces, and various custom-manufactured culinary products packaged for restaurants and other foodservice establishments in the United States. The company sells its products under the Birds Eye, Duncan Hines, Healthy Choice, Marie Callender's, Reddi-wip, Slim Jim, Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP, Duke's, Earth Balance, Gardein, and Frontera brands. The company was formerly known as ConAgra Foods, Inc. and changed its name to Conagra Brands, Inc. in November 2016. Conagra Brands, Inc. was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets building products primarily for use in new home construction, repair and remodeling, and outdoor structure markets. It operates through four segments: Siding; Oriented Strand Board (OSB); Engineered Wood Products (EWP); and South America. The Siding segment offers LP SmartSide trim and siding products, LP SmartSide ExpertFinish trim and siding products, LP BuilderSeries lap siding products, and LP Outdoor Building Solutions; and engineered wood siding, trim, soffit, and fascia products. The OSB segment manufactures and distributes OSB structural panel products comprising LP TechShield radiant barriers, LP WeatherLogic air and water barriers, LP Legacy premium sub-flooring products, LP FlameBlock fire-rated sheathing products, and LP TopNotch sub-flooring products. The EWP segment provides laminated veneer lumber and other related products; and LP SolidStart I-joists, which are primarily used in residential and commercial floorings, roofing systems, and other structural applications. The South America segment manufactures and distributes OSB structural panel and siding products. This segment also distributes and sells related products for the region's transition to wood frame construction. It also offers timber and timberlands and other products and services. The company sells its products primarily to retailers, wholesalers, and homebuilding and industrial businesses in North America and South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Louisiana-Pacific Corporation was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dominion Energy, Inc. produces and distributes energy in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Dominion Energy Virginia, Gas Distribution, Dominion Energy South Carolina, and Contracted Assets. The Dominion Energy Virginia segment generates, transmits, and distributes regulated electricity to approximately 2.7 million residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental customers in Virginia and North Carolina. The Gas Distribution segment is involved in the regulated natural gas sales, transportation, gathering, storage, and distribution operations in Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Utah, southwestern Wyoming, and southeastern Idaho that serve approximately 3.1 million residential, commercial and industrial customers. It also has nonregulated renewable natural gas facilities in operation. The Dominion Energy South Carolina segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 772,000 customers in the central, southern, and southwestern portions of South Carolina; and distributes natural gas to approximately 419,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in South Carolina. The Contracted Assets segment is involved in the nonregulated long-term contracted renewable electric generation and solar generation facility development operations; and gas transportation, LNG import, and storage operations, as well as in the liquefaction facility. As of December 31, 2021, the company's portfolio of assets included approximately 30.2 gigawatt of electric generating capacity; 10,700 miles of electric transmission lines; 78,000 miles of electric distribution lines; and 95,700 miles of gas distribution mains and related service facilities. The company was formerly known as Dominion Resources, Inc. Dominion Energy, Inc. was incorporated in 1983 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.
Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns and leases freight railroads. It operates through three segments: North American Operations, Australian Operations, and U.K./European Operations. The company transports various commodities, including agricultural products, autos and auto parts, chemicals and plastics, coal and coke, food and kindred products, lumber and forest products, metallic ores, metals, minerals and stone, petroleum products, pulp and paper, waste, and other commodities. It owns or leases 122 freight railroads, including 105 short line railroads and 2 regional freight railroads located in the United States, 8 short line railroads located in Canada, 3 railroads located in Australia, 1 railroad located in the United Kingdom, 1 railroad in Poland and Germany, and 2 railroads in the Netherlands with a total of approximately 16,200 miles of track. The company also operates 6,200 additional miles of track that is owned or leased by others. In addition, it operates deep sea maritime containers and provides bulk haulage, including coal, aggregates, cement, and infrastructure services. Further, the company provides rail service at approximately 40 ports; rail-ferry service in North America, Australia, and Europe; and contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Darien, Connecticut.
Gildan Activewear Inc. manufactures and sells various apparel products in the United States, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. It provides various activewear products, including T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, and sports shirts under the Gildan, Gildan Performance, Gildan Hammer, Comfort Colors, American Apparel, Alstyle, and GoldToe brands. The company also offers hosiery products comprising athletic; dress; and casual, liner, therapeutic, and workwear socks, as well as sheer pantyhose, tights, and leggings under the Gildan, Under Armour, GoldToe, PowerSox, Signature Gold by Goldtoe, Peds, MediPeds, Therapy Plus, All Pro, Secret, Silks, Secret Silky, and American Apparel brands. In addition, it provides men's and boys' underwear products, and ladies panties under the Gildan and Gildan Platinum brands; and ladies' shapewear, intimates, and accessories under the Secret and Secret Silky brands. The company sells its products to wholesale distributors, screen printers, and embellishers, as well as to retailers and lifestyle brand companies. The company was formerly known as Textiles Gildan Inc. and changed its name to Gildan Activewear Inc. in March 1995. Gildan Activewear Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.
The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen France SAS, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Suzhou Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel Ireland Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Brooks Instrument Shanghai Co. Ltd, Buell Industries Inc., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS Australia Pty Limited, CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures Australasia S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Coeur Shanghai Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Denison Mayes Group Limited, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., E2M Production B.V.., E2M Technologies B.V.., E2M Technologies Inc.., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO Holding AG, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, Exhibit 21, FEG Investments L.L.C., Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Filtertek SAS, GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech Taicang Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Belgium B.V., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart International Singapore Pte. Ltd., Hobart Japan K.K., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components Chongqing Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components Langfang Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium B.V., ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS UK Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW China Investment Company Limited, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Construction Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Services Manila Inc., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Contamination Control Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Deutschland GmbH, ITW Diagraph GmbH, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW EU Holdings Ltd., ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.L., ITW European Finance Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Thailand Ltd., ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France Luxembourg S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW Materials Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Ningbo Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology China Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion Shenzhen Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Illinois Tool Works Chile Limitada, Illinois Tool Works ITW Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, Instron Shanghai Ltd., Instron Thailand Limited, International Leasing Company LLC, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., Itw Spraytec, KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems Canada Inc., Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MTS 2 LLC., MTS 3 LLC., MTS China Holdings LLC, MTS Europe Holdings LLC, MTS Holdings France S.a.r.l., MTS Japan Ltd.., MTS Korea Inc.., MTS Systems China Co. Ltd., MTS Systems Corporation, MTS Systems Danmark ApS., MTS Systems Europe B.V., MTS Systems Finance C.V.., MTS Systems Germany GmbH, MTS Systems Holding B.V.., MTS Systems Hong Kong Incorporated, MTS Systems Limited, MTS Systems Norden Aktiebolag, MTS Systems S.r.l, MTS Systems., MTS Systems.., MTS Sytems Do Brazil, MTS Testing Solutions India Private Limited., MTS Testing Systems Canada Ltd., Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology Suzhou Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited Enping, Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners Shanghai Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., R&D Engineering A/S., R&D Prague s.r.o., R&D Steel ApS., R&D Test Systems A/S., R&D Tools and Structures A/S., RDGDK Engineering Private Limited, Ramset Fasteners Hong Kong Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco Japan Inc., Simco Nederland B.V., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes B.V., Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Hong Kong Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Shanghai Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stokvis Tapes Taiwan Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Tianjin Co. Ltd., Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Subsidiaries, Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek China Limited, Teknek Japan Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Kunshan Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta Global Limited, Vesta Guangzhou Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil South Africa Pty Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, and Zip-Pak International B.V..
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Brookfield Asset Management is an alternative asset manager and REIT/Real Estate Investment Manager firm focuses on real estate, renewable power, infrastructure and venture capital and private equity assets. It manages a range of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. It typically makes investments in sizeable, premier assets across geographies and asset classes. It invests both its own capital as well as capital from other investors. Within private equity and venture capital, it focuses on acquisition, early ventures, control buyouts and financially distressed, buyouts and corporate carve-outs, recapitalizations, convertible, senior and mezzanine financings, operational and capital structure restructuring, strategic re-direction, turnaround, and under-performing midmarket companies. It invests in both public debt and equity markets. It invests in private equity sectors with focus on Business Services include infrastructure, healthcare, road fuel distribution and marketing, construction and real estate; Industrials include manufacturers of automotive batteries, graphite electrodes, returnable plastic packaging, and sanitation management and development; and Residential/ infrastructure services. It targets companies which likely possess underlying real assets, primarily in sectors such as industrial products, building materials, metals, mining, homebuilding, oil and gas, paper and packaging, manufacturing and forest product sectors. It invests globally with focus on North America including Brazil, the United States, Canada; Europe; and Australia; and Asia-Pacific. The firm considers equity investments in the range of $2 million to $500 million. It has a four-year investment period and a 10-year term with two one-year extensions. The firm prefers to take minority stake and majority stake. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. was founded in 1997 and based in Toronto, Canada with additional offices across Northern America; South America; Europe; Middle East and Asia.
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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Mizuho Financial Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in banking, trust, securities, and other businesses related to financial services in Japan, the Americas, Europe, Asia/Oceania, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Retail & Business Banking Company, Corporate & Institutional Company, Global Corporate Company, Global Markets Company, and Asset Management Company. The company provides deposit products; syndicated, housing, and card loans; business matching services; and advisory services related to overseas expansions, and mergers and acquisitions-related services. It also offers consulting services, including asset management and asset succession; payroll services; and sells lottery tickets issued by prefectures and ordinance-designated cities. In addition, it offers financial solutions, such as bonds, mergers and acquisitions advisory, risk hedging products, etc. for corporate customers to meet their needs in fund-raising, investment management, and financial strategies; solutions based on their capital management, business strategy, and financial strategy; real estate agency services; advisory services and solutions, such as advice on proposals on various investment products to financial institutions; and financial services that include funding support and public bonds underwriting. Further, the company offers sales and trading services to meet needs for customers; investment products for individual customers; and consulting services for institutional investors. Additionally, the company provides products and services related to trust, securitization and structured finance, pension, and stock transfers; securities services; and research, private banking, and information technology-related services. Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
NOW Inc. distributes downstream energy and industrial products for petroleum refining, chemical processing, LNG terminals, power generation utilities, and industrial manufacturing operations in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company offers its products under the DistributionNOW and DNOW brand names. It provides consumable maintenance, repair, and operating supplies; pipes, valves, fittings, flanges, gaskets, fasteners, electrical products, instrumentations, artificial lift, pumping solutions, valve actuation and modular process, and measurement and control equipment; and mill supplies, tools, safety supplies, and personal protective equipment, as well as applied products and applications, such as artificial lift systems, coatings, and miscellaneous expendable items. The company also offers original equipment manufacturer equipment, including pumps, generator sets, air and gas compressors, dryers, blowers, mixers, and valves; modular oil and gas tank battery solutions; and application systems, work processes, parts integration, optimization solutions, and after-sales support services. In addition, it provides supply chain and materials management solutions that include procurement, inventory planning and management, and warehouse management, as well as solutions for logistics, point-of-issue technology, project management, business process, and performance metrics reporting services. The company serves customers through a network of approximately 180 locations in the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors of the energy industry, including drilling contractors, well-servicing companies, independent and national oil and gas companies, midstream operators, and refineries, as well as petrochemical, chemical, utilities, and other downstream energy processors; and industrial and manufacturing companies. NOW Inc. was founded in 1862 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
The following companies are subsidiares of Prudential Financial: 210-220 E. 22nd Street SSGA Owner LLC, AIG Edison, AIG Star, AREF Cayman Co Ltd., AREF GP II Pte. Ltd., AREF GP Ltd., ASPF II - Feeder Fund GmbH, ASPF II - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, ASPF II Management GmbH, ASPF III Scots L.P., ASSURANCE, AST Investment Services Inc., Adlerwerke CB Investment LLC, Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Habitat S.A., Administradora de Inversiones Previsionales SpA, Aoba Life Insurance Company, Aoba Life Insurance Company Ltd., Asia Property Fund III GP S.a.r.l., Assurance IQ LLC, Assurance Intelligence LLC, BSC CP LP, Braeloch Holdings Inc., Braeloch Successor Corporation, Brazilian Capital Fund GP Limited, Broad Street Global Advisors LLC, Broome Street Holdings LLC, CB German Retail LLC, CLIS Co. Ltd., COLICO INC., Capital Agricultural Property Services Inc., Chadwick Boulevard Investment Holdings Co. LLC, Cibecue LLC, Coconino LLC, Colico II Inc., Columbus Drive Partners L.P., Commerce Street Holdings LLC, Commerce Street Investments LLC, Coolidge LLC, Coral Reef GP, Coral Reef L.P., Coral Reef Unit Trust, Cottage Street Investments LLC, Cottage Street Orbit Acquisition LLC, DICKENS AVENUE HOLDINGS VI LLC, DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI Ireland L.P., DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI US L.P., Dale/P Minerals Limited Partnership, Don Cesar Investor LLC, Dryden Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Dryden Finance II LLC, EVP II GP S.a r.l., EVP II Horizon GP S.a r.l., EVP II Sprint GP S.a r.l., Edison Place Senior Note LLC, Essex LLC, EuroCore GP S.a r.l., European Value Partners GP S.a.r.l., Everbright PGIM Fund Management Co. Ltd., Flagstaff LLC, GA 1600 Commons LLC, GA 333 Hennepin Investor LLC, GA BV LLC, GA Bay Area GP LLC, GA Bay Area Investor LLC, GA Belden LLC, GA CLARENDON LLC, GA Cal Crossings LLC, GA Collins LLC, GA E. 22nd Street Apartments Holdings LLC, GA East 86 Street LLC, GA JHCII LLC, GA MENLO PARK INVESTOR LLC, GA Manor at Harbour Island LLC, GA Metro LLC, GA TRITON INVESTOR LLC, GA W Paces LLC, GA/MDI 333 Hennepin Associates LLC, GIBRALTAR BSN HOLDINGS SDN BHD, GIBRALTAR INDIA SOLUTIONS LLP, Gateway Holdings II LLC, Gateway Holdings LLC, German Retail Income CP LP, Gibraltar BSN Life Berhad, Gibraltar International Insurance Services Company Inc., Gibraltar International Service LLC, Gibraltar Reinsurance Company Ltd., Gibraltar Universal Life Reinsurance Company, Glenealy International Limited, Global Portfolio Strategies Inc., Gold GP Limited, Gold II L.P., Gold L.P., Graham Resources Inc., Graham Royalty Ltd., Green Harvest Asset Management LLC, Green Tree GP, Green Tree L.P., Greenlee LLC, Halsey Street Investments LLC, Hirakata LLC, IVP Fund GP LLC, Impact Investments Bridges UK S.a.r.l, Inter-Atlantic G Fund L.P., Inversiones Previsionales Chile SpA, Inversiones Previsionales Dos SpA, Ironbound Fund LLC, Jennison Associates LLC, Kyarra S.a r.l., Kyoei Annuity Home Co. Ltd. Kabushiki Kaisha Kyouei Nenkin Home, LINEUP LLC, Lake Street Partners IV L.P., Lotus Reinsurance Company Ltd., MC GA COLLINS HOLDINGS LLC, MC GA COLLINS REALTY LLC, MC Insurance Agency Services LLC, Manor at Harbour Island LLC, Marble Canyon LLC, Maricopa LLC, Market Street Holdings IV LLC, Montana Capital Partners, Morenci LLC, Mulberry Street Holdings LLC, Mulberry Street Investment L.P., Mulberry Street Partners LLC, Mullin TBG Insurance Agency Services LLC, MullinTBG Insurance Agency Services, National Family Assurance Group LLC, New Savanna, Northbound Emerging Manager Fund A LP, Northbound Emerging Manager Fund II - A LP, Orchard Street Acres Inc., PAI Bay Farm LLC, PAI Bayrock Groves LLC, PAI Belvidere Farms LLC, PAI Big Cypress Farm LLC, PAI Corcoran 640 Ranch LLC, PAI DeKalb Farm LLC, PAI Delano 1500 Ranches LLC, PAI Desert Falcon Farms Manager LLC, PAI Flicker Orchard LLC, PAI Good Hope Farm LLC, PAI Hawk Creek Ranch LLC, PAI Hills Valley Ranches LLC, PAI Holly Hill Groves LLC, PAI Hunt Farm LLC, PAI Jackson Bayou Farm LLC, PAI Lake Placid Groves LLC, PAI River Bend Ranches LLC, PAI Wallula Gap Vineyard LLC, PCP V Cayman AIV GP L.P., PEREF II Co-Invest 1 GP S.a r.l., PEREF II GP S.a r.l., PFI EM-Tech Fund I LLC, PG Business Service Co. Ltd, PG Collection Service Co. Ltd., PG Friendly Partners Co. Ltd., PGA Asian Retail Limited, PGA European Limited, PGI Co. Ltd, PGIM AC Co-Invest GP Pte. Ltd., PGIM AVP IV GP S.a r.l., PGIM Advisory Shanghai Co. Ltd., PGIM Agricultural Investments GP LLC, PGIM Australia Pty Ltd, PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Fund L.P., PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Partners LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management Feeder VI LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management Fund VI L.P., PGIM Custom Harvest LLC, PGIM DC Co-Invest GP Pte. Ltd., PGIM DC JV GP Pte. Ltd., PGIM DC Solutions LLC, PGIM European Financing Limited, PGIM European Services Limited, PGIM Financial Limited, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund II L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives GP LLC, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives II GP LLC, PGIM Foreign Investments Inc., PGIM Holding Company LLC, PGIM Holdings Limited, PGIM Hong Kong Ltd., PGIM INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM INDIA TRUSTEES PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM IRELAND LIMITED, PGIM Inc., PGIM International Financing Inc., PGIM Investments Ireland Limited, PGIM Investments LLC, PGIM Japan Co. Ltd., PGIM Korea Inc., PGIM LTIF Berlin GP S.a r.l., PGIM LTIF Berlin MLP S.ar.l., PGIM LTIF GP S.a.r.l., PGIM Limited, PGIM Loan Originator Manager Limited, PGIM M Campus GP S.a r.l., PGIM Management Partner Limited, PGIM MetaProp Investor LP LLC, PGIM Netherlands B.V., PGIM Overseas Investment Fund Management Shanghai Company Ltd, PGIM Private Capital Ireland Limited, PGIM Private Capital Limited, PGIM Private Placement Investors Inc., PGIM Private Placement Investors L.P., PGIM QUANTITATIVE SOLUTIONS LLC, PGIM REF EUROPE SCSp, PGIM REF Europe GP S.a r.l., PGIM REF Europe Member LLC, PGIM REF Intermediary Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate CD S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Capital VII GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest L.P., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest SCSp, PGIM Real Estate Co-Invest Holdings LLC, PGIM Real Estate Debt GmbH, PGIM Real Estate Finance Holding Company, PGIM Real Estate Finance LLC, PGIM Real Estate France SAS, PGIM Real Estate Germany AG, PGIM Real Estate Global Debt GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Global Master Fund GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Inmuebles II S de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate Inmuebles S. de R.L. de C.V, PGIM Real Estate Italy S.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Japan Ltd., PGIM Real Estate Loan Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate Luxembourg S.A., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate Management Luxembourg S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Mexico S.C., PGIM Real Estate S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate U.S. CORE Debt Fund GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate U.S. Debt Fund GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate UK Limited, PGIM Scots Limited, PGIM Securities Investment Trust Enterprise, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management (Feeder) I LLC, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management Fund I L.P., PGIM Shanghai Company Ltd., PGIM Singapore Pte. Ltd., PGIM Strategic Financing LLC, PGIM Strategic Investments Inc., PGIM Taronga Investor GP LLC, PGIM U.S. Agriculture Fund LP, PGIM USPF VI Manager LLC, PGIM Wadhwani LLP, PGIM Warehouse Inc., PGLH of Delaware Inc., PIFM Holdco LLC, PIIC Limited, PIISC Holdings UK Limited, PIM KF Blocker V Holdings LLC, PIM USPF V Manager LLC, PLA Administradora Industrial SRL, PLA Administradora LLC, PLA Administradora S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional II S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional S.de R.L. de C.V., PLA Co-Investor LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager I LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager II LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Blue LP, PLA Retail Fund I Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LP, PLA Retail Fund II Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II U.S. Carry/Co-Invest LP, PLA Services Manager Mexico LLC, PLAI Limited, PMCF Holdings LLC, PMCF Properties LLC, PPPF General Partner LLP, PR GA SCP Apartments LLC, PRAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP LLP, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP SCOTS FEEDER LLP, PRECO Account IV LLC, PRECO Account Partnership IV LP, PRECO III GP LLP, PREFG Hanwha Manager LLC, PREI Acquisition I Inc., PREI Acquisition II Inc., PREI Acquisition LLC, PREI HYDG LLC, PREI International Inc., PRIAC Property Acquisitions LLC, PRICOA Management Partner Limited, PRISA Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Pooled Manager LLC, PRISA III Fund GP LLC, PRISA III Fund PIM LLC, PRREF Debt Fund Manager LLC, PRREF II Fund Manager LLC, PRU 3XSquare LLC, PRUCO LLC, PRUDENTIAL CAPITAL ENERGY PARTNERS MANAGEMENT (FEEDER) LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP MEMBER LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP REIT LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE 2 LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE LLC, PT PFI Mega Life Insurance, Passaic Fund LLC, Pine Tree GP, Pine Tree L.P., Platinum GP Limited, Platinum II L.P., Platinum L.P., Pramerica Business Consulting Shanghai Company Limited, Pramerica EVP CP LP, Pramerica Financial Asia Headquarters Pte. Ltd., Pramerica Financial Asia Limited, Pramerica Fixed Income Funds Management Limited, Pramerica Fosun Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Pramerica Holdings Ltd, Pramerica Hong Kong Holdings Limited, Pramerica Insurance Agency China Company Ltd., Pramerica Luxembourg CP GP S.a.r.l., Pramerica PRECAP I GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP II GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP III GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP IV GP LLP, Pramerica Pan European Real Estate Scots LP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I GP Scots Feeder LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I Scotland Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital II Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital III Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP Limited, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP Scots Feeder LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V Netherlands GP LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital VI Scots Limited Partnership, Pramerica Scots CP GP LLP, Preco III Scotland Limited Partnership, Pru 101 Wood LLC, Pru Alpha Partners I LLC, Pru Fixed Income Emerging Markets Partners I LLC, PruVen Capital Partners Fund I L.P., Pruco Assignment Corporation, Pruco Life Insurance Company, Pruco Life Insurance Company of New Jersey, Pruco Securities LLC, Prudential 900 Aviation Boulevard LLC, Prudential Affordable Mortgage Company LLC, Prudential Agricultural Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Annuities Distributors Inc., Prudential Annuities Holding Company Inc., Prudential Annuities Inc., Prudential Annuities Information Services & Technology Corporation, Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Captive Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Universal Company, Prudential Bank & Trust FSB, Prudential Capital Energy Opportunity Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners Management Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Partners Management Fund IV L.P., Prudential Capital and Investment Services LLC, Prudential Chile II SpA, Prudential Chile SpA, Prudential Commercial Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Equity Group LLC, Prudential Financial Inc., Prudential Fixed Income Global Liquidity Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Fixed Income U.S. Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Funding LLC, Prudential General Services of Japan Y.K., Prudential Gibraltar Agency Co. Ltd. Prudential Gibraltar Agency Kabushiki Kaisha, Prudential Global Funding LLC, Prudential Holdings of Japan Inc., Prudential Huntoon Paige Associates LLC, Prudential IBH Holdco Inc., Prudential Impact Investments Mortgage Loans LLC, Prudential Impact Investments Private Debt LLC, Prudential Impact Investments Private Equity LLC, Prudential Insurance Agency LLC, Prudential International Insurance Holdings Ltd., Prudential International Insurance Service Company L.L.C., Prudential International Investments Advisers LLC, Prudential International Investments Company LLC, Prudential International Investments LLC, Prudential Investment Management Services LLC, Prudential Japan Holdings LLC, Prudential Legacy Insurance Company of New Jersey, Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings 1 Japan Investment Business Limited Partnership, Prudential Mortgage Asset Holdings 2 Japan Investment Business Limited Partnership, Prudential Mortgage Capital Asset Holding Company LLC, Prudential Mortgage Capital Funding LLC, Prudential Mortgage Capital Holdings LLC, Prudential Multifamily Mortgage LLC, Prudential Mutual Fund Services LLC, Prudential Newark Realty LLC, Prudential QOZ Investment Fund 1 LLC, Prudential Realty Securities Inc., Prudential Retirement Financial Services Holding LLC, Prudential Retirement Holdings LLC, Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company, Prudential Securities Secured Financing Corporation, Prudential Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., Prudential Seguros S.A., Prudential Select Strategies LLC, Prudential Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Prudential Structured Settlement Company, Prudential Systems Japan Limited, Prudential Tax Services LLC, Prudential Term Reinsurance Company, Prudential Trust Co. Ltd., Prudential Trust Company, Prudential Universal Reinsurance Company, Prudential Workplace Solutions Group Services LLC, Prudential do Brasil Seguros de Vida S.A., Prudential do Brasil Vida em Grupo S.A., Prudential/TMW Real Estate Group LLC, Pruservicos Participacoes Ltda., QMA JP EM All Cap Equity Partners LLC, Quartzsite LLC, Residential Services Corporation of America LLC, Rio CP LP, Rock European Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock Global Real Estate LLC, Rock Kensington Limited, Rock Marty GP S.a r.l., Rock Oxford S.a r.l., Rock UK Real Estate II S.a.r.l., Rockstone Co. Ltd., Rosado Grande LLC, Ross Avenue Energy Fund Holdings LLC, Ross Avenue Minerals 2012 LLC, SCP Apartments LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERS VI GP LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERSHIP FUND VI GP LLC, SHP IV Carried Interest LP, SHP V Carried Interest L.P., SMP Holdings Inc., SVIIT Holdings Inc., Sanei Collection Service Co. Ltd. Kabushiki Kaisha Sanei Shuuno Service, Senior Housing Partners V LLC, Senior Housing Partnership Fund V LLC, Sterling Private Placement Management LLP, Stetson Street Partners L.P., Strand Investments Limited, TBG Insurance Services Corporation, TENSATOR HOLDINGS LTD, TF Proveedora S.C., TMW ASPF I Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, TMW ASPF Management GmbH, TMW Management LLC, TMW Real Estate Group LLC, TMW Realty Advisors LLC, TMW USPF Verwaltungs GmbH, TRGOAG Company Inc., The Gibraltar Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Keynes Dynamic Beta Strategy US Fund GP LLC, The Prudential Assigned Settlement Services Corp., The Prudential Brazilian Capital Fund LP, The Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Prudential Home Mortgage Company Inc., The Prudential Insurance Company of America, The Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd., The Prudential Real Estate Financial Services of America Inc., The WMF Group, Thurloe Commercial Guernsey Limited, USPF V - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, USPF V Carry LLC, USPF V Co-Invest LLC, USPF V Investment LP, United States Property Fund VI GP S.a r.l., VIP Australia Holding Company LLC, VIP Australia Trustee Pty Ltd, Vailsburg Fund LLC, Vantage Casualty Insurance Company, Wabash Avenue Holdings V LLC, Wabash Avenue Partners V L.P., Wadhwani Capital Limited, Waveland Avenue Holdings I LLC, Waveland Avenue Partners I Ireland L.P., Waveland Avenue Partners I US L.P., Wellness Services Ecossistema De Bem Estar Ltda., Wellness Services SRL, Yamato Life, and Yavapai LLC.
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South Jersey Industries, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides energy-related products and services. The company engages in the purchase, transmission, and sale of natural gas. It also sells natural gas and pipeline transportation capacity on a wholesale basis to residential, commercial, and industrial customers on the interstate pipeline system, as well as transports natural gas purchased directly from producers or suppliers to customers. As of December 31, 2021, the company had approximately 147 miles of mains in the transmission system and 6,815 miles of mains in the distribution system; and served 384,062 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in southern New Jersey. In addition, it markets natural gas storage, commodity, and transportation assets on a wholesale basis for energy marketers, electric and gas utilities, power plants, and natural gas producers in the mid-Atlantic, Appalachian, and southern regions of the United States. Further, the company owns and operates rooftop solar-generation sites. Additionally, it owns oil, gas, and mineral rights in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania; acquires and markets natural gas and electricity to retail end users, as well as provides total energy management, fuel management, and energy procurement and cost reduction services. The company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Folsom, New Jersey.
The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property. The Personal Lines segment writes insurance for personal autos and recreational vehicles (RV). This segment's products include personal auto insurance; and special lines products, including insurance for motorcycles, ATVs, RVs, watercrafts, snowmobiles, and related products. The Commercial Lines segment provides auto-related primary liability and physical damage insurance, and business-related general liability and property insurance for autos, vans, pick-up trucks, and dump trucks used by small businesses; tractors, trailers, and straight trucks primarily used by regional general freight and expeditor-type businesses, and long-haul operators; dump trucks, log trucks, and garbage trucks used by dirt, sand and gravel, logging, and coal-type businesses; and tow trucks and wreckers used in towing services and gas/service station businesses; as well as non-fleet and airport taxis, and black-car services. The Property segment writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters, as well as offers personal umbrella insurance, and primary and excess flood insurance. The company also offers policy issuance and claims adjusting services; and acts as an agent to homeowner general liability, workers' compensation insurance, and other products. In addition, it provides reinsurance services. The company sells its products through independent insurance agencies, as well as directly on Internet through mobile devices, and over the phone. The Progressive Corporation was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in Mayfield, Ohio.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, a pharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes generic medicines, specialty medicines, and biopharmaceutical products in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers sterile products, hormones, high-potency drugs, and cytotoxic substances in various dosage forms, including tablets, capsules, injectables, inhalants, liquids, transdermal patches, ointments, and creams. It also develops, manufactures, and sells active pharmaceutical ingredients. In addition, it focuses on the central nervous system, pain, respiratory, and oncology areas. Its products in the central nervous system include Copaxone for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis; AJOVY for the preventive treatment of migraine; and AUSTEDO for the treatment of tardive dyskinesia and chorea associated with Huntington disease. The company's products in the respiratory market comprise ProAir, QVAR, ProAir Digihaler, AirDuo Digihaler, and ArmonAir Digihaler, BRALTUS, CINQAIR/CINQAERO, DuoResp Spiromax, and AirDuo RespiClick/ArmonAir RespiClick for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Its products in the oncology market include Bendeka, Treanda, Granix, Trisenox, Lonquex, and Tevagrastim/Ratiograstim. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited has a collaboration MedinCell for the development and commercialization of multiple long-acting injectable products, a risperidone suspension for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. The company was founded in 1901 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
Ryan Morris, 26, of Mississippi, took his girlfriend, Madeline Bohannon, 21, of Auburn, on an unassuming walk to the end of the pier overlooking Skaneateles Lake.
Morris had a question on his mind that he needed to ask Bohannon. He thought there was no better place in Central New York than Skaneateles to pop the question.
Bohannon had no idea what was about to take place as she walked past me with my back to her snapping photos with my cell phone a if I was just another tourist.
At the end of the pier next to the tree Morris waited a few moments and then knelt down on one knee. Bohannon, standing momentarily confused, flashed a smile from ear-to-ear. Flabbergasted with excitement and disbelief she said the most important word in replyYes!
A few kisses and hugs later, Bohannon walked arm-in-arm back to the village with her newly minted fiance.
For this blushing bride-to-be, Christmas came early this year.
Mumbai: Sunny Leone has to continuously fight for herself regarding the past identity and the recent development with regards to this actress appears no less. Sunny might have triggered a protest group, the members of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Yuva Sene, the youth wing of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, to commit mass suicide on New Years Eve. The reason? Sunny Leone was going to be part of an event in Karnataka. The event featuring the actress is called 'Sunny Night in Bengaluru NYE 2018.'
Harish, the leader of the Pro-Kannada activists, told Indian Express, "We are against Sunny wearing short clothes. If she wears saree and takes part in the event, even we'll go watch her. Sunny doesn't have a good past. We shouldn't be encouraging such people. We will not hesitate to commit suicide on December 31."
Syed Minaj, general secretary of the protesting group, took Leone's past into consideration. He says, "We all know who Sunny Leone is, she is not an Indian or a Kannadiga. We know her history, we don't want her to spoil the culture of the land," according to reports on India Today.
Reacting to the violent protests, the organiser issued a statement. "This is a family-type programme with Sunny dancing on a Kannada song, and I, being a Kannadiga, have kept the programme's standard based on the Bengaluru culture itself. Even though Sunny got a lot of events that offered her more money, she rejected those and agreed to come to Bengaluru since Bengaluru and Hyderabad are her favourite places. I don't know what the protestors are expecting or what they think; this is a family show where the culture of the state won't be disturbed, said the organiser.
Sunny was recently in news for being an actress into consideration for the role of Meena Kumari in the late actress biopic.
Psychological first aid (PFA) is the prime need of women who undergo trauma due to domestic violence or sexual assault, but remains lacking in the healthcare set up for these women.
CHENNAI: Psychological first aid (PFA) is the prime need of women who undergo trauma due to domestic violence or sexual assault, but remains lacking in the healthcare set up for these women. Forensic evaluation acts as a significant factor in providing PFA as forensic experts who are entitled to examine the survivors need to consider the risk factors to prevent worsening the mental status of the victim.
Forensic evaluation is a very important factor for such victims and every possible effort should be made that female doctor examine the victim, who should aid the patient with PFA, said Dr Jagadeesh Reddy, professor of forensic medicine. Forensic experts state that medical evaluation and other forensic procedures should be done respecting the dignity, culture and abilities of a victim who has undergone violence and assault.
PFA should comfort the affected people by talking to them, without pressurising them to talk. An assault survivor may undergo depression, fear, shock, anxiety, suicidal tendency and post-traumatic stress disorder, it is for such women that PFA can be of help them overcome the mental trauma, say psychologists. The mental health of the victims of domestic violence and sexual assaults impact mental health as they are exposed to an unbearable situation suddenly. Treatment and physical health aid provided can heal the wounds. The brain of the survivor is affected in such a way that they get into deep distress when an unforeseen situation arises and the mind does not get enough time for adapting to the trauma and can fall prey to severe mental disorders, says Dr Vivian Kapil, psychiatrist, SIMS hospital.
Mother of 2012 Delhi gangrape victim, Asha emphasised the fact that no action has been taken on women safety in India. (Photo: File | Screengrab)
New Delhi: Awaiting justice, Nirbhaya's mother said on Saturday that even after five years the culprits are alive.
It was on this day in December 2012, when six people gangraped Nirbhaya, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, in a moving bus.
"Even after five years, her (Nirbhaya) culprits are alive. If justice isn't served on time, people cease to be scared of law. A strong law needs to be formulated and mindset of everyone, be it a politician or a common man, needs to be changed," said Asha Devi, mother of Nirbhaya.
She said that her family is still standing at 2012.
"They promised to put CCTV cameras in buses but where are all those CCTV cameras? Their promises were just words and have not been implemented. Things haven't changed in India. Crime against women still continues and no one says anything," she said.
She added that even after requesting the government for justice no action has been taken yet.
"I haven't asked or begged in front of anybody for any favours. I haven't asked for job for my husband or any other family member. I always ask other for justice. This case was pending in the Supreme Court for the past two years," said Devi.
Asha further emphasised the fact that no action has been taken on women safety in India.
"Women are not paid proper attention anywhere in India. Nobody cares about women safety. On ground level nothing had actually changed or modified. Mentality of our society, system, police, and other officials need to be changed."
She also said that priority should be given to women safety and security.
Nirbhaya succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012.
One of the accused, Ram Singh, had hanged himself in the prison, while another person, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August, 2016 and will serve the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.
Indian Civil Accounts Service officer Jeetendra Kumar Jha's body was found on rail tracks on Monday in Palam. (Photo: Facebook | jeetendra.k.jha)
New Delhi: The family of an Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry official, whose body was found on railway tracks three days after he went missing, on Friday alleged that he was killed and his body was dumped there.
Indian Civil Accounts Service officer Jeetendra Kumar Jha's body was found on rail tracks on Monday in Palam.
Police, however, said that it was a case of suicide since a purported note was also found in which he said no one was responsible for his death.
Jha's family was initially not able to identify his body on Thursday. But after police showed a wallet and clothes, they identified the body.
RN Mishra, Jha's brother-in-law, said the body was mutilated beyond recognition and that is why they could not identify it.
He alleged that there was foul play in Jha's death.
"Three-four months ago, he had said that he won't live for long. He was scared for his life," Mishra said.
Mishra said that Jha was scared and was not even going to work and had been on leave.
Read: Days after HRD ministry official went missing, body found on railway tracks in Delhi
"He had even stopped visiting our house late in the night. If we had to meet him, we would have to visit his home," Mishra recalled.
It was for this reason that Jha had even started leaving his cell phone at home so that his location could not be tracked.
"He would leave his cell phone behind since he feared that his location might be tracked and he might be attacked. Even on the day he went missing, he had left his phone at home," said Mishra.
Jha, an Indian Civil Accounts Service officer, went missing from Dwarka on Monday after going for a walk, they said.
An unidentified body was found on the intervening night of December 11 and 12 on the railway tracks in Palam. It was identified as that of Jha after a wallet was found.
Jha, a 1998-batch officer, was posted in the training section of Ministry of Human Resource.
Jha was not going to office and was on medical leave from September 28, the police had said.
Justice M. Seetharama Murti was dealing with a petition by nine victims belonging to tribal community seeking a direction to the AP government.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Friday directed the AP government to convey to it by December 20 what steps it was taking to appoint a special public prosecutor and an assistant prosecutor in the Vakapalli gang rape case.
Justice M. Seetharama Murti was dealing with a petition by nine victims belonging to tribal community seeking a direction to the AP government to appoint the prosecutors to conduct trial pending against 13 policemen before the 11th additional district sessions judge cum special court under the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Visakhapatnam.
Ms Vasudha Nagaraj, counsel for the petitioners, told the court that 11 tribal women of Vakapalli village in G Madugula mandal were allegedly gang-raped by 21 personnel of Greyhounds, the elite anti-naxal force of AP, on August 20, 2007.
She submitted that of the 21 accused, eight names had been taken off from the case based on the order of the Hyderabad High Court granted in 2012.
She said court that 13 accused had approached the Supreme Court seeking the quashing of the case, but the apex court dismissed their plea in September this year and directed the trial court to complete the trial within six months.
Counsel contended that the SC, ST (POA) Act empowered the government to appoint an exclusive special public prosecutor and assistant prosecutor as desired by the victims to prosecute the accused.
Justice Murti sought the response from the AP counsel who sought time to get instructions. While directing the government to file a report explaining the action taken on the representation of the victims, the judge said in view of the apex court order to complete the trial in six months, each day is crucial.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao interacts with guests at the start of the World Telugu Conference in Hyderabad on Friday. (Photo: DC)
Hyderabad: He owes his current stature and success to his teachers in school and college days, said Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in his own words at the start of the World Telugu Conference in the city on Friday.
Seeing the Telugu language spark in him, Mr Rao said his teachers encouraged him to gain even higher proficiency in the language without charging him anything extra. Travelling back in time to his early life, Mr Rao recalled the invaluable role of his gurus Mrityunjay Sharma and Mudigonda Veerabhadraiah from Siddipet in shaping his future.
Telangana governments prestigious five-day World Telugu Conference kicked off to a glittering start at LB Stadium on Friday evening.
The inaugural programme was attended by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu besides CM Chandrashekar Rao, Telangana Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, ministers, legislators, Telugu poets and writers, Telugu delegates from various states and abroad, among others.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Rao called upon the teacher fraternity in the state to rededicate itself to protecting and promoting the Telugu language. Teachers role is very crucial because they can bring a change in the entire society through their work, he said, stressing on the governments serious intent of promoting Telugu language in the coming days.
The Chief Minister said that every childs mother is their first teacher as she tries to make the newborn familiar with his/her family, teach them good habits and what they should do and what not from early childhood.
KCR recited poems and lines from works of noted Telugu poets of the past with ease, inviting a huge applause from the crowd at LB Stadium.
He even sang lines from Galli Chinnadi Garibolla Katha Peddadi written by poet Goreti Venkanna and made a mention of hugely popular Jaya Jayahe Telangana and Vanamma Vanamma Okasari Vachipovamma songs of poets Andhesri and Jayaraj.
Mr Rao heaped praise on works of Telugu poets right from Bommera Pothana to most recent Dr C. Narayana Reddy. He said they conveyed life lessons and experiences through very simple, easy to understand language, striking a chord with everyone.
Mr Rao said his government tried to recognise acclaimed poets and writers from Telangana and instituted awards after Kaloji Narayana Rao and Dasarathi. He vowed to take steps to recognise the works of various Telangana literary greats which had not been getting the attention they needed.
The Chief Minister thanked Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu for appreciating his efforts to promote Telugu language on various platforms in the last few months.
Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao called upon parents to ensure their kids learn their mother tongue perfectly until six years of age, as was stressed by UNESCO. He said he was very impressed at the big scale the government was holding the Telugu conference.
Telangana Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan said that conference was a good opportunity to share knowledge of the past, history of the region and its achievements with the current generation. He wanted Telugu language promotion to keep pace with the present internet age.
Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said that Hindu and Muslim communities co-existed for several centuries. Telugu language was much respected during the Quli Qutubshah regime.
Teachers, language buffs and students turned up in large numbers for the inaugural programme. Authorities had arranged special buses to help them reach the city without difficulty. A spectacular fireworks show was held at the end of the inaugural programme.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Latin Catholic Church has decided to move the High Court against the state governments failure to find the fishermen missing in the sea following cyclone Ockhi. The Church has demanded the setting up of a judicial commission to probe the officials failure to ensure timely rescue operations. Vicar-General of the Archdiocese Fr Eugene H. Pereira said that the Church would file a habeas corpus petition to locate the missing persons. It said the government has not found the missing people even after over two weeks now. We have no option but to seek legal recourse, Pereira told reporters here on Friday.
The decision came as there was a mismatch between the Churchs estimates and that of the government, he said. While the government had estimated that 146 persons were missing, the estimate of the Church was that 241 fishermen from Thiruvananthapuram alone had not returned home. The Church had been pressuring the government to intensify the search to rescue the survivors and recover the bodies of those who might have died in the cyclone.
The revenue department earlier this week had pointed out that FIRs had been filed about 146 missing persons. A separate list of 34 persons had also been prepared. As many as 70 bodies were recovered from the sea. Archbishop M Soosapakiam had held two meetings with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanding steps for tracing the fishermen.
DNA test helps to identify one more body
One more body recovered from sea following Ockhi cyclone was identified through DNA test at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College here on Friday.
The body was identified Alexander, 35, son of Vincent of South Kollamcode, Pozhiyoor. The body kept at the mortuary was received by relatives. Till date nineteen bodies of fishermen had been brought to the hospital while one person had died in hospital. Of these seven bodies are yet to be identified. Three bodies each are kept at the medical college and Sri Chitra institute mortuaries and one is at the general hospital mortuary.
Thomas David, 32, of Poonthura was discharged from medical college hospital while five others are still under treatment. Micheal, 42, of Poonthura is continuing in a critical condition though there is slight improvement. 200 fishermen who were stranded in sea after Ockhi cyclone returned in 20 boats in Kochi. Fourteen boats are yet to return. Of the nine bodies recovered from Kochi, three have been identified and the rest are kept at Ernakulam general hospital, Trippunithura and Aluva government hospitals respectively.
CHENNAI: Poll officials on Friday started installing ballot papers in electronic voting machines to be used for RK Nagar by-poll scheduled on December 21. The final set of paramilitary force for RK Nagar also arrived with their senior officers to RK Nagar. According to sources, the central observers from the election commission of India monitored the installation process at the government training college in Tondiarpet and discussed the logistics of storing the EVM machines. They also took stock of the central paramilitary force deployed for RK Nagar. To ensure trouble-free polls, 11 companies including both CISF and CRPF personnel are deployed. Almost all the polling booths will have a two-tier security system in place.
The randomised machines with symbols will be stored in a strong room till Tuesday. They will be dispatched to the polling stations on Wednesday along with indelible ink and voters roll, sources said. Meanwhile, the election commission of India has deployed central observer V. Batra to take care of the overall polling process related to RK Nagar. Batra has already been the central observer during the rescinded April by-poll. Another expenditure observer Manvendra Goyal is also to join the election commission making the total number of observers to an all-time high in the history of by-polls.
Under systematic voter education and electoral participation (SVEEP) programme, the poll officials also put up awareness stickers insisting the voters to come forward and vote. Stickers were also pasted on drinking water cans and LPG cylinders that were taken care of consumers. On Friday, 17 more police FIRs were also filed and as on Friday, the total number of cash seizures stood at Rs 6.34 lakh.
Chennai: Apollo Hospitals chairman Prathap C Reddy said that former Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha was brought to the hospital in a critical state and all efforts were made to restore her health as she was suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome.
He was reiterating the statement made by Apollo Hospitals vice chairperson, Preetha Reddy, who had said, on Friday, that former CM was brought to the hospital in a breathless state and all efforts were made to restore her health.
When questioned about releasing health bulletins that said Jayalalitha only complained of fever and dehydration, Apollo chairman said the hospital was advised to not issue any statement stating seriousness of her health fearing law and order problems due to public outrage.
People loved her so much and had they known about her critical state, it would have been difficult to control public agitation, he said.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event, Mr Reddy said adequate treatment was given to Jayalalithaa at the hospital.
After being brought to the hospital in a critical state, former CM showed significant progress in her state of health. All efforts were made to save her, however, her health deteriorated due to acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Many questions were raised against the hospital management for not being transparent on the treatment given to the late chief minister.
The former CM was treated at the hospital for 75 days before she passed on December 5 last year. A special commission is probing the circumstances leading to the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
As far as the inquiry in the case is concerned, we did not receive any summons from the commission. However, the hospital and doctors do not fear any summons or inquiry as we did our best to restore her health but unfortunately could not save her. We will co-operate with authorities for the inquiry if called upon to do so, Prathap Reddy told reporters.
Medical drones can transport organs
Telemedicine and medical drones are the emerging trends in futuristic healthcare technology and can prove miraculous in case of body transplants. Medicos discussed the scope and deployment of drones and telemedicine in providing health care services at International Workshop on Futuristic Healthcare Technology, held at Apollo Children's Hospitals on Saturday.
The 2-day workshop strives to bring in an interdisciplinary engineering practice to develop affordable and innovative medical and healthcare devices. The workshop also advances in preservation techniques in liver transplantation and optimal transplantation of vital organs like heart, lungs liver and kidney.
Medicos say that the deployment of drones for medical purposes in our country would create a viable means to leap over infrastructure inadequacies in serving every segment of people with emergency and quality healthcare.
Mentioning the typical contemporary examples of interdisciplinary technological advancements Dr K. Ganapathy, director, Apollo TeleHealth Services, said that medical drones for organ transport and emergency medical supplies were a great achievement. Drones are an efficient, cost-effective and potentially life-saving method of transporting blood samples, products and organs and may one day be as commonly used as ambulances or helicopters, he said.
Apollo TeleHealth Services also signed an MoU with Innova Space, an international organisation that helps nations develop space programmes and telehealth initiatives.
Speaking at the workshop, Dr Prathap C. Reddy, founder & executive chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, said, Tamil Nadu leads the country in organ transplants and introducing droneswill be yet another landmark. Use of innovative, affordable and good quality medical technologies will provide access to better and appropriate technologies to match the health needs of people.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Not just the Pope, even Communists apologise. At the closing ceremony of the IFFK here on Friday, finance minister T.M. Thomas Isaac turned to Russian legend Alexander Sokurov, this years lifetime achievement winner who was on the dais, and said: We apologise for what happened in 2001. Dr Isaac insisted that his words be translated to Sokurov. The filmmaker just nodded, and Dr Isaac went on with his speech without elaborating any further.
As it turned out, he was apologising for what happened at the Kolkata International Film Festival in 2001. Sokurovs Taurus was one of the films screened. The second film in his tetralogy of power series, based on the last days of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, was subjected to some vociferous criticism. Jyoti Basu, who by then had retired, and Biman Bose said the movie should not have been shown. 'From where has Sokurov found that Lenin was anti-Semitic? There is no such reference in the Russian archives, Basu had then thundered.
Taurus is set in 1923, one year before Lenin's death and six years after the Bolshevik Revolution. At that time Lenin had undergone a debilitating operation to remove a bullet from his neck. He is also shown as being kept in a sort of house arrest by the Politburo. He is allowed no telephone calls, no post and no contact with the outside world. He contemplates suicide, rants against Jews, visits prostitutes and is treated as an insignificant figure by Stalin. Sokurov, who was then 50, was surprised. Here is how he reacted to the storm in Bengal over his film: The film shows him struggling hard with his illness, struggling for his independence. Still, he is a strong, proud and clever man.
Only, perhaps, a not very kind one. Leonid Mozgovi, the actor who plays Lenin, was blunt. Lenin is not such a hero in Russia. He made errors too. Dr Isaacs apology seems to have been provoked by actor Prakash Rajs speech at the opening ceremony of the IFFK. During his closing ceremony speech Isaac recalled what Prakash Raj had said. I dont come to Kerala with a prepared speech because there was no censorship in this place, Mr Raj had said. As a kind of gratitude for these words, Isaac said: We will sustain this right to dissent and defend it unmindful of the consequences.
The White House has contradicted Tillerson's offer of talks without preconditions, saying North Korea must first take 'sincere and meaningful actions toward denuclearisation.'
Bangkok: The US special envoy for North Korea has expressed hope that Pyongyang would accept Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's diplomatic offer of unconditional talks, although the overture has already been contradicted by the White House.
Joseph Yun told reporters in Bangkok on Friday that the talks could take place without preconditions and would serve Washington's dual approach of pressure and engagement on Pyongyang over its nuclear programme.
Yun says it's unclear whether North Korea is willing to talk following a period of accelerated nuclear activity, saying "it's very hard to discern what their intent is without having real dialogue."
The White House has contradicted Tillerson's offer of talks without preconditions, saying North Korea must first take "sincere and meaningful actions toward denuclearisation."
Canadian police have said they are investigating the deaths of Barry Sherman the founder of Apotex Inc. a Canadian pharmaceutical company, and Honey his wife. The couple is one of Canadas wealthiest and their bodies were located on Friday inside their mansion.
Police say they responded to a call at midday at the home of the Sherman in an affluent area of Toronto.
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A local constable said the circumstances of the deaths appear to be suspicious and it is being treated as such. Later homicide detectives told the media outside the home that had not been any signs of a forced entry.
Neighbors, business associates as well as some of the most powerful politicians in Canada expressed their sadness over their two deaths.
On Twitter, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted his condolences to the family and was very touched by the couples vision and spirit.
The mayor of Toronto John Tory through a prepared statement said he was heartbroken and shocked when he learned of the couples death, noting the couple had made many contributions to the city.
The Shermans had recently put their house up for sale at the price of C$7 million equal to approximately $5.4 billion. When the real estate agent in charge of the sale was preparing the home to hold an open house, she discovered the bodies of the couple in the homes basement, reported a local paper.
Sherman, who was 75, founded Apotex 43 years ago and remains privately held. He grew the company through the introduction of large numbers of generic, low-costing drugs that were able to take market share away from the branded pharmaceuticals. He stepped aside in 2012 as the CEO, but remained as its executive chairman.
The fortune of the Shermans is estimated to be $3.2 billion.
Apotex is the seventh largest generic drug maker in the world with more than 11,000 employees with annual sales of over C$2 billion across 45 countries.
The couple has been well-known for the philanthropy they carried out, giving tens of millions dollars to hospitals, Jewish organizations and universities, reported local television.
The former Premier of Ontario Bob Rae said the couple was very successful in business, yet very giving, and their loss will be very big.
In February a local newspaper wrote there was an investigation about a fundraiser that Trudeau had attended.
The new Mitsubishi Outlander will be a petrol-only model, at least during the launch. The company might add the diesel model at a later stage. The new crossover will draw power from a 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine producing 169bhp and 225Nm of torque. The engine is coupled to a 6-step CVT gearbox.
The new Outlander will come with the Mitsubishi's Super-All Wheel Control (S-AWC) AWD system which will deliver power to all the four wheels when required. The crossover will be equipped with multiple driving modes.
Recommended Video The updated Porsche Cayenne SUV will be coming to India soon - DriveSpark
The interior of the new Outlander will feature a 6.1-inch touchscreen infotainment system, leather seats, dual-zone climate control, and 710W sound system. Other features include automatic headlight and wipers, electric parking brake and electric sunroof.
The safety features of new Mitsubishi Outlander include six airbags, ABS, EBD, traction control and active stability control. Mitsubishi retailed the second-gen Outlander in India in 2008 but was discontinued after four years due to poor sales.
DriveSpark Thinks!
The third-gen Mitsubishi Outlander will be launched in India as a petrol-only model. In India, people prefer to own a diesel SUV or crossover; it will be interesting to see how the Outlander will perform against its diesel rivals. When launched, the crossover will rival the likes of new Honda CR-V. Expect the pricing to be around Rs 30 lakh.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the KardiaBand its stamp of approval, AliveCor announced Thursday. Thedevice is the first FDA-cleared personal electrocardiogram (EKG) accessory designed for use with an Apple Watch.
The KardiaBand allows users to take EKG readings in order to distinguish between normal sinus heart rhythms and atrial fibrillation (A-fib), the most common type of serious heart arrhythmia, which can lead to strokes or other heart-related problems.
The KardiaBand can record an EKG in just 30 seconds. The user simply touches an integrated sensor, and the results are then displayed on the face of the Apple Watch.
AliveCor also announced the release of SmartRhythm, a new feature in the Kardia app. Itrelies on artificial intelligence to monitor a users heart rateand determine the correlation between heart activity and physicalactivity. It can detect when a users heart rate and activity are outof sync and promptly send an alert.
KardiaBand paired with SmartRhythm technology will be life-changingfor people who are serious about heart health, said Vic Gundotra, CEOof AliveCor. Gundotra previously helmed Google+.
These capabilities will allow people to easily and discreetly checktheir heart rhythms when they may be abnormal, capturing essentialinformation to help doctors identify the issue and inform a clear pathof care to help manage A-fib, a leading cause of stroke, and otherserious conditions, he added.
KardiaBand, which is now available for US$199, works in conjunction with AliveCors Premium$99 a year subscription service. The combined system providessubscribers with SmartRhythm notifications on Apple Watch, unlimitedEKG recordings, and automatic detection of A-fib or normal sinus rhythms.
Users can email unlimited EKG readings to anyone, including adoctor, and are provided with unlimited cloud access to all EKG readings, along with weight and medication tracking. All ofthis data is mailed to users in a monthly paper report with fullreadings from the device.
Heart of the Matter
Although AliveCors KardiaBand is the first EKG device available forthe Apple Watch, it is just a small part of Apples fitness-monitoring efforts.
The company recently announced its Apple Heart Study app, the first researchstudy to utilize Apple Watchs heart rate sensor to collect data onA-fib. Apple partnered with Stanford Medicine to perform that research.
Smartwatches could become increasingly useful to help monitor heart-relatedmedical issues.
There are millions of people with frequent or infrequent heartarrhythmia who could benefit from a band like KardiaBand, said RogerEntner, principal analyst at Recon Analytics.
It would help diagnosis and speed up treatment in cases where andwhen it occurs, and it would certainly be a driver for people who haveheart arrhythmia, which is often a side effect of diabetes and otherheart disease, he told TechNewsWorld.
Health and Technology
One issue might be how easy, convenient and even comfortable such adevice would be to wear, especially for extended periods. Further, someusers might rely on these devices as replacements for regulardoctors visits.
Its fine to instrument a person, as it enables closer monitoring,suggested Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint TechnologyAssociates.
In general, early warning gives more information and is mostly not tooinvasive, but of course people still need to be treated by healthcareprofessionals, he told TechNewsWorld.
The app cant do anything but tell you whats going on at a detailedlevel, so it makes sense for people at risk, Kay noted.Still, the device and app are a diagnostic tool to make it easier to treat,not a replacement for treatment, Recon Analytics Entner added. Onlya doctor can do that.
Widening the Market
As health costs continue to rise, smartwatch monitoringdevices could offer some financial benefits. Users might not feel the need to rush to theemergency room every time they felt slightly off.
Its possible that health and fitness monitoring devices will continue to become more highly specialized.
This is the old Swiss Army Knife versus dedicated functionwearables debate, explained Robin Raskin, founder of Living in Digital Times.
From my point of view, smartwatches wont really take off until theyhave some super useful functionality in the workplace, like payments orphysical access to buildings and computers, she told TechNewsWorld.
That said, AliveCor builds great products and this one, Im sure,works well, added Raskin.
More widespread acceptance may come via a mobile phone attachment, however, so it is unlikely that KardiaBand will broaden the smartwatch market, suggested Raskin.
I dont think too many people would buy and wear a device like theKardiaBand without the need, added Entner.
On the other hand, I do think that if you own a watch and suspect you haveheart issues or just want info, said Raskin, this is a fabulous product.
China and Google were on opposite end of the spectrum when Google was forced out of China due to an issue regarding privacy of the Google users. In China, where everything on the internet is closely monitored by the Government, it was difficult for Google to function in such an environment.
Well, this gave the opportunity to local players who captured the market share on the internet.Google is our home for everything on the internet. It started as a search engine but today it is the biggest technology giant on the internet. Its name has become synonymous with the search which proves its presence on the internet.
Artificial intelligence is the latest technology which is set to define the direction of technological changes in the world. It is not a new concept, yet it has fueled the imagination of scientists and researchers since decades. They are a firm believer in the power of artificial intelligence. It encompasses the whole range of human intelligence which is utilized in creating such a technology. Google which is currently into pretty much everything that is available on the internet. Their product list is great which combines the latest technology with a unique experience.
AI Lab Of Asia
Recently, Google made headlines when its deep mind technology defeated the world champion at alpha go which is an ancient Chinese game.As the research and development have progressed rapidly in the AI and ML, Google has to rethink its strategy of further research and development in the AI. Currently, It has such AI labs in other parts of the world such as Germany and England but this AI lab is first for Asia.She emphasised the presence of Chinese researchers when she mentioned about the number of research papers published related to Al and ML.
The Chinese have already dig deeper into this latest technology, and Google wishes to leverage the Potential by setting up their first AI lab of Asia in China.China has become the breeding ground for the AI researchers and Google wishes to tap this potential. As evident from its investment in the AI research, when it bought a British startup named Deep Mind Technologies for 500 million $. Facebook was also in discussions with the company in 2013, but Google offered a much better deal.
The Future Of AI
Google has already hired the best of AI experts and engineers to develop the general purpose AI. A technology which will let us understand what is intelligence and how to measure it for further development and progress.Google in its post said they want to support the best minds in the AI no matter where that talented mind is. It seems quite fitting in the regards of Google which has practically captured everything imaginable on the Internet.
Google hopes this time they will have a solid relationship with China to develop a technology that makes us wiser. Googles chief of AI mentioned in her public post on Google about this latest development. She managed to list of the development and progress of Artificial intelligence and machine learning. She said that the next technological development can happen anywhere in the world and not only in the silicon valley.
MHK asks export licence questions
Onchan MHK Julie Edge
Export licences issued by the Manx Government will be discussed in next week's sitting of the House of Keys.
Onchan MHK Julie Edge wants to know who issues such licences, and what the cost of issuing the document is to the Government.
Ms Edge is also seeking a breakdown of the criteria for obtaining an export licence.
Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas will provide the details next week.
Lord Chancellor visits Isle of Man
Chief Minister Howard Quayle welcomes the Lord Chancellor
The United Kingdom's Lord Chancellor has been visiting the Isle of Man this week.
The Rt Hon David Lidington MP's responsibilities include the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for managing the UK's relationship with the Crown Dependencies.
Chief Minister Howard Quayle says the visit gave the Island the chance to reflect on the Island's progress in recent tears and look to the future post-Brexit.
Mrs Lidington described the relationship between the Island and the UK as positive and mutually beneficial, and insists it's vital that the two nations continue to work together.
Mr Lidington attended Tynwald and learned about the Island's Courts, as well as visiting local businesses.
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On average, biodiesel accounted for about 4 percent of total U.S. diesel consumption in 2016.
WASHINGTON Through the first nine months of 2017, U.S. biodiesel production levels were slightly higher than 2016 levels, despite the expiration of a federal biodiesel blenders tax credit at the end of 2016.
And according to experts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration, domestic biodiesel production may continue to increase because of changes to import policies such as those recently announced by the U.S. Department of Commerce on biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia.
Tax incentives
Biodiesel production increased over time largely because of state and federal incentives. The federal biodiesel blenders tax credit, valued at $1 per gallon, expired several times prior to 2016, most recently at the end of 2014. In those earlier years, Congress ultimately voted to reinstate the tax credit retroactively.
Biodiesel qualifies as an advanced biofuel as part of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a program implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to promote the incorporation of biofuels into the nations fuel supply.
To demonstrate compliance with the RFS, refiners and importers of petroleum products must either blend advanced biofuels such as biodiesel or buy credits called renewable identification numbers (RINs).
Biodiesel is often combined with petroleum diesel in blends ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent biodiesel.
On average, biodiesel accounted for about 4 percent of total diesel consumption in 2016.
Similar to corn ethanol, biodiesel production is concentrated in the Midwest and delivered by rail and truck across the country.
Biodiesel imports
Since 2014, foreign biodiesel imports primarily from Argentina and Indonesia have increased in the East Coast and Gulf Coast regions.
In 2016, biodiesel imports from Argentina reached 449 million gallons and accounted for nearly 20 percent of U.S. biodiesel consumption.
However, in April 2017, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) initiated two investigations into whether biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia put U.S. biodiesel producers at a disadvantage.
The two investigations have focused on countervailing duties when a foreign government provides subsidies for the production of a product and antidumping when a foreign government sells a product at less than its fair value.
In November, the DOC issued an affirmative final determination on countervailing duties for Argentina and Indonesia, assigning rates ranging from 34 percent to 72 percent, based on the producer or importer of biodiesel.
The U.S. International Trade Commission reached a similar finding in December, allowing for DOC to issue final countervailing duty orders.
Depending on the outcome of the antidumping investigation, the combined effect of the final orders may more than double the price of biodiesel from these two countries.
In response to the investigations, new U.S. contracts for cargos of biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia have slowed, and imports from these countries are likely to remain low unless a settlement is reached or U.S. biodiesel prices rise to offset the final duties.
* * *
US biodiesel by the numbers
U.S. biodiesel consumption in 2016 totaled 2,189 million gallons, of which 1,569 million gallons (72 percent) were produced domestically.
U.S. biodiesel facilities ran at 69 percent of nameplate capacity during 2016. As of September 2017, U.S. biodiesel production capacity stands at 2,348 million gallons.
Biodiesel is typically more expensive than petroleum-based diesel, so the loss of lower-cost imports from Argentina and Indonesia might further decrease its price competitiveness.
During 2016, the average spot price of Gulf Coast biodiesel was $3.17/gal, which was $1.85/gal higher than its petroleum counterpart.
(Source U.S. Energy Information Administration)
Farming unions have welcomed the decision of farmer-owned business First Milk to hold its milk price to producers in January.
First Milk has held its milk price for January despite downward pressure in market which has seen others reduce their price.
That contrasts with the decision of dairy giant Muller, which has slashed its milk price to its farmers by a hefty 1.5p per litre, sparking fury in its producers.
Meadow Foods will also be decreasing its 'A' milk price by 1.25 pence per litre to 29.75ppl from January 2018.
However, First Milk suppliers have lived with lower prices for some time. Now the co-op has closed the gap on other milk buyers and is holding its price at a critical time.
In the past few days, the NFU and other farming unions have met with both First Milk and Muller to discuss milk prices and the dairy sector.
At both meetings, frank and constructive discussions were said to have taken place about how the dairy sector must deliver a sustainable future for farmers.
'Anger'
In a joint meeting with NFU England and Wales and NFU Scotland, Milk Policy Manager George Jamieson met with Muller on Monday (11 December).
Speaking after the meeting, he said: The disappointment and anger felt after the Muller milk price announcement was matched by the frustration and fury vented in the many calls NFU Scotland received from Muller suppliers about the decision.
Public statements made by Mullers elected farmer representatives echo the considerable discord that Mullers shock price move has caused.
To be clear, we fully recognise that all processors, including Muller, are not immune to the softening world market for dairy produce.
However, when a major dairy processor that prides itself on being ahead of competitors in investment, branding, adding value and producer representation cuts with such speed and such depth then its producers are entitled to a proper explanation.
Commodity price surge
The cuts come at a time when the recent surge in dairy commodity prices to record levels fell considerably short of translating into record prices to farmers for their milk.
Dairy farm bank accounts have not recovered from 2015 and 2016, when prices were at their lowest for a generation. The NFU said that the onus is on processors, including Muller, and their customers to pass more value back to farmers.
Mr Jamieson added: The reality is that, even the most efficient dairy farmers are not receiving enough out of the chain to fund any reasonable level of investment. This is not a market problem but a supply chain imbalance that is unreasonable and inefficient.
Muller shared with us its growth plans, investment commitments, and aims to add value to ensure its direct suppliers would receive a price that could return a fairer margin. However, it defended the scale of its current price cut on the grounds of softening markets and market competition something which NFUS does not accept.
Its milk price announcement undermined some of the ground Muller had made in putting its new producer representation structure in place. That needs to be rebuilt.
Producer Organisation
The NFU has urged Muller and its farmers to further develop its producer representation. It says a Producer Organisation or similar is achievable, and Muller and their farmers have the opportunity to lead supply chain collaboration.
At the First Milk meeting on Tuesday, NFU Scotland President Andrew McCornick met with Chief Executive, Shelagh Hancock and Vice Chairman Jim Baird.
Mr McCornick said: First Milk and its farmer owners have been through very difficult times following the very hard recovery plan, but its new team are beginning to achieve the key outcomes its members need - a competitive price and a stable, financially secure First Milk.
There is no complacency from First Milk and it has pragmatic, but ambitious plans for growth and efficiency, focussing on running a successful business with the goal of returning value to members.
Amy Jackson
Amy Jackson's hot bikini shoot from Ibiza early this year has to be her hottest shoot of the year 2017.
Recommended Video Amy Jackson's HOT and SEXY photos going Viral; Watch Here | FilmiBeat
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Amy Jackson is the only actress who looks drop dead gorgeous in anything and everything that she wears.
Party Animal
Amy Jackson regularly goes to Ibiza, Spain or Miami, USA and parties hard along with her friends.
Fits Anything
Be it a saree, dress, salwar or a bikini, Amy Jackson carries them off with utmost ease and confidence.
So Beautiful
It's really hard to find an actress as beautiful as her her, folks! Don't you agree?
Hot Photoshoot
Her other hot photoshoot of 2017 is surely for Lipsy London Lingerie. Those were uber hot pics, no doubt!
British Beauty
The British beauty Amy Jackson is nothing less than an Indian girl herself and is now a part of the country.
Red Hot
She looks absolutely stunning whenever she poses by the pool in a bikini.
Lipsy London
Her photoshoot for Lipsy London Lingerie a few months ago blew the lid off and people went gaga all over it.
Welcome 2018
We're sure the year 2018, Amy Jackson will surprise her fans with many more beautiful pictures and hot photoshoots.
Tina Dutta & Ankit Bhatias BOLD Photoshoot
Regarding the photoshoot, Amit Khanna was quoted as saying, "It was for the streaming calendar the theme is streaming hot. This picture is used for the month of February as it's about love. This pic depicts a strong glamorous woman who rules in s world of men." (Pic Courtesy: Amit Khanna Photography)
Ankit Says...
Revealing more about the photoshoot, Ankit told Spotboye, "Okay, so let me tell you that Tina Dutta was supposed to hold me from behind and my b*tt would have been visible even then. In fact, we shot for that image- but it didn't look good enough. So, we dropped that idea. And then, the photographer Amit Khanna suggested that she climbs on my back."
Ankit & Tina Photoshoot
Ankit also revealed that he wore a thong when Tina was around. He further added, "But later, I did shoot in the buff. And the two pictures were superimposed."
(In Pic: Tina Dutta; Amit Khanna photography)
Tina Dutta
Tina too, clarified by saying that it was photoshopped. She said, "Oh, come on. We are in the age of photoshop. That's exactly what has been done with Ankit in his picture with mine." (Pic Courtesy: Amit Khanna Photography)
Tina Looks HOT
Although Tina was trolled for the photoshoot, she received a lot of appreciation. (Pic Courtesy:Luv Israni)
What happened
This past week was a turbulent one for investors in Bristow Group (BRS), Oasis Petroleum (OAS), and Nordic American Tankers (NAT 6.45%). Those oil stocks got hammered after announcing moves to shore up their balance sheets and business prospects because they paid a high price to do so. That steep price will make it harder for them to create value for investors in the future.
So what
Oil tanker company Nordic American Tankers was the worst performer in the group, plunging nearly 27% on the week. Sparking the downdraft was the pricing of a public stock offering. The company sold $110 million in newly minted shares at $2.75 apiece, which was significantly below where shares traded before the announcement. That said, it needed the money to bolster its balance sheet since it has three new ships joining its fleet next year that it had to finance. While it obtained bank funding for those vessels, it needed more capital to keep its head above water after tanker rates plunged this year. Nordic American Tankers, though, paid a steep price for that breathing room after having sold 40 million new shares, which is a jaw-dropping number for a company that just had 101 million shares outstanding last quarter.
Oil driller Oasis Petroleum also plunged this week after issuing a boatload of new stock, which drove shares down more than 22%. The catalyst was the announcement that it would pay $946 million, including $483 million in cash and 46 million shares of stock, to purchase drillable land in the Delaware Basin, which is one of the hottest shale plays at the moment. In addition, the company also sold another 32 million shares of stock, raising $305 million, to bolster its financial position. Oasis also said that it would sell $500 million in noncore assets later this year to improve its situation further. That said, the big issue for investors is that Oasis issued 78 million shares of stock this week, which is quite a bit of dilution for a company that had 233 million shares outstanding last quarter.
Bristow Group also hit some turbulence this week, falling more than 13% after announcing plans to issue more debt. The helicopter service company announced that it would sell $125 million of 4.5% convertible notes due in 2023, with it expected to use $90 million of that cash to repay existing debt while earmarking the rest for general corporate purposes. The convertible nature of these notes is worth pointing out because it means that they could eventually get turned into new stock and dilute existing investors. At the implied conversion rate, Bristow would issue 8 million new shares, which is substantial considering the company had 35 million shares outstanding at the end of last quarter. That seems like a high price to pay since it didn't look like Bristow needed more cash because it recently deferred some capital spending and sold a pilot training facility.
Now what
By issuing a boatload of new stock this week, it will be harder for Oasis Petroleum, Bristow Group, and Nordic American Tankers to create value for investors. Because they now need to spread the wealth across all those new shares, they will leave everyone with a smaller slice of the profits. That's why even after getting hammered this week, those oil stocks don't seem like compelling buys.
First-term Irmo Mayor Barry Walker announced Sept. 26 that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. The mayors wife, Susan, also got COVD-19, Walker said on social media. As you know Im a kidney patient and require weekly dialysis, Walker wrote. This virus compromises my immune syste Read moreWhat You Missed: Irmo Mayor Barry Walker gets COVID-19
Google X signs MOU with AP Govt to bring FSOC technology News oi -Priyanka As part of the partnership, and to provide real-time support for the smooth operation of this project, X will also set up a local office with the help of the AP Government.
To provide internet through AP's ambitious Fiber grid project, Andhra Pradesh enters into a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Google X to bring Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) technology to India.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Hon'ble Minister of IT, Government of Andhra Pradesh Shri Nara Lokesh and CEO of Google X Astro Teller in San Francisco, USA during the former's US tour.
As an innovation partner, Google X will initially supply AP state with two thousand FSOC links. X engineers and experts on site in AP will work with the government personnel to identify and select suitable sites for deployment of the FSOC links.
As part of the partnership, and to provide real-time support for the smooth operation of this project, X will also set up a local office with the help of the AP Government.
Astro Teller said, "We are delighted to be partnering with AP FiberNet on this promising innovation that could overcome some of the longstanding challenges of getting high-speed internet too hard to reach areas, and look forward to helping them make the benefits of the web accessible to more people in Andhra Pradesh."
AP Fiber grid is an ambitious project launched to give affordable high-speed internet connection to every household in the state. It aims to connect over 1.45 Crore households, 12198 Panchayats, 60000 schools, 10000 government offices, 670 manual Offices, 96 municipalities, 14 corporations, 6000 Public Health Centres with high-speed internet.
"This association with X labs to implement FSOC in AP is first of its kind in the world to provide wireless internet connection at a higher speed of up to 20Gbps and to a distance of up to 20kms. This significant partnership will offer a major boost to the state's digital infrastructure and help overcome hindrances in terms of connecting isolated and difficult terrain, forest areas, river crossings, railway crossings etc," said Andhra Pradesh IT minister Nara Lokesh.
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OIR Officials Report Details of Latest Strikes Against ISIS in Syria, Iraq
From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release
SOUTHWEST ASIA, Dec. 15, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria between Dec. 11-14, conducting 42 strikes consisting of 53 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of the most recent strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Strikes in Syria
Yesterday in Syria, coalition military forces conducted 10 strikes consisting of 13 engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Abu Kamal, nine strikes engaged six ISIS tactical units and destroyed six ISIS vehicles and a fighting position.
-- Near Tanf, a strike destroyed a weapons cache and two ISIS caves.
On Dec. 13, coalition military forces conducted 14 strikes consisting of 17 engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Abu Kamal, nine strikes engaged nine ISIS tactical units and destroyed three ISIS vehicles and an ISIS headquarters.
-- Near Tanf, five strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and destroyed three ISIS vehicles, four cave entrances and a tactical vehicle.
On Dec. 12,, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of seven engagements against ISIS targets near Abu Kamal. The strikes engaged seven ISIS tactical units and destroyed two ISIS vehicles and a heavy weapon.
On Dec. 11, coalition military forces conducted six strikes consisting of seven engagements against ISIS targets near Abu Kamal. The strikes engaged five ISiS tactical units and destroyed three ISIS heavy weapons.
Strikes in Iraq
There were no reported strikes in Iraq yesterday.
On Dec. 13 in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Rutbah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS vehicle.
-- Near Tuz, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed two ISIS tents and a bunker.
On Dec. 12, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Baghdadi, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit.
-- Near Rutbah, a strike destroyed two ISIS-held buildings.
On Dec. 11, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of five engagements against ISIS targets near Hawija. The strike engaged an ISiS tactical unit and destroyed two ISIS meeting facilities.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.
The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.
Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.
For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.
The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.
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Capable and committed': U.S. Army, allies provide collective security, stability in Europe
By Devon L. Suits December 15, 2017
WASHINGTON -- Soldiers with the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade and the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, recently returned home after a rotational deployment in Europe that was focused on building readiness and improving interoperability between U.S. and allied forces in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve 2017.
The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, and the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, replaced two units in the European area of responsibility -- continuing the commitment by the United States to the collective security of its NATO allies and maintaining the enduring peace and stability of the region.
Brigade commanders from the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade and 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team spoke Dec. 13 about their time in the region as part of an Army Current Operations Engagement Tour media roundtable at the Pentagon.
10TH COMBAT AVIATION BRIGADE
In March, the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade deployed 60 aircraft and 200 support vehicles to Europe from Fort Drum, New York.
"Aviation is my No. 1 critical capability requirement. Without it, our adversaries know we're not serious," said Col. Clair Gill, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade commander, relaying the words of Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander of United States Army Europe.
During their time in Europe, the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade partnered with 20 nations and more than 25,000 NATO military personnel during Operation Saber Guardian 17, the region's largest multinational exercise.
Correspondingly, the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade executed Operation Falcon's Talon, which focused on the Army's aviation ability to survive and fight in the early phases of an attack on a NATO partner from a peer, or near-peer threat.
"This unique exercise tested the ... planning [ability], the creativity, and mettle of our leaders," Gill said. "It forced them to manage risk and make decisions at their levels, without higher headquarters oversight -- much the way that our Army chief of staff describes the future of battle."
During Operation Falcon's Talon, junior leaders from the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade received alert notifications, scattered aircraft from large airfields, hid in remote areas, integrated with local partisans, and executed non-traditional aviation operations in a replicated denied or harsh environment.
Overall, "these exercises presented unique and challenging training while supporting real-world operations," Gill said. "[It's] a type of experience not available to our Soldiers and leaders at home station or at some of the combat training centers."
Currently, the geographical end state for the rotational combat aviation brigades participating in Atlantic Resolve is to position all forces "forward" in Latvia, Poland, and Romania.
"The men and women of the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade showed great poise to learn and grow as we set the bar for future rotational units to deploy in this heel-to-toe fashion," Gill added.
"We know how to deploy our formation from end-to-end. We know how to operate with partners and allies," he said. "And we know the key to logistical support forward. The 10th Combat Aviation Brigade is ready to step into the area again to answer the call of our nation and allies."
3RD ARMORED BRIGADE COMBAT TEAM
The 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team deployed to Europe to deter near-peer adversaries while continuing to focus on internal training and fleet readiness, said Col. Michael Simmering, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team commander. In turn, the unit participated in Saber Guardian and 13 other multinational exercises.
More than 3,500 Soldiers, 250 tracked-weapons platforms, and other associated equipment deployed out of Fort Carson, Colorado.
"From the beginning of January to October of this year, our brigade was the first armored brigade to begin a continuous presence of deployed armored brigades to Europe," Simmering said.
During their time in the region, the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team conducted live-fire training and situational training exercises on a nearly daily basis. Moreover, the unit fired more than a million rounds ranging from tank and artillery rounds to individual small arms weapons, Simmering added.
"Throughout that time, it was clear that our allies are absolutely capable and committed to the defense of the alliance," Simmering said. "Together, we demonstrated how the lethality of a U.S. armor brigade combat team is magnified when we train as part of a greater NATO force."
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES AND INTEROPERABILITY
Freedom of movement throughout the region continues to be a significant challenge for all U.S. forces, according to both commanders.
"Coordinating movements across multiple borders involves weeks of planning and clearances, and any one error can jeopardize an entire large operation," Gill said. "European coordination can be difficult, given that 29 sovereign nations all have legitimate reasons to develop their own policies."
The 10th Combat Aviation Brigade experienced their share of logistical problems while preparing for exercise Saber Guardian. In their steadfast commitment to demonstrating the expeditionary capability of an aviation brigade, the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade loaded up all their equipment and drove 1,300 miles over the course of five days and nights to the exercise location.
"That was an once-in-a-lifetime experience for those Soldiers," Gill said. "It was amazing to listen to the creative way leaders would solve problems. How would they relay [information] from the front of a convoy to the back of a convoy ... when you're not allowed to pull over on the Autobahn or a dirt road?"
As the U.S forces in Europe continue to participate in peacetime operations, the Army will continue to have issues moving freely throughout the region, Gill added. However, the time spent exercising with allies and partners helps to create policies and procedures that will aid U.S. forces in the future.
The 10th Combat Aviation Brigade and 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team also had to deal with several issues stemming from transporting hazardous cargo across the continent.
According to Gill, to comply with European standards, vehicles designed to haul hazardous materials will need to be modified at a significant cost to the U.S. government. The Army is in the process of addressing those issues.
In addition to the logistical challenges, both brigades had to find a standard way to communicate and work with their NATO allies and partners.
"When you have forces that are combined at the battalion level and below, from different nations, it presents unique challenges," Simmering said.
In the future, Simmering believes that interoperability will involve more than just a new piece of military equipment. Successfully integrating all forces starts with a common understanding of doctrine and processes and a dedicated effort from the NATO alliance.
Overall, the U.S. Army is getting a comprehensive review of the challenges that Soldiers might have to face in the future, Simmering said, as well as the logistical capabilities available to help the U.S. and its allies maintain security in the region.
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'Lighter, leaner, better capabilities': speeding combat casualty care
By Mr. Ramin A. Khalili December 15, 2017
IRVINE, Calif. -- Dr. Elliot Botvinick sits in his office on the campus of the University of California, Irvine, holding a tiny device in the palm of his hand. It is smaller than a garage door opener, smaller than a standard business card even, and is so slight and inconspicuous that he might be able to stick one on a passing student without their noticing.
It also might be the future of battlefield medicine, according to the U.S. Army.
Minds like Botvinick's may be exactly what's needed to conquer approaching combat scenarios that experts predict will look starkly different than the current version, ones where the efficient use of targeted medical knowledge may be the single most important key to victory.
Botvinick's handheld lactate monitor fits in perfectly then, as it features a wearable, subcutaneous microsensor designed to detect lactic acid levels, which rise in the body during episodes of critical illness and internal bleeding, both of which exhibit symptoms that aren't always visible to the naked eye.
"We're feeling pretty confident," said Botvinick, a biomedical engineer. But while he is modestly optimistic, the Army expresses its faith in new medical technologies with a bullhorn.
To hasten the monitors' delivery, the Army is looking to the Combat Casualty Care Research Program, known as CCCRP, of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. "Our focus is squarely and specifically on the health and welfare of the warfighter," said Col. Michael Davis, the newly installed CCCRP director.
In his role as an investigator with the CCCRP's portfolio for Photonics and Light-Based Innovation for Severe Injury, Botvinick's lactate monitor satisfies the Army's desire for smaller, better technologies to operate in combat scenarios that will likely play out in denser, more urban areas, and in which prolonged field medical care will likely be the norm.
"The vision [for the device] is something like a blister pack that you would peel open in the field and then a medic would just slap it on the body," says Botvinick. "And in that simple act of slapping, an insertion needle would be guided just under the skin [] and then by pulling back on a sticker or tab, that needle would be removed and just a flexible fiber would remain."
That tiny fiber would then interrogate the tissue around it, asking how much lactic acid exists in the area, according to Botvinick. From there, the assembled information would then be transmitted via Bluetooth technology to a wearable unit on the skin.
While measuring lactate is not currently the standard of care in the field (chiefly because current protocol requires blood samples to be drawn and then sent to a lab for study, a logistical nightmare in the field), Botvinick's sensor measures lactate faster than the lactate level within the body can change, which makes it ideal for the fluidity of long-term transport situations, as well as transportation between levels of care. As such, a number of prototype devices are being prepared for shipment to the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio for animal model testing.
This is just one example from a research program rich with potential solutions.
BATTLEFIELD MEDICINE
Based in a small building on the southern edge of Fort Detrick, Maryland, the CCCRP is the only federal entity specifically tasked with developing the tools and knowledge required to aid injured warfighters on the battlefield. It comprises four portfolio management areas: Hemorrhage and Resuscitation; Neurotrauma and Traumatic Brain Injury; Joint Forward Surgical En-Route Care; and the aforementioned photonics portfolio.
The Army is leaning on CCCRP to produce the next-generation tools it will need to conquer and secure the rather bleak battlefield projected for the 2025-2040 timeframe. Specifically, experts predict the U.S. will likely encounter far more sophisticated enemies in the future than in previous conflicts, as well as enemy forces with the capabilities to degrade and inhibit U.S. air, maritime, cyberspace and EMS access and superiority.
That puts the execution of prolonged field care in the spotlight. A recent Capability Needs Assessment commissioned by military leadership named prolonged field care as the No. 1 capability gap across the entire Army. Indeed, experts say future battlefields will require medical efforts to be more assertive at the point of injury as opposed to standard forward aid locations, a shift that also radically changes the concept of the "golden hour" standard of care, which relies on traditional medical transport to get service members treated within the first hour after injury.
LITERALLY, ON THE BATTLEFIELD
"We're going to need lighter, leaner, better capabilities than we currently have," said Col. Antoinette Shinn, manager of the CCCRP's joint Forward Surgical En-Route Care portfolio. "For instance, how are we going to maximize tele-health efforts in ways that will assist a far-forward medic, or maybe even no medic at all, in providing life-sustaining care for up to 72 hours?"
Shinn's portfolio is currently investing heavily in noninvasive hemorrhage detection capabilities for situations in which a warfighter sustains an injury but is neither overtly bleeding nor visibly symptomatic yet. The latter falls into the burgeoning area of "intelligent tasking," whereby physiology will ultimately determine a patient's medical needs.
A more fully realized version of the CCCRP's technological vision for the future is in the program's Neurotrauma and Traumatic Brain Injury portfolio, where a slew of recent investments have evolved into a variety of potential solutions, each with substantial benefits. With more than 370,000 cases of TBI across all military branches since 2000, progress in this discipline is a top priority.
"We've got a number of promising technologies, but it's not going to be just one of them that has all the answers for all environments," said portfolio manager Dr. Tammy Crowder. "It's not going to be like the chickenpox vaccine where everybody gets the shot and then we're all protected."
The portfolio's standout performer so far has been the I-Portal PAS tool, developed by Pennsylvania-based Neuro Kinetics Inc. The device uses a virtual-reality headset to assess possible brain injury by measuring a series of oculo-motor pathways, or, more simply, basic eye movement. The user completes more than two dozen tests over 25 minutes, after which a clinician analyzes eye movement and effective neuro-functional capability to determine if a TBI is present. Following initial feedback, NKI is in the process of reducing the exam time from 25 minutes to five while using the same battery of tests.
Crowder's team is looking for other technologies as well, including balance boards and additional virtual-reality devices that measure separate oculo-motor pathways.
"We're literally throwing the long ball with this one," said Crowder. "But these kinds of efforts will hopefully enable first responders to offer more complete care."
(Editor's Note: This is part one of a two-part series. This article will be published in the January -- March 2018 Army AL&T magazine.)
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U.S. Department of Defense
Press Operations
News Release
No. NR-424-17 December 15, 2017
DOD Releases Report on Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan
Today the Department of Defense provided to the Congress the semiannual report "Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan" covering events during the period from June 1, 2017 to November 30, 2017. The report was submitted in accordance with requirements in Section 1225 of the Fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as amended by Sections 1231 and 1531 of the Fiscal 2016 and Fiscal 2017 NDAA.
On August 21, 2017, President Trump announced a new South Asia Strategy. Our purpose in Afghanistan remains the same: to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a safe-haven from which terrorist groups can plan and execute attacks on the United States, or our allies and citizens abroad. To accomplish this, we continue to support our Afghan partners and train, advise, and assist its military and government institutions.
Under the new strategy, the United States will continue to support the Afghan government and security forces in the fight against the Taliban, al-Qa'ida, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-Khorasan (ISIS-K), and other insurgents and terrorists to strengthen the Afghan government and prevent the reestablishment of international terrorist safe-havens in Afghanistan. A major change from our previous strategy is the shift from a time-based approach to a conditions-based one. This shift underscores the U.S. commitment to the continued development of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), provided that our Afghan partners satisfy their obligations.
The new strategy does not mean a return to U.S.-led combat operations; instead, the key to success lies in improving ANDSF capabilities and allow them to lead in the fight against the Taliban. We will continue to work by, with, and through the ANDSF to help them defeat their enemies and to ultimately arrive at a political settlement in Afghanistan.
The United States and Afghan sources indicate this fighting season has been more successful than the last. During this reporting period, the Taliban was unable to threaten any provincial centers, lost control of key districts, and the ANDSF retained control of all major population centers. In addition, the United States and Afghan counterterrorism efforts against the ISIS affiliate in the Afghanistan and Pakistan region, ISIS-K, have dislocated and isolated the group in a small number of districts in Afghanistan. During this reporting period, U.S., coalition, and Afghan efforts remained focused on the four ANDSF priorities: doubling the size and capabilities of the Afghan Special Security Forces (ASSF); expanding and modernizing the Afghan Air Force (AAF); improving leadership development; and countering corruption.
Click here to access the report.
http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1397079/
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Statement by the North Atlantic Council on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
15 Dec. 2017
Press Release (2017) 180
Issued on 15 Dec. 2017
For 30 years, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty has been crucial to Euro-Atlantic security. By removing an entire class of U.S. and Russian weapons ground-launched intermediate-range missiles the Treaty has contributed to strategic stability and reduced the risk of miscalculation leading to conflict. As such, full compliance with the INF Treaty is essential and we remain fully committed to the preservation of this landmark arms control treaty.
The United States is in compliance with its obligations under the INF Treaty and committed to strictly implementing it. Allies have identified a Russian missile system that raises serious concerns; NATO urges Russia to address these concerns in a substantial and transparent way, and actively engage in a technical dialogue with the United States.
Allies welcome continued efforts by the United States to engage Russia in bilateral and multilateral formats, including the Special Verification Commission, to resolve concerns about Russia's compliance with the INF Treaty. Allies emphasize that a situation whereby the United States and other parties were abiding by the treaty and Russia were not would be a grave and urgent concern. The Alliance is united in its appreciation that effective arms control agreements remain an essential element to strategic stability and our collective security. In this spirit, our actions, including national measures taken by some Allies, seek to preserve the INF Treaty, strengthen the Alliance, and incentivize Russia to engage in good faith.
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U.S. Navy Doctors Return from Humanitarian Mission
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS171215-06
Release Date: 12/15/2017 9:00:00 AM
By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Andrew Brame, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command Public Affairs
SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- U.S. Navy doctors recently returned from a month-long humanitarian mission along the Amazon River in Brazil.
The doctors were working with the Brazilian Navy aboard the NAsH Soares de Meirelles (U21), a Brazilian riverine hospital ship, delivering healthcare to remote communities along the river. These communities include some of the most isolated people in the world, and for many of them, missions like this one provide access to healthcare the populations would not otherwise receive.
According to Lt. Cmdr. Nehkonti Adams, the U.S. team leader, the collaboration accomplished three objectives. The primary objective was to provide healthcare to the riverine population along the Amazon River. The team also took time to exchange professional knowledge and to look for ways to continue medical collaboration between the two countries in the future.
In addition to the professional value of the collaboration, Adams discussed the significance of the mission to the people it served.
"These people are subsistence farmers," Adams said, speaking of the riverine population. "The parents in the family are productive, so if one of them becomes ill, that's a major setback for the family."
Adams said that the mission was both a success and a great experience.
"If I could use a phrase to best summarize it," said Adams, "I would say 'bright beginnings.' Medicine is medicine, whether it's in Brazil or in the United States. It's very easy to exchange information, and it's been great to work with the Brazilians. They'll be best friends with you in one day."
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NMRC Researchers Return Home -- USNS Comfort Completes Hurricane Relief Mission in Puerto Rico
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS171215-04
Release Date: 12/15/2017 8:41:00 AM
From Naval Medical Research Center Public Affairs
SILVER SPRING, Md. (NNS) -- Two researchers from the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) returned from deployment on the Military Sealift Command hospital ship, the USNS Comfort (T-AH-20).
Comfort departed Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, September 29, arrived in Puerto Rico on October 3 and returned to its home port Nov. 20.
Cmdr. Ramiro Gutierrez and Cmdr. Matthew Bradley were aboard the Comfort for almost two months providing disaster relief support after Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico.
"To see hundreds of people come together and essentially build a hospital ship as we were steaming into the unknown is something only we, the U.S. Navy, can do and it's a really powerful thing. On the island, there were people without electricity, food, water...and then we arrived to provide support, help and literally...comfort," said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez, an infectious disease clinician and Department Head of the Enteric Diseases Department under the Infectious Disease Directorate, and Bradley, a trauma surgeon and Department Head of the Regenerative Medicine Department under the Operational and Undersea Medicine Directorate, spoke about their experience during an NMRC All-Hands call, Nov. 27.
"Our mission, as I understood it, was basically to provide relief to the local hospitals and to provide for anyone who was in need. We saw a lot of antibiotic resistant infectious diseases from patients who had spent time in local critical care units before the hurricane made landfall. I spent a lot of time working with surgeons to identify infections and more...our main goal was to provide the best support and care to everyone who came or was brought to the ship...everyone," said Gutierrez.
"As a trauma surgeon this was never a deployment I expected to be on, but helping people and providing relief was a very humbling and rewarding experience," said Bradley.
"We are very proud of the work they did, they represent Navy Medicine research and development in an outstanding light and show the caliber of people we have in our research community. They never forget that they are sailors at heart with a dedication to service that cannot be extinguished," said Capt. Adam Armstrong, commanding officer, NMRC.
During the all hands call, Rear Adm. Paul Pearigen, commander, Navy Medicine West and Chief of the Navy Medicine Corps spoke of the work Gutierrez and Bradley did on the deployment. "The people you cared for, their families, they needed help and someone to care for them with compassion and understanding - and that's what you did. Thank you for heeding the call of this deployment; you have my appreciation for your dedication, care, and hard work."
According to a Military Sealift Command press release, "Sailors aboard Comfort treated 1,800 patients, performed 191 surgeries, provided 76-thousand liters of oxygen, and 10 tons of food and water. Notable surgeries included a modified radical mastectomy for an advanced case of breast cancer, a complex multi-organ abdominal cancer resection, an urgent drainage and exploration of a neck infection, and an emergent open repair of a ruptured aortic aneurysm, which comprised the largest, most complex surgery ever performed on a hospital ship."
The recovery mission in Puerto Rico continues under the leadership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. military reservists and National Guard.
The mission of the NMRC laboratory is to conduct health and medical research, development, testing, evaluation and surveillance to enhance deployment readiness of Department of Defense personnel worldwide. NMRC is a premier research organization with a vision of world-class, operationally relevant health and medical solutions.
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USS Key West Returns to Guam
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS171215-02
Release Date: 12/15/2017 7:40:00 AM
From Commander, Submarine Squadron 15 Public Affairs
SANTA RITA, Guam (NNS) -- The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Key West (SSN 722) returned to its homeport of Apra Harbor, Guam, on Dec. 15 following a four-month forward-operating period to the Western Pacific.
Key West, under the command of Cmdr. J. Grady Hill, is returning from the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility, where the crew participated in theater anti-submarine warfare and multiple joint exercises.
"I'm incredibly proud of my crew for all that they accomplished this deployment," said Hill. "The level of ingenuity, resourcefulness and drive exhibited by the Key West crew is unique, a truly unstoppable force."
Key West conducted a brief port visit in Yokosuka, Japan, where the crew was able to experience the culture and enjoy some much-deserved liberty.
"Japan was awesome! I can't wait to go back," said Machinist Mate (Weapons) 3rd Class Paul MacMillian. "The food was incredible, definitely my favorite part. Exploring Tokyo with my friends was the highlight of the deployment for me."
Key West celebrated the various achievements of its crew members in their professional development.
"We had 16 Sailors earn their submarine warfare qualifications, 22 crew members frocked to the next paygrade and three officer promoted," said Command Master Chief Eric Baker, Key West chief of the boat. "I am extremely proud of this group of motivated Undersea Warriors. They did an outstanding job challenging themselves to be better both professionally and personally."
Key West conducted routine patrols throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific region in support of maritime security operations that promote stability while maintaining key partnerships with allies across the region.
"It's a great feeling to be returning home after a successful mission," said Hill. "The crew is looking forward to some well-deserved time with family and friends during the holiday season."
Key West was commissioned Sept. 12, 1987, and is the third ship of the U.S. Navy named for the city of Key West, Florida. Measuring more than 360 feet long and displacing more than 6,900 tons, Key West has a crew of approximately 140 Sailors. Key West is capable of supporting various missions, including anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Key West is assigned to Commander, Submarine Squadron (COMSUBRON) 15, which is located at Polaris Point, Naval Base Guam in Apra Harbor, Guam, and consists of four Los Angeles-class attack submarines. The COMSUBRON 15 staff is responsible for providing training, material and personnel readiness support to these commands. Also based out of Naval Base Guam are submarine tenders USS Frank Cable (AS 40) and USS Emory S. Land (AS 39). The submarines and tenders are maintained as part of the U.S. Navy's forward-deployed submarine force and are readily capable of meeting global operational requirements.
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Australia's moves in South China Sea disrupt regional stability: PLA Navy
People's Daily Online
(People's Daily Online) 14:27, December 15, 2017
The commander of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy on Thursday called for more cooperation and communication with its Australian counterparts, warning that the latter's recent actions in the South China Sea have jeopardized regional stability.
"The general situation in the South China Sea is positive, but the Australian navy's recent actions in the region are against the consensus reached by the leaders of the two nations and hinder bilateral cooperation," Commander Shen Jinlong was quoted as saying by China's Ministry of National Defense on Thursday.
The remarks were made during Shen's meeting with Australian Vice Admiral Tim Barrett in Beijing on Dec. 14. Barrett started his visit to China on Dec. 13 amid escalating tensions between the two nations.
The Australian Navy has forged ahead with long-held plans to send six Navy vessels to conduct months of military exercises in the region, with 1,200 personnel participating in the action in September. The Global Times reported that the move is the biggest task-group deployment in more than 40 years, and it has triggered criticism from China.
According to Shen, the two nations' navies have deepened cooperation, and have seen a steady relationship for years. He called for more mutual respect, as well as more control on the two nations' maritime military actions.
Echoing Shen, Barrett said the Australian Navy highly values the friendly relationship with its Chinese counterparts and hopes to promote more cooperation in the future.
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Saudi warplanes kill more than 50 people in Yemen
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 05:53PM
More than 50 Yemeni people have been killed in airstrikes by Saudi warplanes on the impoverished country of Yemen, reports said Friday.
Yemen's al-Masirah television network said the Saudi warplanes bombed a market in the Mawza district in the west of Ta'izz province on Friday. According to a preliminary count, the airstrike left eight people dead and 15 others injured.
At least 15 people also lost their lives in Saudi air raids on the northern province of Sa'ada. According to al-Masirah, 12 of the victims were killed in two airstrikes that hit a market and a car in the Munabbih district. The three other victims, including two women, were killed in earlier air raids on the districts of al-Dhaher and Shada. The aerial attacks also left five people injured in the northern province.
Medics and security sources also reported on Friday that Saudi air raids claimed the lives of 28 people around Yemen's west coast.
Security sources said Saudi warplanes pounded five towns around 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Hudaydah on Thursday and Friday. Some 17 people were injured in the attacks.
Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate the former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.
More than 12,000 people have been killed since the onset of the campaign. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war. The Saudi-led war has also triggered a deadly cholera epidemic across Yemen.
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Turkey launching initiative to annul US 'disgraceful' decision on al-Quds: Erdogan
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 04:19PM
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country is launching an initiative at the United Nations to annul the recent "disgraceful" decision by US President Donald Trump to recognize Israeli-occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of the Tel Aviv regime.
"We, as Turkey, are determined to perform our duties on this issue. We will stand up against those who breach international law. We will work to annul this unlawful decision, first in the Security Council and then in the UN General Assembly, if it is vetoed there," Erdogan addressed a rally in the central province of Konya via teleconference on Friday.
He stated that Washington had violated the 1980 UN Security Council decision on Jerusalem al-Quds, stressing that "no country was above the law."
Erdogan went on to say that Muslims "would never give in to such double standards and injustice," adding that Ankara was also launching initiatives to make other countries recognize the Palestinian state.
"Right now, 137 countries in the world recognize the Palestinian state. God willing, this number will further increase with our efforts," he said.
The Turkish president also made a reference to Wednesday's summit of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which declared occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds the capital of Palestine and urged the world to recognize the state of Palestine.
"During the summit, we declared the US statement on Jerusalem al-Quds as null, void and illegal. We also recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the occupied capital of the Palestinian state. Right now, Jerusalem al-Quds is the capital of Palestine in the presence of all OIC member countries. We have invited all countries, primarily European, to recognize Palestine and accept Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital," he said.
Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's capital and relocate the US embassy in the occupied lands from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds on December 6.
The dramatic shift in Washington's Jerusalem al-Quds policy triggered demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco and other Muslim countries.
On Sunday, violent clashes erupted outside the US embassy in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut during a protest against the US president's decision. Demonstrators burnt tires as well as the US and Israeli flags as they pushed to break through a barbed wire erected by security forces around the embassy complex.
Security forces used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the angry protesters.
Jerusalem al-Quds remains at the core of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, with Palestinians hoping that the eastern part of the city would eventually serve as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.
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UK military chief says Russia can cut NATO undersea cables
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 11:13AM
A UK military chief has accused Russia of developing unconventional warfare, saying it could use its developed submarines to attack undersea cables essential to communications between NATO members.
In a speech at the Royal United Services Institute, the chief of the UK defense staff, Stuart Peach, claimed Russia posed a major threat to the United Kingdom and other NATO members by moving its vessels close to Atlantic cables that are essential in carrying communications between Europe and the US.
"There is a new risk to our prosperity and way of life, to the cables that crisscross our sea beds, disruption to which through cable-cuts or destruction would immediately and catastrophically fracture both international trade and the internet," said Peach, who was recently appointed as chair of the NATO military committee.
"In addition to new ships and submarines, Russia continues to perfect unconventional capabilities and information warfare," he added.
Peach said the vessels were capable of cutting and interfering with deep-sea cables. Therefore, he added, NATO "must continue to develop our maritime forces with our allies to match Russian fleet modernization."
The British military official made the remarks after a report said 97 percent of global communications and $10 trillion in daily financial transactions were transmitted through such cables.
The report, issued by UK center-right think tank, Policy Exchange, also cited US intelligence officials speaking about Russian submarines "aggressively operating" near Atlantic cables.
Last month, NATO announced plans to increase its cyber defense capabilities. It said the move was aimed at deterring what it called threats and hacking attempts from Russia, China, and North Korea.
According to the plan, NATO will be allowed to adapt its command structure to integrate cyber weapons into its military operations.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last month, "This will strengthen our cyber defenses, and help integrate cyber into NATO planning and operations at all levels."
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Palestinians clash with Israeli forces in West Bank, Gaza
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 09:01AM
Fresh clashes break out between Tel Aviv forces and Palestinian protesters, who are angry at a US decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel.
Following noon prayers on Friday, Palestinians once again took to the streets in Jerusalem al-Quds, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to denounce US President Donald Trump's declaration on Jerusalem al-Quds.
Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the gatherings in several areas in the West Bank, prompting skirmishes with the protesters, who responded by throwing rocks.
The Israeli military has deployed reinforcements across Jerusalem al-Quds and its Old City, which hosts the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Earlier in the day, Tel Aviv's forces raided the town of Halhul in the southern occupied West Bank, prompting heavy clashes with the Palestinian residents, Palestinian media reported.
Several Palestinians were injured as Israeli forces fired tear gas and sound bombs to disperse the protesters in Halhul, located north of al-Khalil (Hebron).
The occupied Palestinian territories have been the scene of protests and clashes since December 6, when US President Donald Trump declared that Washington was recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel.
Most of the protests have been met with a fierce response by Israeli forces. The regime's troops have also made dozens of arrests amid clashes with Palestinians.
Last Friday, Muslims held pro-Palestinian rallies following noon prayers in several cities worldwide to voice their opposition to Trump's move.
In the occupied West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians responded to a call by the Hamas resistance movement to observe a 'day of rage' against Israel and the US. Two Palestinians were killed and hundreds of others wounded during clashes with Israeli forces.
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US claim about Iran missile distraction from al-Quds move: Ansarullah
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 03:20AM
Renouncing US claims that Iran is supplying it with ballistic missiles, Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement says the accusations serve as a distraction from US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's capital.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley claimed Thursday that a missile the Yemeni army had fired at Saudi Arabia last month was supplied by Tehran.
Abdel-Malek al-Ejri, a senior Houthi official, said Thursday that Yemen had been firing missiles at Saudi Arabia during the course of the kingdom's military aggression against Yemen since it began in 2015.
"After three years of war, America suddenly finds evidence that Iran supports the Houthis," he wrote in a message on his Twitter account.
"America did not find any evidence in all the missiles fired from Yemen until now. The story is clear. They want to give Arabs a story to divert their attention from Jerusalem al-Quds. Instead of being angry at Israel, they wave the Iranian bogey," the official added, referring to Washington's push to move its diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the occupied city of Jerusalem al-Quds.
The Yemeni army, backed by Houthi Ansarullah fighters, claimed on November 5 that a Burkan-2 (Volcano-2) medium-range ballistic missile had landed on King Khalid International Airport, located 35 kilometers north of the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Saudi officials initially denied that the missile had hit the airport, claiming it was shot down by US-made Patriot missile systems designed to counter missile threats.
However, a team of American missile experts using satellite imagery, camera footage and scientific explanations proved earlier this month that the missile had indeed landed near one of the airport's runways.
Haley on Thursday showcased the debris that rained down on Riyadh during the attack, claiming they belonged to an Iranian design.
Before Haley, Saudi officials had also put on display the missile's remnants on state TV, in a bid to convince viewers that the missile was indeed shot down.
Iran has firmly denied the accusations, dismissing the arms displayed by Haley as "fabricated."
'No conclusive evidence' missiles Iranian: UN
Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for the UN secretary general, also doubted the Saudi and American claims, saying even the UN has been unable to confirm the origin of the missiles.
"There's no conclusive evidence about the provenance of those missiles," he told reporters on Thursday, quoting an upcoming UN resolution in this regard.
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Afghan Ambassador: Taliban Have Devolved But Must Be Brought Into Peace Process
By VOA Deewa Service December 15, 2017
The Taliban, known for its extreme Islamic rule before U.S. forces ousted the group from power in Afghanistan, have largely devolved into groups of criminals and terrorists, the country's ambassador to Pakistan says.
The change is critical as Afghanistan tries to create a lasting peace after decades of conflict and chaos. The Taliban have expanded the turf they control since the government switched its security policy to focus on protecting urban areas. And, as a military solution becomes less likely, there is a growing desire to draw the Taliban into peace talks.
"Peace cannot be brokered under duress, but it needs good and positive intentions because there is no other way to resolve the conflict but to negotiate peace," Ambassador Omar Zakhilwal told VOA Deewa in an interview in Islamabad. "To talk peace, we need to identify the enemy, his intentions and his goals."
Much has changed
Before the U.S.-led invasion after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, the Taliban under the leadership of cleric Mullah Omar was best known for imposing strict Islamic law, forcing women to wear burqas, preventing girls from attending school, banning videos and music, and destroying cultural artifacts.
The group also imposed a crackdown on drugs that drove the country's heroin production the world's largest to near zero.
Today, the country has made strides in catching up to the rest of the world, but conflict continues.
Heroin production in Taliban-controlled areas this year hit record highs, with the proceeds used to fuel the insurgency, leading to a new U.S. offensive against drug labs. Other terror groups, like Islamic State, have infiltrated the borders and taken up residence.
A place for the Taliban?
Still, there is hope among Kabul leaders that some Taliban leaders can be convinced to be pragmatic and act in the country's best interest by renouncing terrorism and taking a place at the negotiating table.
"The Taliban today are not the Taliban of Mullah Omar because they had some religious commitments and certain values," Zakhilwal said. "But today, the Taliban force is a mixture of drug barons, spreading fear; some are opposed to the government on one pretext or the other; and there is a foreign hand involved as well. All these are to be scrutinized and engaged accordingly.
"Those opponents who are not involved in terrorism can be accommodated, and all the conditions will be provided to take part in politics and enjoy all the rights as other Afghans," he said. "But peace with Daesh (Islamic State) is impossible, and, similarly, peace with other foreign terrorists invading Afghanistan like those Turkmans, Uzbeks, Chechens, Arabs, Chinese and Russians is out of the question."
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US Defense Secretary Optimistic About Improving Somalia Accountability
By Carla Babb December 15, 2017
U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Friday that he was optimistic about improving Somali accountability concerning the distribution of American aid to Somali armed forces, much of which was suspended because of corruption concerns.
"I'm sure we can get this thing under control, even if it's not for the whole, but for parts of it," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.
The suspension reflected the Somali military's repeated inability to account for aid items, such as food, fuel and weapons.
'Pause' in assistance
The massive "pause" in aid is being made "to ensure that U.S. assistance is being used effectively and for its intended purpose," a State Department official said.
It will "affect the majority of U.S. logistical support and stipends assistance" to the Somali armed forces "until additional transparency and accountability measures are in place," Marion Wohlers, the spokesperson for African affairs at the State Department, told VOA.
The Somali government has agreed to develop new accountability criteria that meet American standards, a State Department official said.
Mattis said changing a "culture of corruption" takes time, adding that Somalia had "finally got a president worth supporting."
"We have a good relationship with President [Mohamed Abdullahi] Farmajo and his administration, but as you know, he inherited a very difficult situation," Mattis said.
Some assistance to continue
Somali security force members who are actively fighting al-Shabab and receiving some form of mentorship from either the U.S. or a third party will continue to receive appropriate assistance, officials said.
According to documents obtained by the Reuters news agency, the Somali military has been unable to properly feed, pay or equip its soldiers, despite having received hundreds of millions of dollars of American support.
A U.S.-Somali team sent to nine Somali army bases between May and June of this year found that evidence of the arrival of food aid or its consumption by soldiers was present at only two of the bases, Reuters reported.
Plans to suspend the support will be a "big setback" to the effort by Somali security forces to fight al-Shabab, warned former Somali Defense Minister General Abdulkadir Ali Dini.
Dini, who worked closely with American officials in Somalia for many years, first as chief of the Somali national army and later as defense minister, said the decision did not come at the right time.
"If the United States suspends food, fuel and stipends, that will hamper the war and work against the enemy and terrorists," he said. "It does not help these operations, and it damages morale."
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UN Reports Grim Childhood for South Sudan's Kids
By Lisa Schlein December 15, 2017
More than half of South Sudan's children have suffered abuse, trauma and hunger over the past four years of war, the United Nations Children's Fund says.
According to the report "Childhood Under Attack" released on the fourth anniversary of the start of the war more than 2,300 children have been killed or injured since South Sudan erupted into conflict in December 2013. Among those who are living, around three million have very little to eat.
More than one million of those children are acutely malnourished, including 280,000 who suffer from acute severe malnutrition, said UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac.
"A child suffering from acute severe malnutrition is a child who is at risk of dying, at least nine times more likely to die than a child who has the correct nutrition," Boulierac said. "Also, child rights violations in total, more than 117,000 children have been affected in reported incidents of grave violations against children since the beginning of the conflict."
Those, he says, include hundreds of incidences of rape and sexual assault, leading to many cases of psychological distress. He says there has been an upsurge in the forcible recruitment of child soldiers, with more than 19,000 children in both government and rebel armed groups.
UNICEF says South Sudanese children are in desperate need of every sort of humanitarian assistance. Unfortunately, it notes, aid workers are hampered by the inability to access insecure parts of the country and by a chronic shortage of money.
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Trump Bashes FBI Russia Probe, Leaves Open Possible Flynn Pardon
By Peter Heinlein December 15, 2017
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday bashed the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Russia probe and left open the possibility of a presidential pardon for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents.
"I don't want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet," Trump told reporters outside the White House before departing for the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy in nearby Quantico, Virginia. He added: "We'll see what happens. Let's see. I can say this: When you look at what's gone on with the FBI and with the Justice Department, people are very, very angry."
Later Friday, however, White House lawyer Ty Cobb said, "No there is no consideration at the White House of pardoning Michael Flynn."
Earlier this month, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents and has agreed to cooperate with special counsel investigators examining allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
The 59-year-old retired army general pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI about a series of private conversations he had in December 2016 with Russia's then-ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak.
Special counsel appointed
Following Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the agency's Russia probe, the Justice Department appointed Robert Mueller to lead a special counsel probe into the matter.
Earlier this week, the Justice Department disclosed hundreds of text messages between two FBI officials on Mueller's team of investigators that revealed an anti-Trump bias, prompting some, particularly Republicans, to question the nonpartisan nature of the law enforcement agency and its investigation into Russia.
Trump criticized the Justice Department and FBI's handling of the probe, calling it "disgraceful."
The No. 2 person at the Justice Department, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, defended Mueller in testimony Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee and said he had no reason to dismiss him.
The president has repeatedly called the Russia investigation a "witch hunt" being used by Democrats to explain their 2016 election loss. "There is absolutely no collusion. I didn't make a phone call to Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia. Everybody knows it," Trump asserted.
Earlier this year, the U.S. intelligence community released a report that stated Russia had meddled in the election, showing a preference for Trump over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
VOA's Wayne Lee and Mary Alice Salinas contributed to this report.
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Talks Resume to Resolve Venezuela Crisis
By Nicole Kolster December 15, 2017
Representatives of Venezuela's government and opposition coalition returned to the negotiating table Friday in the Dominican Republic to try to resolve the nation's long-running political and economic crisis.
Gathering Friday at the Foreign Ministry building in Santa Domingo, the negotiators have picked up where discussion left off two weeks ago.
Upon arriving at the talks, government spokesman Jorge Rodriguez saidhe expected them to address six points of agreement that have been under discussion already.
"I think we have advanced a lot, in the six agenda points that were planned for some time," he said. He added that "President Nicolas Maduro sends a message of thanks to the people of Dominican Republic." He said the president "insists that we look for a way to reach an agreement of peaceful coexistence in Venezuela."
The opposition Democratic Unity coalition demands free and transparent elections, the release of political prisoners, the restoration of the National Assembly's power, and opening of a humanitarian channel to deliver much-needed food, medicine and other staples to Venezuelans reeling after years of economic hardship.
The delegation representing President Nicolas Maduro's administration wants international sanctions lifted, including economic blockades imposed by the United States and European Union to pressure Maduro into restoring democratic measures.
The coalition also seeks an end to the disqualification of their main leaders ahead of presidential elections expected in 2018, "so that everyone can participate in an election process," said Luis Florido, a coalition negotiator.
Maduro, who took office in 2013, is considered likely to seek re-election. With the ruling Socialist Party's dominance in recent mayoral and gubernatorial electionswidely seen as fraudulenthe would be the favorite candidate.
Richard Blanco, a member of the opposition-led National Assembly and head of the recently formed opposition group July 16 Fraction, on Thursday expressed skepticism about the talks.
"There will not be any results here of any kind," he said. "You know that absolutely nothing will happen."
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Zimbabwe's President Appeals for Ruling Party Unity
By Sebastian Mhofu December 15, 2017
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa appealed Friday to his ZANU-PF party to unite ahead of next year's elections.
Mnangagwa spoke to about 6,000 delegates at a ZANU-PF congress after delegates endorsed him as the party's leader and its candidate for the 2018 elections.
The party was divided for years over who should succeed longtime president Robert Mugabe. Mnangagwa took office less than a month ago, after the army forced Mugabe to step down.
The new president spoke of the challenges the country faces as his government tries to revive a moribund economy.
"The task at hand is that of rebuilding our great country," he said. "The government will leave no stone unturned to fully explore rich resources."
Mnangagwa did not castigate his predecessor, whom he had worked with for more than 50 years before being fired, purportedly for showing disloyalty to Mugabe.
Mnangagwa appealed for patience on economic matters, and he asked businesses and officials to shun corruption and unreasonable price increases.
'Turn over a new leaf'
"Let us look forward with hope and love. Let bygones be bygones," he said. "However, let those who have been forgiven should not think we have forgotten. Let us turn over a new leaf and renew ourselves."
As Mnangagwa was speaking at Robert Gabriel Mugabe Square, several of his former allies were appearing before a judge at Harare Magistrates Court.
The defendants face criminal nuisance charges for wearing ZANU-PF hats on social media after being kicked out of the party.
They included Ignatius Chombo, who was finance minister when Mugabe fired Mnangagwa as vice president on November 5, triggering the events that led to Mugabe's downfall. This was the second time Chombo had been arrested since Mnangagwa came into office.
Lovemore Madhuku, Chombo's attorney, said, "It is very likely that we may be under military rule. This is exactly the way the courts were operating under President Mugabe. And we see just that. Unless there is a signal to change, we will just be in for a very difficult scenario."
Madhuku wants the court to dismiss his client's case, saying Mnangagwa was trying to punish all those who supported former first lady Grace Mugabe, who was Mnangagwa's main rival in the fight to succeed Robert Mugabe.
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Xi stresses army restructuring to enhance combat readiness
People's Daily Online
(Xinhua) 07:42, December 15, 2017
XUZHOU, Jiangsu, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinpinghas urged the army to restructure and enhance its combat capability.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks Wednesday when inspecting the 71st Group Army of the People's Liberation Army.
Xi told officers of the group army that they should grasp the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and incorporate the principles into military practice.
The army was urged to strengthen Party organizations at all levels and ensure service men and women follow the command of the CPC Central Committee and CMC.
Xi stressed political discipline and rules in the military, efforts to fight corruption, and improving work style.
He also instructed the army to enhance its capability to win wars, implement restructuring plans, and improve army management and combat mobility.
"The army should innovate its training theories and methods, conduct more combat drills and build soldiers' morale," he said, urging commanding officers to take responsibility and demonstrate leadership.
During the inspection, Xi first visited a company where the hero soldier Wang Jie served in the 1960s. He died while trying to save 12 others.
He visited the company's room of honor, where Wang's photos and diaries are displayed. He then talked with soldiers of the squad named after Wang.
At the end of his visit, Xi took a photo with all the soldiers and officers of the company.
Xi also visited the headquarters of the group army, where he met with senior officers and delivered a speech.
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Putin, Trump discuss "urgent" bilateral issues, Korean Peninsula on phone
People's Daily Online
(Xinhua) 13:13, December 15, 2017
MOSCOW, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed "urgent issues" in bilateral diplomatic relations and the situation on the Korean Peninsula in a phone call Thursday, the Kremlin said in a statement.
"At the initiative of the American side, urgent issues of the bilateral agenda were discussed, as well as the situation in hotspots with a focus on the settlement of the Korean nuclear crisis," the statement read.
Earlier in the day, Putin said at an annual press conference that he believed in Trump's ability to honor the promises made during the latter's election campaign on getting relations between Moscow and Washington back on track.
The White House said in a statement that Trump thanked Putin "for acknowledging America's strong economic performance in his annual press conference."
The two also discussed working together to resolve the "very dangerous situation" on the Korean Peninsula, the White House said.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that while the Trump administration is still determined to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arsenal, Washington is willing to "have the first meeting without preconditions" with representatives of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
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North Korea's nuclear program poses no threat to any country: Pyongyang
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 11:27PM
North Korea says it will not pose any threat to any country as long as its interests are not infringed upon, disregarding a US call for terminating the Asian country's weapons tests as a pre-condition for negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea's United Nations Ambassador Ja Song-nam made the remarks on Friday, three days after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson initially offered to begin direct talks with Pyongyang without pre-conditions.
However, Tillerson's unexpected overture and backing away from a key Washington demand that the North must first accept that abandoning its nuclear arsenal would be part of any talks, did not last long.
Apparently contradicting Tillerson, the White House said on Wednesday that no talks could be held with the North as long as it did not improve its behavior. Washington declined to say whether President Donald Trump, known for harsh rhetoric against Pyongyang, approved of Tillerson's overture.
Earlier on Friday, Tillerson took back his offer of unconditional talks, saying North Korea must "earn its way back" to the negotiating table.
The top US diplomat, who was speaking at the UN Security Council, added that a "sustained cessation of North Korea's threatening behavior must occur before talks can begin," urging council member states to further isolate the North.
Tillerson ostensibly changed his stance dramatically after coming under pressure from the White House.
The North Korean envoy, however, made no mention of Tillerson's call in his speech to the session, which he described as "a desperate measure plotted by the US being terrified by the incredible might of our Republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force."
On Thursday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned the international community against the danger of "sleepwalking" into a war with the North over its nuclear and missile programs, saying such a war would have "very dramatic circumstances."
North Korea has been under a raft of crippling UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear tests as well as multiple rocket and missile launches. Pyongyang has firmly defended its military program as a deterrent against the hostile policies of the US and its regional allies, including South Korea and Japan.
Washington has thousands of troops in the region, including in South Korea and Japan, and routinely threatens the North with military action to stop its weapons programs.
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International community won't accept nuclear N Korea: Tillerson
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 06:43PM
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has claimed that the international community remains firm on not accepting a nuclear North Korea and a "sustained cessation of North Korea's threatening behavior" was needed before the United States could talk with Pyongyang about its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
"North Korea must earn its way back to the table. The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved," Tillerson adressed the United Nations Security Council on Friday.
Tillerson went on to say all Security Council member states should fully implement the UN resolutions urging countries which have so far failed to comply with the resolutions to further isolate Pyongyang politically and economically to cut off funds for its nuclear and missile programs.
He also called on China and Russia to increase pressure on North Korea by going beyond the implementation of UN sanctions.
Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono, in similar comments, backed the sanctions against North Korea and called on member states to abide by the UN resolutions to exert further pressure on Pyongyang.
"The latest launch was conducted 75 days after North Korea's provocations in September. Some optimistic views labeled 75 days of silence as a positive signal. However, the missile launch in November made it clear that North Korea was continuing to relentlessly develop its nuclear and missile programs even while they were seemingly silent," Kono said.
China, however, blamed the US for the tensions on the Korean peninsula and called for a peaceful settlement of the crisis.
"It is necessary to put an immediate end to rhetoric and actions that are unfavorable to denuclearization as well as peace and security of the Korean peninsula," said Wu Haitao, China's deputy UN ambassador.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered to engage in unconditional talks with the North.
Tensions have been building on the peninsula following a series of nuclear and missile tests by Pyongyang as well as threats of war and personal insults traded between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader.
In late November, Pyongyang successfully test-launched what American military experts called a Hwasong-15 ICBM, the largest North Korean missile tested to date with a presumably long-enough range to deliver nuclear warheads deep into the US mainland.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said that he will turn his country into the "world's strongest nuclear power."
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Russia 'not ready to strangle' North Korea with more bans
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 06:07AM
Russia says it is not ready to "strangle" North Korea economically with new stringent sanctions.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said the degree of pressure on North Korea was approaching "a red line," Russia's Interfax news agency reported on Friday.
North Korea says decades of foreign pressure and threats, manifested in repeated joint military drills by the US and its regional allies, have forced it to pursue a sophisticated weapons program and develop deterrent intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Washington has long opposed that program, and tensions over Pyongyang's continuous missile and nuclear development have recently skyrocketed.
The US has been pressing for a complete shut-off of oil supplies to North Korea with newer sanctions.
Morgulov urged dialog instead of harsher sanctions.
He said Moscow had not had high-level contacts with the new North Korean leadership but such communication was possible "in theory."
Morgulov said Russia had many other communication channels with North Korea, which "in one way or another are bearing fruit."
Trump, Putin discuss North Korea
On Thursday, during a phone call, the presidents of the US and Russia discussed means of de-escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The White House and the Kremlin said in separate statements that Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had discussed North Korea, agreeing to cooperate with one another to resolve a crisis over Pyongyang's weapons programs.
The White House said the two talked about "working together to resolve the very dangerous situation in North Korea."
The Kremlin said Trump and Putin discussed North Korea and also reviewed bilateral relations.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently said the US was willing to enter into negotiations with North Korea without preconditions.
US repeats offer of unconditional talks
The US's special envoy for North Korea on Friday expressed hope that Pyongyang would accept Tillerson's diplomatic offer of unconditional talks.
Joseph Yun told reporters in Bangkok that the talks could take place without preconditions. Yun acknowledged it was unclear whether North Korea would be willing to talk following a period of accelerated nuclear activity, saying, "It's very hard to discern what their intent is without having real dialog."
"Let's see how they respond... I am very hopeful that diplomacy has a long way to go before any next steps are considered," he said.
This is while the White House which under Trump has used fiery and sometimes derogatory rhetoric against North Korea, earlier contradicted Tillerson by saying time was not right to talk to North Korea.
A National Security Council spokesperson also said on Wednesday that North Korea must not only first refrain from provocations but take "sincere and meaningful actions toward denuclearization."
Following the Trump-Putin phone conversation, the White House also said Trump had thanked Putin "for acknowledging America's strong economic performance in his annual press conference."
On Thursday, Putin had commended Trump for his performance in his one year in office and called for cooperation between the two countries on common international issues.
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Trump Says Russia 'Not Helping' On North Korea
RFE/RL December 15, 2017
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump says he is not satisfied with Russia's cooperation in efforts to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump on December 15 said that "China is helping; Russia is not helping."
"We would like to have Russia's help -- very important," he added.
The comments came hours after Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone. U.S. and Russian officials said the two leaders discussed North Korea during the call, which the Kremlin said Trump initiated.
Outside the White House, Trump repeated comments made earlier in the day that Putin had complimented him on his efforts regarding the U.S. economy but also had said "some negative things in terms of what is going on elsewhere."
"But the primary point was to talk about North Korea, because we would love to have his help on North Korea," Trump added.
Immediately following Trump's comments, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also criticized Moscow during a UN Security Council meeting.
"Continuing to allow North Korean laborers to toil in slavelike conditions inside Russia in exchange for wages used to fund nuclear weapons programs calls into question Russia's dedication as a partner for peace," he said.
He also "questioned China's commitment to solving" the crisis, citing the "continued flows" of crude oil to North Korean refineries.
"We ask every nation here to join us...in a unified effort to achieve a complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Tillerson said.
Tensions have increased on the Korean Peninsula amid Pyongyang's continued testing of nuclear and ballistic missiles in violation of United Nations resolutions.
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-russia-north-korea/28920774.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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Trump, Putin Discuss North Korean Crisis While Voicing Mutual Praise
RFE/RL December 15, 2017
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed the crisis over North Korea's nuclear program in a phone call in which Trump also thanked Putin for praising his management of the U.S. economy.
The two heads of state discussed "the situation in several crisis zones, with a focus on solving the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula," the Kremlin said in a statement late on December 14 that noted Trump had initiated the phone call.
The White House said the two "discussed working together to resolve the very dangerous situation in North Korea."
But the White House emphasized Trump's gratitude to Putin for defending and praising him at his hours-long yearly press conference held at the Kremlin earlier in the day.
"President Trump thanked President Putin for acknowledging America's strong economic performance," it said.
Putin had cited the sharp rise in U.S. markets since Trump took office in January as evidence of Trump's "fairly serious achievements" during his first year in office.
"Look at how the markets are reacting, they are growing. This shows confidence in the American economy. With all due respect to [Trump's] opponents, these are objective facts."
Putin also criticized the U.S. investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and accused Trump's opponents of "incapacitating the president and showing a lack of respect to voters who cast their ballots for him."
Trump during his campaign often heaped praise on Putin, holding his Russian counterpart up as an example of a "strong leader." With all the mutually expressed warmth, some commentators have described their relationship as a budding "bromance."
On North Korea, the phone call was one of several signs from Washington and Moscow that officials that high-level officials are making efforts to broach negotiations with Pyongyang over its accelerating program to develop nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Russia sent a military delegation to North Korea this week, while U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he is willing to "have the first meeting without preconditions" the United States has pushed in the past because, he said, they are now "unrealistic."
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on December 15 that Putin and Trump "spoke in favor of establishing dialogue and setting up contacts with the North Korean side, and agreed to exchange information and initiatives" regarding such efforts.
Apparently in response to Tillerson's comments, Putin at his press conference hailed what he called a new "awareness of reality" in Washington on North Korea.
But he also accused the United States of "aggravating the situation" with North Korea and noted that the United States had used nuclear weapons against Japan during World War II. He said any nuclear strike on Pyongyang would have "catastrophic" consequences.
Putin also mocked members of the U.S. Congress who he said have equated Russia with what they call "rogue regimes" in North Korea and Iran, yet at the same time have called on Russia to help resolve the North Korean crisis.
Russia has less influence with North Korea than China does, but Moscow has clout as a permanent, veto-wielding UN Security Council member that has been involved in diplomacy over Pyongyang's actions for decades, and Moscow's ties with North Korea are much warmer than relations between Washington and Pyongyang.
At the same time, many U.S. officials and lawmakers see Russia as aggressive and dangerous due in part to its seizure of Crimea, its support for separatists in a deadly war in eastern Ukraine, and its military campaign backing President Bashar al-Assad's government in the war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in Syria.
With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters, Interfax, and TASS
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-putin-discuss- north-korean-crisis-while-voicing-mutual- thanks-praise/28919524.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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Remarks at the UN Security Council Ministerial Meeting on D.P.R.K.
Remarks
Rex W. Tillerson
Secretary of State
United Nations
New York City
December 15, 2017
SECRETARY TILLERSON: Thank you. I'd like to take a moment to respond to the statements of the DPRK permanent representative. First, I think we have heard all of these things before from this government. There is no doubt that the DPRK's pursuit of a nuclear arsenal is in clear violation of international law, directly challenges the global nonproliferation regime, and greatly threatens international peace and security. This body has unanimously made these points for well over a decade now. The international community condemns North Korea's pursuit of a nuclear arsenal, and we will never accept a nuclear North Korea.
The DPRK's unlawful acts cannot be ignored, nor can they be explained away. The DPRK must be held accountable for its actions. And in that regard, any notion that the source of tensions on the peninsula are the fault of no one party there is but one party that has carried out illegal detonation of nuclear devices; there is but one party that continues to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, overflying another sovereign nation, Japan, threatening civil aviation security because these launches are undertaken with no notification.
There is but one party that has been targeted with punishment and penalties through the most vigorous regime sanction ever enacted, and that is the Kim regime in North Korea. They alone are responsible for these tensions, they alone must take responsibility for these tensions, and they alone can solve these tensions.
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Remarks at the UN Security Council Ministerial Meeting on D.P.R.K.
Remarks
Rex W. Tillerson
Secretary of State
United Nations
New York City
December 15, 2017
SECRETARY TILLERSON: Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. On behalf of the United States, I thank Japan and Foreign Minister Kono for convening this ministerial session on the growing threat from North Korea.
Upon taking office, President Trump identified North Korea as the United States's greatest national security threat. That judgment remains the same today.
After its ICBM launch on November the 29th, the North Korean Government claimed that it now possessed the capability to strike any location in the continental United States. North Korea's growing capabilities reflect a direct threat to our security and the security of the entire world. We do not regard this claim as an empty threat.
The North Korean regime's continuing unlawful missile launches and testing activities signal its contempt for the United States, its neighbors in Asia, and all members of the United Nations.
In face of such a threat, inaction is unacceptable for any nation. Through a series of robust Security Council resolutions, this body has taken a leading role in condemning North Korea's unlawful nuclear and missile programs and imposing consequences. The international community remains firm in our determination that we will not accept a nuclear North Korea.
Each UN member state must fully implement all existing UN Security Council resolutions. For those nations who have not done so, or who have been slow to enforce Security Council resolutions, your hesitation calls into question whether your vote is a commitment to words only, but not actions. For countries who have not taken action, I urge you to consider your interests, your allegiances, and your values in the face of this grave and global threat.
We believe that more can and must be done beyond enforcing the minimum requirements of the Security Council resolutions directed at the DPRK. Last spring, the United States initiated a peaceful pressure campaign of economic and diplomatic sanctions against North Korea, with the intent of setting conditions for North Korea to engage in serious negotiations toward the complete, verifiable, and irreversible abandonment of its nuclear weapons programs. Our resolve to continue this campaign is even greater today. Over the past year, many allies and partners of the United States have joined our campaign, going beyond mere compliance with the Security Council resolutions. We ask these nations to continue to increase pressure through unilateral action. Doing so will further isolate North Korea politically and economically, cutting off support and funds for its unlawful nuclear and missile programs.
We particularly call on Russia and China to increase pressure, including going beyond full implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions. Continuing to allow North Korean laborers to toil in slave-like conditions inside Russia in exchange for wages used to fund nuclear weapons programs calls into question Russia's dedication as a partner for peace. Similarly, as Chinese crude oil flows to North Korean refineries, the United States questions China's commitment to solving an issue that has serious implications for the security of its own citizens.
Recently the North Korean regime has sought to portray UN sanctions as harmful to women and children. But this is a regime that hypocritically spends billions on nuclear and ballistic missile programs while its own people suffer great poverty. The regime could feed and care for women, children, and ordinary people of North Korea if it chose the welfare of its people over weapons development. The DPRK has a choice: It can reverse course, give up its unlawful nuclear weapons program, and join the community of nations, or it can continue to condemn its people to poverty and isolation. The regime in Pyongyang bears the ultimate responsibility for the well-being of its people.
North Korea claims to undertake its nuclear weapons program as an essential step for the survival of its regime. In making this choice, North Korea has made itself less secure, and its economy has become further isolated and disconnected from the global economy.
We have been clear that all options remain on the table in the defense of our nation, but we do not seek, nor do we want, war with North Korea. The United States will use all necessary measures to defend itself against North Korean aggression, but our hope remains that diplomacy will produce a resolution. As I said earlier this week, a sustained cessation of North Korea's threatening behavior must occur before talks can begin. North Korea must earn its way back to the table. The pressure campaign must, and will, continue until denuclearization is achieved. We will, in the meantime, keep our channels of communication open.
Our message today is one that this body has heard before, and one that we will continue to repeat: The United States will not allow the regime in Pyongyang to hold the world hostage. We will continue to hold North Korea accountable for its reckless and threatening behavior today and in the future. We ask every nation here to join us in exerting sovereignty to protect all of our people. We ask all to join a unified effort to achieve a complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Thank you.
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Dangerous rhetoric, overconfidence, increase risk of conflict on Korean Peninsula, UN chief warns
15 December 2017 United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that he is deeply concerned over the risk of military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, "including as a result of miscalculation."
"While all concerned seek to avoid an accidental escalation leading to conflict, the risk is being multiplied by misplaced over-confidence, dangerous narratives and rhetoric, and the lack of communication channels," the Secretary-General told the UN Security Council's ministerial-level meeting, convened by Japan, on the challenges posed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to international peace and security.
Describing the situation on the Korean Peninsula as "the most tense and dangerous peace and security issue in the world today," he warned: "Any military action would have devastating and unpredictable consequences."
In his briefing, Mr. Guterres said that unity of the Security Council is essential to achieve the goal of denuclearization in a peaceful manner and underscored that communication channels, including military-to-military ones have to be re-established and strengthened to reduce tensions in the region.
"The [UN] Secretariat and I are your partner in this effort. My good offices remain always available," he added.
Mr. Guterres also noted the need to disassociate the peace and security situation in the DPRK from the humanitarian needs in the country.
Seventy per cent of the country's population is affected by food insecurity and 40 per cent are malnourished and some $114 million is needed to meet urgent requirements.
However, the 2017 DPRK Humanitarian Needs and Priorities appeal is only 30 per cent funded.
Urging UN Member States, in particular those represented the Security Council, to consider the humanitarian imperatives, Mr. Guterres said: "The people of the DPRK need our generosity and help."
Concluding his remarks, the Secretary-General pointed to the upcoming Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and expressed hope that the DRPK would take part.
"As the General Assembly has recognized, these Games can foster an atmosphere of peace, development, tolerance and understanding on the Korean Peninsula and beyond. We need to spread and deepen that spirit of hope and possibility," he said, urging for diplomatic engagement to sustainable peace and denuclearization.
"We must do everything we can to reach that objective and avoid a level of danger that would be unpredictable in its trajectory and catastrophic in its consequences," said Mr. Guterres.
The ministerial-level meeting was convened by Japan, in its capacity as the President of the 15-member Council for the month of December.
In addition to Taro Kono of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, which holds the Council presidency for the month, ministers from other Security Council member States, including Sweden (Margot Wallstrom), Ukraine (Pavlo Klimkin), the United Kingdom (Mark Field), and the United States (Rex Tillerson) were at the meeting.
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Tillerson: All Options on Table to Contain North Korea Threat
By Margaret Besheer December 15, 2017
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that North Korea's growing nuclear capabilities were a direct threat to the United States, and that Washington would use "all necessary measures" to defend itself against such aggression.
"In the face of such a threat, inaction is unacceptable for any nation," Tillerson said.
"We have been clear that all options remain on the table in the defense of our nation," the secretary told a packed chamber of the U.N. Security Council in New York. "But we do not seek, nor do we want, war with North Korea."
Tillerson spoke at a meeting on North Korea's proliferation convened by Japan, which holds the rotating Security Council presidency this month.
"The United States will use all necessary measures to defend itself against North Korean aggression, but our hope remains that diplomacy will produce a resolution," Tillerson added.
Calling Russia out
In Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump urged Russia to step up pressure against Pyongyang, a day after speaking by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump said the primary focus of his conversation with Putin was North Korea, noting Washington needed help from Moscow on Pyongyang.
"China is helping. Russia is not helping. We'd like to have Russia's help very important," Trump told reporters.
When asked whether he supported talks with North Korea without preconditions, Trump said, "We're going to see what happens with North Korea. We have a lot of support.There are a lot of nations that agree with us almost everybody."
Prospects for talks
At the U.N., Tillerson repeated his openness to talks with the North Koreans, but added the caveat that Pyongyang "must earn its way back to the table."
"The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved," Tillerson said. "We will, in the meantime, keep our channels of communication open."
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Tillerson further distanced himself from comments he made Tuesday that the U.S. was ready to talk to North Korea "without precondition."
"We are not going to accept preconditions," he told U.N. reporters. "We do not accept a freeze-for-freeze as a precondition to talks; we do not accept any relaxing of the sanctions regime as a precondition to talks; we do not accept a resumption of humanitarian assistance as a precondition of talks."
As for the communications channels, he repeated that they remained open. "North Korea knows they are open; they know where the door is, they know where to walk through that door, when they want to talk."
Regional voices
"A peaceful solution is desirable. However, it's North Korea that has consistently rejected such a solution," said Japan's foreign minister, Taro Kono, who chaired the meeting.
Kono called on the international community to maximize pressure on Pyongyang to change course, and announced that Japan had just imposed asset freezes on 19 additional North Korean entities.
China's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Wu Haitao echoed the concern of several council members that the situation risked spiraling out of control an outcome that no one wants.
"The current situation on the Korean Peninsula is mired in a vicious circle of tough posturing and confrontation, which hardly makes one optimistic about its future," Wu said. "However, the hope for peace is not totally obliterated; there is still a possibility for negotiation, and the option of use of force is unacceptable."
Both North and South Korea addressed the council.
"With a sense of urgency, we should make North Korea perceive without a doubt that it will pay heavily for its provocations; that it will never be accepted as a nuclear weapon state; and that dialogue for denuclearization is the only viable option," said South Korean Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun.
In a rare appearance at the council, North Korean U.N. Ambassador Ja Song Nam defended Pyongyang's action as a self-defense measure in the face of what he said was "the U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail."
The envoy said his country would continue to "march forward," making great advancements as the "world's most powerful nuclear and military state," but would do so as a responsible nuclear power.
Tillerson responded, saying Pyongyang's unlawful acts could not be ignored or explained away, and he emphasized the international community's united opposition to a nuclearized North Korea.
"They alone are responsible for these tensions; they alone must take responsibility for these tensions; and they alone can solve these tensions," he said of the regime of leader Kim Jong Un.
Growing capabilities
"In 2017, the DPRK conducted activities related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs at an alarming and accelerated pace," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told council members. "Its actions show blatant disregard of the will and resolutions of the Security Council and undermine the international norm against nuclear testing."
"The DPRK remains the only country to continue to break the norm against nuclear testing," Guterres noted, using the abbreviation for North Korea's formal name.
On September 3, Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test, setting off an underground explosion that Japan measured as a magnitude 6.1 earthquake.
On November 28, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and later claimed that it now possessed the capability to strike any location in the continental United States, a claim that U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis denied Friday.
Mattis told Pentagon reporters Pyongyang had "not yet shown to be a capable threat against" Washington.
Throughout the year, the regime has also conducted 20 ballistic missile launches, including the first tests of two ICBMs, as well as new medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
No access to North Korea
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been unable to gain access to North Korea to verify the status of its nuclear program. It uses satellite imagery to help monitor developments.
The U.N. chief called on North Korea to comply with all Security Council resolutions and to allow space for the resumption of dialogue.
"While all concerned seek to avoid an accidental escalation leading to conflict, the risk is being multiplied by misplaced overconfidence, dangerous narratives and rhetoric, and the lack of communications channels," Guterres cautioned.
Last week, his top political official, Jeffrey Feltman, traveled to Pyongyang for the first in-depth political exchange of views between U.N. and North Korean officials to take place in that country in almost eight years.
Feltman, the highest-ranking American at the U.N., told reporters earlier this week that he had engaged in more than 15 hours of talks over several days with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Pak Myong Guk. He did not request a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"The North Korean interlocutors agreed it was important to prevent war," Feltman said, but added they made no commitments toward talks.
VOA's Nike Ching at the State Department and Carla Babb at the Pentagon contributed to this report.
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US House passes bill scrutinizing Iran plane sales
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 07:03AM
US lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill that will bring the sales of American planes to Iran under the close scrutiny of the Congress.
The bill passed 252-167 all but four Republicans supported it, and they were joined by 23 Democrats.
It would require the Treasury Department to report to Congress on Iranian purchases of US aircraft and how those sales would be financed.
The key company that would be the primary target of the bill would be US aviation giant Boeing. In December 2016, Boeing sealed deals with Iran's flag-carrier airliner Iran Air over sales of 80 jets valued at $16.6 billion. They include 50 narrow-body Boeing 737 passenger jets and 30 wide-body 777 aircraft.
US media reported that the new Congress bill had once again brought into the spotlight the question whether undermining plane sales to Iran would break US commitments under the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Republicans argued that the legislation would not bar any aircraft sales to Iran. Instead, it would require the Treasury Department to notify Congress about the activities of the Iranian company that purchases the planes, as well as the financing used for the deal, according to a report by the Washington Examiner.
House Democrats maintained that the bill might provoke Iran to abandon the nuclear agreement, however, by interfering with their ability to work with US corporations as promised under the pact.
"[This bill] would impose a new condition," Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said on the House floor. "A new condition which would require certification by [the executive branch] and all of the process which would ensue. It is not a stretch, in fact it is fairly clear, that if [this bill] were to pass, the Iranians and others could credibly claim that we have violated our obligations under the JCPOA," Himes was quoted as saying by the Washington Examiner.
Iran sealed the JCPOA in 2015 with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council the US, Britain, France, Russia, and China plus Germany.
Based on it, Iran would restrict certain aspects of its nuclear energy activities. In return, the parties that signed the JCPOA with Iran the P5+1 would act to lift the economic sanctions imposed against the country generally described as the toughest in modern history.
Iran has previously announced that the US was falling short of its commitments toward the JCPOA by failing to remove the sanctions against the country and even by moving to impose new sanctions against it.
This is while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which reports Iran's compliance with the JCPOA has for multiple times emphasized that the country is fully implementing its commitments toward the nuclear deal.
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Israeli police question Netanyahu again over corruption probe
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 02:34PM
Israeli police investigators have questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his residence in occupied Jerusalem al-Quds again over suspicions he received illegal gifts from a number of wealthy businessmen.
Interrogators from the so-called Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit arrived at Netanyahu's home just before 9 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on Friday to question him over his involvement in police cases 1000 and 2000. The session lasted 4.5 hours.
Israeli Hebrew-language media outlets reported that Netanyahu was presented with testimony given by Australian billionaire James Packer, which strengthened the likelihood of bribery charges brought against him.
This is the seventh time that Israeli police investigators are grilling Netanyahu for corruption. The last round of questioning took place on November 19, and lasted for four hours.
Case 1000 revolves around alleged illicit gifts given to Netanyahu and his family by different businessmen, most notably the Israeli-born Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.
The Israeli prime minister and his wife, Sara, have denied wrongdoing in the case, claiming that the value of the items was significantly lower than reported, and that they were only "trifles" exchanged between close friends.
Case 2000 focuses on an alleged clandestine deal made between Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth publisher and owner Arnon "Noni" Mozes, in which the 68-year-old chairman of the Likud party promised Mozes he would support a bill to reduce the circulation of Yedioth's main commercial rival, the Hebrew-language freebie Israel Hayom, in exchange for favorable coverage of himself in Yedioth.
Reports emerged earlier this year that the president of the World Jewish Congress and Netanyahu's long-time ally, Ronald Lauder, had given the premier and his son gifts, including expensive suits. The accounts prompted Israeli police to interrogate the prime minister.
Netanyahu is currently under probe over suspicions that he accepted 1 million euros (about $1.1 million) from accused French fraudster Arnaud Mimran for campaign funds during the 2009 elections.
There are also calls for Netanyahu to be investigated for his role in a billion-dollar deal to purchase three submarines from German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems GmbH.
Netanyahu's personal lawyer and one of his closest confidants, David Shimron, reportedly represented the German company behind the submarine contract.
The Israeli prime minister, in an apparently unrelated case, is also subjected to accusations that he and his spouse misappropriated public funds to pay for private expenses, ranging from laundry to ice cream.
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Rohingya refugees face 'multitude of protection risks,' warns UN agency
15 December 2017 The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday that it is concerned about the deteriorating environment in which Rohingya refugees are living, especially children, who make up 55 per cent of the Rohingya refugee population in Bangladesh.
"UNHCR [Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees] is increasingly worried about the deterioration of the overall protection environment, Babarf Baloch, the agency's spokesperson told the regular press briefing in Geneva.
In this environment, he explained, refugees face a multitude of protection risks. On Sunday, UNHCR would begin distributing clothing to recently-arrived Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh for cooler temperatures in the months ahead.
"Children, who are 55 per cent of the Rohingya refugee population, are particularly vulnerable. So are women, and they represent more than half of all refugees in Bangladesh. An estimated 10 per cent are either disabled, have serious medical conditions, or are older persons at risk," stated Mr. Baloch.
UNHCR has been working to bolster the quality of shelters in the camps by supplying higher quality materials as well as expanding technical support for construction and drainage.
Since the beginning of the crisis, UNHCR has organized 17 airlifts sending more than $9 million in aid relief items. In the last month, the agency has distributed over 15,000 new shelter kits and more than 40,000 core relief items.
UNHCR also began distributing compressed rice husks for cooking fuel. This spares children from gathering firewood in adjacent forests putting them at risk and degrading the environment by stripping woodland.
Meanwhile, in responding to a diphtheria outbreak in Cox's Bazar, UNHCR turned part of its Transit Centre in Kutupalong into a treatment and isolation facility in which patients are managed by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
Alongside the UN World Health Organization and UN Children's Fund, UNHCR is also supporting the Bangladeshi health authorities' diphtheria vaccination campaign for all children under age six.
"We are procuring antibiotics to treat 8,000 people and training refugee volunteers to disseminate information on diphtheria, detect symptoms of the disease and direct patients to health facilities," said Mr. Baloch.
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South Korea, China Make Amends, But THAAD Dispute Lingers
By Joyce Huang December 15, 2017
For his first state visit to China, South Korean President Moon Jae-in came with an entourage of more than 300 business people, an actress who is wildly popular here and heartthrob boy band EXO, which sings in both Korean and Chinese.
The charm offensive was aimed at helping get frosty trade relations back on track, analysts said.
While the liberal-leaning South Korean leader is in sync with China and its approach toward North Korea - leaning heavily against military action - he hasn't given ground to Beijing on his country's deployment of the U.S.-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system.
A friendlier South Korea
That is a stance China now appears to have learned to stomach in exchange for a friendlier South Korea, some analysts said.
"They [China] don't want to see South Korea driven to making security deals with Japan. They don't want to see South Korea driven to nuclearize, which is often discussed although it's [a] very long shot," said David Kelly, who leads research at Beijing-based strategic advisory group China Policy.
"They are also concerned about the Indo-Pacific [strategy] and the Quad [United States, Japan, Australia and India] and South Korea would be a target in that. So, better to have a warm and friendly South Korea," he added.
Kelly said it appears that a new deal has been cut as China is no longer objecting to the anti-missile system.
Part of the reason for that, he adds, is that Beijing realizes that South Korea is not going to budge on the issue.
"Both Koreas are in the situation of needing to keep these strategic equalizers; it's a nuclear one in the northern case, and it's this high-tech [missile] detection system [in the South]," Kelly said.
Relations began to sour last year after South Korea agreed to deploy the anti-missile defense system to help shield itself from a possible attack from the North.
Sanctions issue
China believes the system is a threat to its own security and rolled out punishing economic sanctions on Seoul in response when the system was deployed earlier this year.
The punitive measures included a ban on group tours to the South. South Korean pop stars weren't allowed on Chinese television shows, wildly popular Korean soap operas were banned and sales of Hyundai and Kia autos plummeted.
Those sanctions impacted trade and tourism and some of South Korea's biggest companies, including Lotte, which owned the plot of land used for the missile system's deployment.
Although the general public in China agreed with its government and believed that the defensive missile system is aimed at China instead of North Korea's growing nuclear threat, the boycott and government's heavy-handed approach, ironically, were not welcomed by all Chinese.
"[We] don't like such top-down restrictions, imposed by the government. The government could have taken a guiding approach, but it shouldn't have cut off [the ties] on our behalf," a man surnamed Hu told VOA.
"We still live normal lives and do whatever we like. There's not been a big impact on our lives. However, if [South Koreans] have posed a huge threat to us, we will still side with our own government," said one woman surnamed Wang.
With China now reversing its earlier course, a fresh start in its relationship with South Korea appears to be in sight.
By using its economic clout, China has also succeeded in drawing South Korea closer to its strategic approach toward North Korea.
A restart in sight?
During their third summit meeting on Thursday afternoon, Moon and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping reached a four-point consensus, according to South Korea media.
Both countries agreed that dialogue and negotiations should be re-started to facilitate the North's denuclearization on top of an aim to improve relations between both Koreas.
Their first emphasis on ruling out the use of military force, however, has highlighted a salient and growing division between Seoul and Washington, according to Clint Work, a foreign and national security writer for current affairs magazine The Diplomat.
"Everyone's official policy is the denuclearization of North Korea. But we see on the part of Beijing and Seoul, and this is not a new thing, but we see them constantly stressing that war is not an option, a solution to this issue. 'We must preserve peace, no matter what' is the first principle. This is something that you don't hear, coming from Washington, D.C..," Work told VOA.
The U.S. has never ruled out military action against Pyongyang, with President Donald Trump having called Moon's pro-dialogue policy "talks of appeasement" with North Korea.
Work, however, disagreed that China has put its THAAD dispute with Seoul on the back burner. On the contrary, he says he believes that China still aims at an eventual removal of the anti-missile system.
"Despite their dispute being far from settled, Moon has to seize the opportunity to re-engage China after Beijing used its economic clout to seriously punish Seoul over THAAD", Work said.
Work notes that according to Hyundai Research estimates, China-imposed sanctions might have cost Seoul $7.5 billion in the first 10 months of this year, about 0.5 percent of its GDP, although overall South Korean exports to China still rose 12 percent to $88.1 billion between January and August.
Re-normalizing ties with China will always spell good news for the South Korean economy, although economic benefits from better ties shouldn't be overstated, given the South Korean economy is facing a range of structural challenges itself, Work added.
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NATO Levels Missile Accusations Against Moscow, As Treaty Dispute Escalates
Mike Eckel December 15, 2017
WASHINGTON -- NATO has accused Russia of developing a missile system in violation of a key Cold War arms treaty, the latest accusation from the West in a dispute that some fear will lead to the treaty's demise.
The statement from the alliance, released on December 15, comes days after the United States signaled a tougher stance in its approach toward Moscow and the missile system, which a U.S. official identified publicly for the first time last month.
The statement wasn't the first time the alliance's main political decision-making body -- the North Atlantic Council-- has weighed in on the dispute over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF). But it was the most forceful to date and followed a briefing that U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis gave to allied defense ministers last month.
"Allies have identified a Russian missile system that raises serious concerns," the December 15 statement said.
It urged Russia "to address these concerns in a substantial and transparent way, and actively engage in a technical dialogue with the United States."
"It's the first [North Atlantic Council] statement as such, but allies have been discussing these issues for some time," a NATO official who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity said.
Signed in 1987, the treaty eliminated an entire class of missiles from Europe and is considered a bedrock agreement for arms control between Washington and Moscow.
Three years ago, Washington publicly accused Moscow of developing a ground-launched cruise missile that fell within the treaty's prohibitions. Russia has repeatedly rejected the accusations, demanded more information, and leveled its own accusations at U.S. missile-defense systems in Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 14 insisted again that Moscow was complying with the INF and accused Washington of trying to set up a way to withdraw from it altogether.
The United States' European allies have in the past been frustrated that Washington hasn't shared more technical evidence of Moscow's violations.
The NATO statement was issued one day after a special technical commission, established under the treaty rules, met to discuss the dispute and other issues related to the INF treaty.
The State Department said in a statement late on December 14 that participants "expressed the view that the INF treaty continues to play an important role in the existing system of international security, nuclear disarmament, and nonproliferation, and that they will work to preserve and strengthen it."
The Russian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement on December 15 that was a word-for-word translation of the State Department's remarks.
The State Department on December 8 warned that Washington was taking military and economic measures against Moscow, the first announcement of its sort by President Donald Trump's administration, signaling a more determined approach to the treaty dispute.
Late last month, a top White House official for the first time confirmed long-standing suspicions about the type of missile Washington alleged Moscow had deployed.
Christopher Ford, a National Security Council official involved in arms control, identified the missile designation -- 9M729 -- which outside arms-control experts have been focusing on for some time now.
That has led to concerns that the new missile could be indistinguishable from an existing system that is not covered by the INF treaty: the highly sophisticated Iskander-M. That would pose a challenge for inspecting and verifying the weapon is in compliance.
Ford also made some eyebrow-raising comments about officials previously involved in U.S. arms control policy in the administration of Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama.
"Let me start with arms control with Russia, about which I am proud to say that we in the new team are proving ourselves tougher-minded and more rigorous than our predecessors," Ford said, according to the written transcript.
"By contrast to our predecessors, the new administration decided that the INF status quo we inherited was unacceptable and that we must make unavailable to the Russians the option of continuing to see us constrained while they remain free to do as they wish," he said.
RFE/RL correspondent Rikard Jozwiak contributed to this report from Brussels.
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/nato-russia-missile-accusations -inf-treaty-dispute-escalates/28920865.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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For the film buff in your life, there are plenty of gift options that go beyond a ticket to the movies.
Saudi kingdom has plan to establish ties with Israel, Jubeir says
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 10:41AM
Amid widespread reports of behind-the-scenes cooperation between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says the kingdom has a "roadmap" to establish full diplomatic ties with the Tel Aviv regime.
Speaking to France 24 television late on Wednesday, Jubeir said Riyadh has a plan for normalization with Tel Aviv if an agreement is reached between Palestine and the Israeli entity.
The top Saudi diplomat further denied that reports that the kingdom had any relations with Tel Aviv, despite their mutual concerns over Iran's growing regional influence.
In mid-November, Lebanon's al-Akhbar daily published a secret undated letter from Jubeir to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that puts forward a plan to normalize ties with Israel.
According to the report, Riyadh and Tel Aviv would first try to work out a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which would significantly sideline the interests of the Palestinian nation.
After getting rid of the Palestine issue, the two regimes could then focus on their common goal, which is forming an alliance against Iran, according to the report.
Chief of Staff of Israeli military, Lieutenant General Gadi Eizenkot, said in an interview last month that Tel Aviv was ready to share intelligence with Saudi Arabia in their joint efforts to confront Iran.
In a new gesture to extend the hand of friendship to Saudi Arabia, Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz on Wednesday invited Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to visit Tel Aviv.
Elsewhere in the interview, the Saudi foreign minister claimed that the administration of US President Donald Trump was serious about getting a peace deal between Palestinians and Israelis.
"We believe the Trump administration is serious about bringing peace between Israelis and Arabs," Jubeir said.
This is while reports suggest that Mohammed bin Salman has recently presented an American plan for Middle East peace to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on behalf of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's adviser and son-in-law in charge of the Middle East.
Jubeir's comments on Washington's role in the so-called peace process come as the Trump administration has been under international scrutiny for declaring on December 6 that the US was recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's "capital."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Trump's declaration was "tantamount to the United States abdicating its role as a peace mediator."
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Russia regrets EU decision to prolong sanctions
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 15, 2017 04:40PM
Russia has regretted a decision by the European Union to renew economic sanctions on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine, the Kremlin says.
"We still regret and we believe that such decisions run counter to the interests of the EU member countries and Russia," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.
His remarks came a day after the EU leaders agreed to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months over what they say is Moscow's interference in Ukraine, which is not an EU member.
The Russian official described the sanctions as "illegal", but he expressed his country's interest in better ties with the EU.
"The Russian Federation still considers these sanctions illegal and wrong in themselves. Yet, we are still on a course for better relations with Brussels that now leave much to be desired," Peskov said.
The EU accuses Russia of violating EU-brokered peace deals, known as Minsk agreements, in eastern Ukraine, where there has been an armed conflict between the ethnic Russian-speaking population and the Ukrainian government since 2014.
The conflict first erupted in eastern Ukraine after people in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea voted for unification with Russia in March 2014. The West brands the unification as annexation of the territory by Russia. They also accuse Russia of having a major hand in the armed conflict that erupted shortly afterwards in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies all those allegations.
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Russia Criticizes EU Decision To Extend Ukraine-Related Sanctions
December 15, 2017
Russia has hit back at a decision by leaders of the European Union to extend for another six months the economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over its "destabilizing" actions in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on December 15 described the sanctions as "illegal and unjust" and said Russia "did not consider such decisions beneficial to either EU member states or the Russian Federation."
"Despite this, we, of course, are still set on improving relations with Brussels, which currently leave something to be desired," he added.
EU leaders on December 14 agreed at a Brussels summit to extend the sanctions against Russia for six months, until July 30, 2018.
The EU, along with the United States, has hit Moscow with sanctions over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014 and for its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that has killed more than 10,300 people since its start in April 2014.
When imposing the sanctions, the EU said they were "in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and deliberate destabilization of a neighboring sovereign country."
Russia denies interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs, despite compelling evidence that Moscow has provided military, economic, and political support to separatists fighting against Kyiv.
The sanctions, which mainly target the Russian banking, defense, and energy sectors, have been extended every six months since they were imposed.
The sanctions extended on December 14 are among three sets of EU measures against Moscow for various Ukraine-related activities.
The other two sets -- one in force through March 2018 and the other through June -- are eligible to be extended independently.
Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and TASS
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-criticizes-eu-decision-to- extend-ukraine-sanctions/28920589.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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Behind The Scene: Why Andhras Are Angry?
When Chandrababu Naidu was not extended an invitation to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit during Ivanka Trumps visit, Nara Lokesh said it was an event organised by the Americans and hence, only the Chief Minister of the host State would be present. Perfect!
But how can explain an invitation not being extended to Naidu for the World Telugu Conference in Hyderabad?
This is not a world Telugu conference but world Telangana conference where only Telangana art and literature will be showcased and judging by the mindset of the Telangana people, it would come as no surprise if they claim that they invented the Telugu language.
There are a few artistes from Andhra Pradesh who are attending the event. They should immediately back out from the event which is Telangana-centric because how can they do so when their Chief Minister himself hasnt been extended due courtesy?
This a snub to the Andhras and no self-respecting Andhra person should attend an event which has insulted its Chief Minister.
Written By Karan Sharma
Haiti - Economy : Winners of the 8th Edition Digicel Entrepreneur of the Year 2017
This week during a gala evening on the terraces of the Marriott Hotel, in front of more than 500 guests, Dr. Harry Beauvais who set up the first specialist clinic for the treatment of infertility in Haiti, and has since developed it into an internationally recognized IVF Centre of excellence for the Caribbean, has been named Haitis Digicel Entrepreneur of the Year for 2017.
Setting out to overturn a widely held view in the development sector that poor, low-resource, countries are structurally unable to meet the needs of leading-edge technological companies, Dr Harry Beauvais says his success is a valuable lesson about the potential of the country as a whole.
Were showing that although Haiti is labelled as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, with 80 percent of its people living in poverty, it still has the power to transform itself by embracing rapidly advancing technologies, he told a conference at Duke University in the US recently.
Beauvais has always had a personal vision of a modern Haiti achieved through a combination of top-down and bottom-up change. That vision almost led him into engineering, but it was his mother, whod had a long and rewarding career as a nurse, who inspired him to opt instead for medicine.
His determination was evident.
A change-leader from the start, Beauvais returned to Haiti in 2004 and began to make his mark in public health co-founding FOSREF, a foundation specializing in sexual and reproductive health, which helped to reduce HIV in Haiti from 7% of the population to 2%.
In June 2011, despite major losses caused by the earthquake the previous year, he opened CHITAI (The Haitian Centre for the Investigation and Treatment of Advances Infertility), with the technical support of Duke University, and an impressive loan from family, friends and the bank.
"The utter determination of Harry Beauvais to overcome all obstacles, to learn from the best in the world, and to bring that knowledge home to his own community, is in the very best traditions of entrepreneurship," said Maarten Boute, Chairman of Digicel Haiti.
At a ceremony attended by 500 guests from government and the commercial world, Mr. Boute described Dr Beauvais as "an inspirational example of someone who believes not just in himself, his own idea, and his own enterprise but in his own people and his own country as well."
In just six years, CHITAI which also won award in the services category has built an enviable reputation.
The first two babies on CHIATIs programme were born on October 6 and October 12, 2012 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-6904-haiti-health-birth-of-the-first-two-babies-in-vitro-in-haiti.html . Since then, the clinic has facilitated the birth of 356 babies and has become known as the leading IVF treatment centre in the Caribbean.
With a staff of 24, it competes primarily with clinics in the US and the Dominican Republic though, in fact, some 20 percent of its patients are from North America.
The ultimate aim is to build Haitis first centre of excellence for womens health. Additional land is already sourced for the expansion, which will take around 12 months adding cancer treatment and, perhaps, cardiology, a new operating theatre, and new surgical beds.
The Digicel entrepreneur awards, now in their eighth year, with a wide spread of finalists from across the country, are presented in five categories agriculture and environment, construction, industry, services, and emerging businesses.
In the agriculture section, the award went to brothers, Hans and Patrick Woolley, their cousin, Gilbert Wooley, and their business, Taino Aqua Ferme, an all-natural, tilapia fish farm on Lake Azuei, the largest lake in Haiti. From a $2 million start-up in 2012, it now employs 80 and is still expanding.
Claiming the prize for the industry section was Marthe Fortune Dorceus, who, having hit hard times, decided at age 22 to fall back on what she was good at: traditional Haitian fare. Her drinks company, Mme Elie du Bon Cremas, is now selling up to 1,500 cases of cremas a month in high season, and her aim, to be number one in the market, is now in sight.
The prize for emerging businesses was won by Valerie Adrien, founder of United Shipping & Logistics (USL), who was chief of Co-ordination and International Affairs at Haitis National Ports Authority before starting USL in 2015. Its now the major logistics carrier in Haiti and the Caribbean for a long list of blue-chip global brand names.
The construction prize went to Brendon Brewster, founder of Veerhouse Voda, who arrived in Haiti, with his father, to help after the 2010 earthquake. He now makes houses that are extreme-weather resistant, energy efficient, and five times faster to construct than traditional buildings perfect emergency accommodation.
In that context, Mr. Boute noted that 32 of the 50 business in the regional finals (65%) had been founded since the 2010 earthquake, many by Haitians who returned home to help with disaster relief and stayed to contribute long-term.
The large number of female entrepreneurs 19 of the final 50 was inspiring too, he said "a reflection of the powerful role played by women in Haitian society, and, increasingly, in the business community as well."
See also :
https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-6904-haiti-health-birth-of-the-first-two-babies-in-vitro-in-haiti.html
HL/ HaitiLibre
By Vasia Orion | Published on 2017/12/15
Two new stills along with a little bit of character information have come out for the role of Lee Hye-young-I in "Mother - Drama" and I am intrigued to see how her character is handled by the creators, but also how the actress tackles her. With 36 years of acting experience on her, I have a feeling we will be in for a very interesting mother to our titular mother.
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Lee Hye-young-I plays Yeong-sin, a great actress of her time and a single mother of three daughters. Soo-jin (Lee Bo-young) is the oldest and the one who supports the family. The two have an interesting bond, glimpses of which I got to see in the Japanese original. Yeong-sin's other two daughers are Lee-jin (Jeon Hye-in) and Hyo-jin (Go Bo-gyeol). Their single mother wanted to do her best in raising a healthy family through the challenges of being a single parent.
Lee Hye-young-I also briefly spoke about the reason why she has made her return with "Mother - Drama". She says that she has been looking forward to the work due to writer Jeong Seo-kyeong and that the script itself is one she liked. I hope that her chemistry with Lee Bo-young is solid, because I have a feeling we'll be in for some great on-screen goodness.
Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings'
Sources (1) (2)
Published on 2017/12/16 | Source
Added episode 4 captures for the Korean drama "Black Knight" (2017)
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Directed by Han Sang-woo
Written by Kim In-yeong
Network : KBS
With Kim Rae-won, Shin Se-kyung, Seo Ji-hye, Chang Mi-hee, Kim Hyun-joon, Hwang Jung-min-I,...
16 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:00
Synopsis
In this supernatural romance drama, a businessman with a pure heart braves danger for his love, a travel agent who has never traveled abroad. It is a love story that spans over two hundred years.
Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/12/06
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Published on 2017/12/16 | Source
Added episode 8 captures for the Korean drama "Prison Playbook" (2017)
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Directed by Sin Won-ho
Written by Jeong Bo-hoon-I, Lee Woo-jeong-I
Network : tvN
With Park Hae-soo, Jung Kyung-ho, Sung Dong-il, Kim Sung-cheol, Jung Jae-sung, Lee Ho-cheol,...
16 episodes - Wed, Thu 21:30
Also known as "Wise Prison Life"
Synopsis
Set in a prison, this is a drama about the lives of the prisoners and prison staff.
Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/11/22
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Mountjoy prison, which could be used to house the homeless
Dublin City Council is considering using a section of the Mountjoy prison campus to help deal with the capital's homeless problem.
The Department of Justice has offered the training unit of Dublin's largest prison to the local authority, which is now considering it to house homeless people.
The training unit is separated from the main section of the jail and was closed earlier this year.
At the time of its closure the unit had a capacity of 96 beds.
Crisis
Independent councillor Mannix Flynn said the council was considering using the facility to alleviate the city's current homelessness crisis.
"It's a fine building on the banks of the Royal Canal and a decision is still to be made on whether single individuals will be going in or if it will be used to house families," Mr Flynn told the Herald.
"I'd prefer it to be used for those in great need, sleeping rough on our streets.
"There are facilities there which can help those with serious problems, and it would be a long-term solution
The Dublin councillor also thanked Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, DCC chief executive Brendan Kenny and the head of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, Eileen Gleeson, for their work in making the training unit available.
"This is a good news story and it is very welcome," Mr Flynn said.
"It isn't a case of the council putting homeless people into a prison.
"It is a separate complex to the main prison. I would also ask the religious congregations to look around their estates for similar buildings.
"I also believe that Collins Barracks could be used to facilitate this emergency."
Children
The latest figures show there are 8,500 people without a home, 3,500 of whom are children, but there are fears the number could increase as the country heads into Christmas week, as the figures were compiled in October.
Dublin City deputy Chief Executive Brendan Kenny said that the Mountjoy training centre "isn't being ruled out", but that the Council's immediate focus is to have 200 permanent beds ready by next week.
"There are 200 additional places being made available next week in Dublin, which puts us in a very strong position and there is no need for any rough sleepers to be on the streets.
"It probably puts us in the best position we've been in for the last seven years."
Mr Kenny added that initial discussions have taken place in relation to the use of the training unit, but that this would be looked at in the New Year and that the accommodation would be temporary for between four and five months.
Dean Cormack was jailed and banned from the roads
A car enthusiast who collided with another vehicle when driving while disqualified has been jailed for five months.
Dean Cormack (29) claimed he now realised "the absolute seriousness" of uninsured driving after completing the restorative justice road safety programme.
Sentenced
However, Judge Dermot Dempsey said Cormack had ignored road traffic laws.
The judge sentenced him to five months, banned him from driving for five years and fined him 100.
The defendant, of Turnapin Grove in Cloghran, had admitted dangerous driving, driving without insurance and without a driving licence before Swords District Court.
Cormack collided with another vehicle in Whitestown Road, Rush, on September 1 2016.
The court heard the defendant had 23 previous convictions - including two for uninsured driving.
Defence lawyer Annette Kiely said Cormack now realised the seriousness of his behaviour.
She said Cormack had a young child and asked the judge not to send him to jail just before Christmas.
The court heard the defendant's hobby was doing up cars, and he now realised that if he fixes cars he can no longer drive them without the required documentation.
Anxiety
Ms Kiely said Cormack, who had poor literacy skills, had written letters of apology for his behaviour.
She said Cormack suffered from severe anxiety, had liver problems and was awaiting treatment.
Ms Kiely said the defendant also helped to care for his grandmother and stayed with her two nights a week.
A strike planned by Ryanair pilots days before Christmas may still go ahead - despite the airline's dramatic decision to recognise unions for the first time.
It comes despite a personal reassurance from chief executive Michael O'Leary that the offer of recognition is genuine.
Mr O'Leary said yesterday that the radical U-turn was a bid to avoid travel chaos for customers during Christmas week.
He spoke to the airline's chief captains across its almost 90 bases yesterday afternoon.
genuine
During a conference call with the pilots, Mr O'Leary is understood to have said that the offer of union recognition from Ryanair is genuine.
He also told pilots that the move will have a longer-term positive impact on the carrier.
Ryanair has sought a meeting with the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (IALPA) on Wednesday, the day planned strike action is set to take place, and has asked the union to call off the strike. However, the Impact trade union, to which the IALPA is affiliated, has indicated that the strike will go ahead as planned if a meeting is not held before then.
One day of industrial action is planned for December 20 and will mostly involve captains.
In a statement yesterday, Ryanair said: "The Impact union promised to call off the strike if Ryanair conceded recognition.
"They've gotten our offer of recognition in writing and we're happy to meet them next week, which itself is the first act in recognising IALPA.
"The UK and Italian unions have already agreed to meetings with Ryanair and have called off the threatened strike in Italy.
"The sensible course of action is for IALPA to meet with Ryanair next Wednesday, but call off the unnecessary threats of disruption to the Christmas flights of thousands of customers."
Threat
Announcing the news that the budget airline was to recognise unions for the first time in 32 years, Mr O'Leary said the pilots should call off the threat.
"Christmas flights are very important to our customers and we wish to remove any worry or concern that they may be disrupted by pilot industrial action next week," he said.
"If the best way to achieve this is to talk to our pilots through a recognised union process, then we are prepared to do so, and we have written today to these unions inviting them to talks to recognise them and calling on them to cancel the threatened industrial action planned for Christmas week."
Thanksgiving is going to be expensive. Here's how to save.
With inflation on the rise, supplies for Thanksgiving dinner will be more expensive and harder to find than ever, here's what to know and how to save
Travis Scott is a man of many talents. Hes had a phenomenal year as well, despite the fact he hasnt released a project this year. Regardless, hes been riding the wave of Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight and elevated his stature to a point where hes a sought out songwriter and feature artist. Recently, Yves Saint Laurent announced that hed be connecting with them to release an exclusive vinyl with some of his favorite songs.
Travis Scott and YSL have a special surprise coming for everyone for the holidays. Scott has teamed up with the high end fashion brand to deliver an exclusive vinyl with twelve of Scotts favorite tracks. Some of the artists set to appear is Kanye West and Frank Ocean. However, the exclusive collectible item will only have 500 copies available. The vinyl was created under Anthony Vaccarellos artistic direction and will come in a black leather pouch with both Saint Laurent and Travis Scotts name on it.
The vinyl is set to drop this Monday, December 18th and will also be available to purchase from Parisian store, colette. In addition, Scott will also be making an appearance at the store for an exclusive signing of the vinyl. While it may not be Jack Huncho, Huncho Jack, its definitely a solid gift for any Travis Scott stan that want to know what some of his favorite songs are. Its a rare collaboration that doesnt happen that frequently, so get your hands on it before it runs out.
Yesterday, we reported on the shocking facts that were unearthed by TMZ, based on documents they retrieved from A&Es docu-series, Who Killed Tupac? Apparently, the firearm that was used to kill the rap legend was found in 1998 and reported by Los Angeles police but, through internal mix-ups and the fear of new potential gang violence erupting as a result of disclosing the discovery of the weapon, Las Vegas authorities had no idea where the gun was. However, according to one retired police officer familiar with the case, the weapon should still be in California.
In a follow-up report from TMZ, detective Timothy Brennan, who was the man behind the order for ballistics testing on the supposed murder weapon says there should be no mystery as to the guns whereabouts. Brennan, whos now retired, stated that, if everyone involved with the investigation followed proper protocol, ATF agents would have been given the Gloc in order to conduct the testing. It came up as a match and was then sent, via the ATF, to Las Vegas police.
The catch here is that, as per Brennans recollection, Vegas authorities didnt think it was a match and rejected the piece of evidence. Therefore, if the chain of command held up, the weapon wouldve been sent back to Los Angeles. If the weapon is in fact not in the custody of Los Angeles police officials, then Brennan fears that some shady activity may be afoot.
Do you think theres a good chance that Tupacs murder weapon will be recovered? Let us know in the comments.
Tupac
After chugging along for 37 hours, the lumbering heavy-lift vessel reached its destination 110 miles off Louisiana. There, the ship's powerful cranes lowered a massive steel structure, used to support offshore oil platforms, to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, 200 feet below the surface.
This location, however, will never produce oil. Instead, the 3,000-ton frame, from a retired platform operated by Royal Dutch Shell, will become home to barnacles, mussels, sponges and other aquatic invertebrates and a way station for migratory fish from red snapper to whale sharks seeking food and shelter.
"These platforms are essentially the gas stations or rest stops in the Gulf," said Ruth Perry, a marine scientist and regulatory affairs specialist at Royal Dutch Shell. "The artificial reefs allow ecosystems to grow. We've seen growth within hours or days or weeks."
This new life for an old platform, called Cougar, comes courtesy of a federal program that has recycled more than 450 offshore oil and gas rigs into artificial reefs in U.S. waters. Scientists discovered long ago that as offshore oil production ventured deeper into the ocean waters off Louisiana and Texas, the platforms became magnets for shrimp, snapper, coral and other species that had long clung to scattered hard banks rising from the Gulf's vast floor of mud, clay and silt.
The federal program, created by Congress in 1984, aimed to build on this phenomenon by encouraging oil and gas companies to leave their platform frames in deep water, where they would be transformed into artificial reefs. The program has not only created thriving, aquatic ecosystems, but also saved oil companies the expense of hauling platforms back to land, then dismantling and disposing of them.
The program, called Rigs to Reefs, also provided a public relations boost for an industry often reviled for spills and other environmental damage.
"I think basically everyone around the Gulf Coast sees it as a very positive step," said Chris Ross, a finance professor at the University of Houston. "It's a great habitat for marine life, and it's much cheaper than trying to recycle it."
Besides, he added, "What else are you going to do with it?"
Making it happen
Oil companies, required by federal regulators to remove offshore platforms from the ocean at the end of their productive life, can opt instead to work with Gulf Coast state agencies to identify which platforms would be suitable to become artificial reefs. The agencies seek permits to do so from the Army Corps of Engineers and Coast Guard, and they assume any liability for environmental damage caused by the reef. Myriad factors go into choosing a spot to deploy a reef. The state agencies avoid putting them too close to natural reefs or too far from the original site, which would drive up transportation costs.
The agencies also avoid shallow waters, shipping lanes and anywhere a ship might strike them. The ideal spot for an artificial reef is close enough to shore to allow fishermen to reach them, in an area where the sediment of the seafloor is strong enough to support a massive structure.
In 1981, Shell deployed Cougar in 337 feet of water, extracting oil and gas from what were the furthest reaches of the oil industry's territory in the Gulf at the time. The platform, one of Shell's first ventures into deeper waters, came with one of the first on-site computer systems to monitor wells that would produce a combined 31 million barrels of oil equivalent over their life spans.
Now, a variety of species, Perry said, will be drawn to different sections of Cougar's steel frame, already encrusted with aquatic species like barnacles, bryozoan, sponges, oysters, mussels and coral.
The frame, some 35 stories tall, will sit on its side on the ocean floor, its steel pipes capturing different levels of sunlight that plankton and phytoplankton - a source of food for fish - need to survive and thrive. Larger fish species, including sharks, will dwell closer to the surface of the ocean than smaller ones.
The Coastal Marine Institute, a research center at Louisiana State University, has found that one of these structures, which stand on eight legs, can create habitat for up to 14,000 fish. Each platform leg can have two to 6 inches of encrustation of aquatic invertebrates on the metal, said Larry McKinney, executive director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
'It's ocean dumping'
Some environmental groups have argued artificial reefs only pull fish and aquatic species away from natural reefs, and essentially turn the ocean into a scrap yard. And whatever environmental benefits oil platforms may offer as artificial reefs, their presence also risks the possibility of major oil spills that could devastate the fishing industry.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster cost the Gulf of Mexico fishing industry up to $1.6 billion in 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees offshore development.
"It's ocean dumping," said Linda Krop, chief counsel of the Environmental Defense Center in California. "You have birds on telephone wire. Is that the best habitat for them, or is a tree a better habitat for them? The same thing with the ocean. What's the best habitat for fish?"
More fish in the sea
But teams of scientists have found that these iron islands - both artificial reefs and active oil platforms - relieve the stress on natural reefs by attracting fish with new and bountiful sources of food and space for reproduction. The result is larger fish populations, which is why fishermen cluster their boats around oil and gas platforms in the Gulf, McKinney said.
Over the past decade, the size of the Gulf commercial catch has increased 28 percent, to more than 1.7 billion pounds in 2016 from nearly 1.4 billion pounds in 2006. The value of the catch jumped about 30 percent, to more than $900 million from less than $700 million during that period, according to federal statistics.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that in 2015 commercial and recreational saltwater fishing in the Gulf of Mexico generated nearly $34 billion in sales as products moved from the docks to consumers through wholesalers, retailers and restaurants, and supported about 250,000 jobs.
Snapper catches are up
The Harte Research Institute said this month it will lead a $12 million effort by 21 fishery scientists to estimate the number of red snapper living in the Gulf today. Commercial landings of the species have climbed nearly 40 percent since 2006, to about 6.5 million pounds in 2016, according to NOAA.
"Today, there are more snapper in the Gulf than 10 years ago, and many of those, perhaps even more than we know, are on artificial reefs and platforms," McKinney said.
Commercial landings of red snapper have climbed nearly 40 percent since 2006, to about 6.5 million pounds in 2016, according to NOAA.
The Harte Research Institute has received funding from the oil industry for certain publications, McKinney, but not for any research on artificial reefs, which is funded by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission, which benefits from improving fish stocks. In Texas, revenue for licenses sold for saltwater fishing rose 47 percent between 2005 and 2016 to nearly $600,000, according to the commission.
Saving money
The major oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico - Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Shell Oil Co., BP and others - have participated in the Rigs to Reef program for years. Nearly half of the oil companies in the region, mostly smaller, private ones, are interested in the reef program to the extent it saves them money on transporting the platform onto land and dismantling it, McKinney said.
For Shell, towing Cougar 50 miles to the reef site rather than hauling it 100 miles to shore for dismantling and disposal saved the company $1.24 million, said Ernest Hui, Shell's decommissioning business improvement lead. Shell donated about half the savings to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries "to monitor and support" the habitat, the company said.
"The economics made sense," Hui said. "We see reefing as a benefit. We've been trying to do this around the world."
President Trump's born-again-like embrace of evangelical politics was the biggest religion story of the year, but a shooting at a Texas church, a wedding cake that a Christian baker refused to make and the status of Jerusalem also grabbed headlines.
All told, it was a year in which America seemed more divided than it has been in a long time, while continuing trends of disaffiliation didn't keep faith - in particular the conservative Christian kind - from playing an outsized role in the leadership of our nation.
After decades waiting in the wings to influence American politics at the highest level, a who's who of evangelicals, including figures such as Florida preacher Paula White and Texas pastor Robert Jeffress, showed up regularly at the White House for photo ops and policy consultations. Their "unprecedented" access was offered perhaps as a reward for their support, and Vice President Mike Pence was thought to have been key in arranging it.
While the president's sexual history made them believers in situational ethics, on issues they cared about he followed a religious right playbook with the zeal of a convert.
Trump appointed Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch, whom they believe will help chip away at Roe v. Wade. The president also rolled back contraceptive coverage, backed a bill to ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and sought to fulfill his campaign pledge to delete the Johnson Amendment, which places limits on politicking from the pulpit.
And he declared that America recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital, triggering protests in the Muslim world and exciting apocalyptic fervor in America among some premillennialist Christians.
As the nation grew increasingly polarized, many pointed fingers at the role allegedly played by social media and tech giants in altering online debate. On Yom Kippur, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg atoned for the divisive role played by Facebook. And Silicon Valley teamed up with the Anti-Defamation League to combat hate speech.
Still, haters were emboldened. In Portland, a white supremacist told a black train commuter and her hijab-wearing friend to "go back to Saudi Arabia." When bystanders stepped up in their defense, he stabbed them, killing two. Nationwide, assaults against Muslims surpassed the level registered after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
And a surge in anti-Semitism also was reported: Synagogues were vandalized and Jewish tombstones desecrated, though a wave of bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers turned out mostly to be the result of a hoax by an Israeli-American teenager.
At a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., - held to protest the removal of Confederate statues - a man linked to white supremacist groups rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19.
Churches also were targets. On Nov. 5, a man dressed in black tactical gear gunned down 25 people attending a service at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. It was Texas' deadliest mass shooting and the fifth deadliest and worst in a place of worship in modern American history.
And it wasn't the only church shooting this year. On Sept. 24, a gunman fatally shot a woman at a church in Nashville and left a note describing it as retaliation for the mass shooting at an African-American church in Charleston two years ago.
Sexual harassment became a leading news topic, and it cost Alabama Republican senatorial candidate Roy Moore what should have been an easy election.
Moore, a former state supreme court judge who once had a granite statue of the Ten Commandments installed in the courthouse lobby, was reluctant to accept defeat and decried what he said was "immorality" sweeping over the land.
The hashtag #metoo trended globally with thousands upon thousands of women sharing similar stories of sexual assault or harassment. In France, the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation into accusations of rape by the respected Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan.
Speaking of cultural shifts, two years after the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationally, a Colorado baker asked the same tribunal for the right to conscientiously refuse to make a custom wedding cake for a gay couple.
While many conservative Christians see themselves as discriminated against, surveys continued to document a shift in the nation's religious makeup away from traditional Christianity, especially among the young. And a new record low was reached in the number of Americans who believe the Bible is the literal word of God.
Still, the Congress that was sworn in on Jan. 3, 2017 was about as Christian as it was in the 1960s.
A few blocks from the Capitol, a $500 million Museum of the Bible opened amid much prayer, ribbon-cutting and a sigh of relief by its main backer, antiquities collector Steve Green. A few months earlier, Green's Hobby Lobby agreed to pay a $3 million fine imposed by the Justice Department and to return thousands of illegally imported artifacts to Iraq.
Ryanair has offered to meet with the IMPACT trade union in a bid to avert its first-ever pilot strike.
It was announced earlier today that next week's strike action would go ahead unless Ryanair management arranged to meet with IMPACT ahead of Wednesday's strike action.
This afternoon, Ryanair released a statement saying that have offered to meet with IMPACT members on Tuesday, a day before the proposed strike.
"Ryanair today confirmed that the German pilot union and IMPACT/IALPA have agreed to Ryanairs offer of meetings to agree union recognition on Wednesday 20 December," said the statement.
"Ryanair has also offered to meet IMPACT/IALPA and their Ryanair pilot committee on Tuesday 19 December if that would suit them better," added the statement.
On Friday, Ryanair announced that it would recognise unions for the first time in its 32-year history.
However, the airline had said that management would not be able to meet with IMPACT representatives until Wednesday.
IMPACT said that the planned strike would go ahead unless management arranged to meet with pilot's beforehand.
In its statement this afternoon, the airline said: "Ryanair has again called on IMPACT/ IALPA to cancel the threatened industrial action on Wednesday Dec 20 (as the Italian and German unions have already done) which is causing unnecessary concern and worry for thousands of Ryanair customers travelling home during Christmas week."
Speaking yesterday, CEO Michael O'Leary said the radical U-turn to recognise unions was a bid to avoid travel chaos for customers during Christmas week.
Mr OLeary spoke to the airlines chief captains across its almost 90 bases.
During a conference call with the pilots, Mr OLeary is understood to have said that the offer of union recognition from Ryanair today is genuine.
He also told pilots that the move will have a longer-term positive impact on the carrier.
In the first episode of The Big Tech Show, technology editor Adrian Weckler and Neva-Labs co-founder Mark Little discuss startups, gadgets, Facebook and the future of social media.
Little, a former RTE Prime Time anchor, Storyful founder and head of Twitter Ireland, questions the quality of the news that Facebook and other social networks show us every day.
Weckler and Little also compare existing media funding models with emerging ones, such as Patreon.
Little also explains some of the barriers of building a global startup out of Dublin.
And theres a quick roundup of the gadgets to avoid giving your loved ones this Christmas.
The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
Ryanair was the big mover in Dublin yesterday, its shares fell 8.9pc after the company said it would talk to pilot unions for the first time in a move aimed at averting a pre-Christmas strike.
However, the strike planned by Ryanair pilots days before Christmas may still go ahead, despite the airline's dramatic decision to recognise unions for the first time and personal reassurance from chief executive Michael O'Leary that the offer of recognition is genuine.
Speaking yesterday, CEO Michael O'Leary said the radical U-turn was a bid to avoid travel chaos for customers during Christmas week.
Mr OLeary spoke to the airlines chief captains across its almost 90 bases.
During a conference call with the pilots, Mr OLeary is understood to have said that the offer of union recognition from Ryanair today is genuine.
He also told pilots that the move will have a longer-term positive impact on the carrier.
Ryanair has sought a meeting with the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (IALPA) on Wednesday, the day planned strike action is set to take place, and has asked the union to call off the strike.
However IMPACT trade union, to which IALPA is affiliated, has indicated that the strike will go ahead as planned if a meeting is not held with representatives of the airline before then.
One day of industrial action is planned for Wednesday December 20 and will mostly involved captains.
In a statement yesterday evening Ryanair said:
"The IMPACT union promised to call off the strike if Ryanair conceded recognition. Theyve gotten our offer of recognition in writing and were happy to meet them next week, which itself is the first act in recognising IALPA.
"The UK and Italian unions have already agreed to meetings with Ryanair and have called off the threatened strike in Italy.
"The sensible course of action is for IALPA to meet with Ryanair next Wednesday, but call off the unnecessary threats of disruption to the Christmas flights of thousands of customers."
Right now, it seems as though there are two types of people online: those who are Cat Person people and those who aren't. In the former camp, you'll find people who think that Kristen Roupenian's New Yorker story Cat Person is the year's most seismic, daring and blazingly salient piece of writing.
The story follows the stilted date, and eventual bad sex, of Margot and Robbie, who fuelled their initial courtship with spicy text banter.
At only 4,000 words, Cat Person has received the sort of acclaim and publicity publishing houses barely dare dream of. A satirical short story written from the perspective of Robert also went viral, while a Twitter account now charts the responses from men indifferent to the story.
Women, meanwhile, have related to Margot's predicament in their thousands: at one point, it appears as though she changes her mind about having sex with Robert.
"That option, of blunt refusal, doesn't even consciously occur to her - she assumes that if she wants to say no she has to do so in a conciliatory, gentle, tactful way, in a way that would take an amount of effort that was impossible to summon," writes Roupenian. In the age of #metoo, Cat Person couldn't be any more zeitgeist-y if it tried.
Cat Person joins many illustrious writers in the humble short story hall of fame. To quote writer Lorrie Moore, "a short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film", and some of the biggest names in the business have, with good reason, opted for brevity.
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Annie Proulx's cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain was published in The New Yorker in 1997, and was eventually optioned and made into a movie in 2005 (the work has also been adapted as an opera by the same name).
Back in 1948, Shirley Jackson wrote The Lottery in a sort of fever dream. It described the tensions in a small town ahead of an annual ritual known as 'the lottery' that determines which resident will be sacrificed, and has become one of the most famous short stories in the canon. Readers cancelled their subscriptions to the New Yorker, which published the story, in protest, while Jackson received hate mail. And on its publication in post-war America, it certainly hit a nerve, speaking as it did of people's willingness to blindly follow traditions, seemingly without rhyme or reason.
Even writers who are no strangers to expansive, epic works have dabbled in the form, from Mark Twain and Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Edgar Allen Poe. And of course, we Irish have been no slouches ourselves on the short story front either. Maeve Brennan, Frank O'Connor, Mary Lavin, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and Sean O'Faolain came to prominence through the form. And there's James Joyce's The Dead of course, although at 15,952 words, it's closer to a novella than a short story.
It's not every day that a 4,000-word story breaks the internet like Cat Person did, but still, short story collections have become a much bigger story in publishing of late. Commercially and creatively, they have moved out from the fringes of the industry.
A new wave of writers has fought back against the cinching constraints of the genre with audacity, edginess and experimentation. By turns dark and spiky, Elske Rahill's short story collection, In White Ink, features a brilliantly diverse cast of mothers within 11 stories. Before Sally Rooney went on to achieve widespread acclaim with Conversations With Friends, she cut her teeth in short story anthologies like The Stinging Fly and Winter Papers. Colin Barrett, Rob Doyle, June Caldwell and Nuala O'Connor have also delivered striking snapshots of modern day Ireland. And thanks to a demented, anarchic collection, the Rubberbandits' BlindBoy Boatclub can now add bestselling short story author to his CV.
"Traditionally, the short story - think John McGahern or Claire Keegan - has been about what's not said, and what's left out. But now, there's nothing subtle about short stories," says author and former journalist June Caldwell, who released her debut short story collection Room Little Darker to acclaim earlier this year.
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"The groundswell at the moment in short stories has a lot to do with the way we communicate on social media. In an era where everything is so constrained and PC and people are afraid of pissing others off, literature is a safe place to go wild and express anything you want. They suit our attention span and our collective psyche.
"I'm having more fun with the truth as a fiction writer than I ever did as a journalist."
Force is strong in this one: The Last Jedi is great but not on a par with The Empire Strikes Back
When The Last Jedi was first shown to industry insiders in Hollywood on Saturday, gushing tweets compared it to The Empire Strikes Back. That 1980 film is the gold standard of the franchise. Im not quite sure The Last Jedi is up to those standards, but it definitely is one of the better instalments.
So how does it compare with the rest? Heres my ranking of the Star Wars films to date, in order of preference.
1. Star Wars Episode V:
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Five stars
Harrison Fords wise-cracking space pirate Han Solo is arguably everyones favourite Star Wars character, and he came into his own in Empire Strikes Back, a breathlessly paced space
adventure which was enlivened by a good story, better effects and Lawrence Kasdans more witty screenplay. Han and Leia fell in love and Darth Vader shocked us all by telling Luke he was his father.
2. Star Wars Episode VII:
The Force Awakens (2015)
Five stars
When Lucasfilm was sold to Disney in 2012, new Star Wars movies became inevitable, and we braced ourselves for the worst. Instead, we got The Force Awakens JJ Abrams inspired franchise revival that caught the spirit of the original three films and added new charms of its own. At the press screening I attended, hardened critics wiped a tear from the eye as Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon dramatically reappeared.
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3. Star Wars Episode IV:
A New Hope (1977)
Four stars
You have to admire Lucass nerve in getting A New Hope made in the first place. Sci-fi was out of fashion, special effects were in their infancy, and many of the films cast thought they were working on a cast-iron flop. They were wrong, of course, and A New Hopes appeal lay in its mythical storyline, the chemistry of its young stars and the originality of Lucass vision.
4. Rogue One (2016)
Four stars
Released as a stand-alone chronological prequel to A New Hope, Rogue One (2016) stars Felicity Jones as the daughter of a scientist whos recruited by the Rebellion to help destroy a horrific new Imperial weapon the Death Star. Directed by Gareth Edwards, it was very good indeed, with a surprising ending.
5. Star Wars Episode VIII:
The Last Jedi (2017)
Fiur stars
Some critics moaned about The Last Jedis length and said it felt like a compilation of Star Wars greatest hits. But I thought it more original than that, successfully reintroducing Luke Skywalker to the franchise in those fantastic scenes with Daisy Ridley on Skellig Michael and ending in spectacular fashion with an unforgettable space battle. To top it off, it seemed a fitting farewell to Carrie Fisher, and Princess Leia.
6. Star Wars Episode VI:
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Three stars
After The Empire Strikes Back the only way was down and Return of the Jedi felt a little stiff and contrived by comparison. It had its moments, however, like that thrilling speeder bike chase through the trees on the forest moon of Endor, and Lukes heroic attempts to save the soul of his potato-headed father.
7. Star Wars Episode III:
Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Three stars
The least awful instalment of the dull prequel trilogy, Revenge of the Sith was a marked improvement on Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, partly because it featured Anakin Skywalkers dramatic transformation into Darth Vader. It was watchable.
8. Star Wars Episode I:
The Phantom Menace (1999)
Two stars
Set 30-odd years before the events in the original 1977 film, Lucass pompous prequel charted the rise of Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Which sounds interesting but was oddly boring and burdened with the presence of Jar-Jar Binks, a goggle-eyed alien who enraged audiences.
9. Star Wars Episode II:
Attack of the Clones (2002)
Two stars
Tedious and convoluted, Attack of the Clones was laden down with the soapy love affair between Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Queen Padme (Natalie Portman), and made one yearn for the sneering irreverence of Han Solo.
Films coming soon...
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (Jack Black, Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, Bobby Cannavale): Pitch Perfect 3 (Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Elizabeth Banks, John Lithgow).
Mrs Browns Boys creator Brendan OCarroll has revealed he turned down a huge fee from Russia because of the possibility of the Rory character being cut.
The actor, whose show is broadcast in countries like Romania, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, said his show would have reached a massive audience if it was shown in Russia.
However, he said without Rory - who was played by Rory Cowen until earlier this year - he wouldnt let the show be broadcast there.
They didnt want any gay, Russia in particular. It was a nice little deal, its a big country so the fee youd charge for the licensing is audience-related, so its a big audience and it would have been a nice fee.
But no gay, absolutely no gay. So I said no gay, no show, he told RTEs Marion Finnucane.
In Romania, Rory appears on the show, but its never mentioned that hes gay, OCarroll revealed.
The Rory character is gay and he has a boyfriend but they never mention that hes gay. But its Rory.
The comedian who plays Mrs Brown in Romania he doesnt even bother trying to put on a voice, he said.
Meanwhile, OCarroll could not be drawn on who will take over as the new Rory, following the departure of Rory Cowen.
The new Rory, well its the old Rory, but hes had plastic surgery, and the bandages come off on Christmas Day and everybody gets to see him.
He looks like Rory, he said.
Deano loves him, but I think Deano would like anyone with blonde hair and glasses, I think hes a bit of a slut.
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The reveal is very, very good, OCarroll admitted. Hes bandaged for the first half of the episode.
Hes much more soft spoken than Rory is. Hes still as camp though.
Brendan's wife Jenny suggested the new Rory actor to Brendan, he revealed, even though theyd already had numerous offers from actors.
We had so many people on straight away saying I could be the new Rory, I could be the new Rory.
The annual Rally for Life march in Dublin in July was met by pro-choice groups campaigning to repeal the Eighth Amendment. Photo: Fergal Phillips
A sense of trepidation filled the corridors of Leinster House this week. Why? Because the issue of abortion has raised its head once again - and this time it cannot be ignored.
Leinster House is a strange place.
It's a bubble made up of people, most of whom are solely focused on being re-elected next time around.
But if there's one thing politicians hate, it's dealing with an issue of conscience.
Cabinet ministers, TDs and senior political advisers all told last night of their concerns about the campaign ahead.
Even within the political parties, views on the abortion issue are split.
Take Fine Gael for example: the party lost some of its brightest stars over the abortion issue, Lucinda Creighton being the best example.
The decision by Ms Creighton, Billy Timmins, Terence Flanagan, Brian Walsh and Paul Bradford left wounds.
They are wounds that remain unhealed - despite the passing of landmark legislation.
The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill was passed into law in June 2013, but there's no guarantee the same step will be taken four years on.
Amid all the fanfare and celebrations from the pro choice TDs, we all need to take a step back.
All that has happened is an Oireachtas committee has recommended the repeal of the Eighth Amendment - almost 35 years after its insertion into the Constitution.
It has recommended a regime that would see abortions carried out up to 12 weeks.
The recommendation doesn't go as far as what was proposed by the Citizens' Assembly, which for many people laid bare a set of recommendations.
But those preparing for a miraculous day in May of next year would be advised to take stock.
That's because at this point, the politicians don't know themselves what sort of proposal to put before the people.
So where do we go from here?
The question that will appear on the ballot paper will be simple and along the lines of: 'Do you wish to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution and replace it with appropriate legislation?'
Health Minister Simon Harris has been working closely with Attorney General Seamus Woulfe to develop the legislation in the event of all outcomes.
However, the Government is not in a position to publish the legislation in full - otherwise it will be accused of coming down on one side.
The big difficulty is whether the country's politicians can unite and give the people a say on arguably the most pressing issue of a generation.
I have spoken to senior figures in Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein, and all concur that the prospect of repealing the Eighth Amendment is far from certain.
It's worth repeating: the referendum question will not deal with a period of gestation. Voters will not be asked for up to what period they believe an abortion is acceptable, be it 12 weeks or 20 weeks.
That detail will be outlined in legislation that will follow, possibly weeks after the vote itself.
The sense of unknown could have a serious impact on the tone of the campaign itself.
But the pressure will be piled on TDs and senators.
Constituency offices, even homes, will be picketed.
Extensive campaign material will be sent through the post. The media too will come under massive pressure to give both sides a fair showing.
But above all, the power is in the hands of our politicians.
Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar has indicated he will allow a free vote - but he has yet to make any concrete pledge.
It's understood up to 18 Fine Gael politicians are sceptical about a proposed repeal of the Eighth Amendment and favour a free vote.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has gone further than the Taoiseach, promising his parliamentary party members that they can vote by their conscience.
This is despite the fact the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis voted to retain the Eighth Amendment - in stark contrast to the position of the party's front bench.
Sinn Fein has its own difficulty in that one of its own deputies, Meath West TD Peadar Toibin, is opposed to liberalising the country's abortion laws.
However, Sinn Fein has pledged to bring the issue of abortion to a special conference and is expected to adopt a position that the Eighth Amendment should be repealed.
At senior level across all parties, there is a consensus that the status quo has to change.
But equally, there is a clear sense that Ireland is heading towards a crossroads.
The public must have their say on this most sensitive issue.
But that option will only be availed of if our politicians have the capacity to work together.
The most important work of Dail Eireann will happen in the weeks to come.
A "terrified" elderly man was threatened that he would be kneecapped before he was forced to withdraw more than 15,000 from his bank after a couple armed with a hammer broke into his home, it has been alleged.
The 65-year-old was told his extended family was being watched and he was struck in the face before the raiders brought him to the bank and made him take out the cash, gardai said.
Mother-of-two Catherine Dempsey (25) was refused bail after she appeared in Dublin District Court charged in connection with the alleged raid on the man's house in Terenure, Dublin.
Her partner Carlos Lawrence (26) also appeared in court and was remanded in custody for a week after he made no bail application.
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Mr Lawrence, from Rosary Road, Maryland, and Ms Dempsey, of Michael Mallin House, Vicar Street, in the south inner city, are both charged with burglary while being in possession of a wedge hammer at Wainsfort Manor Grove, Terenure. Garda John Walsh said he was objecting to bail in Ms Dempsey's case, citing the nature and seriousness of the charge.
Garda Walsh said in the early hours of December 13, it was alleged Mr Lawrence and his partner Ms Dempsey forcibly entered the home of a 65-year-old man.
It was alleged Mr Lawrence had the hammer, demanded money and threatened the alleged victim with it, Gda Walsh said.
The man was threatened he would be kneecapped if he did not comply, that his extended family were being watched, and he was struck in the face, Gda Walsh added.
It was alleged the man's phone was taken and 150 was taken from his wallet.
He was then forced to go to two ATMs where he withdrew his daily maximum of 1,200, and the next morning was further threatened and brought to AIB in Rathgar, where he withdrew 15,000 "which was handed over to the suspects".
Gda Walsh said the maximum sentence on conviction for aggravated burglary was life imprisonment.
He said it was an "extremely frightening" ordeal for the alleged injured party.
Further charges of false imprisonment or robbery could be brought, he said.
They were known to the man and were positively identified by him, it was alleged. Gda Walsh said there was also corroborative CCTV evidence.
Judge Brian O'Shea said it seemed the allegation was one of joint enterprise. He remanded Ms Dempsey in custody to appear in court again on Friday, while Mr Lawrence will appear in Cloverhill District Court on December 22.
Neither accused has indicated how they intend to plead.
High Court proceedings have been issued by KBC Bank Ireland against Culture Minister Josepha Madigan and her brother Patrick.
The details of the dispute have yet to be disclosed, but it is believed to be connected to a property their family law firm, Madigans Solicitors, had dealings with many years ago.
KBC is seeking what is known as "specific performance", which generally speaking is an order from a court requiring defendants to fulfil the terms of a contract.
The case was initiated in the High Court in Dublin on Thursday, just a fortnight after Ms Madigan received her seal of office from President Michael D Higgins.
The first-time Fine Gael TD stepped back from her work as a solicitor after being elected to the Dail and was said to be unaware what the case was about.
Patrick Madigan, who is the firm's managing partner, said he could not comment as papers had yet to be served on him by the bank.
KBC declined to comment. The Irish Independent understands the case relates to a property KBC has appointed a receiver to.
The receiver had been trying to sell the property but ran into a technical difficulty.
The problem is thought to date back around 20 years to when the minister's father, the late Paddy Madigan, ran the practice and was involved in closing the sale of the property for a client.
It is understood discussions took place between the firm and the bank to resolve the matter before the case was initiated.
Ms Madigan, a former county councillor, was elected to the Dail in Dublin Rathdown in 2016, dislodging former justice minister Alan Shatter.
She was appointed to Cabinet directly from the back benches in the reshuffle which followed former tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald's resignation.
While practising as a solicitor, Ms Madigan specialised in family law and civil litigation.
A businessman was sentenced to five months in jail after flinging an 11-year-old boy against the plate glass window of a sandwich shop following a minor row over splashed water.
Niall Scully (43) received the prison term after he was convicted of assault at Galway District Court - but is appealing the severity of the sentence.
Scully, of Bluebell Woods, Oranmore, Co Galway, was charged following an incident on the street outside a popular sandwich bar in Galway on September 22, 2016.
The 11-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was playing outside the shop and apparently accidentally splashed the man with water as he walked by.
A dispute arose with the defendant, who was aggrieved at being splashed.
The boy's mother said that, without warning, the man lifted the boy off the ground and flung him against the shop window.
The boy was left shocked and frightened at the scene.
Gardai investigated the matter and examined CCTV security camera footage from a business premises at the scene.
The boy had vehemently denied suggestions he had spat at the man, or had deliberately splashed him to provoke him.
The court took the view that the CCTV camera footage largely endorsed the boy's version of events.
"It was absolutely appalling what he did to a child," the boy's mother said.
Affected
Judge Mary Fahy was given a detailed victim impact statement which had been prepared by the boy.
"I have been hugely affected ... since this happened," the boy wrote.
"I left soccer and stopped going outside.
"At night I would get out of bed not being able to sleep and having to wake my mammy ... or to get mam to sleep beside me.
"The stress that this has put on my mam and me and my family has been horrendous. I no longer felt safe in the home we lived in.
"I want him to leave us alone and for us to be happy again," he added.
"My mam has been so sad since all of this.
"I always blame myself saying if I didn't tell my mam (what happened) none of this would be happening.
"(But) my mam told me I done the right thing by telling her and it is not my fault."
Despite pleas from defence counsel for her to handle the matter in a non-custodial manner, the judge imposed a five-month prison sentence.
The businessman immediately lodged an appeal with the matter now set to come before Galway Circuit Appeals Court.
The defendant was released from custody pending his appeal, which is likely to be heard in mid-2018.
A teacher dismissed over allegations by two overseas students, including of making sexual advances to one while drinking, can continue to seek teaching jobs because a High Court bid to suspend his registration cannot proceed.
The teacher was subject of the first ever High Court application by the Teaching Council of Ireland, the teachers regulatory body, to suspend a teacher's registration pending a Council inquiry into the allegations.
The suspension application, initiated earlier this year, had to be withdrawn last month because both students, having completed their Leaving Certificates, refused to return from their native countries to give evidence to the inquiry.
In those circumstances, the teacher withdrew his previous undertaking not to seek to teach here or in any other EU member State and also sought his legal costs against the Council.
The Council made the suspension of registration application under Section 47 of the Teaching Council Acts 2001-2015 which requires such applications must be heard in private.
Section 47 provides the Council can apply for suspension of a teacher's registration if satisfied that is in the public interest.
The Council earlier this year received a complaint from the headmaster of the school where the teacher had been employed which related to allegations by two students.
The first student alleged he had been drinking one evening with the teacher who had made a sexual advance towards him; that he and the second student were brought by the teacher to his private home for a weekend on three occasions; and that he drank alcohol on a regular basis, and also smoked "weed", with the teacher.
The first student declined to make a complaint against the teacher when asked to do so by gardai.
The second student separately alleged he regularly, at least three times weekly, drank substantial quantities of alcohol and smoked "weed" in the teacher's house.
Giving a judgment in relation to legal costs of the suspension application,the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, said the students' complaints were much more detailed but it was unnecessary to further detail them for this judgment.
He said the school acted once the allegations were made, the teacher was suspended on full pay and a disciplinary hearing upheld four of seven allegations. Those were found to constitute "gross misconduct" by the teacher and he was dismissed immediately.
After the headmaster made his complaint, the Council informed the teacher there would be consideration of a Section 47 application.
When that application was heard in the High Court last May, the Council accepted his undertaking, pending the inquiry, not to teach in any school here or in any other EU member state and permitting the Council notify authorities of the terms of the undertaking, which had the same legal effect as a court order.
The Council also undertook to notify the teacher if it decided, during its investigation, to inform the National Vetting Bureau of the matter. The order also permitted the Council to respond frankly and honestly to any inquiry about the teacher's registration status and to provide details of his undertaking.
After it became clear by last month neither student would give evidence at the inquiry, it was accepted the most serious elements of the complaints against the teacher cannot be pursued, the judge noted.
The matter then returned to court when the teacher said he would not continue his undertaking not to teach and the Council said it could not pursue the suspension. The Council did not seek costs against him but he sought costs against it.
Mr Justice Kelly refused to grant the teacher his costs.
The normal rule in legal cases, that costs go to the winning side, was not applicable to such applications, he found. The Council's exercise of the suspension function places it in a "wholly different" position to that of a party to ordinary civil litigation.
A costs order would only be considered if the suspension application was improperly brought or there was gross negligence in its preparation, neither of which applied here.
While the suspension application was held in private, Mr Justice Kelly's judgment on costs was delivered in public, having excluded all details that might identify those involved.
The sentencing of a man convicted of a sex attack on a woman during a date arranged through the Tinder dating app has been adjourned to allow the prosecution to clarify his previous convictions.
The 36-year-old Dublin man was convicted last month by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of sexually assaulting the woman on the UCD campus, south Dublin, on July 23, 2014.
The jury took around 90 minutes to return a unanimous verdict of guilty on the single count. Paul Burns SC, prosecuting, told Judge Cormac Quinn that the prosecution needed to get formal records of the man's previous convictions from another European country when he was a minor.
Defence lawyer Paul Flannery SC said they wanted to seek the opinion of a criminal lawyer from that country on whether these convictions were "spent" or expunged under that country's law, and whether they can be taken into account in this case.
Mr Flannery also asked the court to order a psychiatric report.
The case will be back before the court next week for legal argument relating to the issue of previous convictions. Judge Quinn adjourned sentencing to March 2 and remanded the man in continuing custody.
The trial heard that the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had met the woman on Tinder and had chatted online for some weeks before arranging to meet up.
The student told the trial that she was using Tinder to meet Irish people to practice speaking English.
She said that she believed they were meeting to go for a coffee.
After driving the complainant to a secluded field on the campus, the woman said the man became like "a monster".
The man had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the woman.
Some 230 women a month could potentially avail of a medical abortion if the measure is eventually supported in a referendum.
A majority of Irish women who have abortions in the UK terminate their pregnancy within 12 weeks.
Last year, 2,766 women from the Republic who travelled to UK abortion clinics were 12 or less weeks pregnant.
Figures showed that 2,256 had an abortion at between three to nine weeks, and another 510 between 10 to 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The Oireachtas will have to decide early in 2018 if the proposal to allow unrestricted abortion here up to 12 weeks of pregnancy is put to the electorate in a referendum.
Draft proposals that have been drawn up in the event of this becoming law envisage a GP-led service.
Women at this stage of gestation would have a medical abortion.
This involves taking abortion pills, two medications, usually 24 to 48 hours apart, to induce a miscarriage.
The HSE would have to ensure there is counselling involved, as well as access to scans for these women seeking an abortion.
The Government would also have to decide if the service should be paid for, and if it would be free to medical card holders. Last year, 499 women with addresses in the Republic had abortions in the UK after 12 weeks.
A minority of women were 20 or more weeks pregnant.
Meanwhile, a new report has called for lessons to be learned from the deaths of women during and after pregnancy in Ireland and the UK.
The report of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity looked at the care of women who died between 2013 and 2015 in the UK and Republic of Ireland from neurological conditions, other medical and surgical conditions, sepsis, anaesthetic complications, haemorrhage and amniotic fluid embolism.
The referendum to be held next year may include a question on whether the public would support abortion to protect the health of a woman.
The report has information on 556 women who died during or up to one year after the end of pregnancy between 2013 and 2015.
It said that high level actions are needed to ensure that it is seen as the responsibility of all health professionals to facilitate opportunistic pre- and post-pregnancy counselling for a woman with a pre-existing medical condition.
Cardiac disease remains the leading cause of indirect maternal death during or up to six weeks after the end of pregnancy.
It said that pregnant women with epilepsy often face additional physical, mental health or social problems.
Positive
Dr Peter Boylan, of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: "There is always room for improvement. Guidelines for optimum care are constantly reviewed and updated, as is the training of doctors and midwives who are caring for mothers and delivering babies across Ireland.
"The implementation of the National Maternity Strategy is also a very positive step for the Irish maternity services and the establishment of the National Women and Infants Health Programme.
"It is essential that women with underlying physical and mental health problems are supported and receive advice around medication and to plan for contraception as well as the next pregnancy.
"It is important for all women to keep as healthy as possible before becoming pregnant to avoid problems."
Ryanair announced it will recognise unions for the first time in its 32-year history and may avoid strike action by agreeing to meet to meet with trade union Impact on Tuesday, a day before the planned 24-hour strike.
Ryanairs chief people officer Eddie Wilson wrote to unions in Ireland, Italy, Spain, the UK and Germany yesterday inviting them to talks in order to recognise them as the representative bodies for Ryanair pilots in each of those countries.
Strike action in Ireland planned for Wednesday by staff Ryanair pilots, who are members of the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (Ialpa) may be averted after the airline's management agreed to meet with trade union Impact on Tuesday.
Ryanair had earlier told the union that the company was unable to meet with them until Wednesday. However, on Saturday the airline issued a statement announcing that it would meet with the union on Tuesday, a day before the strike.
"Ryanair today confirmed that the German pilot union and IMPACT/IALPA have agreed to Ryanairs offer of meetings to agree union recognition on Wednesday 20 December," said the statement.
"Ryanair has also offered to meet IMPACT/IALPA and their Ryanair pilot committee on Tuesday 19 December if that would suit them better," added the statement.
Mr OLeary held a conference call yesterday with chief pilots across Ryanairs almost 90-strong base network. He told them the offer of union recognition was genuine.
Pilots in Ryanair mobilised fast after the rostering fiasco in September which saw around 20,000 flights across Europe cancelled.
Pilots and unions across Europe have been methodically tightening the screws on Ryanair for months, demanding union recognition, the right to bargain collectively, and better working conditions.
Despite Mr O'Leary vowing that he would never recognise unions, it was clear that there was a groundswell of support among Ryanair pilots to stand their ground and initiate change, no matter how much Ryanair wanted to deny it.
Mr OLeary had incensed his own pilots following the airlines annual general meeting in September, in the midst of the rostering failure, by dismissing the complexity of their work. He later insisted his comments had been taken out of context.
In early October, he penned a letter to his 4,200 pilots, urging them not to leave for rival airlines. This from the billionaire chief executive who once described pilots as glorified taxi drivers.
Meanwhile, Ryanair went on a hiring scramble. It needed to shore up its pilot numbers, especially as its fleet continues to expand.
Seasoned pilots, meanwhile, were busy making sure they would be on solid legal ground if they decided to take industrial action. It was an arduous task given the 87 bases in the Ryanair network. But across Europe, they linked up with unions, forming Ryanair councils under those unions umbrellas so that when they took action they would have legal and organisation backing.
Pilots were carefully plotting the strategy that would lead to this weeks events. They just thought it would take a lot longer.
Weeks ago, the Irish Independent was aware that strikes close to Christmas were a real possibility and were being considered if Ryanair didnt proactively respond to pilot demands.
While publicly Ryanair dismissed the pilot movement, it was clearly concerned.
The extensive reporting in this newspaper including reports that revealed the significant resolve of pilots to achieve their aims led to Ryanair initiating legal against this reporter and INM, the publisher of this newspaper.
The airlines communications became erratic.
Replies from the airline to business-like queries from this newspaper regarding the pilots efforts to unionise as well as the threat of strikes, were increasingly personalised, and lacked the tone one would expect from a large corporation in its dealings with anyone.
Meanwhile, the airline drafted in its own former executive, Peter Bellew, in an effort to help quell the pilot dissent.
He was working as chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, but parachuted from there to join Ryanair as its chief operations officer. He probably played a pivotal role in Ryanairs unprecedented announcement yesterday.
But as it came clear pilots had organised across Europe and were preparing industrial action, Ryanair started to threaten them. That incensed them ever further.
The airline said that any of its pilots or cabin crew who went on strike would be hit with pay cuts, changes to working rosters, and no promotions.
Pilots who spoke to the Irish Independent were incredulous. Their organisers told them to stand firm in the face of the onslaught, and stressed they would fall if they became divided or wavered. But it was under Ryanair management that the ground was moving. The sheer momentum behind Ryanairs pilots across Europe had reached critical mass.
Once the pilots in Ireland announced they would strike next week, the Portuguese followed suit. Pilots in Italy were already set to strike yesterday, and Ryanair staff pilots in Germany who were union members were preparing behind the scenes to strike next week.
There was a chain reaction under way. For Ryanair, the danger was it would completely lose control of the situation. The fuse had been lit. But Ryanair, like a scene from a movie with only seconds left to avert catastrophe, has clipped the right wire. The countdown had stopped. Or so it seemed.
See the full story in today's Irish Independent.
The Government is backing a strategy to encourage international companies to use Ireland as their go-to location to settle legal disputes in the wake of Brexit.
If successful, the initiative, which has been led by the Bar of Ireland, could be worth hundreds of millions of euro annually to the Irish economy and create thousands of jobs.
However, Ireland will face significant competition, with several other European jurisdictions indicating they will also be making a play for lucrative international legal business, which is expected to leave the UK following Brexit.
The UK is the venue for a huge volume of international disputes, with around 80pc of cases in the London Commercial Court involving at least one non-UK party. In almost half of its case in 2010, all of the parties were foreign.
Much of this work is expected to leave the UK in future amid fears judgments will not be enforced in EU member states as easily as they currently are.
The strategy, which is expected to be launched by Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan in the comings weeks, will involve efforts to convince international firms to use Irish law as the governing law of contracts and to designate Ireland as the forum for resolving disputes.
Unique
Writing in the 'Bar Review' journal, Bar Council chairman Paul McGarry SC said Brexit presented a "unique opportunity" to encourage international companies to use the Irish legal system.
Ireland will be the only English-speaking common law jurisdiction fully integrated into the European legal order after March 2019.
He said a series of events are due to take place early next year to promote the strategy, including a major conference in Dublin in early March.
Mr McGarry said the Bar had worked with the Department of Justice and IDA Ireland to formulate a detailed proposal on opportunities to increase the market for international legal services in Ireland.
The IDA will play a key role in seeking to drive international legal business towards the Irish courts.
It has already been working to encourage international law firms to locate in Ireland.
But competition is expected from France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
English language commercial courts have been proposed in Frankfurt and Amsterdam, while there are also proposals for an English language division of the French court system to deal with financial matters.
An international commercial court has also been proposed for Brussels.
Over a fifth of the UK's legal market is driven by international work, while the proportion in Ireland is less than 10pc.
A Bar of Ireland proposal document for the Department of Justice suggested there could be between 3,000 and 5,000 additional jobs in the sector if the strategy is implemented.
An Irish teacher on life-support in Dubai after suffering a blood clot in her leg is "slowly but surely starting to come around", her boyfriend has said.
Doctors have now taken Aisling Brady (26) off sedation and her family are hopeful that a full assessment of her condition can be made in the next 48 hours.
The young teacher, from Trim, Co Meath, has been in hospital in the UAE since November 27 after she fainted in the school where she works.
While being transferred to hospital, she suffered three seizures, three cardiac arrests and a stroke as a result of the blood clot.
Ms Brady's mother, Antoinette, has said her condition was caused by a pulmonary embolism which formed in her leg over a long period of time, eventually causing clots to travel to her heart, lungs and brain.
The teacher had moved to the UAE in 2016 and had travelled on a number of long-haul flights this year, which doctors believe may have worsened the pulmonary embolism.
Her mother and father Terry have travelled to Dubai to be by her bedside.
They are now hoping to bring her home to Ireland and an online campaign was started by Aisling's boyfriend, Kristian Mansfield, to raise the necessary funds. More than 100,000 has been raised in a little over 24 hours.
"When we put the page out, I had a mental stretch target of 30,000 in mind over the next 21 days. What you all have done for Aisling and her family, words cannot describe. Thank you from the bottom of all our hearts," Mr Mansfield said.
"Slowly but surely she is starting to come around and today they took her off sedation completely.
"Every breath being taken was by Aisling and not the machine. This has brought us relief as it was something we were very concerned about - although there may still be some assistance for the short to medium term, it is another massive milestone towards recovery.
"We have been with her through most of the day, she is more alert, although extremely drowsy and is following our movements and reacting to touch."
The Brady family are now trying to get Aisling home by air ambulance. The jet will need to fly at a much lower altitude and a cardiac specialist, neuro specialist, a doctor and nurses will have to travel on board. You can donate to the GoFundMe page at: www.gofundme.com/bring-aisling-home.
A Kerry councillor has protested against the proposed housing of refugees in a former Killarney guesthouse.
Linden House in Killarney is set to become an accommodation centre for 55 people currently in the asylum and refugee process.
The Department of Justice confirmed that the first few people seeking international protection will arrive before Christmas.
However, a number of protesers gathered outside Linden House today, before handing in a petition.
The protest was led by local Councillor Donal Grady who argued that the council needs to "see after our own" before accommodating the refugees.
Speaking to Radio Kerry, Cllr Grady said the needs of those on the housing list in the local community needs to be met first.
"It's about time we got our act together," he said.
"We have 1,600 on our housing list in the Killarney area and it's time we started seeing after our own.
"I'm not saying that these people haven't gone through bad times. Of course, I'm sure they have.
"But you should see what some of our people are going through.
"I'm very concerned about the way things are going and it's time to say 'listen, we mist see after our own' because they are not fixing that."
In a petition handed to Linden House today, Cllr Grady said he wanted to make it clear that the community believes that "people from war torn areas like Iraq and Syria should be accepted in our country".
But he said the community is concerned that the council did not consult with them before making the decision.
He also expressed concerns over the lack of transparency around the vetting process.
Cllr Grady argued that local families are being housed in Tralee and have to travel to Killarney daily in order to take their children to school.
"It is our wish that these [of] our own community should be looked after first. Then and only then we would be in a position to support the nationwide position of housing refugees," he wrote.
The letter was signed by members of the local community.
In an agreemenr with the EU, Ireland has said that it will accept an additional 330 refugees next year as part of its response to the migration crisis facing people fleeing war-zones in Syria, Yemen and some other states.
Under the EU re-location programme refugees will also continue to be housed in existing centres in Waterford, Roscommon, Kildare and Meath.
SPONTANEOUS human combustion is a phenomenon as rare as it is puzzling.
But such is the bafflement surrounding the death of an Irish pensioner who caught fire in the street, some are now speculating that the gruesome scientific anomaly is to blame.
John Nolan (70) died from horrific burns after being found ablaze near his home in north London in September.
Detectives have now said that after weeks of investigation, they have found no obvious cause for the fire.
Spontaneous human combustion is a fiercely debated process, characterised by near-total destruction of the body with little surrounding damage.
It has been attributed to fewer than 200 deaths in history and was famously depicted in Charles Dickenss Bleak House, where the alcoholic Krook combusts with no apparent cause.
Mr Nolan, described as a gentle, nice man, had no accelerants on his body, according to police, and London Fire Brigade investigators found no source of ignition.
Yet relatives later said he suffered burns to his internal organs.
Originally from Co Mayo, the former construction worker was airlifted to Colchester hospital and died surrounded by family members after doctors withdrew life-support.
PC Damien Ait-Amer, who is investigating the death, said: Mr Nolan was a well-liked member of the community and none of our enquiries so far has indicated that he had been involved in a dispute of any sort, nor does any account given by witnesses suggest that he had been in contact with another person at the time of the fire.
The Metropolitan Police is now appealing for witnesses to help officers solve the case. Bernard Knight, who conducted more than 25,000 post-mortems during 31 years as a Home Office pathologist, said the wick effect can explain the phenomenon whereby the clothing of a victim soaks up melted fat and accelerates a fire.
But he said it was ridiculous to suggest a body could ignite without an external cause.
For someone to walk out onto the streets and just burst into flames is extremely peculiar, he told The Daily Telegraph.
In the course of my career I saw maybe three or four cases of so-called spontaneous combustion, but they were all indoors near an open fireplace.
In one case the body had burnt through the floor.
He added: This is very unusual because it took place outside, but a failure to find a cause does not mean there isnt one.
In 2011, a Galway coroner designated spontaneous combustion as the cause of death of a 76-year-old Michael Faherty.
His body was found badly burnt in the fireplace of his home at Ballybane, Galway city, but experts said this had not been the cause of the blaze.
Mr Nolans nephew, Kevin Byrne, told The Irish Sun: His face and head were swollen and his hair was burnt off, it was really horrible stuff.
How does a man just go on fire in the middle of the street?
( Daily Telegraph London)
Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Little Lucas, who is now three months old.
"I love everything that surrounds Christmas, but there's a part of our family missing and it's hard to take; it's still quite raw."
This time last year, Irish musician Rodney Beggs and his wife Sinead (37) were grieving the loss of their baby daughter.
Mary was only 20 months old when she succumbed to Cloves syndrome - an incurable one in 50 million disorder - on February 27, 2016.
She died in her mother's arms at the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, for which the couple have now raised more than 30,000 (34,010), courtesy of the Mary Beggs tribute fund.
Her parents are still trying to cope with the devastating loss of Mary, but there is little doubt that their new precious little baby Lucas, who was born just three months ago, has brought untold joy into their lives.
"The pregnancy went smoothly, but it was still a very worrying time until he was born and in our arms and we were told that everything was okay," said Rodney.
Describing how it felt to hold Lucas for the first time after his birth on September 12, Rodney (35) added: "It was emotional on both levels of happiness and sadness.
"It brought back a lot of memories.
"It was surreal, it wasn't that long ago I was holding Mary for the last time."
Shortly after Mary came into the world on June 20, 2014, she was diagnosed with the rare neurological condition that required her to have an operation at only two weeks old.
Seven days later she suffered her first seizure and from that moment on she had 50 or 60 of them a day.
Mary wasn't discharged from hospital until she was two months old and the family's life then became a series of hospital appointments and consultations.
But Rodney and Sinead, a former driving instructor, never thought that Christmas 2015 would be their infant's last, which makes this year with new son Lucas all the more poignant.
"He's thriving, he's a good, settled baby," Rodney said.
"Lucas is very interactive, very personable and has developed a character and cheeky grin very quickly. He's developing really well."
The father added: "He smiles a lot, more than most babies, which is lovely because we got very little reaction from Mary due to her condition."
Having Lucas has brought them closer together as a couple, and a family, but Rodney admitted that it continues to be a balancing act when it comes to their emotions.
"It has definitely healed a lot of wounds and brought a wee bit of joy back to us," he said.
Rodney - who is stepdad to Sinead's two sons Tiarnan (11) and seven-year-old Johnny - said everyone was looking forward to Christmas, but admitted that Mary's death still casts a long shadow.
Rodney, proprietor of The Music Rooms, an instrument and music workshop business which now has shops in Antrim, Ballymena and, since September, Coleraine, said that business is booming.
He also does a lot of work in 20 schools across Northern Ireland, supplying music teachers and running workshops.
Raising money for the hospice is very important to the couple, who have now hit the 30,000 mark - most recently donating 1,200 from a Christmas charity night.
"We wanted to give something back," Rodney said.
"We're proud that the spirit of Mary lives on by helping other wee boys and girls who have life-limiting illnesses.
"We're content to give something to the hospice which helped us so much whenever we were going through a really difficult time in our lives.
"The Music Rooms runs a charity gig every year where kids from our music schools perform in a concert in the Braid Arts Centre in Ballymena.
"We always used to give to the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) before what happened with Mary. What we do now is split whatever we raise 50-50 - so this year we gave 1,200 to the RNIB and 1,200 to the hospice."
In the spirit of "having fun with music" Rodney arranged for the children, aged seven to 17, to record a single in a Coleraine studio, with a music video, for Christmas "to give them a platform and get them up online".
So, for the first time, 20 pupils from his private music schools joined those from schools they teach in and can be seen on Youtube and Facebook singing All I Want For Christmas Is You. It has had over 100,000 views now.
Around the same time, Rodney's folk and bluegrass band, The Coves, which plays at weddings and corporate events all over Northern Ireland, did a video and cover version of Fairytale Of New York for Christmas, with Ashleigh Kilgore singing.
"We put it out there. It hasn't been as successful as the kids one because we're obviously all not young and cute, but we've got about 15,000 views, which is great," he added.
While Mary's memory is omnipresent, the Randalstown couple don't have far to look for a physical reminder of the child they lost way too soon.
"Lucas is very like Mary; there are massive resemblances," said Rodney.
"This Christmas we'll be celebrating a new life while quietly mourning Mary. But Lucas is definitely the best present we could have had."
Watch the videos online at https://youtu.be/LTdipkP87rY music rooms Christmas Single and https://youtu.be/QeKUa0DyIzg the coves Fairytale Of New York
Ashley posted this photo which was taken after an incident in October. Photo: Ashley Bibbo
A mother in the US has spoken out about the horrific bullying her 11-year-old son suffers at school on a regular basis.
Ashley Bibbos son has high-functioning autism and has been repeatedly assaulted by bullies at school who have left him with lacerations and bruises on his face.
After writing about her sons tragic experiences in a heartbreaking Facebook post, Bibbos story has been widely shared online, with fellow parents offering their condolences and support.
Bibbo, based in Colorado explained that most people who interact with her son wouldnt recognise that he was autistic thanks to her mindful parenting.
However, she revealed that he often struggles to respond to social situations and that this has only exacerbated the extent at which he has been bullied.
This year, my child has continually dealt with bullies that have been cruel and relentless, she wrote.
I have been in contact with the school every week due to incidents involving him and other boys.
These situations can be typical for children with HFA, who can struggle to interact appropriately and read social cues, may invade others space, have aggressive tendencies and act impulsively when they face rejection from peers.
One incident in particular, on 3 October, left her son with severe facial trauma however, the school failed to record the incident.
She explained that she had struggled to get in touch with a senior member of staff to address the situation.
After a few more incidents and an aggressive situation in November, I was finally told the woman in charge had resigned, and I was put in contact with the person taking over her caseload.
"I called and left messages with no response."
He was assaulted again on 6 December by four students, one of whom was allegedly also filming the incident, Bibbo revealed.
When the staff intervened, they attempted to deescalate him in all the wrong ways - they had no guidance on his triggers or calming tactics that work for him, because there was nothing on record, despite all of my work and advocacy.
Heartbreakingly, he was restrained by security which only further escalated the situation and made him feel as though he was at fault.
Bibbo is urging fellow parents to share her story in the hope that it will raise awareness for his condition and the extent at which bullying can go unmonitored by schools.
We can do better, she wrote.
We have to do better in order to raise a generation of productive, well-adjusted children.
'The past six months have been something of a nightmare for the man who has built up what is arguably Ireland's most successful company.' Photo: Getty Images
And so it came to pass that Michael O'Leary, the self-styled Red Baron of cheap travel, has finally been shot down in flames, not by the tail gunners of rival airlines but by his own words.
Hell would freeze over before Ryanair would engage with unions, has been the message written large across the heavens by the feisty CEO's sky writers.
But the past six months have been something of a nightmare for the man who has built up what is arguably Ireland's most successful company, which operates from 86 locations.
The first blunder was the failure to roster for holidays, which saw chaos strike during the peak summer holiday period. The second was the failure to recognise the leverage pilots now have. It is ironic that the man who has played the odds and won so many times in the free market stakes should have been defeated by the simple laws of supply and demand. He was undone by a scarcity of pilots.
The now receding prospect of chaotic cancellations across Christmas would shake the carrier's core commitment to passengers to get them there on time.
Mr O'Leary has forged the reputation of the airline on affordability, punctuality, and reliability. But the wily operator was out-foxed in the coop when all the chickens came home to roost. If this is not a climb-down, it is an extremely bumpy landing.
The swashbuckler who has relished his rebel outlier status has become too big a player to avoid playing by club rules. He has been forced by his own success to adjust the altimeter of his lofty tone and negotiate.
If humble pie is on the menu for Mr O'Leary many will feel he has got his just deserts. This has all the makings of a win for the pilots and passengers coming home for Christmas.
It was refreshing to read Ray Kinsella on why Ireland should play no part in an EU army (Irish Independent, December 15).
Though I am in agreement with him on the importance of Ireland maintaining its neutrality within the framework of the EU, I am not at all confident that any exceptions will be tolerated.
Once the UK leaves, the EU will have lost its most meaningful military power, and with Russia becoming more belligerent in its contempt for the EU, there will be pressure by the leading EU powers to rapidly complete their plans for an EU army, along with a common defence, taxation and foreign policy. Any country that objects will be pointed towards the Brexit door and threatened with isolation and penury. That is why it is imperative that the EU humiliates and impoverishes the UK, so that the rest of us will murmur the accepted pieties, genuflect to the wall and behave as "good Europeans".
There will be no opt-out for Ireland from an EU army. With the UK gone, there will be zero tolerance for countries semi-detached from the "European Project". If the EU army was to be another vanity project like the euro, then this wouldn't much matter. But with the EU and Russia growing culturally and politically further and further apart, it matters a great deal.
I accept Ray Kinsella's assurance that Russia has no intention of invading Europe; but it is well in Russia's power to pick an argument with one of the Baltic states, take some territory and engage in a long, low-level, and humiliating war with the EU. A war that would cost Russia little and the EU its prosperity, its peace and its prestige.
Unfortunately, much of the content of some national newspapers falsely gives the impression that those reluctant Leavers and reluctant Remainers in the UK, are nostalgic idiots for Empire, "loons" who walk their imagined half-timbered streets, whistling Vera Lynn's 'There'll always be an England'. A view of the UK that does nothing, except pander to our own national prejudices.
The newspapers that were as guilty as the banks in being cheerleaders for our "boom" are engaged once again in stoking up the flames of unbalanced, uncritical national hegemony. I just hope figuratively and metaphorically, that it doesn't all blow up in our children's faces.
Kevin Ryan
Richmond, London
British would stay... if asked again
I'd like to share the following thoughts with regards to Brexit.
Should British Prime Minister Theresa May consider saying something to the voters on the following lines: Now that the full extent of the vote is known and the difficulties it brings with it are creating problems in a number of areas, some of which seem insolvable, would we consider voting again?
For we now have a better understanding and more knowledge on the whole situation.
In my humble opinion the British public on the second occasion would change their minds (just as we did on the Lisbon Treaty).
Problem solved.
Marian Quirke
Ballyglass, Co Tipperary
Amnesty isn't above the law
Does Amnesty International feel it is above the law? It has said it will not obey an order by the State's ethical watchdog Sipo (Standards in Public Office Commission) to return the 137,000 donation from billionaire George Soros's Open Society Foundations.
It is illegal for foreign donors to contribute to referendums. This money is used to fund a campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment.
Colm O'Gorman, Amnesty International Ireland's executive director, said to Irish media "we're being asked to comply with a law that violates human rights and we can't do that".
How does Amnesty International think it is acceptable to use the human rights card to justify breaking the law of the land?
Mr O'Gorman also said: "We believe the law in this case is both unjust and inappropriately applied."
So, basically, he knows there is a law there but refuses point blank to follow it.
Also, Amnesty says there is nothing underhanded about the donation, yet it was used to campaign for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment, to plan and implement the killing of Irish unborn babies. And now Mr Soros's US-based organisation has become involved in our Irish abortion debate.
This is beyond a glaring interference in our Irish democracy. Last April, RTE reported that the Abortion Rights Campaign said it had returned a grant given by the same foundation led by Mr Soros after the Sipo gave an order to return it.
Just imagine what else is going on behind our backs to help repeal the Eighth Amendment. It is up to us all to protect our most vulnerable citizens and get involved.
Frances Kelleher
Killarney, Co Kerry
Fianna Fail no longer being led
WHO: Does any person or persons have the guts to form a new political party titled 'Fianna Fail for All'?
WHY: In light of Fianna Fail's stance on Repealing the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, there is no one in the party - apart from the leader - with authority to represent the pro-life grassroots party faithful. What is the leader doing and saying while he props up the Government? Fianna Fail TDs are allowed a conscience vote - but they represent themselves only, as they are not being led any more.
WHEN: Now is the time to prepare for the next general election.
Ann O'Connor
Address with editor
Ireland still living in the past
Why are we still such a backward society in relation to abortion in our own country, but are happy to ignore thousands of women who go to the UK?
Why can't we just allow abortion in Ireland and let women decide for themselves, or are we still ruled by the Catholic Church and TDs who are still living in the past?
Philip Chambers
Dublin 24
Last orders for our politicians
Jim McMahon's letter to the editor (Irish Independent, December 14) suggested politicians must solve the hospital saga. Reality suggests this will never happen when politicians struggle to even solve the amount of their Dail bar bills.
Seamus McLoughlin
Keshcarrigan, Co Leitrim
O'Leary KO'd by pilot power
The news that Michael O'Leary and Ryanair have conceded to now recognise pilots' unions is gratifying and shows succinctly what still can be achieved when a set of workers has enough traction to gain an advantage for themselves. The pilots eventually had O'Leary on the ropes and a threatened strike on the busiest week of the year for air travel was enough to land the killer punch.
JD Mangan
Stillorgan, Dublin
Staff members watch Callum Flanagan getting his head shaved by Terry OReilly during the mad hair charity day in The Irish Life Centre
A 22 year old Irish Life employee who was only given a 2% chance of survival after he was born a month prematurely is raising funds for the hospital which saved his life.
Callum Flanagan, who works in the Irish Life Call Centre decided that he would go the extra mile when he learned that the company was hold a 'Crazy Hair Day' fund raising event last Friday as he volunteered to get his head shaved during the coldest spell of the winter so far.
'I was born in Drogheda hospital on March 28th 1995, exactly a month before I was due,' he explains. 'I was born with an atrial septal defect, a diapragmatic hernia which meant my lung was open and my bowel was in my lung.
'Before my Mam and Dad even got to hold me, I was whisked away to Crumlin Children's hospital. My parents were told I had a 2% chance of surviving an operation. Thanks to the work of Dr. Ray Fitzgerald and the team who looked after me and operated me on the day after I was born, I'm alive and well today.'
Originally from Kells, Co Meath, Callum attended Dundalk Institute of Technology. After working in Dublin for a time, he has been living in Dundalk for the past year and a half.
When an email about the company's Crazy Hair Day was circulated among staff, Callum says he decided to do a sponsored head shave for Crumlin Hospital's Medical Research Foundation as own way of saying 'thank you' to the Hospital for everything they do and what they did for him and his family.
He has set up a GoFundMe page and thanks to donations from family, friends and co-workers has raised almost
And whatever his total, Irish Life will double it making his cold head worth suffering.
Some of those who share ancestry with Fr Solanus Casey who travelled to Detroit for his beatification
A group of twelve people from north Louth travelled to Detroit recently for the Beatification of Fr Solanus Casey, OFM, Cap.
They all share the same ancestry as the Capuchian priest who has moved a step closer to being canonised a saint.
Fr Solanus was born in Wisconsin to Irish parents. His mother Ellen had been taken to Boston by her mother Bridget (nee Sheils from Dungooley Cross, Kilcurry) after the death of her husband Michael Murphy from Camlough. Ellen married Bernard Casey from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan and they had sixteen children, including Fr Casey, who was born Berarnd (Barney) in 1870. After his ordination in 1904 became renowned for his work among the poor, working in parishes in Yonkers, Harlem and Manhattan, and Detroit, and was a co-founder of the Capuchian soup kitchen.
The group from north Louth were among around 350 relatives of Fr Casey who were seated in a special area in front of the alter in Detroit's Ford Field stadium for the special Mass which was attended by 65,000 people.
There were around 500 priests in attendance and dignitaries included Detroit archdiocese's retired leader, Cardinal Adam Maida, and the pope's apostolic nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre.
It's believed that the beatification could have been the largest Catholic mass celebrated in Detroit. When St. John Paul II, visited Detroit in 1987, he drew about 90,000 people to the Pontiac Silverdome and a mass in downtown Detroit drew about 30,000 people.
Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect for the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided at the mass and led the rite of beatification, reading in Latin an Apostolic Letter from Pope Francis bestowing on the Detroit Capuchin the honorific "Blessed Solanus.
Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron read an English version,in which he said that the Church decrees :
'that the venerable servant of God, Francis Solanus, known in the world as Bernard Casey a humble and faithful disciple of Christ, tireless in serving the poor henceforth be called by the name of Blessed.'
The news Pope Francis had said he met the requirements to earn the title of "blessed," especially after a woman from Panama was instantly cured of a chronic skin disease while she prayed at his tomb in 2012, was met with an ecstatic round of applause.
The Papal decree was given to local woman Vera Kelleher, a member of the Sheils family, who says she plans to present it to the Capuchin order in Dublin.
A breakthrough in the Brexit negotiations has led to a deal being struck between the UK and the European Union to guarantee no 'hard border' post Brexit.
Tensions have been running high over the last week as fears grew that no deal would be reached over the border issue.
But on Friday last Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Brexit deal between the European Union and the UK, which was announced in Brussels, had involved a joint commitment to the retention of a free-flowing border between Ireland and the UK post-Brexit.
Mr Varadkar described assurances outlined in the agreed text as 'politically bulletproof'.
The Taoiseach had tweeted as the deal was made official: 'We do not want to see a border in the Irish Sea, any more than we want to see a border between Newry and Dundalk or between Letterkenny and Derry. We want to build bridges, not borders. We want to free travel and free trade to continue as it does now and has done for 20 years.'
Local reaction to the news was overwhelmingly positive.
Dundalk TD Peter Fitzpatrick gave a broad welcome to the breakthrough in the Brexit talks.
'The breakthrough in the Brexit talks is great news for County Louth, and the whole border region.'
'The prospect of border posts returning to the N1 is something no one wanted to see. I am very pleased with the outcome of Phase 1 of the talks. People and goods will continue to move between Dundalk and Newry unhindered.'
He added: 'Further funding from the EU to help the border region will continue through Peace funding. This will now continue until 2021 with a commitment to examining it further. The most important outcome of these talks is that the principles of the Good Friday Agreement are upheld. The agreement has been the basis of peace and economic resurgence enjoyed by the border region for the last twenty years.'
'There are still further negotiations to take place but now the border question has been resolved we should be able to look to the future with renewed confidence,' said Deputy Fitzpatrick.
Louth TD Declan Breathnach, spokesperson on North-South Bodies and Cross Border Co-Operation said that it was clear from the agreement reached that 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.'
'As everyone has been saying, the devil will be in the detail. While it has been agreed that there will be no hard border, and Taoiseach Varadkar has said that this is set in stone, we still do not know how this will operate. The Common travel Area is protected, but again, will there be checks in the future to establish country of origin for example?'
I welcome the guaranteed protection of residence rights for EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU."
This agreement offers the best possible protection of the Good Friday Agreement in maintaining the status quo and recognises the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland. I am a little concerned however about the future of the PEACE and INTERREG funding programmes post 2020 as the agreement states 'possibilities for future support will be examined favourably.'
'I am happy that the phase 2 process can now commence. This is where the most difficult issues of trade and future relationships will be tackled
Meanwhile Louth TD Gerry Adams gave a 'cautious welcome' to the terms of an agreement.
'Brexit is the greatest threat to the economies of this island in generations.'
He explained that while the agreement 'recognises the unique and special circumstances surrounding the issue of the Irish peace process, the Good Friday Agreement and the border it does not address key areas of concern for many citizens, especially nationalists living in the north and citizens in the border region.'
'The insistence by the British that Britain and the North must leave the customs union and the single market presents a real and live danger which cannot be understated. He added that the agreement did deal with the future role of the European Court of Justice and in particular the right of EU citizens in that part of the island to be able to access the EU institutions.
'These are all genuine concerns particularly in light of the British Prime Minister's assertion today that the North will no longer be subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.'
Paddy Malone, Dundalk chamber spokesman added that there was a positive reaction from the business community.
'The Chamber welcomes the announcement of an agreement. It has clarified matters and sets out a road map which should result in retaining the status quo for Ireland. This benefits not just the business community but also the wider one allowing people to travel across the border for family, recreational or educational purposes.'
'This agreement allows this region to continue to position itself as a key area of growth along the M1 corridor as we had successfully lobbied for in the revised National Plan 2040.
Dundalk Chamber was recently invited by Newry Chamber to attend a briefing of the Northern Ireland Select Committee from the House of Commons.
Michael Gaynor, President and Paddy Malone PRO were in attendance as a number of Northern Ireland companies set out how a hard Brexit would have seriously negative impact on their businesses.
The Dundalk chamber reps set out the concerns of southern businesses and also the wider border community.
'There was a clear message from all contributors that a hard Brexit would have negative impact on business, tourism, health education and community,' said Paddy, adding there was a need for both governments to give clear reassurances on PEACE funding and Interreg.
Paddy also referred to Dundalk's submission on the 2040 National Plan which called for a greater commitment for the LINEAR CITY from Drogheda through Dundalk to Newry. He stressed the need of the British Government to engage in this through the MOU, (Memorandum of Understanding) between Louth and Newry and Mourne and Down.
OFiaich students took part in the Create the Great in You programme
O'Fiaich students celebrated graduating from the 'Create the Great in You' programme at Comhaltas Centre, Dundalk recently.
Mark Mc Cormack the founder of Create the Great in You Ltd piloted the 6 week programme in O' Fiaich College.
The transition year students from O' Fiaich Institute of Further Education were presented with their certificates for successfully completing the Create the Great in You Ltd Mentoring & Self Development Programme.
Create the Great in You Ltd is a newly formed social enterprise which aims to focus on young people in transition year and leaving certificate applied in schools. C-Change is a tailor made 6 week programme which includes rap, archaeology, poetry and magic & comedy workshops.
Using mentoring workshops and peer-based conversations "Create the Great in You Ltd" aims to provide young people with a space to explore how communication, collaboration and creativity can be applied to develop both community and relationships.
Participants will be both challenged and facilitated to openly explore and express their passion, identity and potential. Individuals can expect to grow in confidence, enhance their interpersonal skills and be more empathetic toward their peers.
Twenty seven students received a certificate of participation from Create the Great in You in association with O' Fiaich College & four received medals for communication, collaboration, creativity & mentoring.
Since the initial pilot programme Create the Great in You is currently working alongside three schools in the Louth/Meath including St Louis Secondary School, Colaiste Cuchulainn and O' Carolan College with over 200 students.
Mark Mc Cormack launched the endeavour in 2015 after graduating from DkIT where he received a Level 8 BA Hons Degree in Social Care Work.
Mark was awarded a Presidents Prize for his contribution to community and college life and has since co-authored a paper alongside Dr Bernadette Brereton which was represented in Milan September 2016 at the (ESA) European Sociological Education Conference.
Pro-life supporters from Louth were among the crowd of almost 1,000 people who packed out the Concert Hall in the RDS on Sunday for the 2017 Pro Life Campaign National Conference.
An enthusiastic audience heard from national and international speakers at the Conference, which takes place just a few weeks before the Oireachtas Committee on the 8th Amendment presents its report.
Keynote speaker Abby Johnson spoke of her experience as a former director at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in the US, where she worked for eight years.
She became appalled at what she witnessed on a daily basis and decided to leave the industry. Her book 'Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader', became an Amazon best seller. She has been the inspiration behind numerous others leaving the abortion industry.
She said, 'Too often, the debate on abortion talks around the issue rather than dealing with the reality of what abortion involves. I have first-hand experience of working at an abortion clinic and I can tell you that the reality is entirely different to how it is presented. People don't want to think about the brutality of what happens to the baby but when you've worked in an abortion clinic or thought about it, there is no escaping what it entails.'
She also spoke about her regret at standing by and doing nothing to intervene when she attended an ultrasound-guided abortion and saw the baby trying to move away from the instruments that were being used to end the life of the baby. She told attendees at the conference not to stand by and do nothing when it comes to protecting the 8th Amendment and she encouraged everyone to speak up for the voiceless, unborn children and their mothers, many of whom she said go on to regret their abortions.'
Other speakers included Liz McDermott of the group One Day More, who spoke about her presentation to the Oireachtas Committee when she talked about the experience of being pregnant in Ireland with a child with serious disability.
'We need to provide more supports for families and their babies, not abortion,' she said. 'In the case of children who are diagnosed with disabilities in the womb, abortion becomes a very obvious form of discrimination. The 8th Amendment acts as a vital protection for those children.'
Emma Maloney spoke about how becoming pregnant with her son Rossa while she was in college has had a positive experience that she could never have foreseen: 'When I became pregnant in college, it was very traumatic but I want to send out the message that an unplanned pregnancy does not hold women back. I have continued my education and travelled more with him than before. I feel that the 8th Amendment protected him and has led to the happy life I have today.'
Michael Gaynor, President, Dundalk Chamber of Commerce, with Sarah Louise Clarke, Tadgh ORourke and John Power at the St.Brigids School Craft Pop Up Shop in The Longwalk Shopping Centre
Enterprising senior students from St Brigid's School got a taste for business when they held a mini companies pop up shop last week selling their local hand-crafted creations in the Long Walk Shopping Centre.
There was a fantastic Christmas festive buzz in the centre and the students were nearly sold out by 2pm. The students really enjoyed this piece of work by making their own hand-crafted creations in school and then going out to sell them to the public.
WALK PEER and St. Brigid's school have continued to work together to help develop senior student's Employability and Entrepreneurial skills and maximise their career prospects by getting into work or starting their own businesses. Eimear Marron, WALK PEER and Majella McAteer, Senior Class Teacher would like to say a special thanks to Hoey's Timber Sales Limited, Bank of Ireland, and the staff of St Brigids School for supporting the students with this important event.
Eamon and Mary Burke with their family as they switched on their famous display on the Beech Road.
While most of us make a small effort to breathe some festive cheer into our homes at this time of year, two Arklow families have pulled out all the stops and are raising funds for charities with their jaw-dropping lights displays.
On Beech Road, Mary and Eamonn Burke are famous in Arklow for their extensive lights display which they have been collecting for over 20 years.
The couple raise funds for Crumlin Hospital and always attract spectators from across the county.
'We have all the lights up now and we switched them on last week, Mary said. Mary and Eamonn were joined by their children, partners and grandchildren for the special occasion.
'This year we have a new Santa projector and we have a polar bear scene and a Christmas village so we hope as many people as possible come along and have a look and make a donation for Crumlin,' she said. Across town in Fernhill estate, Anthony and Arlette Doyle have also been hard at work decorating their house.
'I have been doing it for about 15 years and I reckon there are at least 20,000 lights on the house,' Anthony said.
Anthony and Arlette use their display to raise money for a cause very close to their hearts.
'We donate the money raised to Arklow Community First Responders. My son Anthony passed away at the age of 29 and the responders were here in three minutes to help him. It is in his honour that we do it,' Anthony said. The Doyles were joined by many neighbours and friends as they flicked the switch for the first time last Saturday evening.
'This year, we have a lights show every hour, on the hour, and they will be on every night from 5 to 10 p.m. There is a collection box for the donations,' he said.
The family is well-known for their amazing home decoration and their house is also a huge hit with the local children at Hallowe'en.
'We gave out 460 goodie bags on Hallowe'en and even now the kids walk by and tell their parents how much they enjoyed it so it's very worthwhile for us,' Anthony said.
Anthony and Arlette's home came to national prominence last year when they got down to the final of a competition to pick the most decorated house in Ireland. They received good news yesterday when they learned that they have again made the final 20 of the Ireland's Most Christmassy Home competition. The public can cast their vote on the Energia Facebook page.
James Franco as Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist.
If Charlie Chaplin was correct that it takes courage to make a fool of yourself, Tommy Wiseau might be the bravest fool to have walked the streets of Hollywood.
In 2003, actor and film-maker Wiseau emerged from a stretched limousine for the world premiere of his independently financed romantic drama, The Room.
The first-night audience howled in derision at the wooden performances, clunky dialogue and indulgent sex scenes.
In the intervening years, the film has turned a profit thanks to late-night screenings that encourage vociferous audience participation, which includes throwing plastic spoons at the screen in tribute to a rogue prop.
James Franco adopts dual roles as director and actor for a tongue-in-cheek dramatisation of the making of the room, based on an award-winning memoir penned by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell.
The Disaster Artist lovingly recounts the genesis of Wiseau's magnum hopeless, mining uproarious humour from the camaraderie between cast and crew as the shoot lurches from outrageous misfortune to catastrophe.
Franco delivers a touching performance as the quixotic ringmaster of the circus, starring opposite younger brother Dave and sister-in-law Alison Brie, who play a young couple sucked into Wiseau's self-destructive orbit.
The film opens in 1998 San Francisco, where nice guy Greg (Dave Franco) is struggling to find his voice in acting classes run by Jean Shelton (Melanie Griffith).
He yearns to be fearless like fellow thesp Tommy (James Franco) - an enigmatic figure of questionable age with an indecipherable accent that suggests an upbringing in Eastern Europe.
The two wannabes drive down the coast to Los Angeles where Greg snares a pretty girlfriend (Brie) and an agent (Sharon Stone). Meanwhile, Tommy's unconventional acting style elicits a barrage of rejections. 'I'm not saying 'maybe'. I'm saying 'not in a million years',' growls one stunned producer, 'and after that?' Tommy counters hopefully.
Unperturbed by Hollywood's reluctance to roll out a red carpet, Tommy and Greg make their own film, working from a ramshackle script that Tommy bashes out on his typewriter.
The friends hire an experienced crew including script supervisor Sandy Schklair (Seth Rogen), director of photography Raphael Smadja (Paul Scheer) and head of make-up Amy Von Brock (Kelly Oxford).
Tommy snaffles the demanding lead role opposite Greg.
After a stirring welcome speech, Tommy calls 'Action' for the first time and it becomes apparent that the captain of the sinking ship is an emotionally volatile egotist.
The Disaster Artist seems too outlandish to be tethered to fact but side-by-side comparison shots over the end credits reveal the meticulous attention to detail in recreated scenes.
The two Francos are a delightfully demented double-act.
The elder sibling flirts with a potential Oscar nomination for his gung-ho embodiment of artistic bravado in freefall.
Somehow, Wiseau flossed infamy and success from the slavering jaws of defeat.
His star twinkles brightly through Franco's lens.
Tom Burgess accepts the Supreme Champion Award from Tara McCarthy of Bord Bia at the Irish Cheese Awards in November.
Tom and Fiona Burgess at their home in Knockeen with some of their award-winning cheese.
It's chalky. It's crumbly. It's a pale yellow in colour. And it's delicious - a connoisseur's delight. Tom Burgess shaves some of his prize-winning cheese off a great big block he hauls from the fridge to allow his visitor a taste of this wonderful local delicacy.
The Coolattin Cheddar and Mount Leinster brands which he promotes are not to be found on the shelves of the large supermarket chains. Instead, restaurateurs, speciality shops and stalls at farmer's markets take as much of this glorious stuff as Tom can make.
The 56-year-old has been producing top class milk here at Knockeen in west Wicklow for two decades. The cheese is his way of extracting some extra value from the high quality liquid flowing into the tanks of the milking parlour.
Originally from down the road in nearby Tullow, Tom took up the holding with its 150-year-old stone farmhouse around 30 years ago. He resides here on the Wicklow side of the Carlow border with his wife Fiona and it is here that they brought up their now-adult children.
He came from a dairying background, grew up farming and took a degree in agricultural science at UCD to add some academic clout to his CV. When it came to establishing his own business, he populated his fields with Holstein/Friesian cows, the black-and-white breed responsible for most Irish milk.
However, Brussels put the brakes on the Burgess family enterprise, the EU setting restrictive quota limits on what milk they could bring to market. With some show of reluctance, Tom diversified into tillage farming and into sheep.
The lambs looked cute but their owner discovered found making mutton very time consuming, for limited financial reward. Rather than continue chasing ewes, he came up with the cheese wheeze around the turn of millennium.
The way he tells it, opting to make cheddar was the obvious thing to do for someone who believed his milk was top notch. Yet the reality is that very few Irish dairy farmers have proven prepared to follow the same logic.
'I was toying with the idea of making something with the milk,' he recalls, looking back at his thought processes back in the year 2000. 'Feeding cows on grass really does produce the best milk.'
Tom admits to being obsessed with grass, to the extent that he measures how much grass he has in each field and how quickly it is growing. He keeps his stock out on the land as much as possible, with rigorous management of the grazing paddocks, and he only feeds them silage during the calving confinement.
It rankled with him that what he saw as a premium product was not attracting a premium price. Instead, it was merely being drawn in tankers into the vast milk lake operated by the likes of Glanbia.
Thrashing around for an alternative, he rejected the possibility of making yoghurt or ice-cream, and settled instead on cheese.
First, he believed that he could create something genuinely distinctive. Second, he reasoned cheese would be much easier to handle and distribute as it is much less perishable than ice-cream.
While others - notably the much-admired Hempenstalls near Arklow - made their reputation with soft cheese, Tom went down the hard route. Wishing to provide his customers with unbroken supplies, he was aware that his style of herd management involves a winter break of at least two months in the flow of milk.
The time out is taken annually to allow the cows to calve. This is a problem for soft cheese makers whose products have a shorter shelf life. Cheddar, on the other hand, requires extended maturing, often for years, which allows the manufacturer the flexibility to release supplies as and when they are required. It was helped that he had old farm buildings at his disposal which could be adopted for making and storing his new product.
However, the first few experimental prototypes were concocted in the high-ceilinged kitchen of Knockeen House. Milk had to be mixed with the cheddar bacteria and curdled with rennet, with tricks of temperature control and use of moulds to be acquired.
The maturing of these first samples took place a few steps away from the Aga stove of the kitchen in the relative cool of a side passage.
Trips to Cork and to Britain were undertaken in the interest of research, enrolling on courses at UCC and Nantwich in Cheshire (the original Cheese-shire). When advice was needed, Eddie O'Neill at the Teagasc centre in Fermoy was always available to take calls.
'We made every mistake you could make,' says Tom with a laugh as he looked back on the early days. 'Some of the cheese was not up to the quality mark.'
Nevertheless, much of the output was very good indeed and it became clear that it improved with ageing.
Tom found an ally in Elizabeth Bradley from Fenagh in Carlow, who was also on a similar point on the learning curve.
She introduced him to the farmer's market in Carlow where he found himself not only selling his wares on Saturdays but also talking to customers who were keen to taste and eager to discuss food.
This was an experience that many farmers never have the privilege of enjoying as they do their business at a far remove from the consumers who buy their produce. Tom settled on the name 'Coolattin Cheddar' with a distinctive red wax rind. Coolattin may be the far side of Shillelagh but Knockeen House where he resides was originally part of the vast old Coolattin estate run by the Fitzwilliam nobility.
More recently, the name 'Mount Leinster' has been used as the brand name for cloth wrapped cheese made by the same process.
Whichever name, demand for the cheese has grown steadily over the past 17 years and the business appears set for further expansion.
Fiona, who works as a teacher, takes a lively interest, while offspring Charles, Alice and Lucy all have first-hand experience of making or selling cheese.
The market in Carlow continues to be an outlet though Tom confesses that he no longer mans the stall there in person, while shoppers at markets in Naas and Farmleigh also snap up supplies.
The Burgesses feed into the high prestige Avoca Handweavers chain, where Alice and Lucy sometimes conduct tasting sessions.
Tom is happy that his cheddar is on the menu at some of the country's best restaurants and that the Harrods department store in London places regular orders.
He lets slip that it is not unknown for the Irish embassy in London to request a ration of his finest.
The reputation of the cheese has been more publicly acknowledged through a series of awards which began with a breakthrough in Cardiff six years ago.
At a black tie event in the Welsh capital, the West Wicklow contestants were called up to receive gold at the British Cheese Awards ceremony.
At Ballymaloe in Cork recently, adjudicators from America, the UK and Germany pronounced Mount Leinster supreme champion at the bi-annual Irish Cheese Awards - regaining the title claimed in 2015.
Tom was too busy to attend a world cheese event at San Sebastian in the heart of Spain's gourmet Basque country earlier this year when his entry struck bronze.
Each day, from May to September, the converted stone-walled cow house at the farm yard in Knockeen takes in 2,000 litres of grass-fed milk, enough to yield 200 kilos of solid matter.
With the shackles of the European quota system removed, and with demand for both Coolattin Cheddar and Mount Leinster growing, the Burgess herd has been expanding.
Where there used to be 60 cows, now there are 140, with a strong jersey strain mixed in with the black-and-whites.
Their raw morning milk is pumped into the former cow barn, which is a model of hygiene in its new incarnation, flowing into a gleaming stainless steel bath.
The starter pack of dried cheddar is a tiny but vital part of the mix stirred into the bath, along with the rennet which causes the liquid whey to separate out.
The remaining solids are repeatedly cut into smaller and smaller pieces while a close control is maintained on temperature and bacterial activity is checked by the addition of salt.
By the end of the working day, the immature cheese has been pressed into moulds, soon to be transferred to the wooden shelves of the maturing room where the air is a constant 12 degrees.
Some cheeses are released after nine months but some rings, each one a foot in diameter, may be kept for as long as two years.
'It is hard physical work,' says Tom of cheese making and the results each time are subtly different - a fine antidote to a world where so much food we eat each day is mass-produced with little or no craftsmanship.
Bray Rotary Club hosted their annual Christmas Giving Tree over the past two weekends. They were on the steps of the Holy Redeemer Church appealing for gifts for those in need this year.
This is the 15th year of the project which helps more than 300 people each year. How the giving tree works is that gift tags are placed on the tree with the first names and ages of local needy children and also vulnerable teenagers and adults. Bray Rotary get the names from the four St Vincent de Paul conferences in Bray, Purple House, Five Loaves, Bray Community Helpers, Mabbs, Open Door, and CASA (the Caring and Sharing Association).
The public take a gift tag, guy that person a suitable present, bring it back to the tree, and Rotary distribute them to the charities. Each year they get huge support from the people of Bray and this was no different.
Families in particular are particularly generous, and many of the same people return with gifts each year.
Bray Rotary Club is part of Rotary International, an international service organisation whose purpose is to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and to advance goodwill and peace around the world.
Fifty-five horses were put down in County Wicklow last year after they were impounded by Wicklow County Council, according to a local TD.
Deputy John Brady expressed his concerns over the number of horses put down by Wicklow County Council last year.
He said: 'In 2016, there were 65 horses impounded by Wicklow County Council throughout the county.
'Out of these, two were reclaimed by their owners, eight were rehomed and the remaining 55 were euthanized.
'The fact that within one year, 55 horses were euthanized is alarming. It is clear that efforts need to be made to put a greater emphasis on rehousing animals.
Deputy Brady said he has called on Wicklow County Council to produce proper protocols when it comes to animal welfare, with a specific horse welfare programme put in place. He hoped that this would also include an educational dimension.
'The Control of Horses needs to be taken over by the Department of Agriculture, it's crazy that it's seen as a housing function. I will be following this up directly with the Minister. Wicklow County Council needs to ensure that every effort is made at trying to rehome impounded horses, this includes strengthening relationship with animal welfare groups such as the Irish Horse Welfare Trust.'
Residents at Carraig Eden in Greystones celebrated the completion of the purchase of the facility by Wicklow County Council as the contracts were officially signed last Thursday.
There was huge relief last July when it emerged that the residents would not be evicted and that the building would be purchased by Wicklow County Council and the Department of Housing Planning and Local Government to allow Tiglin to continue providing housing and support for men who have completed a rehabilitation programme in Tiglin, Ashford.
Last Thursday, Greystones resident and Tiglin CEO Phil Thompson thanked everyone involved in securing the purchase.
'Carraig Eden is such a lifeline to those living here,' he said. 'The housing gives these men the opportunity to find work and educational opportunities in a safe and sober environment,' he said.
'The men act as a support for each other as they continue on their new path of life. These residents have got what they truly deserve - a secure home and a fresh start. Tiglin is delighted to be here today to celebrate the next phase of Carraig Eden, and its future looks bright,' said Mr Thompson.
He said that they are grateful for the wonderful support from so many people over the past year.
'1 million, which has been earmarked for the refurbishment of the building, will bring about 34 en-suite rooms, multiple kitchenettes and shared living spaces,' said Mr Thompson. It will be a beautiful home for current and future residents who need the time and space to secure a more permanent home.'
Tiglin Chairman Aubrey McCarthy said that it was a day to celebrate.
'This deal took a lot of hard work and commitment from a number of agencies and individuals. I would particularly like to thank Wicklow County Council and Jackie Carroll who were instrumental in getting this deal across the line, especially when, at times, it looked unlikely.'
He also thanked Minister Simon Harris, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, Minister Andrew Doyle, Deputy John Brady and Cllr Derek Mitchell for their work.
'It was the work of all these people and organisations, and others, who made this possible, so thank you everyone.'
Resident of Carraig Eden, John said: 'Securing the future of Carraig Eden means the world to me and all the residents. I would like to thank everyone who helped make this possible.'
Minister Simon Harris, CEO of Wicklow County Council Frank Curran and Cathaoirleach of Greystones Municipal District Gerry Walsh all attended the official signing of the contracts last Thursday.
Over 3m is being spent to acquire and refurbish the facility in Greystones and the council's Chief Executive Frank Curran commended the Minister and his Department for committing to, supporting and funding the project.
'I believe there was a time it appeared that this project might not proceed and over 30 residents were at risk of homelessness. Thankfully, due to the tenacity and commitment of all involved, this did not come to pass,' said Mr Curran.
Tiglin will lease a substantial portion of the property. They have been operating their housing model there since 2009, successfully preventing homelessness in individuals who have taken the necessary steps to rehabilitate and become addiction free.
The property would also be further developed to deliver additional accommodation units for households at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
Following an introduction by Tiglin's Mr McCarthy and Mr Thompson, a number of residents told their own personal stories about the importance of Carraig Eden for them as a pathway through homelessness and Mr Curran commended them, saying how uplifting it was to hear their stories.
Cllr Gerry Walsh also acknowledged the shared stories saying: 'There is no need to question why we do what we do after listening to the testimonials from the residents - their stories were very powerful and compelling, well done to everybody for speaking.
'As we are all aware, significant challenges are being faced by Wicklow County Council in dealing with the increasing numbers of people and families presenting as homeless,' he said. 'The impact of this demand for services, coupled with the lack of housing supply, has led to many people and families finding themselves in a homeless situation.
'The development of relationships between the local authorities and homeless service providers in the region has been critical in dealing with the many and complex issues that have arisen. A reflection of these relationships is the fact that a number of service level agreements are now in place between the local authorities and homeless service providers across the region.'
Minister Harris said that the signing of the contracts was the end of a long and hard-fought campaign to protect the Tiglin service in Carraig Eden.
'Having visited Tiglin and been inspired by their work, it was clear to me that we had to do all that we could to stop this private sale from impacting on vulnerable people. I am delighted that Tiglin now has security. I know the Greystones residents have been deeply concerned about the prospect of Tiglin residents being made homeless so this a really positive day here in Carraig Eden,' said the minister.
'Today is a brilliant day for the residents of Carraig Eden,' said Deputy Stephen Donnelly.
'I know the level of stress and uncertainty that the last few months have put on the residents. Particular thanks are due to Tiglin's Chairperson Aubrey McCarthy and CEO Phil Thompson, as well as Jackie Carroll of Wicklow County Council. Without their consistent support and dedication, today's handover would not have been possible.'
Caomhan Mac Con Iomaire from the National Gallery of Ireland with Matthew Mooney and Elsha OReilly from Wicklow Montessori School.
Caomhan Mac Con Iomaire from the National Gallery of Ireland making a presentation to Darragh Healy, Eva Young, Simon D'Arcy and Sam Tallant from Marino Community School in Bray.
Two Wicklow schools attended the 'Someone Like Me' art awards in Dublin recently.
Students from Marino Community School in Bray and Wicklow Primary Montessori School in Wicklow town were among students from 45 primary schools who attended the awards.
The competition, which is sponsored by the Department of Justice and Equality, was won by Killeevan National School from Co Monaghan. The winning entry was created by first and second class pupils, along with their teacher Ms Beagan, and comprised a book in which the pupils took one page each to illustrate their responses to various physical, emotional and societal challenges.
The competition received more than 2,000 entries ranging from posters and collages to large sculptural installations and multi-media pieces.
Now in its third year, 'Someone Like Me' allows children to learn about and discuss these topics and creatively express what they have learned. The competition is open to all primary school pupils from junior infants to sixth class.
A Wicklow town woman scooped a top award at the Irish Print Awards in the Aviva Stadium recently.
Freda McEnroe works at Snap, the company which was named winner of the Best Print & Digital Offering at the 40th Annual Irish Print Awards.
The black-tie gala ceremony where professionals from across the print industry celebrated the best in their industry, sponsored by Canon Ireland. The 2017 Irish Print Awards aim to recognise the country's best companies in the print and press sector.
As the awards reached their fourth decade, there was cause for an extra special celebration in a new and exciting venue.
With over 200 hard copy entries to assess, the highest number of entries in four decades, judges had a difficult decision selecting winners across 33 categories.
New categories this year included Best Company Website, Best Customer Service Team, Best Young Print Manager and Best in-house Graphic Designer.
Funding has been approved for major refurbishment works at St David's School in Greystones.
'As a former student, I am really delighted to be able to confirm funding for the full refurbishment works at St David's Holy Faith Secondary School Greystones,' said Minister Simon Harris.
'I have been working with the school and the Department of Education to secure both the extension and a major refurbishment of the existing building for many years so this is really fantastic news. Both projects can now happen together.'
He said that the school is at the heart of Greystones and it has been clear for many years that major work was needed to bring the existing building up to date and increase capacity in the town.
'These works will modernise the existing building a tie in with the new extension.'
An Bord Pleanala granted permission on July 3 for an extension to the school, after an appeal was made to the body.
The permission includes demolition of a link building, construction of a four storey extension, new two-storey extension, and four temporary single storey classroom units.
Wicklow County Council had granted permission for the works in September 2016, but locals objected to the development and appealed to the bord. Grounds included height and traffic.
The plans lodged by Le Cheile Schools Trust include a new PE Hall, library, classrooms, arts rooms, tech graphics room, fitness suite, parking spaces and more, as well as refurbishment to the existing buildings.
Sarah Dunne and Darragh Flynn from The Happy Pear (centre) accepting the Bord Bia Award for digital marketing from Michael Carey and Tara McCarthy of Bord Bia.
The Happy Pear was among the nine Irish food and drink companies to receive top honours at Bord Bia's Food and Drink Industry Awards in the RDS recently.
The biennial awards celebrate businesses which have demonstrated excellence in the production, promotion and growth of the Irish food and drink industry in Ireland and overseas. More than 350 Irish food and drink industry leaders gathered for the awards ceremony which was hosted by broadcaster Miriam O'Callaghan.
The awards were presented by Tara McCarthy, CEO of Bord Bia, who said that the awards provided an opportunity 'to acknowledge the trailblazers in the Irish food and drink industry who have proven their commitment and ambition to drive the sector forward.'
The Happy Pear in Greystones received the 'Digital Marketing Award' after demonstrating how the company has embraced consistent and authentic digital campaigns to create a powerful 'movement' which is driving the business. The company continues to increase its following on social media which has grown by a third from almost 600,000 followers to over 800,000.
Other award winners included Gallaghers Bakery, Silver Hill Farm, Dawn Meats, Kerry Foods, Monaghan Mushrooms, Diageo, Butlers Chocolates, and Pip & Pear. The overall winners were chosen from an original shortlist of 24 companies which were selected by a team of seven independent judges with extensive experience in business, global markets, media, marketing, and sustainability.
David and Stephen Flynn started The Happy Pear in 2004. Now employing around 170 people, the business comprises three wholefood cafes/shops, a sprout farm, a food manufacturing and distribution business, a coffee roastery and a fermentation kitchen.
The Happy Pear's marketing strategy has been built on the concept of storytelling and the creation of a movement, rooted in family and community using healthy food to bring people together. The business operates across five social media platforms, the most successful of which is YouTube, which recently saw David and Stephen receive The Silver Play Button for surpassing 100,000 subscribers.
The competition to find Wicklow's Best Young Entrepreneur steps up a gear this week as county finals take place right across the country.
Sheelagh Daly Head of Enterprise for Wicklow said there was great interest in the competition.
'We had a huge response to the competition this year. We've attracted entrepreneurs aged 18-35 from right across the county with an amazing array of business ideas and start-ups. We've also been really impressed by the young entrepreneurs who've entered in the Best-Established category, many of whom have multiple employees or are already exporting into international markets. Judging by the calibre of entries this year, the future of enterprise in Wicklow is looking bright.'
IBYE co-ordinator in Wicklow, Annette Rowsome said: 'IBYE is a springboard for young entrepreneurs here locally, connecting them to their Local Enterprise Office who can help them to start or expand a business. Everyone who entered the competition this year was invited to "Enterprise Day" where they met with mentors, learned about the supports available to them and got really valuable business advice. From there, shortlisted companies took part in an intensive Business Bootcamp before submitting their updated business plans for the county final.'
The County Final will take place on December 12 in Wicklow Brewery, Redcross.
The event will feature a presentation of awards which will be made by special guest Minister Simon Harris. Among the at the awards ceremony will be Frank Curran Chief Executive of Wicklow County Council and previous IBYE Winners.
Annette Rowsome said: 'County finals are pretty intense. Finalists will meet the panel of judges, present their business, conduct an interview and answer questions. Judges will then have the task of choosing a winner and runner up in each of the three categories. Winners in Wicklow will share in an investment fund of 50,000 which will help them to grow their business and build on current success. Category winners will go forward to represent Wicklow in the regional finals which are being hosted by LEO Wicklow in Tinakilly House Hotel on January 2.'
Now in its fourth year, Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur is run by the Local Enterprise Offices, in partnership with the Local Authorities, across the country and is supported by Enterprise Ireland and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation. The National Final will take place on Sunday, March 4, at Google HQ and the winners of the competition will share in an investment fund of 100,000. Follow the competition on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram.
The trial of Wicklow solicitor Pat O'Toole has been transferred to a court in Dublin. Judge Michael O'Shea made the order last week at a sitting of Wicklow Circuit Court.
The trial has been moved to the Central Courts of Justice in Dublin and scheduled for Friday, December 15. An affidavit requesting the transfer was presented to Judge O'Shea on the morning of Tuesday, December 5.
Pat O'Toole of the Old Rectory, Wicklow Town, was charged last January with two offences: dishonesty with the intention of making a gain for yourself or another or of causing loss to Wicklow Town Council through attempts by deception to induce Wicklow Town Council not to pursue financial contributions owed to it in connection to a development; and corruption in office.
The first charge relates to an unknown time between March 3 2008 and September 8 2013, while the corruption charge is alleged to have occurred between May 1 2006 and July 12 2006.
A traditional concert of seasonal classics and glorious Christmas carols performed by the celebrated Duhallow Choral Society drew a large attendance to St. Patrick's Church, Millstreet.
The Duhallow group has become a vital and integral part of the barony's cultural community. In a programme filled with a sparkling selection of traditional carols and seasonal songs, there was plenty of opportunities for patrons to join in at this concert supporting Millstreet Community Hospital.
Maintaining a series of stagings prior to the festive calendar peaks, those present for the Millstreet concert immersed themselves in the pre-Christmas spirit with the festive music and favourite carols.
Many old favourites won favour such as Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Holy Night, "12 Days of Christmas to Silent Night. Add in Handel's iconic Hallelujah Chorus and Ave Maria ensured choral treats for the appreciative audience under conductor Sharon Reidy and accompanist Ian Sexton.
Choir manager Bridget Daly said the group, founded in 1996, promotes music, song and culture in the Duhallow region.
"Over the past two decades the choir have performed far and wide, supporting charity and community initiatives," she said.
Millstreet Community Hospital matron Margaret Collins thanked all involved on "immersing themselves in the pre Christmas spirit thanks to the Duhallow Choral Society".
"Such a talented group delivered a wonderful performance in the ideal setting - the Duhallow choir made the occasion," she said.
"Many thanks to the staff, friends of the hospital and the community for their support, proceeds will assist the hospital - a lot done but more to do in the new year," she added.
Cullen's Trish O'Riordan compered the proceedings.
Coconino County is on the lookout for potential uses for a 30-acre housing compound at the edge of Rogers Lake that it received as part of a 240-acre donation in 2011.
The property, located about 10 miles southwest of Flagstaff, includes a six-bedroom residence above a 16-stall equestrian stable, a three-bedroom caretaker quarters with a five-car garage and a 6,000 square-foot unfinished foundation.
For the past three years, Northern Arizona University has used the property for a summer artists-in-residence program, but has decided not to renew its contract after February.
We have a sense that this property might fulfill a community need for a unique meeting venue, a unique place to have weddings and family reunions and that sort of thing, said Cynthia Nemeth-Briehn, director of the countys parks and recreation department. It is an opportunity, frankly, to capitalize on a very unique space with some magnificent views."
Tucked into ponderosa pines, the property looks out on the expansive Rogers Lake wetlands backed by the San Francisco Peaks. The county has permitted two weddings and one meeting at the site, but so far hasnt actively marketed the property for those uses. The charge is about $1,000 per day to rent the entire property.
The property was donated to the county by the estate of the late St. Louis Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, who died in 2008. She bought the property in 1999 and built the living quarters and caretaker residence but never lived there. It sat unused until NAU started the artist residency program in 2015.
Last week, Nemeth-Briehn presented county supervisors with two options for future management of the 20-acre compound area and buildings: find a private partner that would manage the site, including event rentals or other uses, or take those responsibilities in-house.
Supervisors quickly decided the county didnt have the expertise for that sort of management and decided to begin a search for a private entity that would operate and maintain the property and use it in a way that is compatible with its surroundings, including the nearby Rogers Lake County Natural Area.
"We shouldnt be in the tourism business. I think we should let the private sector be in the tourism business," County Supervisor Art Babbott said.
It will be up to the board to decide if the proposal has to make money, Nemeth-Briehn said.
She also developed conceptual cost estimates for a public-private partnership model. They took into account a basic county investment in operations and maintenance and potential revenue projections if a private partner were to use the site for a bed and breakfast, just as a campground, or as a meeting and wedding venue. In nearly all of the scenarios, the county would lose money each year, based on it receiving either a 5 percent or 10 percent cut of the private operators total gross revenues.
The county receives a portion of revenues in other public-private partnerships like the Pepsi Amphitheater and the North Pole Experience at Fort Tuthill.
Although the majority of the board was supportive of going forward with a public-private partnership on the Frontiere property, Babbott said he also wanted to discuss the option of disposing of the property.
This is a facility that is beautiful in location but is a financial black hole for us and that is going to continue to suck resources and capacity at a level that I don't think we've even prepared for yet, Babbott said.
Supervisor Jim Parks was hesitant as well, but gave the go-ahead to solicit private proposals. He said he would like to reevaluate the arrangement in two or three years, then discuss if selling the property would be a better option.
In that case, there's a need to consider whether selling off the property runs counter to the countys goals in acquiring the Rogers Lake area for open space and managing it into the future, Supervisor Matt Ryan said.
Supervisor Liz Archuleta pointed out that the county has already rented the facility three times without doing any advertising.
I do believe there is a niche for it, Archuleta said.
An Irish best selling author whose books have sold millions of copies around the world, has revealed that the inspiration for one of his best loved books came after an impromptu visit to Mitchelstown Caves.
In a post on his official Facebook page, Darren Shan has revealed that the inspiration for 'Bec', the fourth book in 'The Demonata series', came after he and his then girlfiend visited the Mitchelstown Caves back in 2002.
Darren says that it was on a random visit with Bas to the Mitchelstown Caves on a wet and rainy day, that the seed for for 'Bec' was planted.
"We adored the caves as soon as we arrived. They're probably the best caves I've yet to see. They haven't been over-developed, the features are incredible and they just have a magical feel. We came away buzzing, really excited and impressed," says Shan in the post.
"While I was down there, I'd had a thought, a flash of an action scene. . The 'movie clip' I saw on this day was of demons breaking through into the cave."
"Imagine what that would be like, trapped underground, a window open between our universe and the Demonata's ; having to fight in this beautiful but deadly, claustrophobic trap," he continued.
"The scene followed me from the Caves like a hound. Over the coming weeks, it echoed through my thoughts, tormenting me. It was a scene I hungered to write. I could tell it would work great on paper, a small band of heroes trapped in a cave, up against demonic forces, maybe the future of the world at stake.
"It would be like fighting in a massive coffin , if you died here, it would serve as your grave. I could feel the tension every time I played the scene out in my thoughts," he finished.
'The Demonata' is a 10 book series that finished in 2009.
Charleville Parent and Toddler Group meet every Tuesday morning from 10.30am to 11.30am during school term time in Hillview Community Building at a cost of 1 per family.
This group is open to parents, child minders or guardians of babies to play school children. They have music, snacks, fun and plenty of toys and books with an area for games.
They also have the services of a public health nurse to provide advice to mums regarding the health of their babies
The first morning is free of charge and you can be assured of a warm welcome.
It is a great opportunity for parents and children to make friends and to have fun together.
There are still places open for mothers and toddlers and all enquiries for this invaluable service should be directed to Ger Hyland, Community Family Support Worker at Ballyhoura Development CLG; mobile:087 0988822, e-mail: ghyland@ballyhoura.org.
Third book on priest and novelist
A third book from the prolific pen of Monsignor James O'Brien, Parish Priest of Ballyhea, based on the writings of Canon Sheehan of Doneraile will be launched at the Corbett Court Restaurant on Wednesday, December 20 at 8pm.
The new book, which deals with correspondence from the papers of Canon Sheehan of Doneraile during the period 1888 to 1913 with edited notes by James O'Brien, will be launched by Professor Eda Segarra of Trinity College Dublin and Very Rev. Fr. Tobias Bluitt, Parish Priest of Doneraile.
This the third book on the writings of Canon Sheehan by Monsignor O'Brien, and follows 'Canon Sheehan of Doneraile 1852-1913, Outlines for a Literary Biography' and 'The Collected Letters of Canon Sheehan of Doneraile 1883-1913'.
All are welcome to the launch of the latest book on the famous Mallow born priest and novelist.
A new survey has found that highly-skilled tech professionals from all over the world are moving to Cork for a better quality of life, career opportunities, shorter commutes and lower living costs.
The Cork Tech Talent Relocation Survey, was carried out by National Recruitment & HR Services Group Collins McNicholas in conjunction with Cork Chamber, IDA Ireland and Cork City Council. The report included responses from workers of 27 different nationalities with two thirds having relocated to Cork during the last two years.
Respondents relocated from countries such as China, the US, South Africa, France, Egypt and the Netherlands.
Fast becoming an international high-tech hub, Cork is attracting a large number of foreign and indigenous tech start-ups. 84% of respondents to the survey currently work in the city's buoyant IT sector and more than 85% of those surveyed said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their relocation. And 80% say they now have a better balance between their work and home lives. Some 85% now have a commute to work of less than 40 minutes and 78% said they did not consider it difficult to find a job in Cork.
While 27% of those who moved back were originally from Ireland, some 73% relocated from outside of Ireland.
Asked about the factors which influenced their move to Cork, 73% cited a better quality of life while 72% referenced a reduced cost of living. The other main reasons given were: lower property prices, less traffic, career opportunities, beautiful scenery and a safer environment.
Rory Walsh, Collins McNicholas, Cork Regional Manager, said:"The Cork region is experiencing a surge in the number of international professionals who are moving to the region for the work/ life balance that both the culture and economic environment can facilitate.
"Many expanding global organisations and indigenous companies are offering competitive salaries and interesting projects while the region also provides an unrivalled local charm and thriving social scene,"
Seamus Coghlan, Cork City Council, Head of Economic Development, said:"Cork is seeing an unprecedented level of city centre development, driven by the private sector."
He said the draft National Planning Framework (NPF) has acknowledged the role of cities as drivers of economic development. Cork, as the second largest city in Ireland, is well placed to take advantage of this, leveraging existing strengths and economic successes especially in FDI in the Life Sciences, ICT and internationally traded services sectors.
Ray O'Connor, IDA Regional Manager South West, said: "Over the last seven years, Cork has seen consistent growth in the numbers gaining employment across international companies - an increase of 11,500 people since 2009." He also said that Cork as a University city with over 30,000 full and part-time students across several colleges along with a strong established industry cluster and an expanding international airport has attracted both international companies and people with skills and talent to the area.
Conor Healy, CEO, Cork Chamber of Commerce, said:"This is the most exciting time in recent Cork history in terms of growth and opportunities."
When you receive word of a cabinet meeting at 9am on a Monday morning you know it isn't going to be a typical week.
Luckily, I was due in Dublin on Monday for the FoodWise 2025 Conference my Department was hosting in Croke Park. Regrettably, what I wasn't to know was that a day of high drama would upset my participation in the conference and, more crucially, the Taoiseach's attendance at the event.
I could probably dedicate my entire contribution this week exclusively to events of last Monday.
I arrived in Croke Park at 7.30am to greet the speakers who were to address the conference throughout the morning and afternoon. Those gathered were curious as to why the Taoiseach wouldn't be opening the conference as planned and why there was a Cabinet meeting taking place. Speculation naturally centered on reports that a deal to progress Brexit negotiations from Phase 1 to Phase 2 was imminent. This was obviously a matter of great interest to all gathered for breakfast who eagerly await the commencement of trade negotiations between the EU and UK so as to bring about some certainty for their business interests.
I quietly left Croke Park at 8.20am and arrived in Government buildings well in advance of our meeting. I departed Government buildings a number of hours later, confident that a good deal had been secured for Ireland and that the Taoiseach would be Croker bound to close the conference by declaring to the gathered audience that it was onwards to Phase 2!
Alas, as the afternoon developed neither scenario came to pass. Texts from Government buildings confirmed the worst - that there were problems afoot, and the Taoiseach wouldn't make it.
Nonetheless, despite this disappointment the Conference itself was a real success with Commissioner Hogan stealing the limelight with a provoking contribution on climate action.
Later on Monday night it fell upon me to again go on BBC's Newsnight to try and explain where it all had gone wrong and how all was not lost.
On Tuesday morning it was back to the Cabinet room for the weekly scheduled meeting of Government. Fortunately, it was a two-part affair which allowed me to escape to Leopardstown for the annual HRI awards where I had the great honour of presenting Aidan O'Brien with the 2017 Contribution to the Industry Award.
I retuned to the Department to meet with IFA representatives from the North and West of the country to discuss the difficulties being faced by farmers in the region due to poor weather over a sustained period.
Cabinet resumed at 4.30pm and concluded in time for me to trot down Baggot Street to attend the annual Meat Industry Ireland Christmas gathering. Despite the serious implications arising from Brexit for our meat industry the mood was upbeat and there was still much hope for progress evident, despite heightened rhetoric in the media from certain quarters.
Early on Wednesday morning I sat down with Bord Bia CEO Tara McCarthy to discuss plans ahead of my visit to London on Thursday. At noon I joined the President and CEO of Macra na Feirme to help launch a Strategic Plan for the organisation, an event which stirred up much nostalgia for me, I must confess.
In the afternoon I addressed the Seanad on Climate Change matters and the Dail on the Horse and Greyhound industries, and dropped into the weekly Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meeting before attending in the Dail chamber for a late evening of votes up to and beyond 10pm.
London was calling on Thursday with two important events for our food exporters to the UK. Following a mid morning flight to Heathrow, we reached the Irish embassy in London on time for a high level meeting with significant figures from the retail and food service industry in the UK. Naturally, there was keen interest in the room regarding Ireland's position on efforts to secure a deal on Brexit progress.
What those gathered didn't know at this stage was that we were closing in on agreement.
Later Thursday night I had the pleasure of addressing a 400-strong crowd of our UK food and drinks customers where I restated the importance of the UK market to Irish interests.
It was an early start on Friday morning to take in proceedings in Brussels. It was interesting to be in London while all was unfolding.
With Brexit parked for a few hours I made haste from London to the Castle Hotel, Macroom, to meet with my Department officials and the project team behind the new hen harrier scheme, which we officially launched on Jack Lynch's farm in glorious winter sunshine.
Whilst in the west I made a quick detour to Baile Bhuirne, to meet with members of Naomh Aban GAA, to confirm some well received and deserved funding for the club's development work.
It was back to Brexit, however, afterwards as I joined Matt Cooper on the Last Word to discuss the days proceedings and to reflect on a dramatic week. No mention of Naomh Aban, however!
On Sunday I braved the elements to travel to Dublin for an appearance on RTE's The Week in Politics. With the snow laying heavy in the midlands, my appearance seemed in jeopardy for a time but fortunately I arrived in Montrose with time to spare in the end.
From the studio it was straight to the airport to catch a flight to Brussels ahead of the annual December Fisheries Council. The drama is only beginning
A Cork constituent is in danger of losing the family home because of the delay in getting documentation through the registration process, Deputy Michael Moynihan told the Taoiseach in the Dail last week.
"The Programme for Government includes several commitments to protect home owners from repossessions by banks," he said.
"I am working through a very serious case on behalf of a constituent where problems have emerged as a consequence of the backlog in the Property Registration Authority. We have fought might and main to get the case through but to no avail.
"Is the Taoiseach aware of the shortage of staff in the Property Registration Authority and that the delays in processing documents are causing untold hardship?"
In response, the Taoiseach said he was not aware of the delays to which the Deputy referred, but would pass the information he had given to the line minister.
Lack of staff at hospital highlighted
Problems at St. Patrick's Community Hospital, Fermoy, were highlighted in the Dail by Fianna Fail Deputy Kevin O'Keeffe. He said there seems to be a big problem with maintaining staff levels in the hospital.
"I do not think the HSE is taking a hands-on approach to this job," he said.
"I spoke recently to a potential applicant for a job in the hospital who was told six months ago their name would be kept on file. When they approached the hospital recently to see whether they could get a position, they were told to reapply."
Deputy O'Keeffe said he particularly wanted to highlight the non-attendance by a doctor or medical officer at the St. Patrick's Community Hospital site. This had caused fierce problems for the community, he said.
"Families who have loved ones at home sometimes put them into respite care at St. Patrick's Community Hospital for certain periods," he said.
"It is an invaluable service for them. The HSE has informed us that a solution has been put in place.
"I will give an example of a person living near Mitchelstown who needs 24-hour care. He was offered a bed in Mallow but this was not sufficient because even with the care and attendance of those who provide cover at St. Patrick's Community Hospital, he still needs family members to travel and stay with him when he is in hospital.
"It is a total disgrace that this person and his family members have not received any respite in the past four or five months."
In reply, Minister of State Catherine Byrne said the Health Service Executive is responsible for the delivery of health and personal social services, including those at facilities such as St. Patrick's Community Hospital in Fermoy.
"Following the resignation of a medical officer in 2017, the HSE managed, with great difficulty, to engage another GP to provide the service," she said.
"However, in September 2017 a second medical officer retired. Despite strenuous efforts to engage another GP in the area the HSE was unable to source GP cover for the fifth day. The HSE decided that it was necessary to protect the 54 long-stay beds and that the respite service affecting nine beds in Fermoy had to be curtailed. This service was to be provided by local nursing homes."
She said that following a recent meeting with a local general practitioner, agreement has been reached to provide the necessary medical cover on a temporary basis. This will enable respite beds to reopen in the community hospital in Fermoy.
Horse breeding and racing worth almost 2bn to Irish economy
A recent Deloitte report commissioned by Horse Racing Ireland indicates that the total direct and stimulated expenditure of the Irish breeding and racing industry is estimated at 1.84 billion in 2016, Minister Creed told the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
The report indicated, he said, the core industry comprises 914 million of this with secondary expenditure making up the remaining 927 million. In addition, an estimated 15,200 jobs are at the core of the racing and breeding industry or in directly related industries.
"The achievements of Irish-bred and Irish-trained horses abroad and the enduring influence of Irish-born jockeys and stable staff underscore Ireland's global prominence," he said.
"The Irish equine breeding and racing industry is competitive at a global level despite other major racing nations having far larger populations and economies. The horse and greyhound racing fund has been pivotal in shaping the destiny of this dynamic industry."
Minister Creed said it is noteworthy that the Irish thoroughbred breeding industry has developed from an essentially amateur cottage industry pre-1969 to a position in which Ireland now is one of the leading bloodstock producing nations in the world. The industry produces close to half of all thoroughbreds in Europe.
"We hold the distinguished position of being the third-highest producer of foals coupled with having the third-highest number of active brood mares in the world," he said.
Government funding is crucial to maintain and build on our position as one of the world's leading breeding and racing nations, he said.
"Government funding of this industry is an excellent opportunity to yield a high return for this investment leading to a flow of income right through the economy.
"Support for certain strategic industries is important for future economic growth and can provide widespread benefits for our society and our economy."
Much to the relief of locals households and businesses, work finally commenced this week on a project to replace faulty water mains pipes in the village of Newtownshandrum.
Irish Water has confirmed it will be replacing five sections of ageing pipes totalling 10.5km in length and associated service connections with modern, durable plastic mains.
The issue of the dilapidated water supply system has been raised at County Council levels numerous occasions, with councillors becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of action taken to address the issue.
Earlier this year Cllr Ian Doyle (FF) expressed his frustration at the situation during a meeting of the local authority's northern divisional committee.
He said that the pipes had caused frequent bursts and leaks, resulting in regular disruptions and leaving local homes and business premises without a water supply.
"The line is porous and is costing Irish Water a fortune because they are sending crews out there to patch up one leak after another. Only the other day I saw a leak spring up while a crew was fixing another one just a few yards away," he said.
"It is also costing the council money in terms of the damage these leaks are causing to the road surface," he added. Steven Blennerhassett of Irish Water said the project would take in the region of four-months to complete.
"By replacing these old sections of water main we will address what has become a regular problem of supply outage due to burst pipes. This will benefit local residents and businesses by providing them with a secure and reliable water supply," he said.
"It will also reduce leakage on the network, which will in turn reduce the volume of treated water that is lost unnecessarily."
Mr Blennerhassett said the project team would work closely with the local community to minimise any disruption.
"The work sections will be limited to short sections and traffic management arrangements will be put in place to minimise impact on customers," he said.
"The works may involve some short-term water shut-offs and the project team will ensure that customers are given a minimum of 48-hours prior notice of any planned water shut off's. Customers can contact the Irish Water call centre on 1850 278 278 if they have any queries."
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD has announced the opening of the new 25m Hen Harrier Programme under Ireland's Rural Development Programme.
The minister made the announcement last Friday on a visit to the farm of Jack Lynch, who farms in the Hen Harrier SPA near Ballyvourney, outside Macroom.
"I am delighted to launch this new Programme today and announce that it is now open for application. This is a critical programme which seeks to save one of Ireland's most endangered birds, the hen harrier," said Minister Creed. "The design of this new programme is innovative and exciting, and I am delighted to fund this initiative for 25m under our Rural Development Programme.
"This is a prime example of a locally-led results-based scheme which will combine meaningful conservation measures with a strong local focus of delivery to farmers in the six SPA hen harrier areas."
He said the design of the programme was influenced by a combination of conservation NGO and researchers working together to deliver a targeted landscape level intervention which places the farmer at the heart of the process.
Farmer consultation was a key element of the development process for the programme and the opinions and feedback collected from 500 farmers were incorporated into the final design. Creating sustainable farming systems that work for both the farmers and the bird, and deliver real socio-economic benefits to the areas concerned is a major objective, said Minister Creed.
The programme is targeted specifically at farmers with designated land. The programme is a pilot project under the European Innovation Partnership measure of the Irish Rural Development Programme.
The new programme is designed and administered by a Hen Harrier Project Team under the leadership of Fergal Monaghan.
An extensive team of raptor specialists, fieldworkers and farm advisors will support the roll-out of the programme on the ground, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, with the National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, will help guide and support the project.
"We started this week with the major Food Wise Conference discussing sustainable agriculture in balance with the environment. Today, we can see this in action with this programme, which shows how Irish farmers working in tune with the environment can help to save one of our most endangered species", Minister Creed said.
The programme is now open for application and an expression of interest form can be obtained from the Hen Harrier Project.
Farmers bitterly disappointed with new scheme
The farming community is bitterly disappointed by the new Hen Harrier Scheme and rightly so, writes Irish Farmers with Designated Land (IFDL) writes Jason Fitzgerald.
There was a clear commitment and agreement given to the IFDL that new Locally Led Agri-Environment Schemes (LLAES) would deliver a payment of 370 per hectare for those farmers over 19 hectares. But, instead, the new scheme announced recently will only pay 66 per hectare or 26 an acre.
The monetary shortfall for farmers is monumental.
The background to this scheme was to address the short comings of the GLAS and GLAS+ scheme for farmers with large tracks of Hen Harrier SPA designated land, particularly those over 19 hectares.
IFDL was established to highlight the lack of support that was given to farmers in Hen Harrier SPA designated land.
The over 3,700 farmers affected by this designation have no autonomy over their own land, nor are they able to avail of any economic opportunities that may arise. As a result their lands remain almost worthless and sterilised.
In 2007, when these lands were being designated, it was on the basis that a scheme would be opened and would pay farmers 350 per hectare up to 40 hectares with reduced payment thereafter. Only 10 per cent of farmers accessed the scheme before it prematurely closed. Also, afforestation was banned despite a pre-designation agreement.
The new Hen Harrier Scheme is a missed opportunity and is at odds with all the promises and assurances given by Ministers and department officials.
The scheme will be made up of three different areas where farmers may receive additional income:
1. Results based payments on the quality of habitat on inspection. Farmers receive a payment score between 4-10 (1-3 does not qualify for payment) based on the quality of the habitat. This payment structure is based on the Burren Life project which has been running since 2012, the average payment score in the Burren is 6/10. For this reason, the below examples are based on a score of 6/10.
2. Support actions payment. This payment is to reimburse farmers for expenditure on products or infrastructural that may be seen as beneficial to the habitat.
Unfortunately, this does not financially benefit farmers. This payment is based on a value of 40 per hectare.
3. Hen Harrier Payment. This payment is based on the success of the hen harrier locally and within the SPA. Each year if the hen harrier improves locally or within the SPA farmers will receive a bonus payment that will be determined by available funds.
Despite a farmer's best effort, they may not receive this payment if the hen harrier does not have a successful breeding season, this is something farmers have no influence over. This payment could be up to 30 per cent of the overall payment. Farmers have no control over this payment and is grossly unfair.
It can be difficult at times to single out people for special commendation - especially when so many others battle and die in a similar way. So when a commemoration of a name from the distant past takes place, there is always a question raised, suggested, hinted - 'why him, why her, why give them a special moment, were others not as valiant, not as brave, not as loyal...as them.'
The best way to answer such comment is to build a case perhaps, get the facts lined up, stand and deliver.
But those that have read about the exploits of James Samuel Emerson did not need any proof of the merits of a special day in Collon.
The local Church of Ireland was the setting for a Centenary Commemoration and Thanksgiving for the life and service of 2nd Lieut James Emerson.
It was in those pews that a young James sat many years ago.
Back then, war and death seemed a lifetime away, but the years would bring change.
His brothers would go to war, one captured and spending the conflict in a POW camp, the other fighting with a Canadian regiment.
At 19, he enlisted and joined the Royal Irish Fusiliers and by 1915 was a machine gunner.
He was injured in Hooge and taken back to hospital in Dublin and was there when the Rising took place. By June 1916 he was back at the Somme and such was his astuteness, he was drafted back to Donegal for officer training.
He returned to the Front with the Royal Inniskillen Fusiliers and by late 1917 found himself fighting at the Hindenburg Line, north of La Vacquerie, France.
The letter Fr John Redmond wrote to his parents was read out, the opening words cutting the heart of his family in Collon a century ago 'your boy was one of the finest officers in the battalion. His men would have followed him anywhere.'
The hours leading up to his death on December 6, 1917, were outlined, how a German handgrenade exploded over his head, how he refused treatment, refused to leave his men under fire, led the charge from the trenches and held his line until reinforcements arrived.
A bullet from a sniper downed him and he was carried to a relief station.
'In his last moments, he thought of his family and we laid him in a green area and placed a cross over him,' Fr Redmond wrote. 'He died doing his duty.'
The ceremony was attended by the wider community, both Protestant and Catholic clergy, members of the Irish Army, Supt Fergus Treanor and Sgt Michael Kelly, the ONE, the Royal Inniskillens, members of the British Legion and others.
The Emerson family also came to honour their noble son and there too, Rosemary Yore. It was fitting that she rose to read a poem 'Lament for Thomas MacDonagh' - written by Francis Ledwidge.
It centred on the tragic 1916 leader and his death and how it impacted on the Slane man, who was fighting for the British army.
Rev Joyce Moore said it was very apt and she hoped that no more young men should ever have to lay down their lives for the greed of those in power.
One of those in attendance was the Cathaoirleach of the Laytown/Bettystown area council and Lobinstown based Paddy Meade.
He was much taken with the ceremony and said it was important to remember those that gave the greatest sacrific.
'So many died from the Collon, Lobinstown and Slane areas and it's important that they be remembered,' he added.
After his death, James Samuel Emerson was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery, the ultimate award a soldier can receive.
'He shall not hear the bittern cry
In the wild sky, where he is lain
Nor voices of the sweeter birds,
Above the wailing of the rain.'
Louth County Council (LCC) has been called on to instruct the owner of the property adjacent to the Pines Hamlet estate to take action in dealing with the serious infestation of Japanese knotweed which could have serious repercussions for property and environment in Drogheda.
In a written response to the motion, the council said it is an offence under the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011 to plant, disperse, spread or otherwise cause to grow various specified plants, including Japanese knotweed.
'A person summarily convicted of such an offence is liable to a fine not exceeding 500,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or both,' they said.
'The body responsible for enforcing this law is the National Parks and Wildlife Service, assisted, as necessary, by An Garda Siochana. Louth County Council (LCC) has no role in relation to enforcing this law, except in reporting alleged incidences to the relevant authorities.'
The council went on to say it monitors the presence of Japanese knotweed and similar problem species and records sighting with the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
'The council acts to kill Japanese knotweed on its own land and erects warning signs in such areas, to raise awareness and to prevent accidental spread of the plant,' it added.
Noting the reply, Councillor Culhane asked the council to write to An Garda Siochana asking them to take action under the Noxious Weed Act.
'I'd go so far as to say it is affecting the footpaths in this area which I would suggest is as a result of the knotweed,' he said.
Councillor Tommy Byrne supported the motion and said it was a serious problem throughout the local area.
'We have Japanese knotweed on our own land in The Dale. It would cost 10,000 to clear it. I was shocked at the cost of removing it. It is a huge issue and very timely,' he said.
Councillor Kevin Callan there is also an issue at Murdochs Carpark along the wall directly opposite the Garda Station. He said the Tidy Towns Committee has had a look at it but didn't touch it as they suspected it could be Japanese Knotweed.
'He asked that it also be looked at by the council.
Councillor Oliver Tully said this was a worldly motion, particularly when Louth County Council has the problem it does have with knotweed along the motorway.
'We're all aware of the warning not to touch it and especially not to dig it up as any little part of it at all can grow like wildfire,' he said.
'Louth County Council (LCC) should report it and report it to the National Parks and Wildlife Service and ask them to deal with this as a matter or urgency.'
Speaking about the situation at Pines Hamlet, Councillor Pio Smith said his understanding was that it is a no man's land. 'If it is what is the council's responsibility?' he asked.
However, Councillor Culhane said he believed to owner can be identified. 'I think it needs signs up, people aren't aware of the damage it can do,' he said.
'It needs to be injected in order to get rid of it. It is a very costly process. We should have signs up warning people not to cut it because it will spread and it will seed.'
Council Engineer Martina Sheeran said the council do have a Section 85 agreement and have engaged Westmeath County Council to deal with parts of it.
'On our own road networks we have identified locations and made arrangements to carry out treatment. We have been putting up signs on the verges warning the public not to cut or touch it,' she said.
WEST SALEM Lorraine M. Severson, 87, of West Salem died Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017, at Mulder Health Care Facility in West Salem. A funeral Mass will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, at St. Leo The Great Catholic Church in West Salem with visitation from 1 p.m. to time of Mass. Burial will be at 11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 22, in Neshonoc Cemetery. A complete obituary will follow. Jandt-Fredrickson Funeral Homes and Crematory, Jostad Chapel, West Salem, is in charge of arrangements.
Two local gardai have been awarded Bronze Scott Medals for outstanding bravery in the line of duty.
Det George McGuffin and Det Garda Patrick Carey received the medals at a special ceremony in the Garda College last week.
Det McGuffin was off duty in the centre of Drogheda in May 2014 when he rugby tackled a bank robber who had held up the Permanent TSB on West Street.
As he held the raider - who was later jailed for six years - his accomplice threatened to shoot the garda, but he refused to allow him escape.
The second raider then fled.
At the subsequent court case at Dundalk Circuit Court, Judge Michael O'Shea said the 'courage and fearlessness' of Det McGuffin were 'the highest by a garda I've ever come across in my 14 years as a judge.
'He displayed exemplary courage and bravery when confronted and his continuing fearlessness was of the highest bravery. The steps he took were absolutely brave and courageous.'
Garda Patrick Carey also received the medal after his actions during an attempted armed robbery at Clogherhead Post Office in 2015.
He was in the store when the armed raiders struck but as they attempted to drive away, he drew his weapon and was injured when the vehicle drove at him. One of the raiders also pointed a shotgun at him.
He later helped in an arrest of one of the individuals.
Also at the ceremony, the family of the late Garda Tony Golden accepted a posthumous Gold Medal .
On 11 October 2015, Garda Golden was called upon to protect a member of his community and was shot dead at the scene in Omeath.
The Irish Cancer Society has released its 2016 counselling figures and said that the number of people accessing these services in cancer support centres has increased by 68% in just four years.
However, it said women still make up the vast majority of the service, with over 7 in 10 of the clients in 2016 being female and just under 3 in 10 were male.
Louth people represented over 5% of the Society's national figure, with 75 people from the county availing of the counselling service.
The Irish Cancer Society's affiliated support centre providing counselling in Louth is Gary Kelly Cancer Support.
The Society uses a short-term model, and often a client only needs one or two sessions to help them understand that their emotional reaction is normal and to enhance their own coping techniques.
Dorothy Thomas, Community Support Network Coordinator at the Irish Cancer Society said: 'Once cancer patients embark on a cancer journey, they are supported with the physical aspects of their illness through the health system, attending hospital appointments and treatment.'
'However, the emotional effects of cancer may not be felt until weeks, months or years after the initial diagnosis. Often, it is only after treatment finishes that they realise how much cancer has changed their lives.
'Cancer diagnoses affect a huge network of people and often the support is needed throughout an entire family.
Gary Kelly Cancer Support provides psychosocial care for cancer patients and their families in their own communities.
'The Irish Cancer Society works closely with these teams to provide a range of proven programmes, including the counselling service, free of charge to cancer patients and their families. Coping with cancer can be difficult and families may experience many emotions such as anxiety, fear and sadness.'
The counselling service supports people of all ages affected by cancer. The majority of those attending the service across the country were between the ages of 45-64 (50%) while almost one third of clients (26.3%) were between the ages of 18 and 44 with this age group experiencing significant issues such as relationships, fertility and careers, all impacted on a cancer journey.
Clients under 18 made up 4.4% of clients, almost all of these children were struggling with the diagnosis of a sibling or a significant adult in their life.
Other main results from the report include:Breast cancer was the number one cancer represented and accounted for 31% of clients
Anyone who is concerned about cancer or is interested in accessing the counselling service, can contact the Irish Cancer Society's Cancer Nurseline on Freephone 1800 200 700 or visit www.cancer.ie/support/counselling.
Descendants of Thomas Charles Wright are to travel to Drogheda from South America next summer to unveil a monument to the man who founded the Ecuadorian navy in Guayaquil.
It will also mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Wright.
The Drogheda Independent highlighted the story of Wright and his role in South American history earlier this year.
And to mark the special anniversary of his death, local historian Noel Bailey has made contact with the extended Wright family in South America and they are playing their part in marking the occasion.
'We are working on the monument at the moment and we have set July 14th as the unveiling day,' Noel stated.
He is hoping to secure a spot close to the port for the 7ft memorial.
''We are sourcing a site for it but the fact that he was a naval man, a place close to the port would be terrific and it will form part of the town's great seafaring history.'
Wright came from Queensboro and went to naval college in Portsmouth.
But he would ultimately join the forces of Simon Bolivar and fight to free South America from Spanish rule.
Ecuador became independent in 1830 and Wright was one of the country's heroes.
He died in December 1868.
There are several monuments to him in Ecuador, while he still has descendants in Drogheda.
A major fundraising campaign has been launched through the Old Drogheda Society to fund the celebrations and all support would be most welcome, Noel states.
The Irish counsel in Ecuador, Ms Dominique Kennedy, is supporting the idea.
Donations can be made via the Old Drogheda Society Ltd and further details can be had from the society. The event is likely to be an internationally recognised one and it is hoped will boost relations between Ecuador and Drogheda.
Wright was born in January 1799.
The new President of Network Louth has been announced as Aileen Phelan, a director in the Drogheda-based firm VCL Consultants.
She was sworn in as president at the Network's recent AGM.
Aileen is a Director of Accounts and Administration at the company which she runs alongside her husband Eddie. VCL Consultants is a multi-disciplinary design practice specialising in civil and structural engineering and architecture and was established almost 20 years ago. In her role, Aileen deals with the financial and regulatory side of the business. Outside of her professional life, Aileen is the current director and choreographer of the Mornington Gospel Choir and is a volunteer leader for the Irish Maritime Festival.
She is also on the accommodation committee for Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann 2018. Aileen is looking forward to the year ahead as President and has plans to develop the three components of Networking, Support and Personal Development.
'I would like to thank the outgoing President, Regina Behan for her great leadership over the past year and to acknowledge the other members who are stepping down from the committee for their work and dedication to the branch over the past number of years', said Aileen.
'I would also like to welcome the members who are joining the committee for the coming year and I forward to working with them in what will be a very busy 2018'. Supporting Aileen in her role will be vice president Carmel McCarthy, of EMS & Associates based in Drogheda.
Outgoing President, Regina Behan, reflected fondly over her year as president: 'I was honoured to be the 2017 Network Ireland Louth President leading an amazing bunch of women. The success of the Network is assured going forward with Aileen Phelan and Carmel McCarthy as President and VP for 2018 and we are delighted to welcome several new members to the committee. I would encourage any working woman, no matter what the business or how small or large to join Network Louth.'
The committee and guests enjoyed the Network's Christmas social and fundraiser in the festive surroundings of Scholars Townhouse Hotel.
Guests were served Listoke Distillery Gin cocktails and with the help of several buckets for collection and the cost of the tickets for the event, the Network raised 300 for the Drogheda Women & Children's Refuge. The Network Ireland Louth Committee for 2018 also includes Regina Behan, Coppertops, Social Media/Website, Sinead Doody, Sinead Doody Accountant, Treasurer, Margaret Reilly, Grand Designs, Siobhan O'Reilly, Hindsight Training, Karen Morgan Murphy, Travel Counsellors Ireland.
'We are shocked and numb as a community,' Fr Sean Kavanagh told the congregation at St Mary's Church in Cushinstown on Tuesday, reflecting on the tragedy that had occurred 1km down the road at Begerin Hill the previous night when four members of the Alexander family were killed in a terrible accident.
There was hardly a human sound among the visibly stunned mourners at the funeral of Winifred (Winnie) Keevey (nee Ryan), where a moving tribute was paid to her by her daughter Noreen. In remembering the strength and fun loving ways of Winnie, Fr Kavanagh said: 'We are also hugely conscious as we gather this afternoon of the terrible tragedy that occurred just up the road from the church. We remember the Alexander family of Lily, Douglas Snr, Douglas Jnr and Steven. We think of their family back in Chicago who have had to receive this terrible news as well.'
He reflected on the huge contribution Winnie made within the Cushinstown community from when she moved to the area in the 1960s into a house that had no electricity or running water. Both she and Lily hailed from Limerick.
Both Fr Kavanagh and Noreen recalled Winnie's caring nature. She was the reason the family home was 'home' to all the Keevey's. Her Christmas puddings were always sought after this time of year and despite being ill she made her usual batch last September for her children and grandchildren to enjoy this Christmas.
He asked the mourners to take a minute to pray for Winnie and the Alexander family and their family in Chicago.
Big plans for the vacant St Senan's Hospital building have been unveiled after the new owners officially took possession on Friday. A consortium of four local businessmen, headed by Bree native Eamonn Galavan, Managing Director of NitroFert fertiliser company in New Ross, officially took possession of the property last week and have great plans for the building.
A protected structure, St Senan's was put on the market at the start of this year carrying a price tag of 780,000 and was snapped up by the consortium who now plan to install up to 50 luxury apartments in the building and on the site. The purchase of the St Senan's has been largely welcomed by the local community, many of whom feared that the historic building would be allowed fall to rack and ruin in a similar fashion to the old hospital building in Wexford town.
'We believe that we have acquired the most beautiful building in the county, if not the country,' said Mr Galavan. 'It really is a national treasure. Our aim now is to preserve this historic building and fit it out with up-scale apartments that are becoming of the building and of the site.'
Mr Galavan says that the group has already appointed a top conservation architect to the project and they are hoping to start remedial works from the beginning of January.
'There's a lot of work to be done on the building before we even start properly,' he said. 'We have to do the roof and the towers need to be looked at. It's got beautiful 12 foot ceilings that will look amazing. We will be putting a team together now though and we hope to start this initial work on preserving the building from the start of next month.'
While all further work is subject to planning permission being granted, Mr Galavan says that he is hopeful that things will move quickly enough.
'We can't believe the goodwill and the positivity that we've been greeted with so far from the town and surrounding areas,' he said. 'We hope to continue to work well with the council and to preserve this wonderful building in a way that will benefit the town and everyone involved. We're very excited about it.'
Chief executive of Enniscorthy & District Chamber Catriona Murphy welcomed the move and offered their assistance in any way possible.
'We're here to help Enniscorthy and progress the economic sustainability of the area,' she said. 'We would like to welcome and congratulate Eamonn and Mairead on their announcement. It may have been a long time coming, but it's perfect timing in terms of other developments that are happening in the town.'
Timing does appear to be very good for the project, with the UN Centre of Excellence in Energy Efficiency to be built next door, and students expected to arrive from all over Europe. Similarly, Enniscorthy continues to be linked with a move to house a new IT Carlow campus with a neighbouring site being touted as a viable option.
La Crosse County prosecutors again charged a woman with homicide Friday for helping her boyfriend deliver drugs to a man who overdosed after a judge dismissed similar charges earlier this week.
According to court records, Jenifer Tenner drove Zachary Miller to a North Side convenience store on June 18 where Miller sold heroin to Kyle Bott, who overdosed about half an hour later and died June 21 in a local hospital. After an autopsy, a medical examiner determined Bott, 28, died of acute fentanyl poisoning and had morphine, a metabolite of heroin, in his system.
Prosecutors charged Miller, 25, and Tenner, 34, with first degree reckless homicide, but Judge Scott Horne dismissed the charge against Tenner, saying the states allegations made no mention of fentanyl.
In a charge filed Friday, prosecutors note that heroin and fentanyl are often sold together and quoted a police investigator who said, people are selling fentanyl saying that its heroin and they have no idea, the people who are ingesting or using it they dont even know theyre strictly using the fentanyl.
Horne previously found probable cause for the homicide charge against Miller based on the investigators testimony at a hearing in November.
Plans to make changes to traffic flow at Fairview Park would cause 'absolute chaos' for commuters travelling into the city from Fingal, it has been claimed.
The issue was raised by Cllr Eoghan O'Brien at a Malahide/Howth area committee meeting last week who said the Dublin City Council proposal to remove one lane of traffic would have a hugely negative impact on several major arterial routes.
His motion calling for a letter to be written to the city council chief executive outlining their opposition to the proposal was supported by four votes to two.
Cllr O'Brien said that while it was a 'noble aspiration', he warned that without the necessary public transport and infrastructure it had the potential to cause severe traffic disruption.
'I want to send a message into Dublin City Council about the impact that this will have. It has also raised a wider point about how actions carried out by local authorities impact neighbouring areas.'
He said that without a world class public transport system, it would be lead to absolute chaos.
'I think it has potential to really have a negative impact.'
Cllr Keith Redmond said the all arterial traffic coming from Fingal and Dublin Bay North used the junction at Fairview Park.
'It deals with tens of thousands of people who travel along that road. The notion tat we can turn two lanes into one is bewildering.
'I note they are reviewing the plan because it would be a terrible decision,' he said.
'If this goes ahead we will be looking at a massive bottleneck that will end all the way to Howth and Malahide.
Cllr David Healy supported the Dublin City Council plan, starting that if more people were commuting on buses or by bicycle, they would be less congestion. 'The more people we can get from cars onto buses and bikes, the more space we will have for people who remain in the cars.'
Representatives from Irish Rail are willing to meet members of the Joint Policing Committee regarding incidents of antisocial behaviour along the Northern line. Company chief executive David Franks has responded to a letter from the Joint Policing Committee, stating that the local Passenger Service Manager would be happy to attend a meeting and clarify any matters arising.
In October, JPC chairperson Kieran Dennison wrote to he rail firm stating that the matter of antisocial behaviour at train and DART stations had been discussed.
He wrote: 'Members expressed concerns that such behaviour is increasing and that there is anapparent correlation in line with hours when train stations are unmanned, or with low numbers of staff present.
'Garda members of the Committee outlined their concerns, that, when attending to a reported incident at an unmanned station, youths attempt to escape by running on to the rail tracks when confronted. Garda management consider thisto be a serious safety matter.
'The issue of the Garda response to reported incidences was discussed, and itwas felt by the Committee that emphasis should be placed on preventing such behaviour occurring in the first instance, through deployment of Irish Rail staff and a security presence. The Committee also considers that reliance on technology i.e. CCTV, is not sufficient and is of use only in the aftermath of ASB. 'On behalf of the Fingal Joint Policing Committee, I would welcome your response to this matter, as we are aware that this is not unique to the Fingal area.'
A Skerries business is determined to get a 'pizza' of the action when it comes to raising funds for the local lifeboat.
RNLI volunteers visited Jimmy's Take Away and Pizzeria in Skerries last week, for the launch of a generous 12-month long fundraising campaign.
As well as being the owner and manager of Jimmy's Take Away and Pizzeria in Skerries Point, Jimmy is well known in the town for his spectacular aerial and landscape photography.
As he spends a lot of his time near the coast capturing his images, Jimmy is very aware of the work that the lifeboat volunteers do and wanted to do something to help Skerries RNLI continue saving lives at sea.
After some brainstorming he came up with a plan to donate 50c for every single meal deal sold for an entire year.
Speaking about the fundraising campaign, Lifeboat Press Officer for Skerries RNLI, Gerry Canning said: 'The RNLI is funded entirely by voluntary contributions, and we have a team of fundraisers working really hard behind the scenes to keep things moving. It's really appreciated when people from the community approach us to offer their support.
'Jimmy is well known around Skerries, not just for his great food and excellent photography, but for his community spirit. He is always looking for a way to give back to the community and this is just another example of his generosity,'
The RNLI operates over 230 lifeboat stations with 43 in Ireland. The RNLI is independent of the Coast Guard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service.
A new collection of non-fiction stories by the members of Riverchapel Courtown Ladies' Club has been published online.
The creation of the collection, titled 'Dancing Down Memory Lane', was funded and supported by Wexford County Council, under the Artist in the Community scheme. It features twelve stories set at home and abroad.
The 12 contributors took part in a creative writing course which was facilitated by writer Sylvia Cullen in Riverchapel between September and November. Over eight weeks of workshops, the women chose their own theme and worked hard to craft and edit their story. Inspired by life experience, each writer took a different slant on life - both locally in and further afield in England, Spain and Canada.
They gathered in the 19th in Courtown last week to launch their website dancingdownmemorylane.wordpress.com .
Club secretary Pauline Maguire thanked the Arts department of Wexford County Council. 'It has been a terrific project for all of the ladies involved,' she said.
Tesco Ireland's annual Christmas Appeal in its Wexford stores raised more than 1,700 worth of donations for local charities.
Some of the organisations benefiting from the appeal in the county included Gorey Youth Needs, Camphill Community Project, and the New Ross community. The annual Tesco Ireland Christmas Appeal ran in Tesco stores on December 1 and 2, and shoppers were asked to donate products in-store to their local charities.
In an exciting development, Wexford County Council has announced that it is teaming up with Filmbase and the Wexford-based production company Bodecii in 2018 to offer a new film fund of 10,000 for applicants to make a short film. And to help them along the way, the arts department of the local authority financed a series of Wexford screen writers professional development workshops in the National Opera House.
Ten Wexford writers - Peter Murphy, Emma Ennis, Hannah McNiven, Conor Martin, Wally O'Neill, Eoghan Rua Finn, John McGarrigle, Imelda Carroll and Karolina Kraus McKenna - were selected from 38 interested applicants to take part in the intensive workshops held over two weekends in November and led by award-winning writer Eugene O'Neill (Eden, The Flag, Red Rock) and writer/director Laura Way (Red Rock, I Can't Sleep) The project was funded and facilitated by the County Council and Bodecii Film with the support of Filmbase and the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland.
The aim was to give established Wexford-based writers the skills and techniques to write for the screen and offer them an insight into the collaborative process from experienced television and film industry professionals.
The first weekend covered practical skills on how to write a screen play and each of the writers received individual feedback and assistance with the development of story ideas. After the first workshop, they were given 12 days to write and deliver the first draft of a screen play for group read throughs.
The council's new film fund will provide an opportunity for one of the 10 Wexford writers to have their short film produced and to develop professional relationships in the industry. The overall initiative aims to nurture local talent and develop skills to produce indigenous film and telvision in County Wexford.
In addition to the workshops, the writers met in the Opera House for a question and answer session with a panel comprising Alan Fitzpatrick, MD of Film Base, which offers filmmakers and film artists access to funding; Liz Burns, Wexford arts officer; Wexford-born director Ian Power (the Runway, The Guarantee); producer and writer Paul Walker (Red Rock, The Clinic, Star Dust); Eugene O'Brien and Laura Way.
Wexford-born actress and director Laura, who runs Bodecii Film, is one of the inspirational forces behind the council initiative. She is a member of the Equality Action Committee with the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland and the Writers Guild of Ireland.
'Galway, Cork and Limerick are developing their own industry and attracting international productions and there's no reason why Wexford can't too', she said.
'I wanted to create more opportunity for Wexford-based writers to develop their skill sets in screen writing. I wouldn't have directed TV drama without some of the training opportunities I got through Red Rock, Filmbase and Screen Training Ireland and wanted to bring this type of opportunity to Wexford. There's serious talent here'.
'It starts with the writer but screen writing is a craft and although there is an abundance of talent, not everyone has the skills to write for screen. Film is also collaborative and I wanted the writers to have a realistic understanding of how the film industry works. It's built on relationships and trust. You can write a great screenplay but the film won't achieve greatness without a director with strong vision and craft'
'We had five men and five women on the course which was great as the Film Board tell us there are not enough women applying for fundings so part of this programme is to help the writers develop professional relationships in the industry and encourage more women to apply,' said Laura.
The panel covered screen writing advice, collaboration in film, making a funding application. During the event, Wexford County Council's new Film Fund was announced by Liz Burns, Filmbase will provide an extra 10,000 in support and equipment to the initiative.
Next year, there will be a national call-out inviting directors and producers to form teams with the Wexford screen writers to help them develop their screen plays and pitch for the film fund. The successful short film will be shot in locations throughout Wexford.
Another writers' workshop will take place in January with Eugene O'Brien and Paul Walker before applications to apply open in January through the Filmbase website.
Residents in Courtown, Riverchapel and Ballmoney have asked about the possibility of a commuter service into Gorey.
The Dublin city commuters have asked LocalLink Wexford to investigate the idea of a service into Gorey to connect them with early morning bus services.
As a result, LocalLink manager Mary O'Leary is looking at the possibility of putting in a seven-day service to facilitate those commuting by asking the public to take part in a survey, which is available at www.surveymonkey.com/r/2Z9VJMT/.
The family of Pauline Finlay (49) who went missing 24 years ago near Cahore will finally know if unidentified human remains buried in North Wales are hers after an exhumation which is due to take place today (Tuesday).
The family was told last year DNA strongly indicated the human remains were those of Mrs Finlay, but sadly her husband Joe will not see her remains being brought home to be buried as he passed away in August.
Welsh coroner Dewi-Pritchard Jones issued the exhumation order last week after waiting more than a year for The High Court in London to overturn the verdict of the original inquest into the unidentified body of a woman who washed up along the Welsh coastline on October 31, 1994.
Dublin natives Pauline and Joe had a mobile home at Old Bawn near Cahore and were very well-known in the locality. Pauline disappeared on March 25 in 1994 while walking her two dogs on Old Bawn beach.
Extensive searches were carried for days and weeks out on the water and along the coastline after she went missing but no trace was ever found.
However it is now believed that the unidentified remains of a woman who washed up on Cable Bay beach in Wales eight months later may have been those of Mrs Finlay.
Last year, police in North Wales launched a fresh effort to try and give names to 17 bodies that they have on their records and contacted An Garda Siochana for details on unsolved missing persons cases.
It emerged in the joint investigation that the Cable Bay remains were likely to be those of Mrs Finlay.
Mr Pritchard-Jones said his predecessor and police at the time failed to identify the remains and they were buried, being cared for by local people.
If the DNA results confirm that the body is that of Mrs Finlay, the remains will be repatriated to Ireland. Mr Pritchard-Jones said an 'Irish coroner will deal with the matter and a death certificate will be issued' to the family.
Meanwhile, a grave of an unnamed man lies in St Michael's Cemetery in Gorey after his body washed up on Courtown beach on October 23, 1999, and still remains unidentified. The mystery also continues with the body of woman who washed up at Ballinamona Beach on December 12, 1995, and her remains lie in Crosstown Cemetery in Wexford.
Anne Finch, who has been Logistic Health Inc.s chief information officer since 2014, will become CEO of La Crosse-based company on Jan. 1.
LHI founder and Chairman Don Weber announced her promotion at employee town hall sessions this week. The CEO position has been vacant for about a year.
At the meetings, Weber and Finch also announced that about 530 employees of the fast-growing company are expected to move into the Belle Square building downtown in 2018. That will be a combination of new hires, and some LHI employees who already work at the three Riverside Center office buildings downtown and leased space at a few other La Crosse locations.
Weber also repeated what he told employees at an earlier round of town hall employee meetings this year -- that he agreed during the summer to continue as chairman for three more years. Weber founded LHI in 1999 and sold the company in 2011 to OptumHealth, part of health care giant UnitedHealth Group of Minnetonka, Minn. His family also owns commercial properties such as the Charmant Hotel and the new Belle Square housing, retail and office complex.
In an interview with the Tribune on Friday, Weber said LHI has about 1,800 employees, including about 1,674 in La Crosse. He predicted the company will have about 2,400 employees by the end of 2018, including more than 2,000 in La Crosse.
LHI provides health care services and care management services to government agencies and commercial clients.
LHI has added more than 800 jobs this year, Finch said. That growth is driven by the high-quality services LHI provides the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Defense, she said.
With LHI needing more space and expanding to Belle Square, all of that developments commercial space is spoken for, Weber said. Several businesses already have moved into Belle Square.
LHI employees wont begin moving into Belle Square until spring, after work on their office space has been finished. We hope to get in there by April with the first employees, Finch said.
By summer, 530 LHI employees are expected to be working there. Were still working through different scenarios as to which departments will go over there, Finch said.
LHI has been without a CEO since Robert Betchley left that post around the first of the year for another job with Optum, Weber said Friday. With no CEO, Weber had taken on additional responsibilities this year. I was acting as CEO without carrying that title, he said.
Besides being chairman of LHI, Weber also will continue to serve as chairman of OptumServe, a division of Optum that includes LHI.
Weber said he recommended to Optum and UnitedHealth officials that Finch be named LHIs new CEO, after he had thought for months about who would be the best choice. As I went through the year and thought about individuals, Anne was always on top of the list, he said.
Finch received a standing ovation when he announced her promotion at this weeks town hall sessions, Weber said. LHI holds town hall meetings for its employees three times a year to keep them informed about what the company is doing.
The essential quality in any great leader is credibility, and Finch is very credible, Weber said. People really look up to her. She motivates people. Shes a visionary and fits in well with LHIs culture.
Im super excited to take the reins of a company thats growing, Finch said, adding that Weber has been a great leader at LHI and in the community. I love taking the reins of a company that has such a great purpose. Not many people are able to say weve got the honor of serving people who have really preserved our freedoms, she said.
Its great to be part of a purposeful company, Finch said. I also feel that the culture match is good. I think its important that what you do matches your own values and what you feel passionate about.
Finch has worked for Optum since October 2010, and since May 2014 has been LHIs chief information officer. They are accountable for all of the technology that runs the company, she said of a chief information officers job. They are accountable to the CEO to keep the technology running, to set the strategy based on where the business is going, and to have the technology required to meet business needs.
Technology is the engine that drives the services LHI provides, Weber said. Annes in-depth understanding of the technological challenges and opportunities in this industry will ensure the company remains agile, always ready to forge innovative solutions to better serve the men and women who serve our country.
A charity coffee morning featuring the baked goods of O'Sullivan's Bakery in Killorglin and their customers helped to raise some 1,300 for good causes ahead of the festive season - including 1,000 for a Tanzanian orphanage that can trace its roots back to a Scoil Mhuire Killorglin teacher, Louise Quill.
Helen O'Sullivan explained that the superbly attended coffee morning was organised for the Tir na nOg Orphanage and Saint Vincent de Paul, and she was delighted at how well-received the occasion was.
"My daughter was taught by Louise [Quill], and when I heard about the work Louise had done in Africa, I wanted to help," she said. "Everyone made a great effort supplying treats on the morning, and the attendance was fantastic."
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has approved the 10million Kilderry Bends Improvement Scheme, the largest of four schemes - worth almost 12million combined - scheduled for mid-Kerry in 2018.
The Kilderry Bends project provides for a new 3.5-kilometre section on the N70 between Milltown and Killorglin; and realignment of dangerous bends along a stretch of road that has previously been described by the National Roads Authority as one of Ireland's most dangerous.
Work is expected to begin in 2018 and will take some 15 months to complete, and yesterday's confirmation from TII has been described by Minister Brendan Griffin TD as "great news" for Kerry.
The news comes on the back of several recent developments announced for Mid-Kerry roads for 2018. In recent weeks, Kerry County Council (KCC) said that the 1.5million Dromavally-Mill Road scheme - located in the Killorglin area between the Astellas Plant and Killorglin Church - is proposed to get underway early next year.
The large scheme is expected to be completed in phases throughout the year, with no major works set for July and August to avoid traffic disruption during the tourist season.
Its proposals cover safety improvement works at four locations and full replacement of existing pavement. Its safety works entail the introduction of a mini-roundabout at the junction of Bridge Street, New Line Road, and Annadale Road; realignment to the Killorglin Bridge roundabout and the Mill Road-New Line Road junction; the introduction of widened footpaths and a crossing point between the roundabout and Killorglin Bridge; and the installation of a kerbed grass verge to the entrance to Dromavally Graveyard.
A further 260,000 has also been included in the Department of Transport's Restoration Improvement Programme 2018 for two other projects in the Killorglin area.
150,000 worth of works are expected to take place on the Caragh Lake-to-Killorglin road, involving draining, re-grading and surface dressing from Glanagilliagh Cross to the Rangue Junction. Similar works worth 110,000 will also take place on the old Glenbeigh-Killorglin Road from the Laharn N70 Junction to Rangue Junction.
It is hoped these two smaller schemes will begin in the second or third quarter of next year, depending on the progress of Kerry County Council's work programme after it receives funding from the department.
The information was outlined in response to a query by Councillor Michael Cahill at a recent South and West Kerry Municipal District meeting.
Cathaoirleach of Kerry County Council John Sheahan, right, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mayor of West Springfield, Massachusetts , Mayor Will Rieichelt, to establish a Sister City relationship between West Springfield and Dingle. Also witnessing the signing was Chief Executive Kerry County Council, Moira Murrell. Photo by Valerie OSullivan
Cathaoirleach John Sheahan has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mayor of West Springfield Will Rieichelt to establish a Sister City relationship between the Massachusetts city and the west Kerry town of Dingle.
The Fine Gael councillor signed at Killarney House after Mayor Reichelt recently led a nine-person delegation to Kerry which took part in visits to Dingle and Killarney. West Springfield has long had a relationship with the west Kerry capital, most notably given that many Blasket Island natives settled in the small Massachusetts city when they left Ireland.
"In many ways, today's signing is the culmination of many years of a very strong bond and relationship between the people of west Kerry and the people of West Springfield," Cllr Sheahan said. "Many of those who emigrated from the Great Blasket settled in West Springfield and it became a home away from home for them.
"It is an honour for me to sign this Memorandum of Understanding today which will see further links developed between Dingle and West Springfield; The Sister City arrangement will allow us to forge stronger bonds into the future," he added.
A woman from Kerry and two North Cork men have been remanded on bail after they were charged in connection with a 140,000 drugs seizure by gardai when they stopped two cars in North Cork at the weekend.
Kieran McCann (41) had already been charged, and remanded on bail, at a special sitting of Mallow District Court on Sunday in relation to the seizure of seven kilos of cannabis herb near Kanturk, on December 8. Mr McCann was charged with possession of cannabis herb and possession of cannabis herb for sale or supply.
Det Garda John Sheedy said Mr McCann from Kilbrin Road, Kanturk, made no reply to either charge when they were put to him after caution.
Insp Mick Corbett said gardai were not objecting to bail once certain bail conditions met, including that he sign on three times a week at Kanturk Garda Station and abide by a 10pm to 6am curfew.
Mr McCann was then remanded on bail by Judge Marian O'Leary to appear at Mallow District Court on Tuesday when Insp Tony O'Sulliivan applied for a further remand for the DPP's directions in the case
Judge Brian Sheridan granted the application and remanded Mr McCann on continuing bail to appear again at Mallow District Court on January 23 for the DPP's directions. He granted an application to Mr McCann's solicitor, Charlie O'Connor, to ease one of the bail conditions and lift the 10pm to 6am curfew from the period, December 21 to January 4.
Meanwhile, Derek O'Donovan (33) and Rosalind Barton (47), also appeared in court in relation to the seizure which followed a garda investigation with a regional focus.
Both Mr O'Donovan and Ms Barton were charged with the same offences as Mr McCann - possessing cannabis herb and possessing cannabis herb for sale or supply at Dromalour, Kanturk.
Det Garda Declan Keane said Mr O'Donovan from Inchwell Road, Kanturk, made no reply after caution to either charge. Det Garda Fergal Ashcroft said Ms Barton, a UK national with an address at Barraduff, Co Kerry, also made no reply to either charge after caution.
Insp O'Sullivan said gardai were not objecting to bail for either Mr O'Donovan or Ms Barton, once they met a number of bail conditions including that they surrender their passports.
Gardai were also seeking for Mr O'Donovan to sign on once a week at Kanturk Garda Station and for Ms Barton to sign on once a week at Killarney Garda Station, which was acceptable to both accused.
Judge Sheridan remanded each accused on their own bond of 500 to appear again at Mallow District Court on January 23 and granted them free legal aid.
The Listowel North Pole Express takes Santa fans on a train ride all the way to the North Pole. Photo by Domnick Walsh
Christmas excitement among the young is running at an all-time high at a new festive attraction that's drawing families from as far afield as Clare, Cork and Dublin to North Kerry in its first year in existence.
The Listowel North Pole Express is the train ride to Yuletide bliss racing along the Lartigue Monorail at present in a new initiative by the Listowel Traders.
Ingeniously harnessing the beautiful old monorail and its attendant attractions, the North Pole Express must go down as one of the most innovative examples anywhere of local vision marrying an existing attraction for Christmas magic.
Ushered in by Santa's little helpers to the Monorail museum, children are put to crafty fun making decorations with a range of materials, before listening rapt to stories at Mrs Clause's feet, enjoying Christmas treats amid other delights., Then it's off aboard the Express monorail to disembark and post their letters to Santa in a special postbox before returning to the Lartigue centre in order to meet jolly old St Nicholas himself!
"We're delighted with how it's all going with a great response, and not just from North Kerry. We've had families coming from Clare, Limerick and Cork and some were even down especially for it from Dublin, exceeding our expectations in the first year," Listowel Traders' spokesperson and organiser Jennifer Scanlan told The Kerryman.
The children's faces say it all with comments left by their parents attesting to how blown away all were by the experience.
Run entirely by a small committee of traders the Express is not-for-profit with every cent raised going back into the town's Christmas fund. "Our hope is to fund new Christmas lights for Listowel into the future and make the Express even better as we apply what we learned in our first year," Jennifer added. It all comes amid very positive reports of trade levels in town during the run-up to Christmas.
Anna Rozycka arriving for the inquest into the death of her baby Karol at Killarney Court on Monday. Photo by Don MacMonagle
A verdict of unlawful death has been returned in the inquest into the death of an 11-month-old baby in his parents' bedroom in an apartment in Killarney almost two years ago.
Baby Karol Rozycki was found alongside his critically injured father, 32-year-old Andrzej Piolunowicz, in a locked bedroom at Park Place Apartments, Killarney shortly before 6pm on March 6, Mother's Day, 2016. Both were lying on the bed and Andrzej was still breathing.
Written with blue marker on the white pillow slip in Polish was the sentence 'You are free Annie, Enjoy your life. We love you', the inquests heard.
No medical cause of death could be identified in the case of baby Karol, State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster said. There was no abnormality, no evidence of ingestion of drugs or alcohol and no trauma, apart from two tiny bruises. X-rays were normal.
However, the death scene was important, Dr Bolster said and, given the circumstances, smothering was most likely. The jury of six men returned a verdict of unlawful death.
Andrzej Piolunowicz died four days later at Cork University Hospital, due to self inflicted wounds. He had taken a mixture of over-the-counter medicines in the toxic range. The jury returned a verdict of suicide in his case.
The child's mother, Anna Rozycka, originally from Cieszwn in eastern Poland, began a relationship with Mr Piolunowicz in June 2014 when she came to work as a chef in the Aghadoe Heights Hotel where he worked as a porter.
Two months later she was pregnant. They decided to set up home together but after two weeks together the relationship ended. She returned to Poland where Karol was born in April 2015, she said in her deposition which was read by Supt Flor Murphy.
Back in Ireland in July 2015, working in same hotel - at a higher level - she resumed contact with her child's father and in February 2016 they once more set up home together. However, matters did not work out.
On the night of March 5 she told Andrzej that, for her, "Karol was always going to come first" and she did not see a future for them together.
She said she felt he was jealous of Karol and of the fact she could provide for him.
"I told him that Karol was my world, that he was the most important person in my life and always would be," she said.
The inquest then heard that the following day, March 6, the three of them had breakfast together. She told Andrzej that she was not putting pressure on him to move out .
Things were normal when she was leaving for work and she expected him to drop Karol to be minded by his sister's partner, Robert.
At 5.30 pm when she returned home there were no lights in the apartment. It was silent. She thought Andrzej must be asleep. Karol's things were in the hall. He wasn't in his bedroom. She went upstairs .
"Our bedroom door was always open but it was closed, " she said. "I kept banging on the bedroom door but got no answer. I got a bad feeling - Karol should be awake with all the noise."
She rang Iwona, Andrzej's sister and her partner Robert who eventually broke down the door.
"I saw Karol lying on my side of the bed, lying on his back, very pale. Andrzej was lying alongside him," Ms Rozycka said, adding that she became hysterical and was shouting.
"The only reason I can see for killing Karol was that he was jealous and for the conversation of the night of 5th of March because I said Karol would always come first," she said.
Replying to coroner Aisling O'Sullivan, Ms Rozycka said Andrzej did not have a history of depression.
Iwona Piolunowicz said her brother did not suffer from depression. He was happy to have met his child and when they became a couple again he told her he had never stopped loving Anna.
Her partner Robert Herbaczewski told how Andrzej had rung him at 9.20am saying he was not going to work because he was feeling down after his conversation with Anna the night before. He called around to his home at Bruach na hAbhann at lunch time but left because the child was sleepy. He rang at 2.15pm but said the baby needed feeding and a sleep. Mr Herbaczewski expected to hear from him after the child's nap but did not.
Questioned by the coroner, Mr Herbaczewski said he could feel that Andrzej was very sad during the phone conversation.
"He said 'I feel very sad and down and don't feel like going to work'," Mr Herbaczewski added.
He felt there was nothing unusual in the later telephone conversation.
Aisling O'Sullivan, coroner, offered her deepest condolences to the family of Mr Piolunowicz, noting that they had donated his organs. Referring to the death of baby Karol, Ms O'Sullivan said Ms Rozycka had suffered a devastating loss.
Six Kerry patients are to travel by bus to Belfast for vital surgery to restore their sight as Ireland's health service struggles to deliver cataract treatment urgently required by thousands.
The six patients are to depart Killarney by bus on Saturday morning to attend the Kingsbridge Hospital in Belfast for the surgical removal of cataracts.
The bus has been organised by Kerry Independent TD Danny Healy Rae and West Cork TD Michael Collins - with six from Deputy Collins' constituency also travelling.
It's an extraordinary response to a situation in which thousands of elderly people are being forced to wait for over a year and longer for cataract-removal surgery, in which time they risk losing their sight as well as personal injury due to impaired vision.
"Their procedures will be carried out on Sunday morning and they will be returning home later on Sunday evening and we are hopeful that all these patients will enjoy a better Christmas this year," Deputy Danny Healy Rae said.
La Crosse Common Council member Patrick Brever will resign effective Jan. 11, 2018, announcing this week that he will move out of his district after his graduation from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse this winter.
It has been an honor to serve with the dedicated members of the council and the students at UW-L are privileged to live in a city that wants their voice in local government, Brever wrote in his resignation letter.
The District 5 council member has represented the university area since April. He plans to head to graduate school next fall to study public administration.
Lily and Douglas Alexander had their Chicago home decorated for Christmas, a special time of year they always looked forward to.
They made a poignant trip back to Ireland for Lily's sister's funeral, but traditions remain and keep families going even amid times of great loss and sorrow so the tree was up, decorated with baubles, lights and tinsel used down through the years.
An industrious, hard working Irish American family, the Alexanders travelled together on their flight to Ireland, with only their daughter Debbie remaining in Chicago.
Doug Alexander Jnr (52) left behind one child and his wife and Steven left behind his two daughters and partner to travel to be by their relations' side for the funeral of Winifred Keevey (nee Ryan) this day last week.
The family arrived into Dublin, drove to New Ross and checked into a local hotel before making the short joureny to St Mary's Church in Cushinstown to Winnie Keevey's removal to be reunited with family and reminisce on happier days.
A few kilometres into their journey the unthinkable happened.
Steven (49), an award winning, community minded police officer. Doug Jnr, a talented musician and their loving parents, both aged 75: Doug, a retired building contractor from Sion Mills, Tyrone, and Lily, a devoted mother and grandmother, were killed instantly in a crash involving an articulated lorry on a busy stretch of the N25. The Alexanders, who lived in the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, are survived by their daughter, Debbie, Ms Alexander's brother, Matt Ryan Snr in Ireland and her sister, Rita in the US, and Mr Alexander's brother, Sandy and sister, Daisy who both live in Ireland, grandchildren, relatives and many friends.
A day after the crash, Doug Alexander Junior's partner Susan Schulze paid tribute to him in a Facebook post: 'I can never express the happiness Steve gave me. He showed me true love. I am so blessed to be a part of his life.'
With every few hours further details emerged about the lives of the Alexander family, adding to the anguish and poignancy of their loss.
Lily, from Limerick, was remembered by neighbours as someone who always went out of her way for her friends.
'When we had losses in our family she was the first one at our door with coffee and doughnuts and prayers and anything she could do to help us,' said family friend Jennifer Smith.
Ms Smith had known the family since she was a child. 'It was just so heartbreaking, they're the most amazing people,' she said.
Steven, who worked in a south western suburb of Chicago called Bolingbrook, was a great community man.
A 17-year veteran with the Bolingbrook Police Department, Steven's sister Debbie Ceglarek said he loved being involved with his community, volunteering for several organisations. He leaves behind two daughters, ages 11 and 10, who he adored.
His colleague and friend Lieutenant Anthony Columbus described him as an 'unbelievable officer'.
Doug Jnr was a talented guitarist who played in a band called Network for the past 20 years. Kent Kaled was one of his bandmates and a close friend of the family's. 'I don't know how they're going to be able to cope with this, it's just too much for all of us,' Kaled said.
Doug left the band briefly when he re-located back to Ireland where he met his wife Marian and immediately re-joined upon his return to Illinois.
Tina Mulroony, Doug Jnr's wife Marian (40), said: 'It's unbelievable, I just can't believe it. I just can't bear to see him in a coffin. I just have to think of our girls. I'm crushed.'
Doug's nephew Billy Cochrane, who lives in Donegal, said that his cousin Debbie, the only surviving member of the Alexander family, is devastated by this most unthinkable of losses. 'The family were just the best of people,' he said. 'They were very close, very family-orientated people. They were all very friendly, very nice people. I was called after my uncle Dougie. We are totally devastated. We just can't accept it at the minute. It just doesn't seem real. You can lose a family member, you will grieve, but when four are lost, it's different.'
The family released the following statement on Sunday: 'It is with great sorrow that our family and friends unite - across the Atlantic Ocean - to mourn the passing of Lily, Doug, Steven and Doug Jnr Alexander. They were generous, loving and fun. As well as their love for the family in America, they opened their hearts and homes to all who travelled from here in Ireland to visit with them. They greatly enjoyed their regular trips to Ireland, They will be greatly missed but we are left with wonderful memories of great times spent together both here and in Oak Lawn, USA.
'Our whole family appreciates all of the kind words and support which we have received.
'Our family deeply appreciates the work of all first responders and the ongoing assistance of civil and community services. Our deep gratitude goes to the local parish and church community. We thank you all.'
Osta Cafe and Wine Bar on Garavogue Weir has won an award for championing the best local produce Sligo has to offer.
Owner Brid Torrades and her team are the 'Just Ask' Restaurant of the Month for December.
"Aside from its delightful location, accessibly priced quality food and a genuine local flavour is what makes Osta stand out," said Georgina Campbell. "Brid's enthusiasm for seeking out and championing the best local produce remains undimmed. The real secret to Osta's success lies in their supplier list and Brid's ongoing search for new local producers to champion - which includes an open invitation on her warmly informative website."
Thanking all of her suppliers for their support in delivering excellent quality produce, Brid said she was always delighted to find new producers to supply both the cafe and retail area. Her suppliers include Clarke's Butchers, Ballysadare Eggs, Aidan Gillen and Le Fournil bakery on Tobergal Lane.
Currently in its eighth year, the 'Just Ask' campaign encourages diners to look for information on where food on their plate comes from and encourages chefs to profile their local suppliers on menus. Selected by renowned food writer Georgina Campbell in collaboration with Bord Bia, the Just Ask Restaurant of the Month rewards eateries across Ireland that exhibit best practice in showing transparency in the sourcing of the food on their menus.
Make sure to check in with your elderly relatives, neighbours or friends who live alone in Sligo this Christmas.
That's the message from charity ALONE which supports older people who wish to age at home. Their Christmas campaign asks members of the public to 'Do One Thing', such as picking up the phone, visiting relatives or neighbours or becoming an ALONE be-friending volunteer.
Sean Moynihan, CEO of ALONE explained their Christmas campaign to The Sligo Champion.
"This Christmas, our campaign is 'Do One Thing'. For older people, the year can be tough and they might be lonely. We are encouraging people to reach out to someone they might know who might be lonely or struggling.
"Maybe there is an aunt, uncle, neighbour or someone who you have been saying for a while you must go and visit. Put the effort in," he added.
With people now living longer, more people are living alone.
Nearly one third of over 65s in private housing live alone.
One in ten older people now suffer from chronic loneliness.
This is a negative, Mr. Moynihan says, that comes from a positive.
The positive here being that people are living longer, and that they can live in their own homes.
"One in ten older people who live alone can't afford to heat their whole home. Then we have what we call excess winter deaths.
"We always think of hypothermia and I'm not a doctor but when people are cold they pick up lots of things like infections which they can eventually die from.
"I once read that more older people die of the cold here in Ireland than in Finland because they don't have the money to heat their homes."
At Christmas, ALONE delivers hampers to people who avail of services and a Christmas day dinner delivery for a number of people.
"We try to be there. We would encourage people to check on their neighbours, relatives or friends and realise that not all older people are the same - some of our volunteers are older than people using the service," Mr. Moynihan added.
ALONE's services include: Befriending and support, Support Co-ordination (Provides one point of contact that opens up a world of supports to an older person so that no older person is left behind), Housing with support and Intermediary services such as working with other be-friending services, charities, family members and more.
For more information on the be-friending services in Sligo which are offered by ALONE, check out alone.ie.
The issue of a 750,000 Local Government fund allegedly promised to Sligo County Council by a senior civil servant is to be raised in the Dail in a bid to get to the bottom of who promised what and when.
Councillor Declan Bree asked Council Chief Executive Ciaran Hayes - who claims he was promised the money verbally by Assistant Secretary General of the Department of Local Government Paul Lemass almost three years ago - for details of the time, date and venue of each meeting in 2015,2016 and 2017 where Lemass promised the fund.
Cllr Bree also wanted to know if minutes were taken and the names of other officials and councillors present.
Hayes maintains he was told by Lemass on 29th January 2015 that the 750,000 would be "shovelled" back to the Council once the infamous Financial Plan was approved.
It was approved in December 2015.
Cllr Bree however, says that he met Lemass in February 2015 and was told "in no uncertain terms" that because the Council hadn't submitted a Financial Plan by the end of 2014, the 750,000 was off the table.
Hayes told Cllr Bree that he was again promised the money by Lemass at a meeting on 7th September 2016, and named the other two officials present.
Cllr Bree said "we must accept what the Chief Executive told us. It's a very serious matter if the Assistant Secretary General gave misleading information."
"The Minister will have to take action, there's three witnesses there,"he added.
Councillor Hubert Keaney said the former Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly "made it quite clear" that the 750,000 would not be granted.
Cllr Keaney said he and several other councillors met with Paul Lemass in 12th June 2015 where he said "it wasn't in his gift to give it" and it was "a ministerial decision."
"He said that if we were adhering to the Financial Plan and he saw progress he would have no problem making a recommendation to the Minister that we get the 750,000 back," said Cllr Keaney.
Cllr Bree said he'd ask his colleague Deputy Clare Daly to raise the matter in the Dail, saying it was "unacceptable" and the new Minister for Local Government Eoghan Murphy would have to deal with the issue.
Hayes agreed that it was "unacceptable that a commitment would be given and reneged upon" and insisted he got the commitment from Paul Lemass twice, in February or March 2015 and again in September 2016.
Cllr Keaney insisted that when he and Cllrs Thomas Healy, Declan Bree, Joe Queenan and Martin Baker met with Paul Lemass in June 2015 they got no such commitment and he wanted that to be known.
He said he wasn't going to allow the discussion to end until they agreed that there was no such commitment given to them.
Hayes stood over what he alleged was said to him and furthermore, said he recalled Cllr Keaney saying to him that he heard the same thing.
Cllr Keaney asked Hayes to withdraw that as it was "outrageous."
A recess was called for twenty minutes after which Hayes said he could stand over what he was told but "clearly had to accept that word of Cllr Keaney in that regard."
It was also proposed to seek a meeting with Paul Lemass and a Council deputation.
Five neurological consultants are needed in the North West according to Deputy Marc Mac Sharry.
There are currently two neurologists, based in Sligo, who are expected to work between Sligo University Hospital and Letterkenny University Hospital. The Saolta Hospital Group has recommended that five consultants are needed to cater for a population of 350,000.
Deputy MacSharry raised the issue during Fianna Fail's motion on neurological services in the Dail this week.
He said: "Over the past year, there has been a massive increase in the number of people left waiting on neurology lists in the North West. In January 2016 there were 338 people on the list - that figure rocketed to 710 at the end of October 2017 - a 110% increase in less than 2 years. What's even more worrying is the fact that 316 of them are waiting more than 15 months for an appointment - up from just 7 in January 2016. This is an appalling situation
"The fact that there are only two neurologists based in the region is a major problem. They are working at full capacity across two hospitals, and we need additional consultants if we are to bring the waiting lists under control. International best practice advises one per 70,000 population. Early diagnosis is key in neurological conditions but people are waiting months, and in many cases well over a year, for appointments. These delays are having a knock-on effect on other health and support services, and charities are contacting me to say their services are now under severe pressure."
St Saviour's National School in Rathdrum celebrated Science Week with a variety of events and activities recently.
The week's events included informative presentations from Aisling Kirwan, a nutritional therapist from Cooking Up Change, and Dr Ross O'Neill, a neuroscientist from Neuromod Devices. The various presentations gave the children an insight into how important science is in people's everyday lives.
Each class had an opportunity to become scientists as the children hosted their own science exhibitions. Science Week also included science poster competitions, debates on the importance of science in our lives, science raps and whole school assemblies on famous scientists.
The event concluded with awarding certificates of participation in the science exhibition.
Everyone agreed it was a great event and the whole school community is looking forward to participating in the RDS Young Scientist Exhibition on Thursday, January 11.
Declan Murphy (right) with director John Boorman at the launch of A Life in the Trees in September.
A Wicklow author is flying high after his book 'A Life in the Trees' received a second print run.
The book by Declan Murphy is a personal account of the Great Spotted Woodpecker in Ireland and was published on September 28 of this year. The book, which also features a foreward by renowned film director John Boorman, has achieved great success.
The book was reviewed by the Irish Times with Michael Viney describing the author 'as engaging and passionate a naturalist as Ireland has produced' and was also featured in a woodland based interview on RTE's Mooney Goes Wild Show.
Written as an enthralling narrative, A Life in the Trees follows the day to day to life of a family of woodpeckers in the woodlands of Wicklow, set against the rich natural wonders of the Wicklow Mountains. Pine Martens, Red Squirrels and other native species weave their own tapestry of stories between the lives of the woodpeckers.
Great Spotted Woodpeckers first arrived in Ireland in 2007 and since then have gradually built up a small population in the woodlands of Wicklow. They are a shy species but full of character as we discover in this unique addition to Ireland's growing artistic productions.
John Boorman, director of award winning films such as Excalibur, Deliverance and Point Blank, has produced a unique and quirky foreword in the form of a short story from the woodpeckers perspective of the unfolding events. It is illustrated by internationally acclaimed artists Killian Mullarney and Fleming Christofferson with photographs by Wicklow-based bird photographer, Dick Coombes
A Life in the Trees is hardback and costs 20.
It is available from The Village Bookstore in Greystones, Bridge Street Books in Wicklow, Magpie Books in Enniskerry, the Blessington Book Store and at www.birdwatchireland.ie.
Opening hours at Wicklow Library will be reduced from six days a week to three or four days because of a lack of staff members.
The reduction will be temporary and will also see Ballywaltrim Library remain closed for a period after Christmas, while Greystones Library will close earlier on a Thursday evening.
Staff relocations are being blamed for the reduction in hours at Wicklow Library.
Wicklow County Librarian Brendan Martin, said: 'In order to try to maintain services at the main locations, it is necessary to relocate staff. Unfortunately, this will mean making some closures and reductions in opening hours in January 2018.'
Whether Wicklow Library's opening hours are reduced to three or four days will be confirmed in the coming days.
Cllr John Snell was critical of the move to cut opening hours.
'I feel it is very unfair on the people who use the service regularly. There is something drastically wrong in how we are operating our libraries and allowing available man-power to run and dictate them. It's not good policy going forward.
'There is no point talking about the great library services we have in the county if the libraries aren't manned properly and can't maintain their opening hours. I can understand unforeseen circumstances, but this seems to be a regular occurrence,' said Cllr Snell.
Wicklow County Council Director of Community, Culture and Social Development, Michael Nicholson, further explained the reason for the opening time reductions.
Library Workforce Plans are currently being developed by each local authority, before being adopted by their IMPACT library union members, and then submitted to Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government for approval.
Due to a number of national issues, IMPACT informed its members not to endorse proposals, until national issues could be collectively resolved.
However, when this instruction occurred, some counties had already received local union backing and then submitted their Work Force Plans and were granted approval from national government to fill vacancies.
'When the public service staff embargo was slowly lifted in 2014, a number of library positions could only be filled on contract basis, nationally,' said Mr Nicholson.
'This included a number of library staff with Wicklow County Council. With some nearby counties now filling vacancies on a permanent basis, a number of staff have opted to transfer from Wicklow to ensure the security of permanent posts.
'Libraries such as Greystones, Bray and Wicklow are affected by this, with the loss of six staff to other locations since September.'
Wicklow County Council Chief Executive, Frank Curran, has advised that opening hours will be restored once staff vacancies have been filled.
'The recently adopted Estimates by Wicklow County Council for 2018, includes an additional 178,000 for recruitment of additional library staff.
'It is possible that the library Work Force plan will be adopted and submitted to the Department by Christmas, or early January. This should enable current vacancies to then be filled.
'When this occurs, all library opening hours will be restored, and additional posts will be filled.'
Earlier this year the vacant Ulster Bank premises in Wicklow town was purchased as the ideal location for a new library. It is expected to open in 2019 and will be open for 49 hours per week.
'It will be a state of the art facility over six floors and as well as modern library facilities, it will host Wicklow county Council Archives and Wicklow County Council's Local Studies collection,' added Mr Curran.
It was also stressed that, excluding Dublin local authorities, Wicklow County Council's full time libraries has equal or longer library opening hours than any of its nearby local authorities.
A petition calling for Star Wars Princess Leia to be named an official Disney Princess has passed 100,000 signatures.
The campaign, launched following the death of Carrie Fisher who portrayed Leia, calls on the movie company to do away with its rule that official princesses must be animated.
It asks for the Walt Disney corporation to hold a full ceremony inducting Leia as the newest princess alongside a memorial service for Fisher.
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Launched by Star Wars fan Cody, the Change.org petition reads: This would be a wonderful way to remember Carrie and a welcoming to one of Disneys new properties that is beloved by millions.
It comes following the release of Fishers final outing as Leia in the latest film of the franchise, Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Fishers Leia also appears in all of the original three Star Wars films as well as 2015s The Force Awakens.
The actress died on December 27 2016 aged 60 after suffering a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles.
Former Russian economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev has been found guilty of soliciting a 1.7m bribe and sentenced to eight years in jail, in a case that has shone a rare light on infighting among the elite ahead of a presidential election.
Ulyukayev, the most senior serving official to be arrested in decades, was found guilty of accepting the bribe last year from Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Sechin took part in an elaborate sting operation on November 14, 2016, involving Russia's FSB security service which ended in the arrest of Ulyukayev (61), the latest twist in what several sources said was a Kremlin turf war.
"People have ambitions and they are fighting over them," said one senior source.
Ulyukayev, who denied the charges, said he'd been set up. He said he thought the bag with the bribe was a gift of expensive alcohol. He said he would appeal and a source close to Ulyukayev said his lawyers hoped Mr Putin might pardon him if that failed.
The harsher-than-expected sentence - Ulyukayev was forecast to get a suspended sentence - is likely to be interpreted as a sign that Mr Sechin's place at Mr Putin's side is safe and that he is increasingly influential, which has alarmed other members of the elite.
The president of the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy party, Tomio Okamura, French National Front leader Marine Le Pen, and Dutch Party for Freedom head Geert Wilders (AP)
France's National Front leader Marine Le Pen has described the European Union as "a disastrous organisation" that is "killing Europe" as she met with other heads of far-right parties from different countries.
Le Pen addressed the other leaders at a conference in Prague, held on Saturday to discuss ideas for Europe's future.
Geert Wilders, founder of the Dutch anti-Islam Party for Freedom, said Europe should follow the example of US president Donald Trump and impose travel bans to restrict immigration.
The leaders vowed to work together to create a new model of intracontinental cooperation far removed from the EU.
Parties with anti-immigration platforms have been making gains at the polls in Europe, although Wilders and Le Pen both ran unsuccessfully this year for the top political posts in their countries.
AP
A Palestinian man with a knife and what looks like an explosive belt after he was shot near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. He died later in hospital. Photo: Reuters
Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians and wounded 150 others with live fire yesterday, medical officials said, as protests over US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital entered a second week.
Most of the casualties were on the Gaza Strip border, where thousands of Palestinians gathered to hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers beyond the fortified fence. Medics said two protesters, one of them wheelchair-bound, were killed, and 150 wounded.
Police outside of the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead in their home under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
Police outside of the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead in their home under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
One of two bodies is removed from the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
One of two bodies is removed from the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
One of two bodies is removed from the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
A For Sale sign stands outside the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
Honey and Barry Sherman, Chairman and CEO of Apotex Inc., are shown at the annual United Jewish Appeal (UJA) fundraiser in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, August 24, 2010. Picture taken August 24, 2010. The Globe and Mail/Janice Pinto/via REUTERS
Canadian police said they were investigating the mysterious deaths of Barry Sherman, founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc, and his wife, Honey, one of the nation's wealthiest couples whose bodies were found in their mansion on Friday.
Police said they learned of the deaths after responding to a midday (1700 GMT) medical call at the Sherman's home in an affluent section of northeast Toronto. Two bodies covered in blankets were removed from the home and loaded into an unmarked van on Friday evening.
"The circumstances of their death appear suspicious and we are treating it that way," said Constable David Hopkinson. Homicide detectives later told reporters gathered outside the home that there were no signs of forced entry.
Their neighbors, business associates and some of Canada's most powerful politicians said they were saddened by the deaths.
Expand Close One of two bodies is removed from the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren / Facebook
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Whatsapp One of two bodies is removed from the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
"Our condolences to their family & friends, and to everyone touched by their vision & spirit," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said in statement he was "shocked and heartbroken" to learn of the deaths, noting that the couple had made extensive contributions to the city.
"Toronto Police are investigating, and I hope that investigation will be able to provide answers for all of us who are mourning this tremendous loss," Tory said.
The Shermans recently listed their home for sale for nearly C$7 million ($5.4 million). A real estate agent discovered the bodies in the basement while preparing for an open house, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported, citing a relative.
Expand Close One of two bodies is removed from the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren / Facebook
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Whatsapp One of two bodies is removed from the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
Sherman, 75, founded privately held Apotex in 1974, growing it by introducing large numbers of low-cost generic drugs that took market share from branded pharmaceuticals. He stepped down as chief executive in 2012 but remained executive chairman.
Forbes has estimated Sherman's fortune at $3.2 billion.
Expand Close A For Sale sign stands outside the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren / Facebook
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Whatsapp A For Sale sign stands outside the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
Apotex is the world's No. 7 generic drugmaker with 11,000 employees and annual sales of more than C$2 billion in more than 45 countries, according to its website.
The couple was known for their philanthropy, giving tens of millions of dollars to hospitals, universities and Jewish organizations, CBC reported.
"They were extremely successful in business, but also very, very giving people," former Ontario Premier Bob Rae told CBC. "It's going to be a very, very big loss."
The Globe and Mail reported in February that Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd was investigating a complaint about a 2015 political fundraiser that Trudeau had attended. ($1 = 1.2858 Canadian dollars) (Writing and additional reporting by Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Editing by Jim Finkle, Leslie Adler and Paul Tait)
US President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray button their coats as they stand for the national anthem at a graduation ceremony at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Photo: Reuters
US President Donald Trump said that "people are very, very angry" about the conduct of the FBI and said he would "rebuild" the bureau as he left the White House yesterday to participate in a graduation ceremony for police undergoing FBI training in Virginia.
Republicans are trying to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election by highlighting reports that two FBI officials texted each other negative personal opinions about the president.
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Mr Trump appeared to be referencing those concerns in his remarks before boarding the presidential helicopter.
It was not clear what he meant by his promise to "rebuild" the bureau.
He tweeted on December 3 that the FBI's "reputation is in tatters" because of alleged mismanagement by James Comey, the director he fired earlier this year.
Mr Trump also said in response to a question that "I don't want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet".
Mr Flynn, his first national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI on December 1 and is co-operating with Mr Mueller's investigation. Mr Trump didn't elaborate on the remark.
Mr Trump claimed that "it's a shame what's happened" with the FBI, calling its handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation "really disgraceful".
Speaking to reporters as he left for a speech at the FBI training academy in Quantico, Mr Trump promised that "we're going to rebuild the FBI".
He also referred to newly revealed edits to Mr Comey's 2016 statement on the Clinton probe: "It is very sad when you look at those documents, how they've done that is really, really disgraceful, and you have a lot of really angry people who are seeing it."
He also reiterated that "there was no collusion" between his campaign and the Russian government, adding the recent revelations prove his claim that the Ms Clinton investigation was "rigged".
Earlier, his deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox News Channel that edits to Mr Comey's statement on Ms Clinton's private email server and text messages from a top agent critical of Mr Trump are "deeply troubling".
"There is extreme bias against this president with high-up members of the team there at the FBI who were investigating Hillary Clinton at the time," he said.
The claims emerged as Mr Mueller pressed on with an investigation into Trump campaign links to Russia.
Mr Gidley said Mr Trump maintains confidence in the FBI's rank-and-file.
Edits to the Comey draft appeared to soften the gravity of the bureau's finding in its 2016 investigation of Ms Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Mr Gidley said the disclosure of politically charged text messages sent by one of the agents on the Clinton case, Peter Strzok, were "eye-opening".
Mr Strzok, who was in the room as Ms Clinton was interviewed, was later assigned to Mr Mueller's team to investigate potential co-ordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. He was re-assigned after the messages were uncovered this summer.
Asked about a phone conversation he had earlier with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Trump said Mr Putin said some "very nice things" about him during their phone call.
"He said very nice things about what I've done for this country in terms of the economy, then he said also some negative things in terms of what's going on elsewhere."
He said the primary topic of their conversation was North Korea.
Mr Trump said he wants Mr Putin's help dealing with the nation.
US intelligence agencies have concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help Mr Trump win.
Numerous investigations are under way to determine whether Mr Trump's campaign aided the Kremlin in its efforts.
Mr Trump repeated his denials yesterday, insisting: "There is absolutely no collusion. That has been proven."
Jacob Zuma's presidency has been mired in scandal and corruption allegations (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
The fight to replace South Africa's scandal-prone president has started as thousands of delegates of the ruling African National Congress gathered to elect a new leader.
The reputation of Nelson Mandela's liberation movement has been battered during the tenure of Jacob Zuma, whose second term as party president is up.
The two clear front-runners are deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former chairwoman of the African Union Commission and Mr Zuma's ex-wife.
Voters are frustrated with the ANC as Mr Zuma's administration has been mired in scandal and corruption allegations.
Africa's oldest liberation movement, which celebrated its 105th anniversary this year, led the fight against white minority rule and has governed South Africa since the first democratic elections in 1994.
Observers say the party needs to restore its reputation or it could be forced into a governing coalition for the first time.
Party divisions run so deep that analysts say either outcome, Mr Ramaphosa or Ms Dlamini-Zuma, could mean the end of the ANC's dominance as members of the losing faction could form a new party.
"We must attend to enormous challenges facing our movement," Mr Zuma told the gathering, which opened with emotional appeals for unity.
He pushed back against allegations of graft, asserting that "theft and corruption" in the private sector is just as bad as in government and that "being black and successful is being made synonymous to being corrupt".
Mr Zuma also said "greed is posing a serious threat" to the party and warned that the ANC could "implode".
He also rejected the party's "petty squabbles" that have distracted the ANC from its work and said challenges to inclusion are "killing our movement".
The president defended the party's worth despite the challenges, saying it continues to stand for millions of people on the fringes of society.
"A heavy responsibility lies upon the shoulders of delegates here ... to renew our movement and to restore its timeless values," he said.
He lashed out at the media, the judiciary and civil society, accusing them of fighting the ANC or interfering in party matters.
He could carry on as head of state until 2019, when his term ends, or he could step down or be ousted before then by the new party leader ahead of the general elections.
Under Mr Zuma, unemployment has risen to nearly 30% and economic growth has slumped. More than 55% of the country lives below the poverty line.
Mr Ramaphosa, who helped negotiate an end to apartheid and has become one of the wealthiest men in a democratic South Africa, has pledged to crack down on corruption and get the economy back on track.
Ms Dlamini-Zuma, a doctor and former government minister and an ally of the president, has promised to bring more black South Africans into the fold through "radical economic transformation".
Some South Africans worry that she would be influenced by her ex-husband and perhaps shelter him from prosecution.
The growing frustration around Mr Zuma led the party to suffer its worst-ever performance in municipal elections in 2016, with its vote share falling below 60% for the first time.
AP
Stock picture of a Russian navy ship being shadowed by the Royal Navy (foreground)
Russia's navy could attack undersea communications cables connecting Europe and the US and disable internet access, the head of Britain's armed forces has warned.
Air Chief Marshal Stuart Peach said the Russians' 'modernised' navy had the ability to disrupt the transcontinental cables and that the UK had to bolster its naval forces to counter the threat.
Some of the most important cables that connect the US and Europe emerge in Ireland.
His warning comes amid a row over defence spending and sources have pointed out that the UK currently has had no submarine-hunting maritime patrol aircraft since 2010, while ships and submarines which could also protect the cables have fallen too.
The chief of the defence staff gave the speech only days after a think tank said an attack on the cables would deal a "crippling blow" to security and commerce and the "threat is nothing short of existential".
A former head of the British navy on Thursday said Britain was unable to fully protect the fibre optic cables carrying the digital lifeblood of the internet, because its anti-submarine warfare forces had been neglected.
The warning comes as Britain's Ministry of Defence is lobbying the Treasury for more money, which it says is needed to stave off defence cuts.
Mr Peach told the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) that the modernisation of the Russian fleet was forcing Nato to do more to protect sea lines of communication.
Delivering his annual Christmas lecture, he said: "There is a new risk to our way of life which is the vulnerability of the cables that criss-cross the seas. Imagine a scenario where those cables are cut or disrupted which would immediately and potentially catastrophically affect both our economy and other ways of living.
"Therefore we must continue to develop our maritime forces, with our allies, to match Russian fleet modernisation."
Around 97pc of global communications are transmitted through the cables laid on the sea bed.
The cables form the main arteries of the internet and transmit an estimated 7trn (7.9trn) in daily financial transactions.
Some of the busiest connections cross the Atlantic and come ashore at remote locations in the UK and Ireland.
But the cables often have minimal protection and are at increasing risk from Russian naval activity or terrorism, according to the report.
Guwahati, Dec 16 (IBNS): After conclusion of the Gujarat Assembly election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his day-long maiden visit to north east India on Saturday.
At around 9 a.m., Modi had arrived at Aizawl's Lengpui Airport. He will be dedicating the Tuirial Hydropower Project to the nation.
The Prime Minister will hold a public rally after inaugurating the hydel power project.
He will also visit poll bound Meghalaya where he will address a rally at polo ground in Shillong.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Image: Twitter handle of Narendra Modi.
New Delhi, Dec 16 (IBNS): Bringing a generational change in the Congress, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday formally assumed office of the party's President replacing his mother Sonia Gandhi after 19 years.
Sonia, the longest serving Congress President, assumed the post in 1998.
Rahul was elected President of the party as unopposed.
The new Congress President took charge in the presence of Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, sister Priyanka Gandhi, brother in-law Robert Vadra along with several other party leaders and workers.
In his first speech as the Congress President, Rahul vehemently attack PM Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government. "The PM is taking us backward where people are beaten for their belief and killed for what they eat."
"Today politics is not used as a service for the people or to lift them but to crush" he said.
Speaking at the event, Manmohan said: "It is a unique day in the history of the Congress party. We depend on Rahul to transform, sustain the politics of hope the country needs."
Praising Sonia, the former PM said: "I had the unique privilege to get the guidance of Sonia Gandhi being the PM of the country for 10 years."
Sonia, who has retired from the party's topmost post but still a Congress MP, said: "Real dynasty will be made by a new leadership."
She even believes the Congress is facing the biggest ever challenge at a time Rahul is taking over as the President. "There is an attack on secularism. An atmosphere of fear, mistrust is created."
Image: twitter.com/OfficeOfRG
New Delhi, Dec 16 (IBNS): The Congress expressed its gratitude towards the party's longest serving President, Sonia Gandhi, who is retiring from the post on Saturday passing on the baton to son Rahul.
Congress tweeted: "To our longest-serving president Smt. Sonia Gandhi, who worked relentlessly for the ideals of the Congress Party, & through it for the country; we express our utmost gratitude. A guiding light you will always be. #ThankYouSoniaGandhi."
To our longest-serving president Smt. Sonia Gandhi, who worked relentlessly for the ideals of the Congress Party, & through it for the country; we express our utmost gratitude. A guiding light you will always be. #ThankYouSoniaGandhi #CongressPresidentRahulGandhi pic.twitter.com/4dgnanKeUT Congress (@INCIndia) December 16, 2017
The hashtag trended on Twitter.
Sonia will be replaced by his son Rahul Gandhi.
Sonia became the Congress President in 1998.
Rahul has been elected as the President unopposed by the Congress party.
New Delhi, Dec 16 (IBNS) : A special CBI court in Delhi has sentenced former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda to three years' imprisonment in a coal block allocation scam, reports said.
Similar punishment was awarded also to fomer coal secretary H C Gupta and two others.
Special Judge Bharat Parashar pronounced a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the errant company Kolkata-based firm Vini Iron & Steel udyog Ltd.
Koda has been fined Rs 5 lakh and Gupta for Rs 1,00,000 or 2 months.
A fine of Rs 45 lakh has been imposed on Koda's close aide Vijay Joshi, and Rs 1,00,000 on ex-Jharkhand chief secretary A K Basu.
New Delhi, Dec 16 (IBNS): Honing afresh his attack on Narendra Modi after taking over as Congress President, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the Prime Minister is taking the country back to the medieval age.
In sharp words directed towards the PM from the Congress Headquarters, Rahul said: "The Prime Minister is taking the country backward. India is going to the medieval age where people are beaten for their belief and killed for what they eat."
Indirectly, the Congress President referred to the BJP as a "regressive force" which "wins because they are powerful".
But he feels the "force" can only defeat the Congress if they "back down".
Rahul, who replaced his mother Sonia as the Congress President, clearly stated the future road map of the country's oldest political party.
He said: "We will defend voice of every Indian. We will never allow any democratic voice to be silenced in the country."
"I want Congress party to become the dialogue of Indian people" Rahul added.
Sonia, the longest serving Congress President, assumed the post in 1998.
Rahul was elected President of the party as unopposed.
The new Congress President took charge in the presence of Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, sister Priyanka Gandhi, brother in-law Robert Vadra along with several other party leaders and workers.
Comparing the present Indian politics to when he joined 13 years ago, Rahul stated: "Today's politics is not used as a service to people or to lift them but to crush."
Rahul, a Congress MP, became the party Vice President in 2013.
Though Rahul has lost a number of state elections being the VP of the party, he is looking forward to the results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections.
The Congress President-elect campaigned hard for the Congress party to end the 22 years of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule in Gujarat.
The Gujarat election as well as the 2019 General Election are considered to be the acid tests for Rahul as the Congress President since he was repeatedly criticised for his incompetency as a leader in the past.
Images: twitter.com/INCIndia
Guwahati, Dec 16 (IBNS) : At least two suspected militants belonging to the banned NDFB-S were killed during a fierce gun fight as security forces rescued an abducted businessman from a place along the Meghalaya border in Assam's Dima Hasao on Friday night.
The encounter took place during an operation launched by security personnel in the remote border area of Garampani to rescue a businessman, officials said on Saturday.
According to the reports, based on intelligence inputs, troops of Assam Rifles, Dima Hasao police and Meghalaya police jointly launched the operation in the Garampani area of the hills district to rescue the businessman, Mahendra Rai.
When the troops reached the area, militants fired and bullets were exchanged from both sides.
During the gun battle two militants were killed on the spot while two others managed to escape taking advantage of darkness.
Later security personnel safely rescued the abducted businessman, who hails from Meghalaya.
The forces also recovered a 9mm pistol and several rounds ammunition from the encounter place.
A top police official said Mahendra Rai was abducted by the suspected NDFB-S militants from East Jaintia Hills on December 4. A ransom of Rs. 2 crore was demanded from his family.
The slain militants are yet to be identified.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati, Dec 6 (IBNS) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said Mizoram has become third power surplus State in the North East after Sikkim and Tripura.
Addressing a public rally in Mizorams capital city Aizawl after dedicating the 60 MW Tuirial hydro power Project to the nation, PM Modi said it is the first major Central Sector Project to be successfully commissioned in Mizoram.
It is the first large hydro-power project in the State. It will produce 251 Million Units of electrical energy every year, and boost the socio-economic development of the State, Modi said. ,
The project was first declared and cleared by the Union Government of Prime Minister Vajpayee ji, way back in 1998, but got delayed. The completion of this project is a reflection of our commitment to complete the on-going projects and usher in a new era of development in the North Eastern region," he said.
Besides generating electricity, the reservoir water will also open new avenues for navigation. This will provide connectivity to remote villages. The huge reservoir, spread over an area of 45 square kilometers, can also be used for development of fisheries, the PM said.
This project will boost eco-tourism, and provide a source of assured drinking water supply. The State has a hydro power potential of 2100 MW, of which we have so far tapped only a fraction, Modi said.
It is Modis first visit to Mizoram since he assumed ffice.
Modi further said that, Mizoram, which shares boundaries with Myanmar and Bangladesh can benefit from Centres Act East policy.
The PM reiterated his governments commitment for overall development of Mizoram and the entire region.
The Union government has been proactively following the Act East Policy. As a gateway to South East Asia, Mizoram stands to gain immensely from this. It can emerge as a key transit point for trade with Myanmar and Bangladesh, Modi said.
Building a New India by 2022 requires us to work towards the twin goals of increasing economic growth as well as ensuring that the fruits of growth are shared by all. Vision of New India can be realized only if fruits of development reach all."
"The Government plans to focus on around 115 districts which are relatively backward when evaluated on various indicators. This will benefit backward districts of North Eastern States including Mizoram," he said.
" It is said that the lack of connectivity is one of the biggest hurdles in the path of development of the North Eastern Region. My government wants to do 'Transformation by Transportation' through investment in infrastructure to change the face of the North Eastern Region. We are committed to bring all the State Capitals of North East Region on the Rail map. The Union government is executing 15 New Rail Line projects of 1385 kilometers length, at a cost of over Rs 47,000 crore, Modi said.
The PM said the high literacy rate, scenic beauty and availability of large English speaking population in Mizoram make for a perfect blend to develop the State as a model tourist destination.
The Bamboo which is the livelihood for lakhs of people of North East, has been under a very restrictive regulatory regime. Because of this, you cannot transport or sell the Bamboo produced in your own field without the permit. Our Government with an aim to reduce this pain, has changed the regulatory regime and now there will be no requirement of any permit or permission for producing, transporting and selling Bamboo and its products produced by farmers in their own fields. This will benefit lakhs of farmers and will add to the efforts to double the farmers income by 2022, Modi said.
The assembly poll in Mizoram will be held early next year and BJP hopes that the PMs visit to the state will boost partys prospects of coming to power in the state Assam, Arunachal and Manipur in the north-east.
Earlier, Mizoram governor Lt General (Retd) Nirbhay Sharma and Chief Minister Lal Thanhawala had welcomed PM Modi at Aizawls Lengpui airport.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati, Dec 16 (IBNS): Security forces have arrested a senior NSCN(IM) militant in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday night, officials said on Saturday.
Kohima based Defence PRO Colonel Chiranjeet Konwer said that, based on intelligence input about a militant trying to terrorize and extort money at Khonsa town, the troops of Assam Rifles Khonsa battalion launched operation in the area and nabbed the militant identified as Yangle Kongkang, a self styled major of the Naga outfit.
Security personnel also recovered a Pistol, ammunition, 30 gms of Opium, Rs 10,200 of extortion money and other incriminating evidence from his person.
Khonsa battalion of the security forces under DAO DIVISION has been carrying out unabated operations in south Arunachal Pradesh to keep the area peaceful and out of clutches of insurgents.
Post spot interrogation the nabbed militant admitted to being actively involved in the outfit after being recruited in NSCN(K) in Jan 1999 and had undergone training at NSCN(K) training camp.
The militant defected to NSCN(R) in 2015 and was promoted to rank of Self Styled Major thereafter. In 2016 he defected to NSCN(IM) and has been involved in extortion activities in Khonsa for the banned outfit, the Defence PRO said.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Panaji, Dec 16 (IBNS) Strongly advocating opening of historic routes in Jammu & Kashmir, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has pleaded for opening up the State to the outside world and its opportunities.
Addressing the India Ideas Conclave-2017 GOA last night, the Chief Minister said the geographical positioning of the State makes it gateway to Central Asia and that position ought to be used for opening up its people to the outside world. By re opening the traditional and historic routes in the State, we shall be writing a new history, she added.
Mehbooba Mufti suggested making Jammu & Kashmir a model State with connectivity all across so that it becomes a model for SAARC cooperation in the region. Lets make it a model for cooperation at bigger scale in the region, she said.
On the problems being faced by the people of the State, the Chief Minister said it is the duty of every citizen of the country to come forward and help Jammu & Kashmir in coming out of these uncertainties.
People of the State ought to be given a sense of belonging because the idea of India is incomplete without idea of Jammu & Kashmir. Reconciliation is the way ahead, she added.
The Chief Minister exuded confidence in the deep roots of values and ethos which the people of the State have displayed at critical times. See how many young boys rushed to donate blood when Amarnath yatries were attacked or who can forget that boatman who drowned himself to save a tourist. Kashmiriyat is deep rooted to be affected by any outside influence, she added.
On the measures taken by her Government, the Chief Minister said the amnesty for youth recently announced by her is aimed at giving them a chance to a peaceful life hereafter. She hoped with the appointment of an Interlocutor the way forward for reconciliation has been laid out.
On forming Government in the State, Mehbooba Mufti said though both PDP and BJP have ideological differences on many issues, the idea of alliance was aimed to get Jammu & Kashmir out of the present situation of uncertainty, end the inter regional discord in the State and, above all, connect the people of the State with their counterparts in rest of the country.
The idea to go with BJP was to get Jammu & Kashmir out of this siege, she added.
"There is a need," the Chief Minister asserted, "to go back to the era of Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee through whose initiatives cross LoC routes were opened, ceasefire on LoC was ensured for a decade or so and peace prevailed as a consequence in the State and between the two countries."
On the return of migrant Pandit families, the Chief Minister said not only the Government but the entire society in Kashmir wants them back, honourably.
She said in this regard the Government has been taking many steps for their return back home. We are also trying to rehabilitate those Pandit families, in terms of employment and other incentives, who stayed back home and did not migrate, she said.
Mehbooba Mufti appealed media to play its crucial role in bringing people and communities closer to each other. She regretted the conduct of some media houses which by their irresponsible coverage of incidents end up creating more discord and acrimony among people and communities.
(Reporting by Saleem Qadri)
Guwahati, Dec 16 (IBNS) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced Rs 90,000 crore for improving roads and National Highways in the North Eastern region for better connectivity.
Addressing a public meeting held at Polo ground in Meghalayas capital city Shillong after inaugurating 261 km long 2-Laning of Shillong-Nongstoin Section of NH 106 and Nongstoin- Rongjeng Section of NH 127-B, Modi said that the Union government had already sanctioned around 4,000 km of National Highways in the NE region, for an amount of over Rs 32,000 crore.
Modi said the new road will serve as an east-west corridor and will boost economic activity in the state and establish a direct link between Shillong and Tura.
Our motto is 'Transformation by transportation and overall development in the NE region is one of our top priorities. The Centre was executing 15 New Rail Line projects of nearly 1400 km length which would cost around Rs 47,000 crore rupees and boost rail infrastructure in the NE Region, Modi said.
Highlighting several welfare measures undertaken by the NDA government for welfare of people in the NE region, the PM said the North East council which was set up in 1972 and it was only Morarji Desai who chaired the meeting of NE Council.
After him, I got the opportunity to chair its meeting when our Government revived the council in last year, Modi said.
Modi also said that, his government wants to make Meghalaya a top tourist destination.
During my last visit to Meghalaya in May 2016, I had talked about promotion of tourism in the state. We want to make Meghalaya a top tourist destination. The Union government has sanctioned around Rs 100 crore for development of tourist destinations in the state, Modi said.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Following recent fighting in the capital, Sanaa, and neighbouring governorates, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has received reports of new displacement from Hudaydah and Taiz governorates.
UNHCR and partners are still assessing the situation, but initial reports are that more than 1,400 people have fled from Taiz and Hudaydah to the Ash Shamateen district in Southern Taizz, and Al Fayoosh district in Lahj, UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch told reporters on at the regular press briefing in Geneva.
With numbers expected to rise further, UNHCR is working with partners to be in position to support and help those fleeing, he added.
UNHCR is particularly concerned about the fate of 1,460 Eritrean refugees as well as Yemeni civilians in the Al Khawkah area 117 kilometres south of Al Hudaydah City.
The area has been declared a military zone. We are arranging for emergency cash assistance to be sent to this vulnerable community, which is facing difficulties in accessing food due to the hostilities, Baloch said.
Following days of ground fighting, aerial bombardment and shelling in urban areas, the situation in Sanaa is relatively calm. UNHCR reopened its office there this week, working with partners to resume humanitarian operations that had been halted since early December.
The blockade of Yemen, which has yet to be fully eased, has resulted in scarcities and a spike in prices including for fuel, water, food and medicines.
While new clearance procedures on goods are also resulting in delays for offloading cargo, UNHCR has asked the authorities to expedite clearances for humanitarian shipments, especially perishables, such as medicines.
Moreover, UNHCRs financial assistance programme, which is intended to benefit more than 17,000 vulnerable displaced families with winter assistance grants, has been postponed due to delays in funds being released from financial service providers.
Photo: UNHCR/Shabia Mantoo
Source: www.justearthnews.com
The American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion, as the US now has the lowest rate of social mobility of any of the rich countries, said the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, Friday, at the end of a fact finding mission to the country.
Instead of realizing its founders admirable commitments, on Fridays United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights, he added.
Assumption that poor come from minorities is wrong UN expert
In his statement, the Alston also stated that the assumption that poor came from ethnic minority groups is not correct and in fact there are eight million more white people than African-Americans living in poverty.
The face of poverty in America is not only black or Hispanic, but also white, Asian and many other colours, he said.
He went on to add that he was struck by the extent to which construed narratives about supposed distinctive differences between the rich and poor have been sold to the electorate by some politicians and the media.
Such misconceptions included notions that the rich are industrious, entrepreneurial, patriotic and the drivers of economic success [while] the poor are wasters, losers and scammers, he explained.
Despite the fact that this is contradicted by the facts, some of the politicians and political appointees with whom I spoke were completely sold on the narrative of such scammers sitting on comfortable sofas, watching colour TVs, while surfing on their smartphones, all paid for by welfare.
I wonder how many of these politicians have ever visited poor areas, let alone spoken to those who dwell there, he noted.
Proposed policy and welfare cuts could essentially shred safety nets UN expert
Further in the statement, the Special Rapporteur also expressed the fear that proposed changes in US tax and welfare policies could have devastating consequences for the poorest in the country and make it the most unequal society in the world.
The dramatic cuts in welfare, foreshadowed by President [Donald] Trump and [House of Representatives] Speaker [Paul] Ryan, and already beginning to be implemented by the administration, will essentially shred crucial dimensions of a safety net that is already full of holes.
Several administration officials told me that as far as welfare reform is concerned, states are, in Justice Louis D. Brandeis famous phrase, laboratories of innovation. Recent proposals to drug-test welfare recipients in Wisconsin and West Virginia, along with Mississippis recent purge of its welfare rolls, raise concerns that the administration would happily look the other way while states conducted what were in essence unethical experiments on the poor.
Alstons final report on his US visit will be available in Spring 2018 and will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June 2018. The statement he delivered in Washington DC on Friday can be found here.
During his two-week mission, at the invitation of the federal government, the UN expert visited California, Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., as well as Puerto Rico.
UN Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
UN Photo/Pernaca Sudhakaran
Source: www.justearthnews.com
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), at least 42 women have been convicted of attempted or aggravated homicide after suffering miscarriages or other complications under the Penal Code since 1988.
The law, which a spokesperson for OHCHR described as one of the most draconian abortion laws in the world completely prohibits access to abortion regardless of the circumstances, including if a woman's life is at risk or if she has suffered sexual violence.
The specific section of the Penal Code is Article 133.
In one of the most recent instances, on Wednesday, the Second Appeal Court of San Salvador upheld a 30-year prison sentence against Teodora Vasquez for aggravated homicide.
Vasquez was in the ninth month of her pregnancy when she suffered intense pain, and called the emergency services before passing out. She awoke to find her baby had been stillborn. She was accused of deliberately ending her pregnancy and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in January 2008.
During his visit to El Salvador last month, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, met with Vasquez and three other women at the Ilopango women's rehabilitation centre.
They all had suffered miscarriages or other obstetric emergencies.
Women living in poverty affected disproportionately
According to the UN rights office, women in poverty are worst impacted.
It is important to highlight here, as the High Commissioner has done, that El Salvador's Penal Code disproportionately affects women living in poverty, such as Teodora, said Liz Throssell, the OHCHR spokesperson.
We have not seen women from wealthier backgrounds jailed under similar circumstances in El Salvador, she added, calling on the country to comply with its international human rights obligations and lift the absolute prohibition on abortion.
Photo: UN Photo/ Violaine Martin
Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, Dec 16(Just Earth News): Some 50 million children are on the move worldwide, and if countries follow best practices to ensure their safety and well-being, 2018 could be a landmark year for migrant children the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Friday.
Much of this migration is positive, with children and their families moving voluntarily and safely. Yet the migration experience for millions of children is neither voluntary nor safe, but fraught with risk and danger, UNICEF said ahead of International Migrants Day, marked annually on 18 December.
Next year will see negotiations and adoption of the Global Compact for Migration, a landmark intergovernmental agreement that will cover all dimensions of international migration. It is a moment for countries to agree on actions that will support migrant children in line with the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
For countless children, migration is safe and regular helping them, their families and communities to grow and transform, said UNICEF Director of Programmes Ted Chaiban. But there is another reality for millions of children for whom migration is highly dangerous and not by choice.
Approximately 28 million children have been driven from their homes by conflict. In many cases, children and families without sufficiently safe and regular pathways to migrate have little choice but to turn to smugglers, traffickers and dangerous informal routes that put their safety at tremendous risk, the agency said.
The perilous Central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy is one such example. This year alone, nearly 15,000 unaccompanied children have reached Italy by sea their journeys typically facilitated by smugglers and traffickers.
UNICEF estimates that more than 400 children have died trying to make this trip since the start of the year, while thousands have suffered abuse, exploitation, enslavement and detention while transiting through Libya.
Amidst ongoing negotiations over the substance of the Compact, UNICEF has continued its call on Member States to include the rights, protection and well-being of uprooted children as central commitments in the final text.
Migration, especially for children, does not have to be dangerous, said Chaiban. The policies, practices and attitudes that put migrant children at risk can and must change 2018 is the time to do so and the Global Compact for Migration is one opportunity.
Many national, regional and local governments around the world have already chosen to take positive measures to protect and care for migrant children. Some of these good practices, highlighted in the recent UNICEF report Beyond Borders, include, among others:
Invest in strong and inclusive national child protection systems to protect migrant children from exploitation and violence;
Remove practical obstacles which put family unification on hold or out of reach for too many children, including narrow definitions of family or financial thresholds; and
Open schools and health centres to migrant children and put in place 'firewalls' between immigration enforcement and public services to keep every child learning and healthy and ensure access to justice and housing without fear of detection, detention or deportation.
Photo: UNICEF/NYHQ2015-2191/Georgiev
Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, Dec 16(Just Earth News): The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday that it is concerned about the deteriorating environment in which Rohingya refugees are living, especially children, who make up 55 per cent of the Rohingya refugee population in Bangladesh.
UNHCR [Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees] is increasingly worried about the deterioration of the overall protection environment, Babarf Baloch, the agencys spokesperson told the regular press briefing in Geneva.
In this environment, he explained, refugees face a multitude of protection risks. On Sunday, UNHCR would begin distributing clothing to recently-arrived Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh for cooler temperatures in the months ahead.
Children, who are 55 per cent of the Rohingya refugee population, are particularly vulnerable. So are women, and they represent more than half of all refugees in Bangladesh. An estimated 10 per cent are either disabled, have serious medical conditions, or are older persons at risk, stated Baloch.
UNHCR has been working to bolster the quality of shelters in the camps by supplying higher quality materials as well as expanding technical support for construction and drainage.
Since the beginning of the crisis, UNHCR has organized 17 airlifts sending more than $9 million in aid relief iteIn the last month, the agency has distributed over 15,000 new shelter kits and more than 40,000 core relief ite
UNHCR also began distributing compressed rice husks for cooking fuel. This spares children from gathering firewood in adjacent forests putting them at risk and degrading the environment by stripping woodland.
Meanwhile, in responding to a diphtheria outbreak in Coxs Bazar, UNHCR turned part of its Transit Centre in Kutupalong into a treatment and isolation facility in which patients are managed by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
Alongside the UN World Health Organization and UN Childrens Fund, UNHCR is also supporting the Bangladeshi health authorities diphtheria vaccination campaign for all children under age six.
We are procuring antibiotics to treat 8,000 people and training refugee volunteers to disseminate information on diphtheria, detect symptoms of the disease and direct patients to health facilities, said Baloch.
Photo: UNHCR/Andrew McConnell
Source: www.justearthnews.com
Toronto, Dec 16 (IBNS): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condoled the death of the country's billionaire who were found dead in their home, media reports said.
Police called the incident, which took place on Friday, "suspicious".
Barry Sherman, founder of pharmaceutical company Apotex, and his wife Honey were found dead in their Toronto home.
Though the emergency crews were called, police said they were dead on spot, reports said.
Apotex issued a statement which was quoted by media: "Weve been informed of the tragic news that Barry and Honey Sherman have unexpectedly passed away. All of us at Apotex are deeply shocked and saddened by this news and our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time."
The investigators are trying to find out whether there was any crime or not though they said there were no signs of forced entry into the house.
Expressing condolences, Trudeau said: "Sophie and I are saddened by news of the sudden passing of Barry and Honey Sherman. Our condolences to their family & friends, and to everyone touched by their vision & spirit."
Sophie and I are saddened by news of the sudden passing of Barry and Honey Sherman. Our condolences to their family & friends, and to everyone touched by their vision & spirit. Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 16, 2017
Barry Sherman founded Apotex in 1974. Apotex is the largest exporter of generic drugs in Canada.
(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)
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Miss Iraq Sarah Idan's family has been forced to flee their country after they received death threats over a viral selfie featuring their daughter with Miss Israel during the Miss Universe pageant last month.
The outrage happened as Iraq does not recognise Israel and the two nations have no diplomatic relations whatsoever. Miss Israel Adar Gandelsman said that Idan's family was not only being harassed over the photo but also on their daughter's pose in a bikini during the pageant.
instagram
"People made threats against her (Ms Idan) and her family that if she didn't return home and take down the photos, they would remove her title, (and) that they would kill her... Out of fear, they left Iraq at least until the situation calms down," Gandelsman was quoted as saying by The Jewish Chronicle.
Also read: Not Just A Pretty Face - Nel-Peters, The Miss Universe 2017 Trains Women In Self-Defence
Gandelsman also added that the two remained friends even after the pageant ended. Idan currently lives in the US.
The photo posted by Idan was captioned "Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel." Idan reportedly told Gandelsman that she had "no regrets" about posting the photo on her Instagram.
Idan's tweet more or less confirms the threats her family received:
Im not the first nor the last person to face prosecution over a matter of personal freedom. Millions of Iraqi women live in fear. #freeiraqiwomen https://t.co/Vt0YjFbyf4 Sarai (Sarah Idan) (@grrrciara) December 15, 2017
Also read: 17 Yrs After Priyanka Chopra's Win, Indias 21-Yr-Old Manushi Chhillar Crowned Miss World 2017
Last month, Idan had apologised to those who thought she was expressing her support for the Israeli government. "This picture doesn't mean I support the Israeli government or its policies towards Arab countries. I apologise to everyone who saw it as an insult to the Palestinian cause - this was not its purpose," she had said in a statement in Arabic.
Indian and pregnant, Alexandria Rintoul has been refused entry in Scotland where she wants to live with her husband for an unbelievable reason - her English is too good.
Home Office rules are preventing Alexandria to set up home with her Fife-born husband, Bobby Rintoul. Her immigration visa was blocked by the Home Office after she took an entry English exam.
bobby rintoul/facebook
The heartbreak of not having his wife beside him forced Bobby to make last-minute flights to India so that the three - including their unborn child - could spend their first Christmas together.
Also read: UK Cares About Transgenders, As Govt Opposes 'Pregnant Woman' Phrase To Avoid Discrimination
The couple got married in May and have already stayed apart for three months. Because of the bizarre immigration rules, Bobby hasn't even seen his wife's scans and baby bump. Their baby is due on May 2nd which will coincide with their first wedding anniversary.
bobby rintoul/facebook
The authorities blocked Alexandrias immigration visa after she passed a more advanced International English Language Testing System exam than the basic IELTS one that's required.
Alexandria said, Im supposed to be spending money on my baby, my house, my new family and here I am paying bills for this money sucking visa refused because they arent satisfied I come from a country that speaks English. We learn in English, fight in English, write and practice law in English. Ill write a whole book in English just you wait," reports The Scottish Sun.
bobby rintoul/facebook
She now has to wait for a 30-working day period to find out if her reapplication gets through. The entire fiasco has already cost the couple a whopping 4,000.
Also read: A Curious Case Of 4-Month Old Pregnant Man In Finland & Why He Is Finding It Difficult To Get Social Benefits
Alexandria has been living in hotels in Bangalore, away from her husband and her home in Shillong. Here's hoping that her reapplication is approved this time so that the couple can start their life together.
Bigg Boss 11 contestant Arshi Khan is not only controversial inside the house but outside the house as well. She is the self-confessed seduction queen is creating a buzz in the outside world.
Voot/Screengrab
This time, it's not about her Goa-Pune kaand her but about a time when Arshi painted Pakistani flags in 2016 on her semi-nude body. Some photographs which were leaked show Arshi Khan posing with the Pakistani flag painted on her bikini both on her bust and crotch and her bare bosom and back.
Twitter
According to a report in International Business Times, Jalandar magistrate court ordered the cops to enter the Bigg Boss house and arrest Arshi. The report further suggests that this is the third time that Arshi has not attended the trial and the warrant that has been issued against her is the second one in this case. Check out the pictures that landed Arshi in this legal trouble.
Twitter
While reports are suggesting, the cops might enter the house but Arshis publicist Flynn Remedios managed to get a stay order from the court till January 15, 2018, that is till the day after the finale of Bigg Boss 11.
An arrest warrant was issued against Arshi Khan on Monday by a Jalandar magistrates court. I could not attend the court as I was down with fever and as we all know, Arshi Khan is locked inside the Bigg Boss house. Arshi Khan has been inside the Bigg Boss house since October 1st and this was the third time that the case came up for hearing in the last three months, he told the portal.
If reports doing the rounds are to be believed, then his acting prowess might have just earned him a part in an upcoming biopic on late politician Balasaheb Thackeray.
According to a report in International Business Times, Jalandar magistrate court ordered the cops to enter the Bigg Boss house and arrest Arshi. The report further suggests that this is the third time that Arshi has not attended the trial and the warrant that has been issued against her is the second one in this case. Check out the pictures that landed Arshi in this legal trouble.
The government did not censor condom ads by Sunny Leone or Bipasha. But as soon as the news of Rakhi Sawant's condom ad made headlines, the government put a ban on ads between 6 am to 10 pm. Is the government scared? Do they already have a problem with the ad without even watching it that they put the blanket ban during the day?
Ye Honeymoon manane gaye ya Chronicles Of Narnia banane.. pic.twitter.com/054PhH3zn2 Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) December 15, 2017
So, now the first honeymoon picture that Anushka Sharma uploaded on her Instagram has caught the creative minds fancy. From Game of Thrones references to Narnia jokes, Twitter cannot stop cracking jokes. Take a look:
Speaking about the little lull in her career, Kangana in Mumbai Mirror says,"The offers haven't slowed but my commercial viability has been affected. The endorsements are fewer, my earnings are down and my plan to open my own production house has had to be pushed. But I have signed three films, have a beautiful house in Manali now and an office on Pali Hill and I'm going to Harvard so don't write me off just yet," she smiles.
Its meme time, people! Every other day, internet finds something or the other to make funny memes of. So, joining the bandwagon of pictures turning into memes, is Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharmas honeymoon selfie!
People are literally obsessing over Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharmas hush-hush yet dreamy wedding. After all, your news feed on social media accounts is also exploding with their posts like ours, right? Not only people are gushing over their adorable pictures, they are also unable to crack jokes on them.
Instagram
So, now the first honeymoon picture that Anushka Sharma uploaded on her Instagram has caught the creative minds fancy. From Game of Thrones references to Narnia jokes, Twitter cannot stop cracking jokes. Take a look:
#1
#2
Ye Honeymoon manane gaye ya Chronicles Of Narnia banane.. pic.twitter.com/054PhH3zn2 Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) December 15, 2017
#3
Lagta Game of Thrones final season jaldi shuru hone wala hai Bahadur (@my2bit) December 15, 2017
#4
Wo Jon Snow se milne gaye hai #NorthRemembers https://t.co/bwkRXDd2BG No one (@sanmistryious) December 16, 2017
#5
Bhai winter is coming........ Sajeed Shaikh (@Sajeed_sa) December 16, 2017
#6
They have gone to check whether white walkers are real. Ad Astra (@AIrishHilltop) December 15, 2017
#7
#8
She wanted to go there. Always. Remember ADHM ? Amar (@synapse_doc) December 15, 2017
#9
She wanted to go there. Always. Remember ADHM ? Amar (@synapse_doc) December 15, 2017
#10
Honeymoon i want
Honeymoon i can afford pic.twitter.com/cfPb00Toak Foji (@Planet_Wala) December 15, 2017
Want to join the bandwagon of memes, feel free to share your creativity in the comments section below.
Superhero films form a major part of the cinematic universe, especially for Hollywood fans. The good news is that, with 2018 approaching, the genre will dominate the year more with several movies including Deadpool2, Avengers, Jurassic World hitting the screens next year.
Besides that, there are so many amazing movies releasing even horror flicks that have got us excited. So here's is a quick rundown on what the next year has in store for us. Its time to mark your calendars, people!
1. Insidious: The Last Key (Jan. 5)
All you horror movie fans, the fourth installment in the Insidious franchise is all set to send shivers down your spine next year. Horrror is coming home with this one.
2. 12 Strong (Jan 18)
The epic war drama film will tell the story of the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11 and how the team works with the Afghan warlord to take down Taliban. Going by the trailer, the movie looks like a compelling tale of heroism and hardship.
3. Maze Runner: The Death Cure ( Jan. 26)
After a wait of almost three years, the next instalment in the science-fiction action thriller is finally hitting the screens in 2018. Going by the trailer, it looks like a 90s classic. The mission is to enter a deadly maze and save friends and find a cure for the deadly disease called Flare.
4. Black Panther (Feb. 16)
Based on the namesake character, the Marvel movie will showcase the life of T'Challa, who after the death of his father, will return to African technologically advanced nation to succeed the throne.
5. Tomb Raider (March 16)
We are all familiar with the curse of video-to-movie adaptations. However, this one looks promising. After the last two Tomb Raider films, this one will take a cue from 2013 video game of the same name by Crystal Dynamics.
6. Pacific Rim: Uprising (March 22)
Sequel to the 2013 film Pacific Rim, the movie will follow a new generation of monster fighters led by Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) as a new threat against humanity emerges. The movie will capture same larger-than-life spirit, as per speculations.
7. Ready Player One (March 30)
Are you ready for a world where the limit of reality is your own imagination?
Imagine if a man creates a world of virtual reality and later dies to only offer his metaverse to the one who solves his puzzle. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Ready Player One, the science fiction film revolves around a virtual reality world called Oasis, whose creator dies challenging others to find his Easter Egg, which gives the finder his fortune.
8. Fifty Shades Freed (April 17)
The third instalment of the erotic thriller trilogy is all set to release next year. After accepting Christian Grey's proposal in the last chapter, Anastasia Steele, in this one, will have to adjust to her husband's new lifestyle as well as controlling nature. Well, going by the trailer, Fifty Shades Freed looks the darkest film in the series!
9. X-Men: The New Mutants and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (April 13, and Nov.)
The New Mutants trailer is already out and fans are impressed. It seems that the American horror film in the superhero genre is going to be the most promising X-Men movie so far, right?
10. Avengers: Infinity War (April 27)
The MCU epic film is coming with another chapter and Avengers fans all over the world are excited about this one. The trailer for the movie, which was released recently has raised the expectation level of the audiences furthermore. After all, it has become the most watched trailer in a day with 230 million across various platforms.
11. Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 25)
heyuguys.com
Star Wars has given Han Solo his own movie! Centered on the character of Han Solo, the second Star Wars anthology film is a standalone instalment. Well, it seems people are not really impressed with the title the makers have given the film, but certainly, they are excitedly waiting for the film to release.
On a movie loyalty cup in Arizona. First image of Alden as Han? pic.twitter.com/wzq3LzLhpr Mike DeRose (@livetheforce) November 11, 2017
12. Deadpool 2 ( June 1)
Ryan Reynold starrer Deadpool 2, the upcoming sequel to Deadpool and the second film in the Deadpool trilogy, will be back next year, ready to break the fourth wall again with hilarity as well as offensive action. Are you ready?
Did you spot the spoiler? The teaser has somewhat confirmed that Nathan Essex, also known as Mister Sinister, is the villain in the film. Well, we dont know if thats true but speculations are on among the Marvel fans who suspect that a key super-villain from X-Men may be responsible for Deadpool and Cables team up.
Well, the mystery will only be solved when the movie hits the screen in 2018, and we know that theres a lot of time before that happens.
13. Ocean 8 (June 8)
Warner Bros.
Want to watch a star-studded Hollywood film? The all-women spin-off of Ocean trilogy is all set to release in 2018, and for that Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafin, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter are coming together in one frame.
14. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (June 22)
Jurassic World was a rage when it first released in 2015 adding to the growing stardom of Chris Pratt. It has been quite long since the first part of the trilogy was released. However, in 2018, Chris Pratt will be back with the adventures that involve running, screaming and a lot of chaos. Get ready to see the dinosaurs on the big screen again!
15. Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6)
comicbook.com
Although there hasnt been any confirmation on it, Ant-Man and the Wasp is Touted as Marvels first romantic comedy. Marvel films are generally action-packed, but they have a different genre. Like Captain America: Civil War was a political thriller and Deadpool was more or less a comedy, this one, according to the speculations is going to be a romantic comedy.
16. The Nun (July 13)
hobbyconsolas.com
If you love horror movie, you shall not miss one. A spin off of The Conjuring 2 (2016), The Nun is the fifth film in The Conjuring series. In this one, a priest will head to Rome to investigate the mysterious death of a nun.
17. The Incredibles 2 (July 14)
mentalfloss.com
The animated superhero film is a sequel to the 2004-released movie. In this one, Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible) is left to care for Jack-Jack while Helen (Elastigirl) is out saving the world. the trailer for the movie is expected to be out soon.
18. Mission: Impossible 6 (July 27)
Its been a long time that we have been seeing Mission Impossible films, but with each new one in the franchise, the makers bring a fresh yet high-tech thrills for the audiences. Tom Cruise is coming on the big screen with yet another globe-trotting adventure.
(Read More: Get Ready To See Tom Cruise Perform Stunts Right In Front Of You As MI 6 Might Be Shot In India)
19. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Nov. 16)
denofgeek.com
Harry Potter fans, heres another film, an extension of the wizarding world releasing next year. It is the second instalment of the five-film series after Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
20. Aquaman (Dec. 21)
quirkybyte.com
Aquaman may talk to fish in the comic, but in his standalone movie, the character played by will likely to showcase much greater powers in the movie, according to the speculations. The movie will show the backstory of the character. So, are you ready to get bowled over by Momoa, the hottie, in yet another movie?
21. Mary Poppins Returns (Dec. 25)
It has been a really long time since the last musical-fantasy film was released in 1964. However, Disney is coming back with one if its most beloved films. In this one, Emily Blunt is taking on the role from Julie Andrews. Also starring Meryl Streep, Julie Walters and Colin Firth among others, the movie is set 25 years after the story of the original.
2018 is an exciting year for movie buffs, right?
Even on Sunday, a thick layer of smog continued to blanket Delhi-NCR after reports claimed that the air quality was slowly, but steadily, improving.
It has become hard for people in the state to even breathe as the city's Air Quality Index has been in the range of 700 to 1,000.
AFP
As the pollution has hit 70 times the World Health Organisation's safe limit, doctors have suggested people wear N90 masks whenever they go out, as exposure to air pollution can lead to cancer and heart disease.
Taking cognisance of it, people at the historical India Gate were seen wearing masks.
A jogger at the India Gate, Shubhankar Tomar, told ANI, "Today the fog is back. Yesterday, there was not much. The government should take an initiative to resolve this deadly situation."
Another jogger said, "We are facing breathing problems now. We are taking precautions to protect ourselves from respiratory problems."
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has also issued an advisory, asking citizens to drink plenty of water and avoid areas with smoke or heavy dust.
AFP
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified four reasons for the sudden onset of pollution - temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and atmospheric boundary layer - for the worsening Delhi air.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has banned construction, one source of particulate matter pollution, in the region through November 14, whereas truck and car travel has also been limited.
Trucks and heavy vehicles were barred from entering into Delhi last night.
Wildlife activists have been for long raising concern on the rapidly reducing number of elephants in the wild, both in protected reserves and other forests. There are just around 32,000 jumbos left in the whole of India.
At first, it might sound like a healthy number, but the population have been reduced to less than half from the beginning of the past century, due to habitat loss, poaching and increasing human-animal conflicts.
Also Read: 40 Elephants Killed In Just Over Three Months In Assam, Why The Govt Is Sitting Idle?
Karnataka is home to one of the healthiest wild elephant population in India, with an estimated strength of nearly 6,000 jumbos in the wild, thanks to the forest reserves which have kept the number growing.
reuters
But now the Karnataka government feels like there is an excess number of wild elephants in the state, and the numbers should be reduced!
Also Read: Five Elephant Die Including A Pregnant Female After Train Hit Them In Assam's Balipara
The Karnataka Forest Development Corporation Vice-Chairperson, Padmini Ponnappa, has urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Forest Minister B Ramanath Rai to consider sterilisation of elephants as they are wreaking havoc in Kodagu.
"As per the recent census, the elephant population in Kodagu is between 1,800 and 2,000. The human population of Kodagu is limited and with the increase in the population of elephants, coffee estate owners and farmers growing paddy are affected. Farmers are not able to enjoy the fruit of their hard work," Ponnappa told Bangalore Mirror.
Kodagu which is known for its wide range of plantation like coffee, is also where Nagarhole National Park, a home to tigers and wild elephants are located. With the plantation areas increasing, there have been increasing number of incidents in which elephants wander into the plantations looking for food.
Elephants visit coffee estates regularly and has destroyed coconut and sapota plants. The labourers had grown a variety of pumpkins; all that has been destroyed. The problem is that elephants are not getting sufficient food in the forests, and are coming in search of food, she added.
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According to her the forest department committed a big mistake over the last 35-40 years by not consider planting fruit trees, but went on planting teak and other trees. They love juicy fruits and hunger prompts them to visit the estates frequently, she said.
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When it causes harm to humans and destruction of poor people's farms, we had to raise the issue, said Ponnappa.
In the last three years, about 42 people have lost their lives because of elephant attacks.
In a major shocker to PM Modis Digital India dream, Telanganas Ibrahimpur village, which made national headlines after becoming the first fully cashless village in December 2016, has gone back to cash.
In less than a year, the village has gone back to cash transactions.
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The villagers blame high charges levied on bank transactions and heavy rentals on Point-of-Sale (POS) swipe machines.
The village switched to cards and electronic transactions for simple things as auto rides or buying a snack from a store. People had to pay a monthly rental of Rs 1,400 forcing them to go back to cash transactions within a year.
They say that switching to cashless transactions was a mistake.
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In November 2016, when everyone was grappling with demonetisation, Dhasai village in Thane declared itself cashless. Hailed as a successful example of demonetisation, cash transactions have returned to the village, dampening the efforts of Digital India promoting cashless transactions.
The younger brother of Jyothi Singh Pandey, aka Nirbhaya, the 2012 Delhi gangrape victim is now a pilot and is working with private airlines, their mother Asha Devi has revealed. According to Mail Today, Devi is crediting Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for making the family's dream come true.
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Devi said Rahul not only sponsored his higher education but also regularly motivated her son who was devastated by the tragedy involving his brother to achieve what he wanted.
"Rahul Gandhi was the one who counselled him and motivated him to achieve something good in life to support the family. After learning that he wanted to join the defence forces, Rahul asked him to pursue a pilot's training course after completion of school," Devi told Mail Today.
After he completed Class XII, Rahul got him admitted in the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi in Rae Bareli where he underwent pilot training.
The youngest of the three siblings is studying engineering in Pune.
Nirbhaya, who at the time was a paramedical student was brutally gang-raped on a moving bus in Delhi while returning from a movie on December 16, 2012. The woman died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29.
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The horrific crime brought hundreds of thousands of Indians to the streets demanding death punishment to the accused and increasing women's safety.
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All the six accused were arrested by police in a matter of days. While one of them, who was juvenile at the time of committing the crime has been released, others were sentenced to death. One of the accused, Ram Singh, was found dead in Tihar in 2013.
Taking into account the mass protests by some pro-Kannada groups, the Karnataka government has denied permission to Bollywood actor Sunny Leone to perform at a New Year's Eve show in Bengaluru.
"We have denied permission fearing law and order problems in the wake of protests by pro-Kannada outfits and also keeping in view the directions of the Karnataka high court in a molestation case reported on MG Road last New Year's Eve," home minister R Ramalinga Reddy said.
He added that they decided not to grant permission considering that her fans in Kochi went berserk during her visit there in August. "We took feedback from Kochi police before taking the decision," Reddy added.
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The event billed as 'Sunny Night in Bengaluru NYE 2018' was to be held at White Orchid convention centre in the city.
"We haven't received any official communication from the police. We'll wait for it before calling off the event. We don't know why there is so much fuss about Leone performing here. She is here only to perform for a family show," the organisers said.
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Some pro-Kannada groups, including Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, were up in arms against the show claiming her performance here will be an assault on Kannada culture and tradition and will corrupt young minds. "We don't want her to come spoil our youth," the protesters had said.
Karnataka Rakshana Vedike members protested on Friday at Manyata Tech Park by burning posters of the actor and even threatened to commit "mass suicide" if her programme is eventually held.
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This was not the first time that Leone is visiting Bengaluru for an event. After reinventing herself in Bollywood, the Indo-Canadian actor had even acted in Kannada movie 'DK'.
The number of train accidents this year has come down by 42 per cent over the last year the railway ministry has said.
"Number of train accidents have been continuously decreasing from 135 in 2014-15 to 107 in 2015-16 and down to 104 in 2016-17," Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said.
Also Read: Train Travel Is Injurious To Your Health, 34% Increase In Crime In The Last Two Years Alone
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said from April 1 to November 30 this year, a total of 49 consequential train accidents took place in comparison to 85 in the corresponding period of the previous year.
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Stressing on the safety measures taken by the railways, the Minister said that for track renewal, additional funds are being provided through Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) and mega traffic blocks are being arranged.
Also Read: There Have Been Four Train Accidents In Less Than 12 Hours! What Is Going On Indian Railways?
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He also said that the railways is using Ultrasonic Flaw Detection machines for testing rails.
Also Read: 35 Train Accidents Killed Hundreds In 2017. Does India Really Need The Bullet Train More Than Safety?
The Minister further said that the Train Protection and Warning System has been operationalised on 342 RKMs -- 50 RKMs on Chennai-Gummidipundi Suburban section of southern railways, 25 RKMs on Dum Dum-Kavi Subhash section of Kolkata Metro, 200 RKMs on Hazrat Nizamuddin-Agra Section of Northern Railway and North Central Railways and 67 RKMs on Basin Bridge-Arrakkonam section of Southern Railways.
"Beside TPWS system, the Train Collision Avoidance System is being taken on a limited section of 250 km on Lingamapalli-Vikarbad-Wadi-Bidar section of South Central railway," he said.
The Central Armed Police Forces (paramilitary forces) don't always make the headlines. They are however responsible for everything from guarding the the international border, fighting naxals and militants in Kashmir. Now the government will spend Rs 1,054 crore in the next two years on the procurement of modern weapons, vehicles and other gadgets for seven paramilitary forces, including CRPF and BSF, an official said.
Three more central forensic laboratories will also come up in Pune, Bhopal and Guwahati by next March to help law enforcement agencies in detecting, arresting and prosecuting criminals expeditiously, the official said.
The decisions were taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh here today, a ministry official said.
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Of the Rs 1,054 crore approved by the central government, half of the amount will be spent in the next two years for mordernisation of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), while the rest will be spent for the upgradation of six other central armed police forces -- BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB, NSG and Assam Rifles, the ministry official said.
Earlier, only Rs 200 crore was given for the seven central armed police forces every year under the scheme of modernisation of police forces.
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The home ministry also enhanced the financial powers of the director general of each of the central armed police forces from Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore per year, the official said.
The ministry has also issued guidelines for the implementation of a Rs 25,000-crore mega internal security scheme, approved by the union cabinet in September, to strengthen the country's law and order mechanism, mordernise police forces and effectively fight against terrorism.
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This is the biggest ever internal security scheme in the country and the financial outlay for the scheme over the three years period is Rs 25,060 crore, out of which the central government share will be Rs 18,636 crore and the states' share will be Rs 6,424 crore, the ministry official said.
Rangchapara, a tiny hamlet in Assam's Goalpara district, has many distinctions which set it aside from other Indian villages.
It has already earned the distinction of being free from open defecation, alcohol, tobacco and drugs and now it aims to go cashless.
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Adjudged the state's cleanest village, Rangchapara has also not witnessed any incident of crime in the past at least 17 years.
It has now taken a pledge to be plastic-free from next month and plans to become the first village in the country to go cashless, says village head Roberth John Momin.
The 'clean initiative' here started much before the government launched its ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission.
"It was in 1999 when the villagers began talking about cleanliness and in 2000 we formed a 10-member committee headed by me," says Momin.
"The committee took four resolutions - to be a peaceful and united village, to be a clean village, every household should have toilets and availability of clean drinking water for all," he says.
Since the formation of the committee, there has not been any case of open defection, violence or anyone consuming drugs, alcohol or smoking in the village which has 88 households and a population of 475, all Christians.
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"We announced a fine of Rs 5,001 for anyone who violates our resolutions, but the best part is that the fine was never imposed, as everyone was following the rules," says Momin.
Rangchapara was declared the cleanest village in Assam for 2016-17 by the public health engineering department earlier this month and rewarded with a sum of Rs 5 lakh rupees by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
The village was selected by Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development, a third party which examined every village in the state on criteria like attempts to become open defecation free, the presence of pucca toilets and their conditions and attempts to promote awareness on cleanliness.
According to Goalpara Deputy Commissioner J V N Subramanyam, the Swachh Bharat Mission was a blessing.
"With the help of the mission in 2014 and efforts of public health engineering department, the villagers began to have pucca toilets," he says.
"The villagers had no idea that they can be the cleanest in the district, leave alone the cleanest in the state," says Abdul Mozid, Senior Block Development Officer of Balijana.
"The village has never seen any conflict; people here live peacefully and unitedly," says Mozid.
There is also proper waste management.
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"You can find a dustbin after a short distance and people dispose of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste accordingly," he says.
The village has two schools - one primary and the other middle. The people are neither very rich nor are highly educated.
However, the villagers rue about the condition of roads.
The muddy road which connects the village to the district is also not in a very good shape and even the 108 ambulance refuses to ply in the village, they say.
"We have been demanding for funds since 2014, but no money has been granted. It is a very serious problem," says Ratna Nath, panchayat president of Balijana Block.
However, the steps taken to be a clean village have not only helped the villagers get an award but there has also been a reduction in the number of children falling ill.
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"People are now connecting health with cleanliness, which has also helped in reducing the number of diarrhoea cases to half. The village is a perfect example of what people and government together can do," Subramanyam says.
"The village is now a brand and is helping in bringing changes in the nearby villages. People are following its path not only to be clean, but healthy as well," he says.
The villagers are predominantly farmers with only seven of them having government jobs.
Most of the houses are thatched, but with the help of Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY), now known as Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana (PMGAY), villagers are beginning to have a house made of bricks.
Taking into account the mass protests by some pro-Kannada groups, the Karnataka government has denied permission to Bollywood actor Sunny Leone to perform at a New Year's Eve show in Bengaluru.
"We have denied permission fearing law and order problems in the wake of protests by pro-Kannada outfits and also keeping in view the directions of the Karnataka high court in a molestation case reported on MG Road last New Year's Eve," home minister R Ramalinga Reddy said. Read more
National Green Tribunal Makes It Clear That Two Wheelers Will Not Be Exempt From Next Odd-Even
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday rejected the Delhi government's review petition seeking exemptions during the odd-even scheme, saying the whole purpose would be defeated if two-wheelers were allowed to ply during it.
A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar observed that there are nearly 60 lakh two-wheelers in the capital, which are one of the main sources of vehicular pollution. If the objective of the scheme was to reduce pollution levels then allowing them to ply on roads would defeat the purpose, the bench said. Read more
Rajasthan Man Shoots Daughter, Then Burns Her Alive For Having A Love Affair
In a horrific case of honour killing, a man in Rajasthan's Dhaulpur was arrested on charges of murdering his 17-year-old daughter who was a school student.
Police said the man, identified as Banne Singh shot at his daughter from a close range with a gun, when she did not die of the bullet, the family got together and burnt her alive. Read more
To Push For More Digital Transactions, Govt To Bear Merchant Charge On Debit Card Purchases Up To Rs 2,000
In a move that will encourage small shops to accept electronic payments, the government has decided to bear the charges merchants pay to banks on purchases of up to Rs 2,000 using a debit card, Bhim or Aadhaar. The subsidy will be available for a period of two years starting from January 1, 2018.
Given that the average debit transaction in India is below Rs 1,500, accepting debit cards will become almost as cheap as accepting cash for small merchants. Read more
End Of The American Dream! Trump Govt To Stop Spouses Of H-1B Visa Holders From Working In US
The Trump administration is considering revoking a rule that extends work authorisation to the spouses of H-1B visa holders, a move that could affect thousands of Indian workers and their families.
Since 2015, the spouses of H-1B, or high-skilled, visa holders waiting for green cards have been eligible to work in the US on H-4 dependent visas, under a rule introduced by the previous Obama administration. Read more
Heavily Pregnant Woman Turned Away By Odisha Hospital For Not Having Documents, Gives Birth Near Drain
In a case of medical negligence, a tribal woman delivered a baby girl near a drain in the premises of a government hospital in Odisha, after she was refused admission. According to the woman's family, authorities of Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College and Hospital (SLNMCH), turned her away as she did not have all the required documents.
However, after news about the incident spread, the hospital admitted the baby to the special neonatal care unit (SNCU) and the 30-year-old woman taken care of in the hospital. Read more
A state equal rights officer has dismissed a claim of sexual harassment by a prominent military veteran against the state Department of Veterans Affairs, ruling most of the allegations were too old and others failed to prove she was treated differently because of her gender.
But Amber Nikolai, who was fired by the state Department of Veterans Affairs in September and a month later became the first woman to lead the 53,000-member Wisconsin American Legion, may go to court to pursue the claim rejected earlier this month by the state Equal Rights Division, her attorney said.
She is a tremendously ambitious, effective, talented and dedicated advocate for the interests of veterans, said her attorney, Jeff Scott Olson. Wisconsin veterans never had a better friend than Amber Nikolai.
Nikolai, a Navy veteran who supervised programs at the departments largest veterans home, has alleged that her bosses punished her for reporting hundreds of sexually harassing text messages sent to her by an agency administrator, and for reporting poor conditions at the home first to her bosses and then to state investigators, legislators and a newspaper.
The state veterans affairs department said it takes sexual harassment seriously, but it has fought Nikolais allegations. On Dec. 4, an officer for the Department of Workforce Developments Equal Rights Division dismissed most of the claims because rules prohibit consideration of potential violations that occurred more than 300 days before a complaint is filed. Nikolai filed her complaint in May about behavior that allegedly began in 2014.
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Olson said Nikolais complaint is far from extinguished. She can appeal, but she may instead take the case to court, where the allegations would fall well within a six-year statute of limitations, a final decision can be reached more quickly, and the potential remedies are greater, Olson said.
Nikolai said she suffered retaliation for reporting that a high-ranking administrator, Randy Nitschke, sent her hundreds of inappropriately intimate text messages and then threatened to falsely claim a political appointee subjected her to physical and verbal sexual harassment.
Nitschke, who was administrator of the departments veterans homes division, told investigators he made the threats to Nikolai and to the departments top executive in an attempt to save his job at a time when he thought he was about to be fired.
There are varying accounts of why Nitschke feared for his job. He said it was because he had knowledge of sexual harassment that made his bosses unhappy with him. Nikolai said he told her it was because he believed wrongly that she had previously reported him for sexually harassing her.
He issued the threats in October 2015 about a week after Nikolai met with John Scocos, who was then the department secretary. She said she told Scocos about poor conditions at the King Veterans Home that she had previously reported to her supervisor.
Reports about veterans receiving poor care and that the department was covering it up were detailed in a series of articles in The Capital Times beginning in August 2016. The department eventually accused Nikolai of violating work rules by helping the newspaper.
Documents released as part of the Equal Rights Division decision and in a state personnel office report also released earlier this month show for the first time that Nikolai alleges the text messages from Nitschke included sexual advances and she was punished for refusing them.
The state personnel office investigation completed in the first week of December 2015 led to a determination that Nitschke harassed Nikolai by making the threats.
Nitschke was reprimanded, given a three-day suspension and returned to his job less than two weeks after the investigation concluded. On July 21 this year, Nitschke transferred to the Union Grove veterans home, where he is commandant, said department spokeswoman Carla Vigue. His $116,605 salary has not changed, she said.
According to Nikolais complaint, nobody would tell her the results of the investigation. And in the months after reporting Nitschkes threats and texts she was twice reassigned to less desirable duties, and the department rescinded permission shed been granted earlier to give presentations on veterans issues.
In addition, she learned that her attendance record was being secretly reviewed, and she was questioned in a disciplinary setting about leaking information to the press about the veterans homes at a time when they were facing intense public scrutiny. Nikolai complained several times about department retaliation.
The department didnt reduce her pay when it changed her duties, and she had received high marks in a performance evaluation.
In late November 2016, she went on medical leave for emotional stress on the recommendation of her doctors.
On Sept. 28 of this year, Nikolai was fired because she didnt return to work after her allowable leave time was exhausted, Vigue said.
Vigue emphasized that Nitschke had been disciplined for harassment, not sexual harassment.
Vigue and state personnel office spokesman Steve Michels didnt respond when asked how that determination was made. But Nikolais attorney said Nitschkes text messages and his threat to spread stories about her clearly constituted sexual harassment.
Agency officials were surprised that Nikolai never came back to work, Vigue said.
We worked extensively with Ms. Nikolai, made every available attempt to bring her back to work, and anticipated that she would return, Vigue said.
However, Nikolais doctors never cleared her to go back to the department, her attorney said. The homes-slide-again/article_e6ba64c8-1d4a-5ecc-acda-1f5ebaee31ce.html" target="_blank">veterans affairs department workplace, for obvious reasons, created emotional stress that the American Legion job didnt, Olson said.
Nikolai declined to comment for this article.
Vigue said that last month deputy secretary Tom Rhatican told senior managers to review the department sexual harassment policy and to remind all supervisors about the process for reporting complaints. The department human resources director reviewed the policy and has not made changes, she said.
The Department takes any allegations of harassment seriously, Vigue said.
It is not easy to think and then take a decision when your life is in trouble. This man in China did this and lived to tell the tale. In order to escape death, he made a desperate rescue bid and jumped off the 23-storey building. In a video that has surfaced, this man in China's Chongqing city is seen hanging from the top floor as a fire rages on inside. To escape fire he decided to jump.
The video shows him climbing down the building and attempting to kick and break the window glass of the apartment below even as debris fall down on him. According to reports, he was soon rescued by the firefighters that reached the spot.
The extension of martial law in Mindanao to the end of 2018 by Congress comes as no surprise to Laban ng Masa (Fight of the Masses). Over the last year and a half, the Senate and the House of Representatives have been completely transformed into pliant tools of President Rodrigo Duterte, with the vast majority of the members of these two chambers surrendering their remaining shred of self-respect to become accomplices to Malacanangs authoritarian agenda.
Martial Law Has Failed in MindanaoMartial law has not worked if we measure its outcome by its avowed objectives of defeating terrorism and bringing peace and stability to Mindanao. The application of the military solution may have resulted in a victory in Marawi against the Mautes, but at a heavy cost. This was a case of winning the battle but losing the war. A whole generation of Muslim youth has been alienated by the governments reliance on force and discarding a political solution to the grievances of their people, with many of them now even more attracted to extremist groups like the Mautes and ISIS, whom they regard as heroes instead of villains. Indeed, as many observers have noted, Western Mindanao is now ripe territory for ISISs expansion in Southeast Asia.Martial Law in Mindanao is a Prelude to Martial Law NationwideBut martial law was never just about pacifying Mindanao. To Duterte, martial law in Mindanao was always a prelude to the imposition of martial law nationwide, with its timing dependent on the emergence of favorable circumstances to justify its imposition. The extension of martial law has brought us closer to this moment. For among the reasons cited by the administration for its extension is to stamp out the terrorists, among which it has now included the Communist Party (CPP) and the New Peoples Army (NPA). Since the CPP and the NPA operate across the length and breadth of the archipelago, Dutertes loudly proclaimed aim of destroying them is likely to provide the pretext and rationale for extending martial law to the rest of the country.The Decisive Factor: Peoples ResistanceSome say that the declaration of martial law nationwide is not a question of if but when. We understand why Dutertes determined drive towards authoritarian rule makes them fatalistic. But we in Laban ng Masa do not agree that martial law is inevitable. There is one factor that would make Duterte hesitate, and this is the peoples resistance. A strong peoples movement that says no to Duterte, no to martial law, no to dictatorship is the force that can and will make the difference.Laban ng Masa is committed to building this movement. We urge all Filipinos to be vigilant of their democratic rights. But beyond that, we ask them to join us in the streets, in their places of work, in their homes in a constant mobilization to oppose martial law and act as a brake on the slide towards dictatorship. We must link arms and act together to tell Duterte we will not tolerate a repeat of the martial law dictatorship that his hero, Ferdinand Marcos, imposed on our country for 14 bloody years, from 1972 to 1986.No to the extension of martial law in Mindanao!No to the imposition of martial law on the whole country!Stop the slide towards #Dutertedura!#SagotSaDiktadura: #LabanNgMasa!________________________________________________________________________STATEMENT OF LABAN NG MASA ON HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2017December 10 reminds us of our nation's commitment to human rights. The Philippines is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that, together, form the International Bill of Human Rights. Thus, our government is mandated to respect, protect, and fulfill our civil, political, cultural, economic, and social rights that are inherent in all of us. However, today, we are also reminded of a president who has little regard for our rights.President Duterte has put the country under a climate of impunity, and of fear. In less than a year and a half in office, he has overseen a government that has waged a war on the poor. Over 13,000 people, mostly poor, have already been killed under his government's so-called War on Drugs. With the recent murders of Catholic priest Fr. Marcelito Paez in Nueva Ecija, Pastor Lovelito Quinones in Oriental Mindoro, and human rights activist Elisa Badayos in Negros Oriental, Duterte's war has expanded to critics and activists alike.Duterte's shoot-to-kill order of suspected rebels of the New People's Army is the latest example of his encouragement of extra-judicial killings, in direct violation of the Philippines' commitment to human rights. With the unbridled use of iron hand methods, it is obvious that the president is not interested in respecting, protecting or fulfilling our rights. What he is interested in is consolidating absolute power unto himself, whether through martial law, revolutionary government, or charter change along the lines of "federalism."But Duterte underestimates the Filipino People. We have once ousted a dictator. We are not afraid to do so again. We have no patience for tyranny nor for anyone who makes a mockery of our rights. We call on our compatriots, especially our youth, to oppose all the anti-people policies of this administration, starting with its attempt to impose a dictatorship through whatever form. Let us unite and resist the forces that want to bring the country back to its dark past.However, let us not end there. Just as we cannot fully enjoy our rights in a climate of fear, we also cannot fully enjoy them in a state of want. Today, about one in four Filipinos live in poverty, while the gap between the lives of the one percent at the top -- the big capitalists and landlords -- and the 99 percent of the population continues to widen. Standing up for human rights also means standing up to the social and political system that condemns millions of Filipinos to poverty, inequality, and powerlessness.Join us in changing the system dominated by political and economic elites, and their anti-people policies. Work with us in building a government of the masses, the true holders of state power and of the economy, and the pillars of society. March with us towards the socialist path of genuine, participatory democracy, and economic and social equality.
In a corporate world plagued by scandals and corrupt practices, it would be nice to think that good intentions always lead to success. Unfortunately, that's just not true. In the corporate jungle, the road to hell is sometimes paved with good intentions. Some memorable and seemingly sound efforts have led to some spectacular failures.
Key Takeaways In the competitive business atmosphere, corporations have made just as many bad decisions as they have good ones that backfired.
From General Motors to Bank of America, mistakes from over-diversifying to covering up scandals have led many corporations to suffer for their mistakes.
These examples of good intentions gone wrong in history teach businesses cautionary tales today.
Westinghouse Electric: Trying to Be All Things
The pursuit of growth often encourages companies to move beyond their core competency. However, sometimes, getting away from a core business can be a mistake. Westinghouse Electric Co., founded in 1886, found this out the hard way. The firm, once a global force in its industry, employed such luminaries as Nikola Tesla and was responsible for groundbreaking achievements, including revolutionizing the use of alternating current for electricity generation and the construction of the nation's first nuclear power plant.
Building on its success, the firm branched out into disparate businesses. Its many acquisitions include the Seven-Up Bottling Co., the Longines-Wittnauer Watch Co. (which also sold mail-order records), broadcasting and cable television interests, a financial service business, office furniture makers, and residential real estate. The result was a behemoth, jack-of-all-trades company, but master of none. The firm collapsed under the weight of its multiple industries, leaving its nuclear division the sole survivor to this day.
Intel: Diversification
Intel Corp. (INTC), founded in 1968, became the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips. In 1994, the discovery of an error in its FDIV chips and the ensuing media onslaught brought an avalanche of negative publicity to the firm. As a result, the company launched a highly successful advertising campaign that made the company's name synonymous with the place its semiconductor chips held "inside" a host of computers. To build on its success, the firm put serious effort in expanding into other businesses, ranging from flat-panel television processors and chips for portable media players, to chips for wireless technology.
Despite the firm's well-known brand, those efforts failed to achieve the desired level of success, and the company's stock price has remained relatively flat for more than a decade. While the firm's core business continues to operate successfully, the diversification efforts just didn't work out as planned.
Krispy Kreme: Aggressive Expansion
Krispy Kreme doughnuts got its start in 1937 when a French chef began making the gooey pastries and selling them to grocery stores. The firm grew slowly and became a regional favorite in the Southeast. When Krispy Kreme's founder died in 1973, the firm was sold to Beatrice Foods, and the company's growth stalled. In 1982, a group of franchisees purchased Krispy Kreme and laid the groundwork for the rapid-fire expansion of the 1990s.
Encouraged by pastry-loving diners, the firm grew rapidly, not only nationally, but also globally, opening franchise locations around the world. The company went public in April 2000, and the share price soared to nearly $50 by August 2003. However, in 2005, the firm posted $198 million in losses. The pressure to maintain earnings led to an accounting scandal. Store closings became common, and the stock collapsed, losing nearly 90% of its value. Fortunately for its fans, the firm remains in business as part of the private JAB Holding Co.
Bank of America: Growth by Acquisition
Bank of America (BAC) built an empire one acquisition at a time. The North Carolina-based bank bought up other banks one after another, growing its size and expanding its presence until it became a dominant force in the industry. Unlike Westinghouse, the buying binge remained focused within the financial services industry. Unfortunately, not all of the acquisitions went well.
The decision to grab high-end investment firm U.S. Trust led to a poor cultural fit, as the populist retail bank attempted to absorb the white-shoe private bank. However, this move was quickly forgotten in the wake of a shotgun-wedding with industry giant Merrill Lynch. The culture clash following the purchase led to a string of high-profile departures of senior executives, but even that wasn't enough to stop the bank's advance.
Finally, the purchase of scandal-plagued Countrywide Mortgage caused the bank to inherit a mess that decimated the stock price. The disaster began with Countrywide's lending practices. The firm gave high-interest, subprime loans to consumers who were of questionable credit quality. Those loans were then bundled together and sold to investors as high-quality mortgage-backed securities. When housing values fell, and homeowner defaults rose, Bank of America was forced to pay $8.5 billion in a legal settlement, coupled that with a big foreclosure scandal. Years after the acquisition, Bank of America continued to struggle with issues connected to Countrywide.
Borders Books: Sticking to the Tried and True
Perhaps witnessing the struggles firms face when they try to implement dramatic change, Borders Books based its expansion efforts on a brick-and-mortar merchandising strategy. In the 1990s, Borders filled its book stores with calendars, music, DVDs, and other goods to supplement its traditional offering of books. Its competitors went the online route, using the Internet to offer convenient shopping and huge inventories. The failure to evolve and keep up with online distribution led to the closing of over 300 stores and caused about 11,000 employees to lose their jobs when the 40-year-old business went bust in 2011.
Commodore International: Innovating With New Products
Commodore International was an industry force when it unleashed the now-famous Commodore 64 computer. A tech-hungry marketplace of consumers snapped up the 64, which remained cutting edge from 1983 to 1986. While the initial effort was a huge success, attempts to create a new and improved version failed.
The Coca-Cola Co. (KO) faced similar challenges when it attempted to "improve" the tried and true recipe for Coke. Faced with shrinking sales, the firm completely abandoned the recipe for its flagship, launching New Coke in April 1985. New Coke was a fiasco, hated by purists and panned in the media. "Classic Coke" returned to the shelves less than three months after it had been retired.
GM: Staying the Course
The name General Motors Co. (GM) was once synonymous with the automobile industry. The big dog of Detroit brought together such iconic brands as Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC. General Motors was at the top of the heap in 1963, with a 50% share of the market. For the next two decades, the giant rested on its laurels, while foreign competitors built efficient factories that churned out high-quality vehicles at competitive prices.
By the early 1980s, GM's reputation had been tarnished, and its market share slashed in half, as the firm fell victim to higher-quality cars imported from Japan. The company has since caught up with its competitors in terms of quality, but the turnaround was decades in the making.
Johnson & Johnson: Avoiding Negative Publicity
In 1886, the Johnson brothers founded a firm that would soon invent the world's first commercial first-aid kit. The firm grew its presence from there, launching such consumer icons as Johnson's Baby Powder, BAND-AID Brand Adhesive Bandages, and the pain reliever Motrin. In 2008, the firm discovered that Motrin was not properly dissolving when swallowed. Rather than issue a recall and incur the associated negative publicity, the firm sent secret shoppers out to buy the products off store shelves, which resulted in a lawsuit in Oregon in 2011. While its objective was honorable, its method of implementation resulted in months of negative publicity, when the media and public learned of the stealth recall.
The Bottom Line
What lessons can other businesses learn from the troubles of those that have gone before them? The biggest lesson of all may be that there are no guarantees in business. Sticking to your tried and true practices doesn't always work, and innovation doesn't always lead to success. The vagaries of the marketplace and the fickle hand of fate are two of the reasons stock analysis is so difficult. There's no easy way to sort the winners from the losers before you put your money at riska painful lesson that many investors have learned the hard way.
By Olivia Kelleher
Update 9.21pm: Almost 40,000 has been raised online since 9am this morning for a Cork mother of five who lost all of her belongings in a house fire which occured just one month after her husband passed away from cancer.
Mary Gore was unable to retrieve any of her personal belongings following a fire at the family home at College Wood in Mallow on Tuesday.
Her children, who are all under the age of eight, have been left with just the clothes on their backs.
Her friend Carol Guerin contacted Corks Red FM this morning to discuss their plight and the radio station urged her to set up a Go Fund Me Page which has since been flooded with donations.
The Gore family have been inundated with offers of help from furniture stores in Cork. They have also been offered shopping and hotel vouchers. The total money raised had surpassed 24,000 in six hours.
Anyone who wishes to donate to the Gore Go Fund Me Page can do so here.
Earlier: Over 20,000 has been raised online this morning for a Cork mother of five who lost all of her belongings in a house fire which occured just one month after her husband passed away from cancer.
Mary Gore was unable to retrieve any of her personal belongings following a fire at the family home at College Wood in Mallow on Tuesday.
Her children, who are all under the age of eight, have been left with just the clothes on their backs.
Poignantly Mary managed to retrieve army medals from the house which belonged to her late husband Chris who died last month.
Her friend Carol Guerin contacted Corks Red FM this morning to discuss their plight and the radio station urged her to set up a Go Fund Me Page which has since been flooded with donations.
Ms Guerin told Reds Neil Prendeville, that the Gore kids left for school on Tuesday morning with their mother Mary. Mary was subsequently informed that her house was on fire.
"The kitchen is completely destroyed. The ceiling is gone. Literally everything they have in the house is obviously very damaged by smoke.
They literally have the clothes on the back. I am not sure how it happened.
We do know its the cooker but its fairly bad. Toys, clothes, beds and furniture. Everything they have is gone. All Mary was able to salvage was some important pictures and medals that they had in the house. They cant take anything else out because of smoke damage."
Mary Gore is mother to two boys Adam and David who are aged seven and eight and triplets Sarah, Ellen and Teresa who are just five years old.
Carol says children have had a tough time following the loss of their father last month and were looking forward to Christmas.
"They were getting excited for Santa cos dad died. Chris God love him had cancer and he was diagnosed just around a year ago. He died last month. He was just about to hit 44. His birthday was the week after he was buried."
Carol says Mary is in shock as she is still in the midst of the grieving process having lost her husband so recently.
"She is trying to keep herself together for the five kids and had just started coming out and doing her few bits and trying to get ready for Christmas and focusing on a happy time. Then I suppose the house going set her back. They couldnt go back to the house.
"Her brother very kindly offered to put them up. The kids are unaware what is going on. They probably think they are on a grand sleepover."
Carol said the family went to see Santa last week so that the "kids could still be kids."
"They had put up the decorations and had tried to make it all nice for Christmas. Mary had put some pictures of Chris around the sitting room so they could look at them and remember him. Everything is gone.
"The kids went out in their uniforms that morning and the girls had their Christmas play. Mallow Act of Kindness have been absolutely fantastic and now we have the Go Fund Me page. People have been amazing. Quite a bit has been raised so far."
Since the show aired at 9am today the Gore family have been inundated with offers of help from furniture stores in Cork. They have also been offered shopping and hotel vouchers. The total money raised had surpassed 24,000 in six hours.
Meanwhile, local Independent Councillor, John Paul OShea has urged the people of Cork to continue to get behind the family.
"I would be asking them to rally behind them from an emotional and a practical point of view. It is very sad. Chris only died last month and he was very young and they are a young family."
Anyone who wishes to donate to the Gore Go Fund Me Page can do so at www.gofundme.com/mary-gore
Update 5.14pm: Ryanair has told pilot unions it cannot meet their representatives before planned strikes in Ireland and Portugal on Wednesday, according to RTE.
It is reported that representatives for pilots accused the airline of "playing chicken" and the strikes will not be called off unless there is a meeting.
Ryanair said the union promised to call off the strike if Ryanair conceded recognition. The airline released the following statement:
The Impact union promised to call off the strike if Ryanair conceded recognition. Theyve gotten our offer of recognition in writing and were happy to meet them next week, which itself is the first act in recognising IALPA.
The UK and Italian unions have already agreed to meetings with Ryanair and have called off the threatened strike in Italy.
The sensible course of action is for IALPA to meet with Ryanair next Wednesday, but call off the unnecessary threats of disruption to the Christmas flights of thousands of customers.
Update 3.20pm: Ryanair has announced it will recognise pilot unions in six European countries - including Ireland - as it tries to avoid disruption over Christmas.
The airline is now calling for threatened industrial action on Wednesday to be called off.
The Irish Airline Pilots Association said it has received a letter from Ryanair and is now looking for a meeting between management and the union.
Ryanair's chief people officer Eddie Wilson said it's long-standing policy of not recognising workers' groups is changing now.
"We have had a number of threatened strikes across a number of countries in Europe and to protect our passenger's travel plans over the Christmas period we've decided to make that decision now. We're decisive in it," he said.
Update 2pm: The IMPACT trade union, which represents pilots, has said it has contacted Ryanair this afternoon.
The union said it was looking for a meeting between management and the union to clarify issues and make progress.
IMPACT said it was available to meet with Ryanair today or over the weekend for talks but it should emerge later today if pilots will call off their Christmas strike over negotiation rights.
Update 11.54am: Recognition of pilot unions 'an evolution of business model' - Ryanair CEO
Planned Christmas strikes by Ryanair pilots could be called off after the airline said it would officially recognise unions.
The Irish Airline Pilots Association says it's considering correspondence from Ryanair after its dramatic U-turn this morning.
Pilots at Cork, Shannon and Dublin Airports were planning to walk off the job next Wednesday in a row over negotiating rights.
Speaking to the BBC, Ryanair CEO Peter Bellew says the move is an "evolution of the business model"
"We see the value right across our network of aviation professionals. They have requested this form of collectve bargaining and we have agreed to it because we feel the time is right.
"It is an evolution of the business model effectively."
Update - 8.17am: Ryanair set to recognise pilot unions for first time in order to avoid Christmas strikes
Ryanair has agreed to recognise pilot unions to avoid widespread customer disruptions over Christmas period.
The airline has called for the planned strike action to halt and it has written to the pilot unions in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal to invite them to talks to recognise the unions.
Ryanair said they will recognise them "as long as they establish Committees of Ryanair pilots to deal with Ryanair issues, as Ryanair will not engage with pilots who fly for competitor airlines in Ireland or elsewhere".
Ryanairs Michael OLeary said: "Christmas flights are very important to our customers and we wish to remove any worry or concern that they may be disrupted by pilot industrial action next week.
"If the best way to achieve this is to talk to our pilots through a recognised union process, then we are prepared to do so, and we have written today to these unions inviting them to talks to recognise them and calling on them to cancel the threatened industrial action planned for Christmas week.
"Recognising unions will be a significant change for Ryanair, but we have delivered radical change before, most recently when we launched Ryanair Labs and our highly successful Always Getting Better customer improvement programme in 2013.
"Putting the needs of our customers first, and avoiding disruption to their Christmas flights, is the reason why we will now deal with our pilots through recognised national union structures and we hope and expect that these structures can and will be agreed with our pilots early in the New Year."
6.28am: Ryanair may draft in European crews to cover strike by Irish pilots
It has been reported Ryanair may hire planes and draft in European crews to staff flights impacted by next week's strike.
Pilots based in Cork, Dublin and Shannon plan to walk off the job next Wednesday in the row over collective bargaining rights.
The airline will be giving passengers just two days notice, when it publishes a list of affected flights on Monday.
The Irish Times reports Ryanair's back-up plans to cover routes may include using captains-in-training.
Dateline Dateline Irrawaddy: Sexual Abuse and Stigma
The Irrawaddy
Kyaw Kha: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, well discuss an alarming increase in child rape cases in Myanmar. Daw Myat Sandar Thet, the founder of Myintmo Mitta, a refuge for single mothers, and Lway Poe Ngeal, general secretary of the Womens League of Burma (WLB), which is a coalition of 13 womens ethnic organizations, will join me for the discussion. Im Irrawaddy Burmese reporter Kyaw Kha.
The situation of sexual abuse of children is bad in Myanmar, and Im sure no one wants to see such news. According to official government figures, there were 85 reported cases of molestation of girls between 6 and 10 years old in 2016. That number is currently at 79 for 2017, so it is not declining.
Myat Sandar Thet: You said the situation was bad based on government data but the situation on the ground is likely much worse. According to my experience as a volunteer, only one in four child rape cases is reported to the police and a trial is ordered. We should understand that sexual abuse of children is much worse [than the government data shows] in Myanmar. That data also only includes girls older than six. In reality, there are cases of abuse to girls of one and two years of age. If we include those ages and the cases that go unreported, the situation is much worse. We need to alert people to this. If you ask me when child rape cases are likely to occur, it is when there is not close contact between parents and children.
KK: How bad is the situation in ethnic areas?
Lway Poe Ngeal: It is not safe for women and girls anywhere. Girls fall victim amid clashes in conflict areas in ethnic regions but they also fall victim to those in power in non-conflict areas. According to our survey, child victims include girls above three. No matter how we protect ourselves, there is no security. We are seeing that cases happen almost every day in Myanmar. In the past, most rape cases were committed by the Tatmadaw and armed ethnic groups. Today, such cases have not declined and whats worse is that the number of rape cases committed by civilians has also increased.
KK: In child rape cases, victims and their families might not be willing to report to authorities because of humiliation. What are the difficulties to bringing those cases to court as well as throughout the trials?
MST: Before a case is brought to court, the child victim will be brought to the hospital and police station first. The police station will bring the victim to the hospital. There the doctor will check whether there was a rape. The psychological trauma of the child will be eased if the doctor can consult skillfully to help them avoid reliving the ordeal. And when the case is brought before the court, the public perception is that awkward questions will be asked at the trial. In fact, lawyers can ask the victims questions in writing on paper. Psychological trauma to the young victims can be largely prevented at the hospital and at court. I think these two places can help a lot in easing the psychological trauma of child victims.
KK: What do you think Lway Poe Ngeal?
LPN: I would like to point out two points. Daw Myat Sandar Thet talked about going to court. But not every place in Myanmar has a court, especially in ethnic areas. According to the Penal Code, there must be a medical report [forensic evidence] for a rape case. But in ethnic areas, women are raped, for example while chopping sugar cane and firewood in the forest. There is no clinic or doctor. So, how can we get forensic evidence? I am talking about difficulties rape victims experience before and after their cases are brought before a court. As Ive said, it is difficult to get forensic evidence for legal proceedings. In ethnic areas we cant report directly to police. As there are no police, we have to report to the village head or administrator. Once the case is brought to them, it usually disappears there, and is never brought to the court.
Another thing is the court is in the town and transportation is very difficult. There are villages that have not seen newspapers and radio, far from knowing what media is. Victims from such remote areas cant afford to go to the town or stay in the town during the trial. They have a lot of difficulties. Again, it is very difficult to take action against rapes and sexual abuses committed by those in power such as the Tatmadaw and armed ethnic groups.
KK: Weve barely seen efforts or action to address this issue. What remedial actions should be taken? Who should be involved in remedial efforts and to what extent do you think the government should be involved?
MST: Most child rape cases are acquaintance rapes committed by those who are close to the victimseither their family members or neighbors. According to my experience, there is hardly a case in which a stranger grabs a girl by the roadside and rapes her. As most of the cases are committed by family members and neighbors, I think pulling the child victim out of her community for a while would help a lot to ease psychological trauma.
Then, the victim can be sent to another place to receive schooling, perhaps to a boarding school. Myanmar people typically are easy to forget and forgive, so if the child comes back to her home with some achievement, for example after finishing university, she should be able to live a normal life again. Otherwise, suppose a child were raped by her own father and continued to live in that house. It would make the mother and child feel very uneasy. And, the father will feel too guilty to look at his daughter, and the daughter dare not look at the father, who is her rapist.
I have seen some incest cases in which a brother raped his sister. I was terribly shocked by such cases, wondering how the parents could face them. Under such circumstances, those children should be pulled out of that environment temporarily and a new environment should be created for them. If the concerned family cant take that responsibility, then the government should take it. If not the government, associations and agencies connected with the government such as the Maternal and Child Welfare Association or the Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs Association should focus their attention on child rape.
Though this responsibility falls on the government, it would be inadvisable for it to gather child rape victims and send them to a particular school. If the government does so, it will only create a closed community of child rape victims. And I dont want them to grow up amid trauma. If possible, victims from hilly regions, for example Christian children, should be able to come to the plains and start a new life. The government should create new families and safe environments for them and enable them to purse school and vocational education.
But if it gathers the victims at a particular place, they will be viewed by the people as a group of child rape victims and it will be very hard to erase that view. We should therefore create a comfortable and supportive environment that resembles a new family for them. This issue seems to be easy to handle, but we must be aware that it is delicate.
LPN: There are laws that prevent child rape and provide support to rape victims. There are international laws. Myanmar has ratified, for example, CEDAW, but has not implemented it. The international community is responsible for this. It should keep putting pressure on this country to implement the agreements it has signed. The government is responsible to implement what is has signed.
We also need to have awareness and knowledge. Besides knowledge about reproductive health, we should also be aware of gender issues and have some knowledge about international laws and what laws our country has ratified. If individuals have such knowledge, then well be able to reduce rape cases gradually, and of course, on condition that there is rule of law.
KK: Lway Poe Ngeal has talked about how to prevent child rapes. What actions do you think should be taken to prevent them?
MST: I would educate the men first. Then, Id give sex education. And thirdly, there is a need to correct a popular misconception of mothers. In our society, usually mothers tell their young daughters that their private parts are a source of shame. But when the child has grown up, then the mother tells her to value it. So the child is confused, and she cant consult the problem with her mother. So, pregnancies occur as a result. Therefore, we need to rebuild the relationships between mothers and daughters, and fix the morals and ethics of males. And sex education should be last. People think sex education is important. But personally, I think it is not as important as the morals of men. If males have high morals, sex education is the last thing to do.
KK: Thank you for your contributions.
Russian security vendor Kaspersky Lab is again under fire in the mainstream US media, with the Washington Post alleging that the co-operation it extended to the FSB, Russia's equivalent of the FBI, in getting a suspected cyber criminal jailed was an indication of "an unusual degree of closeness" to the agency which was described as "the country's powerful security service".
The report says a document posted to Facebook by the suspect, Konstantin Kozlovskiy, claims that in April 2015, an FSB agent who was in Kaspersky's Moscow office provided a password for another suspect's computer to a technician. The technician then used it to gain access to the suspect's computer and obtain decrypted material which he passed to the FSB agent.
The document is said to claim that the FSB agent, A.V. Kutasevich, worked side-by-side with Kaspersky technician Russian Sabitov in what was said to be an information retrieval operation.
But the Post left it till the last paragraph of a 17-paragraph story to point out that the same Kozlovskiy had claimed in another document left on Facebook that he was the one who had hacked into the Democrat National Committee on the orders of the FSB, an assertion that was deemed "dubious" by senior intelligence officials cited by the Post. It claimed that it was two other Russian spy agencies that were behind the DNC hack.
Kaspersky Lab has been under sustained pressure in the US with allegations regularly being made that it has been serving as a conduit for Russian intelligence services. The accusations gathered momentum as Russia started to be blamed for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election. In September, the US Government banned the use of Kaspersky products in government agencies.
Finally, can we stop saying that @e_kaspersky graduated from a KGB-supported school? Because that neither relevant or helpful in the discussion. Martijn Grooten (@martijn_grooten) December 14, 2017
The Post claimed that though American cyber security firms "sometimes provide technical assistance to the FBI in criminal investigations, the close co-operation between Kaspersky Lab and the FSB raises eyebrows" at a time when the firm is so much in the media limelight.
The newspaper gave no indication of whose eyebrows had been raised. The practice of technology or security firms helping trap cyber criminals is as old as the hills; companies have willingly provided information to the FBI, CIA and the NSA in the US. In some cases, they have been spied on and information taken from them without their knowledge.
This was not a perspective that WaPo reporter Ellen Nakashima provided to readers of the newspaper.
Nope, nothing... And it's not as if @kaspersky cooperation with LEA against Lurk was already public knowledge... https://t.co/B3QkqDw4A6 Valery Marchive (@ValeryMarchive) December 14, 2017
The information provided to the FSB by Kaspersky was used by the agency to craft its case against Kozlovskiy, who is a member of Lurk, a criminal group whose operations were detailed by Kaspersky Lab in a detailed blog post in August 2016.
In that post, the company outlined its role in the demise of Lurk, though the Post said Kaspersky had not specified that an FSB agent was allowed into its Moscow offices to "supervise the operation".
The WaPo report quoted Andrei Soldatov, reportedly an expert on Russian surveillance and the joint author of a book titled The Red Web, as saying it was surprising that Kaspersky's experts were not asked to provide expertise in the operation against Lurk though why a technician should not be considered an expert was not explained.
The Red Web deals with what the authors Irina Borogan is the other joint author deem the "monumental battle for the future of the Internet". Wikipedia says it "examines the history of surveillance technologies in Russia, the Soviet Union's authoritarian control over information and its distribution, and the legacy of this mindset as it reverberates in the Russia in the Internet age".
Kaspersky's role was authorised by a Russian court but Soldatov was of the opinion that this kind of joint operation raises a question whether the company went too far in its co-operation with the Russian secret services".
The Post contrasted the Russian incident with the way things are reportedly done in the US, quoting an unnamed former FBI special agent who had worked on a number of high-profile cyber cases as saying that such an arrangement would be unusual in the US and outside the realm of something the bureau would approve".
The logic in drawing the conclusion that this act constituted "an unusual degree of closeness to the FSB" evoked scepticism from security professionals.
"This is the FSB in its role of the Russian FBI. This is an operation against some cyber criminals. Security companies co-operate with law enforcement all the time. As a defensive security company, like AV, it would be hypocritical not to," commented Martijn Grooten, the editor of Virus Bulletin, a magazine that covers the prevention, detection and removal of malware and spam.
"One can have a valid discussion on what specific roles security companies should play in a co-operation with law enforcement, and different companies have different views on this, but nowhere does it appear that Kaspersky clearly crossed a line.
"It'd be different if the criminals were running Kaspersky's AV and Kaspersky was asked to backdoor that to get access to their machines. Nowhere does the story even imply this might have happened. (And it won't have, as the FSB wouldn't do this.)"
The state's largest teachers union has blasted a new proposal from three lawmakers to give grants to advanced learners who live in low-income households, saying the proposal is another way to send public money to private education providers.
Christina Brey, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Education Association Council, on Friday blasted a bill proposed this week by Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, Rep. Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma, and Rep. Jason Fields, D-Milwaukee, to give $1,000 grants to 2,000 low-income students in public, charter and private schools who are considered to be "gifted and talented." Brey said the bill lacks measures of accountability and does not specify where funding will come from.
The bill, which allows parents of eligible students to use the money for education expenses approved by the Department of Public Instruction, requires the program to be audited, however.
"To meet the needs of all students, elected officials should provide stable funding for public schools and include educators in developing solutions instead of fragmented approaches that siphon more from public schools to fund private," Brey said.
Im putting the liars on notice.
The most underappreciated application for the combination of augmented reality (A.R.) and artificial intelligence (A.I.) is persistent lie detection.
Smartphones and smart glasses will soon support apps that show you in real time whether the person youre talking to is telling the truth or lying.
Imagine how that will affect business meetings, sales presentations, job interviews and department status updates.
(Not to mention political speech. Some 35 years ago, late-night talk show host Johnny Carson imagined what it would be like if politicians were hooked up to lie detectors.)
Soon, you wont have to imagine it. There will be an app for that.
Old-fashioned lie detectors, called polygraphs, track blood pressure, breathing and other physiological metrics to gauge stress levels during questioning. The administrator of a polygraph asks questions to determine a baseline response, then watches for signs of stress with additional questioning.
Polygraphs are unreliable and controversial. They have to be administered by an expert using expensive equipment in a controlled environment. Even then, the results are not admissible as evidence in court in the U.S. and the U.K.
But the future of lie detection is A.I.
A.I. can take various signals, such as eye movements, facial gestures, body movements, voice intonations and others, to estimate the truthfulness of a persons statements.
In fact, lie detection is just one of the many uses for emotion or mood detection generally. When A.I. can tell when a person is happy or sad or mad or stressed, it can generally detect changes during conversation and figure out that some of those changes are caused by lie-induced mental activity or stress.
Because lie-detection A.I. is currently being developed by numerous companies, universities and governments, its inevitable that the capability will become available broadly and inexpensively to businesses and consumers over the next two years.
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In fact, lie-detection A.I. is already on the market.
A U.K. company called Human created technology that detects the emotional state of people in smartphone and security videos.
The company claims that its technology can benefit business in a variety of ways, from hiring to fraud detection to customer satisfaction analysis. It also says Human technology can profile potential customers based on their personality, as analyzed by A.I.
A Utah-based company called Converus makes a product called EyeDetect, which monitors pupil dilation in the human eye to detect truths and lies. (Pupils often dilate when a person is lying because lying uses more mental energy than telling the truth.)
EyeDetect is already in use for hiring and bank fraud, as well as by police departments as an alternative to the polygraph.
Governments are working on lie-detection A.I. as well.
Remember when the airlines used to ask if you had packed your own bags and if anyone had asked you to pack anything for them? Even now, customs agents worldwide ask you about the purpose of your travel and what youre carrying with you.
These questions are useless security theater because people can lie.
But what if people couldnt lie? What if everyone who worked at the airport could ask you any question and know instantly if your answer was true or not?
Researchers at the National Center for Border Security and Immigration at the University of Arizona and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are testing something called the Automated Virtual Agent for Truth Assessments in Real Time (AVATAR). Its like an ATM where a virtual agent asks security questions, then alerts human agents when the kiosk detects lying.
The system detects lying by looking for changes in the travelers posture, eyes, voice or other behavior that could indicate dishonesty.
These nascent efforts are different from whats coming soon.
First, todays lie-detection A.I. is less accurate than what will be possible down the road. EyeDetect, for example, is accurate 86% of the time. Thats far better than a human even better than a human expert, such as a police detective. Still, within a couple of years, lie-detection accuracy will rise above 90%, and then keep creeping toward the high 90s.
Second, these products arent yet well-known and widely available. Most business buyers havent purchased or even read about them. Soon, however, mainstream, cloud-based lie-detection A.I. applications will come out on the market, many targeted at business for use in hiring, fraud protection and other uses. A.I. lie detection will increasingly become a feature, rather than a product something thats built in to business software or video products.
Third, todays lie detection comes mainly in the form of expensive products and requires training. The future of lie-detection products will be in apps for smartphones, desktops and the Holy Grail of lie-detection ubiquity smart glasses.
Today, lie detection happens in specific, limited scenarios, including job interviews, crime investigations and airport security. In each of these situations, subjects know theyre being tested, and the detection lasts only for a brief, specific conversation.
In the future, smart glasses will go mainstream, and lie-detection apps will be widely available and usable without training or expertise. Your glasses will simply alert you when others are lying or telling the truth, perhaps with something as simple as colors a red light means a lie.
A.I. will excel in so-called passive lie detection, where the subject isnt hooked up to any equipment. And because its passive, it can be undetected. For example, lie detection connected to smart glasses or to a videoconferencing system, for that matter can take place without anyone but the user knowing about it.
Over time, it will become reasonable to assume that lie-detection A.I. is being applied during common business scenarios such as job interviews, conference calls and sales presentations.
Here comes Apple
A.R. smart glasses may be coming sooner than we think.
Bloomberg reported this month that Apple manufacturing partner Quanta Computer inked a deal with an Israeli company called Lumas Ltd. to make lenses for smart glasses.
Neither Apple nor the companies directly involved have announced whether the lenses resulting from this partnership will appear in expected Apple smart glasses. But the Economic Daily News has reported that Apple is working with Quanta to manufacture its smart glasses.
Apple is an important leading indicator for this category because its entry into a market tends to both signal and trigger mainstream acceptance in both consumer and enterprise markets. Apple smart glasses will probably be accompanied by a robust app store. If the Apple ARKit for iOS developers is any indication, A.R. applications will be fairly easy to build as well as powerful.
The current expectation in Silicon Valley is that Apple A.R. glasses will ship within three years and will trigger an explosion in app development. Some of these apps will be A.I. lie detectors.
The post-lie world
The purpose of this column is not to address the ethical or societal implications of widespread lie detection. The safe thing to say is that it might have both good and bad effects and that it might trigger disruptive changes in business communication.
Whats certain is that pervasive, accurate and inexpensive lie detection is coming to a conversation or business meeting near you. It will be on the TV. It will be on the webcam. It will be in the office and boardroom. But most impactfully, it will be on your glasses and the glasses of whomever youre talking to.
And thats the truth.
The conference committee negotiating changes to the House and Senate tax reform bills has agreed to legislative language that will be sent to both houses of Congress next week for a vote. A majority of the Senate conferees and a majority of the House conferees were required to sign off on the revised bill, which they did on Friday.
The full language of the bill was released Friday evening, and major changes from the bills that passed the House and Senate include:
A top individual rate of 37% (the House had proposed a top rate of 39.6%, and the Senates bill had a top rate of 38.5%).
A corporate tax rate of 21%, effective in 2018 (the House and Senate bills had both lowered the rate to 20%, but the Senates version had postponed that rate until 2019).
The corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT) would be repealed.
The individual AMT would remain, but the exemption amount would increase.
A mortgage interest deduction limit of $750,000 (the House bill had reduced the limit to $500,000; the Senate bill had kept the current-law limit of $1 million).
A 20% deduction for passthrough income (the Senate bill had proposed a 23% deduction; the House bill had proposed setting a 25% tax rate on passthrough income).
Taxpayers would be allowed to deduct up to $10,000 in state and local income or property taxes (the House and Senate bills had proposed allowing a $10,000 deduction against state and local property taxes).
The estate tax exemption would double.
The child tax credit would increase to $2,000, with up to $1,400 refundable.
Various deductions that the House bill would have repealed will remain under the final bill, including the medical expense deduction, the student loan interest deduction, and the deduction for educators classroom expenses.
Alistair M. Nevius (Alistair.Nevius@aicpa-cima.com) is the JofAs editor-in-chief, tax.
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BETHLEHEM (Maan) Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets on Friday in continued protest of US President Donald Trumps announcement last week recognizing Jerusalem the Eastern part of which is illegally occupied by Israel in contravention of international law causing clashes with Israeli forces to erupt across the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and besieged Gaza Strip.
Sources from the Palestinian Red Crescent said that teams treated at least 54 injuries in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as of Friday afternoon: four with live fire, 11 with rubber-coated steel bullets, 37 tear-gas suffocation and two others.
Meanwhile, the Red Crescent of the Gaza Strip said that at least 96 injuries were reported including, 38 with live ammunition.
Gaza Strip
Clashes erupted between protesters and Israeli forces along the border between Gaza and Israel.
Israeli forces opened fire at protesters near the Beit Hanoun checkpoint in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that three protesters were moderately injured with live fire in eastern Jabaliya, while two others were injured in eastern al-Bureij and another in Gaza City. One youth was injured with a bullet in the back during clashes in eastern Gaza City, and and was transferred to the Abu Youssif Najjar Hospital. Another Palestinian youth was injured with live ammunition in the leg during clashes at the Erez crossing and was transferred to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza. East Jerusalem A march set off from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound following Friday prayers, as Israeli forces were heavily deployed across the streets and alleyways of the Old City. At the Qalandiya checkpoint between northern Jerusalem and Ramallah, several Palestinian youths were injured as Israeli forces suppressed protests with tear-gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets. Bethlehem Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian youth who threw rocks at the northern entrance of Bethlehem, following Friday prayers in front of Israels separation wall. Hebron Clashes erupted in the Bab al-Zawiya area in central Hebron City following a march that set off from the al-Hussein Bin Ali mosque. Clashes also erupted at the entrance of al-Arroub refugee camp, Beit Ummar and the Shuyoukh village in northern Hebron and in Tarqumiya in western Hebron. Qalqiliya Following demonstrations in the villages of Kafr Qaddum, Azzun and Jayyous, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces. In Kafr Qaddum clashes erupted at the eastern entrance of the town, where three youths were injured with rubber-coated steel bullets. Ramallah A march set off from the al-Manara circle in central Ramallah City, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Hamas movement establishment and condemning Trumps decision. In the Budrus town in western Ramallah, clashes erupted following a march, where Israeli soldiers used live ammunition to suppress protesters. Nablus Thousands of Palestinians performed prayers at the al-Shuhada circle in central Nablus City, after which time hundreds of Palestinians headed to the Huwwara military checkpoint in southern Nablus. Clashes erupted with Israeli forces at the checkpoint, at the Beita crossroads in southern Nablus and in the Beit Fruik and Salem village in eastern Nablus. Medical sources said that 100 Palestinians were injured during clashes, and that four were detained by Israeli forces at the Huwwara checkpoint. Tulkarem Clashes erupted with Israeli forces in western Tulkarem City after hundreds of Palestinians had set off in a march following Friday prayers. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters. Activist Khairi Hannoun was hit with a tear-gas bomb in the head. Jenin A protest set off in Jenin following Friday prayers, as hundreds of Palestinians marched waving Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in support of Jerusalem and condemning the US decision.
Via Ma`an News Agency
Vancouver, Canada / TheNewswire / December 13, 2017 - Guyana Goldstrike Inc. (the "Company" or "Guyana Goldstrike") (TSXV: GYA, OTC: GYNAF, FSE: 1ZT) is pleased to announce that the Company has been meeting and consulting with experts in the blockchain and cyptocurrency sector to ascertain the feasibility of financing the Marudi Gold Project through the issuance of an Initial Coin Offering ("ICO") on the Ethereum blockchain platform.
Mr. Peter Berdusco, President and CEO of the Company states, "We believe the Marudi Gold Project has the right set of attributes that make it an excellent candidate to fund through an ICO. The project has a mining license, good infrastructure with an operating mining camp, a historic resource estimate that is currently being updated and excellent exploration upside. The ability to market these attributes to a new alternative financing audience is very intriguing to us. What makes it even more compelling is the potential of coupling these attributes with the prospective merit of an ICO that may minimize shareholder dilution while financing the project toward production."
Readers are cautioned that the Company has not formally engaged any consultant or advisor in the blockchain or cryptocurrency sector, nor has any material aspects of an entry into these sectors been finalized, nor has a decision to enter the sectors been reached by the board of directors. The Company is not conducting the offering of any coin or token at this time, and any such offering would need to be conducted in compliance with the securities laws of Canada or other jurisdictions, as applicable. The Company's Marudi Gold Project is currently at the exploration and development phase, and any coin, token or security secured to the Company, project or potential future commercial production from that project should be considered highly speculative.
ABOUT THE MARUDI GOLD PROJECT
The Project, located in Guyana, South America, is unique in that it has a mining license in good standing, all-season road access, infrastructure in place, with an established mining camp serviced by employees, service buildings, and a full-time mining manager. The property has three known gold bearing areas, specifically the alluvial areas, the saprorlite overburden, and the underlying hard-rock. There has been 42,000 metres of historic diamond drilling (141 holes) completed on the Project by prior operators. This work has delineated historical mineral resource estimates on the Project. There exists excellent exploration upside through the development of previously identified, highly-prospective mineralized targets on the Project.
For information concerning these estimates and the Project, readers are encouraged to review "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Marudi Property, Guyana", a technical report prepared for the Company by Derrick Strickland, P. Geo., and is available on the Company's website located at (Click Here) and under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com)
* The Company considers these estimates to be historical, and cautions that a Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves in accordance with National Instrument 43-101. The Company does consider these historical estimates to be relevant as they may indicate the presence of gold mineralization and favourable geology.
ABOUT GUYANA
The Republic of Guyana is located in South America between Venezuela and Suriname. The country is English speaking and under British Common Law with a democratically-elected government. It has an established mining act and a rich history of gold production. In 2016, 690,000 ounces of gold was produced by operators mining in the country. The Fraser Institute's 2016 Annual Survey of Mining listed Guyana as the third best mining jurisdiction with regards to investment attractiveness in the Latin America and Caribbean Basin sub-group. The Guiana Shield is the geographic gold-hosting region with over 100 million ounces of gold inventory. ** It is world-recognized as a premier gold region that is highly prospective, under-explored and has geological continuity with West Africa. In 2016, two mines in Guyana declared the commencement of commercial production: the Aurora deposit (Guyana Goldfields) and the Karouni deposit (Troy Resources).
** Independent Technical and Environmental Review Karouni Gold Project - Guyana, Behre Dolbear Australia Pty Ltd, April 29, 2016
Guy Williams writes:
When Metiria Turei stood up and made her now infamous speech, arguing that we need to change the welfare system and the narrative around those at the bottom, I was proud. It was about time.
It was also a ludicrous political strategy, and a surprising admission for a politician to make. She told us she was a young single mother so desperate, that she lied to get more money from WINZ to support her family.
People called her a liar. She tried to respond: I know, Im the one who told you that! I did a speech admitting that on the news and everything! That was my point!
Criticism is always understandable, and the backlash was poorly managed, but this was something else. Why were people so incredibly angry? Do people really think shes a criminal? Or a danger? A fraudster!
To me, the more shes called a fraud, or a cheat, or a criminal, the more I feel like that reinforces the point she was trying to make. Many said that her controversy overshadowed the message, and for most New Zealanders it probably did. Theyll see the headlines and remember her as just that MP who did the benefit fraud, but to me, shes a bit of a hero.
Repeated drills and constant reminders to keep their eye on target were among the actions the instructors at the Wisconsin State Patrol Academy put 40 cadets through during their eighth weeks of training at Fort McCoy in mid-November.
The Wisconsin State Patrol Academy cadets were training in defense and arrest tactics as well as firearms familiarization and marksmanship. The training is part of the second of three phases for the cadets, who started their training Sept. 25 and will finish March 30.
Cadets complete 1,064 hours of training over 26 weeks, said Sgt. John Heffernan, academy program director.
All of the phases are important, he said.
During the first phase, cadets received introductory training on becoming troopers and in non-emergency response. Phase two is the emergency-response training phase, and phase three focuses on investigations.
We have post-phase training where we teach things specific to the state patrol that are not necessarily required by the (Wisconsin Department of Justice) Training and Standards Bureau, Heffernan said. Additionally, the patrol adds hours of training in each phase to give extra instruction in areas of priority for the patrol, such as traffic crash, traffic law enforcement, and speed enforcement.
During the DAAT instruction, cadets learn tactics, techniques, and procedures on when and how to use physical force to control people. The techniques learned are psychomotor skills that involve use of both brain and muscle and are completed through practical application, said Inspector Dave Cahoon, master DAAT instructor.
This training helps them to be able to defend themselves and others, Cahoon said. When they train in these techniques and tactics, it also gives them confidence.
Cahoon said confidence is critical for troopers in everything they do, and DAAT is just one set of skills being taught to build a well-trained trooper.
The training is a building block for the scenario-based training to be completed later, Cahoon said. That training is critical because it is training under stress, which is very critical for us.
Being calm and cool also is important for cadets during firearms training. The pistol the cadets train with is a .40-caliber Glock 22.
Instructors stress marksmanship and the fundamentals of shooting, Heffernan said.
Cadets also learn how to combat shoot, fix malfunctions on the weapon, how to use cover with the weapon and how to shoot from barricades. They also learn how to shoot from the inside of a squad car, and essentially how to be combat-effective with the weapon.
Cadet Anna Waterman of Amery said the shooting and DAAT training were among the toughest training regimens she had learned up to that point.
This week so far has been the hardest week, Waterman said. But even though it has been the hardest, I do my best to stay positive and learn everything they are teaching us to do.
Waterman said she wanted to become a trooper ever since she participated in an internship with the State Patrol when she was in college at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Through each phase of training, she said on some days her goal is to just get to lunch break and then regroup and continue on.
I have to stay positive and true to myself, she said. I know I can do this and that I have to work hard to (continuously) get better.
Cadet Jacob Anderson, a native of Sparta, said everything the cadets have been trained on is challenging, but its worth it, especially with DAAT training.
I like that they push us to be the best that we can be, Anderson said. The officers here tell us there is a reason behind everything they tell and teach us. I believe them, and I want to make sure that Im fully prepared when I hit the road as a trooper in the future.
In 2014, trooper Erica Ballweg-Larsen was going through the same training as these cadets, and she remembers how difficult it was. She is also a training officer supporting the current cadet class.
Every bit of training time here is valuable, she said in a 2014 article in The Real McCoy. We want these cadets to get the best training experience they can receive,
Ballweg-Larsen is one of two female training officers supporting the class an academy first.
I remember how tough it was and at every turn you have to stay motivated, she said.
Heffernan said the cadets will continue to be challenged throughout the rest of the training. Anderson said he looks forward to the challenge.
This is all preparation to make us good troopers, Anderson said. I look forward to being that trooper.
The WSPA has been a tenant organization at Fort McCoy since 1955. Its complex covers more than 50 acres of the installation.
Moon-Xi summit reaffirms resolve for peace
President Moon Jae-in's first trip to China since taking office in May produced some important outcomes.
The two countries need to find ways to move their relations forward despite the row over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, which is an issue that will not go away any time soon. The latest Korea-China summit Thursday provided the much-needed impetus for rebuilding ties.
First, it is meaningful that President Moon and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping reaffirmed their commitment to peace on the Korean Peninsula. The two countries announced four principles on North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations: no war on the Korean Peninsula, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiations, and improvement in inter-Korean relations.
It is also notable that the two leaders agreed to establish a hotline for closer communication on bilateral issues. This reflects the strong will of the two countries to maintain close consultations on issues of mutual interest as well as a growing rapport between the two leaders.
Another important outcome of Moon's visit is that it reaffirmed the two countries' shared history. President Moon sent Korean Ambassador to China Noh Young-min to the state ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre Wednesday, the day he arrived in China, rather than carry out the customary role of the ambassador to greet the visiting President at the airport.
The Chinese side showed appreciation for Moon's thoughtful gesture. "Both China and the Republic of Korea are victims of World War II," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said during a press conference Thursday. "We appreciate President Moon Jae-in's instruction for Ambassador Noh Young-min to attend the state memorial ceremony of the National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre victims."
Moon's efforts to reach out to the Chinese people by having breakfast at a local restaurant and delivering a speech at Peking University were effective in bringing the peoples of the two countries closer.
Some aspects of the President's four-day trip China trip were regrettable. Moon's visit was marred by the beating of Korean journalists covering the President's activities in China by Chinese security guards.
Also, the summit still showed the two countries are on different pages regarding THAAD. There was also little progress on extracting China's stronger action in dealing with North Korea or confirming Xi's visit to Korea during the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in February.
The two countries should continue to work together for mutually beneficial results on regional security and the economy.
By Oh Young-jin
The unbelievable beating of Korean journalists accompanying President Moon Jae-in on his Chinese visit Thursday has failed to deter Moon.
Neither did Beijing's poor reception of the Korean president at the airport a day earlier.
What Moon seeks is clear: he wants to court China even at the cost of Korea's alliance with the United States.
Unlikely as it may sound, Moon's effort to get Korea what amounts to a divorce from its long security and economic partner has been under way with little popular opposition. To detect what's going on, three recent developments should be put together.
The first is about U.S. President Donald Trump's state visit to Korea in November, preceded by a visit from his Defense Secretary James Mattis.
During their previous summit in June in Washington, Moon and Trump set the year-end deadline to move on with a concrete plan to enable Korea to take wartime control of its troops now under American control. Mattis and Defense Minister Song Young-moo met for the annual Security Consultative Meeting but couldn't find any agreement, so the two presidents had nothing to tell the public after their Seoul summit.
The bone of contention is the structure of a new command that will replace the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC). Currently, Gen. Vincent Brooks, the American four-star general in Korea, commands the CFC, with a Korean four-star general serving as his deputy commander. In the new command, the chain of command will be reversed, with a Korean general to serve as the commander.
Bruce Bennett, a Korea expert from RAND Corp., said it would be a deal breaker.
"The U.S. military would have a hard time in accepting it because there is no precedent," Bennett said. It also goes beyond the pride or tradition of the American military and comes down to the practicality of operations when the U.S. provides the nuclear umbrella to deter the North from attacking the South or sends reinforcements to push back the invading North Koreans, he said.
Then, he referred to U.S. congressional opposition to putting American military resources under foreign control. One alternative could be having a junior American general lieutenant general or major general serve a Korean four-star general. It would likely entail a reduced U.S. commitment that leads to a U.S. drawdown. Another is to go against the principle of unity of command and officially allow the junior American commander to disagree the drawback being a weakened command structure. Bennett suggested the postponement of the handover, which looks unlikely under Moon's presidency.
The second giveaway is a U.S. visit by Thae Young-ho, a senior diplomat who defected to the South in August last year. The Moon government had expected to reduce Thae's public appearances for fear of adversely affecting its bid to open dialogue with Pyongyang. As a matter of fact, Hwang Jang-yop, the architect of the North's founding "juche," or self-reliance philosophy, was virtually shut out of the public eye during the Kim Dae-jung government that prioritized inter-Korean reconciliation.
Bennett saw Moon allowing Thae to appear as showing how angry Moon is with the North for repeatedly rejecting his proposal for dialogue. But on the flipside, it may signify his confidence in dealing with the North and the resolution of its nuclear and missile threats. Moon's positive sentiment reflects that of the Korean public that knows through a mixture of wishful thinking and experience, peace has been maintained on the Korean Peninsula despite many close calls through nearly seven decades after the 1950-53 Korean War. That public sentiment is based on the reality of a lopsided growth difference between the two Koreas in a long game, the South is bound to win.
Finally, why China over the U.S.? It is related to Moon's lineage as declared successor of his mentor and friend, the late President Roh Moon-hyun's effort to gain a sense of independence from Washington's influence and play the role of regional "balancer of power" to mediate between the two superpowers. But when Roh talked about it, it was a vision. Now for Moon, it can become closer to a reality. China is an unstoppable juggernaut that is bound to clash and cooperate with the U.S. for now and may replace the U.S. as the sole regional hegemon.
That's why Moon has put up with China's poor treatment and its leader Xi Jinping's bellicose attitude over Korea's deployment of the U.S. missile defense system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery. Moon may have lost some face but it is obvious that his loss has been more than compensated for Chinese tourists are coming back to Seoul streets, K-pop stars are in Beijing again and Moon has exchanged a handshake with Xi in Beijing. Their latest summit shows their maturity by not letting the THAAD disagreement get in the way of their agreements in other areas such as the North.
In this context, how could one see Moon's expression of commitment to buy billions of dollars of American weaponry during his November summit with Trump? Isn't it alimony ahead of a divorce or spousal support to ease the pain of separation? The question is for Americans to ask.
Oh Young-jin (foolsdie5@ktimes.com and foolsdie@gmail.com) is The Korea Times' digital news managing editor.
A forensic artist has recreated the likeness of the Wari queen, who lived about 1,200 years ago in what is now Peru.
At first glance, the wrinkled face of a dark haired-woman wearing round, gold earrings looks incredibly real. But it's not it's a reconstruction crafted from modeling clay, based on the skull of a Wari queen who lived about 1,200 years ago in what is now Peru.
Peruvian and Polish archaeologists unearthed the queen in a pyramid mausoleum known as El Castillo de Huarmey (Huarmey's castle), located north of Lima, in 2012. The tomb held the remains of 58 noblewomen, including the queen, who was buried in private chamber, according to National Geographic (opens in new tab). All of the women were part of the Wari culture, a people who lived in the region from A.D. 700 to 1000, long before the Inca rose to power.
The queen's tomb held jewelry and other lavish artifacts, including a copper ceremonial ax and a silver goblet. It also held her skull, which archaeologists gave to Oscar Nilsson, a forensic artist based in Sweden, so he could reconstruct her features for the world to see. [Photos: The Amazing Mummies of Peru and Egypt]
The skull was far too valuable to work on, so Nilsson used a computed tomography (CT) scanner to make a virtual, 3D image of the skull. He then sent the digital data to a 3D printer, which made a replica of the skull in vinyl plastic.
That's when the challenging work began. To forensically re-create a face, it's important to know the person's sex, age, weight and ethnicity factors that influence the thickness of facial tissue, Nilsson said.
Nilsson knew the Huarmey Queen was at least 60 years old. Armed with that knowledge and more, he got to work putting 30 plastic pegs of a certain length all over the queen's replica skull. "After this, it was time to start up the fun; begin sculpting the face!" Nilsson wrote in an email to Live Science. "This was made from the 'inside out,' muscle by muscle."
He used plasticine clay to sculpt the muscles, relying on methods that help forensic artists reliably rebuild a person's eyes, nose and mouth. "The ears are more speculative," he said.
Next, he covered the muscles with a layer of skin. "Details, wrinkles and pores are sculpted to get it [to be] realistic," he said. "When I'm finished sculpting the face, I make a mold, in which I then cast the face in silicone. In this way, I can get it very realistic. It looks almost like a real person, even to me."
Nilsson used prosthetic eyes in the reconstruction, as well as real human hair that he inserted, strand by strand, into the silicon scalp. "We actually used Peruvian human hair, bought in Peru by the Polish archeological team," he noted.
He even gave the royal woman metal earrings with a golden and worn patina. "They are an exact replica of her actual earrings, found in her tomb," he said.
In all, Nilsson spent 220 hours on the queen's reconstruction, which he finished in late November. He described the restoration as "an elder woman's face with a lot dignity about it. She looks wise [and] experienced, as well as a bit tired and maybe sad, or thoughtful," he said. "She is thinking of something, maybe a memory way back, as older people do sometimes."
The technique Nilsson used to re-create the ancient queen's likeness is also used by law-enforcement agencies when a victim cannot be identified. About 70 percent of these cases are solved once a reconstruction is made, he said. "It is not a portrait of the deceased, but you get a good image of what the face looked like."
The Wari queen's reconstruction is now on display in a new Peruvian exhibit at the National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, Poland.
Original article on Live Science.
by Larissa Faw , December 2, 2017
While the advertising world continues to make giant strides toward gender equality, there is an emerging yet unfortunate side effect. Male talent often avoids working for female agency leaders when they have other options.
This finding isn't necessarily widespread; men still dominate the top ranks. And many female-led agencies say they dont see this problem probably because those applying to such shops are self-selecting. Men wouldn't apply if they had issues about working for women.
However, several recruiters admit they find a small, growing number of male applicants preferring not to submit their applications to female-led agencies, if given the preference.
Two female leaders who spoke off-the-record to MediaPost about their agencys difficulties in achieving an equal corporate culture echo this sentiment. They say men not only refuse to interview at their shops, but that once men gain experience, they don't stick around when other opportunities emerge.
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"This falls under unconscious bias," says Dr. Sheila Robinson, publisher, Diversity Woman Media. These thought patterns, assumptions and interpretations are based on beliefs usually learned at an early age or from others whom individuals looks up to, says Robinson. "It is a form of judgment that generally occurs without awareness, intention or knowledge, but some are buried prejudices that influence decisions."
So what can the industry do to address this problem?
First, they need to recognize that not everyone is on the same page when it comes to gender diversity.
A recent report from McKinsey and LeanIn.org finds nearly 50% of men think women are well represented in company leadership at organizations. In reality, only 10% of senior executives are women.
Nearly two in three men (63%) say their company is doing a better job addressing gender diversity versus 49% of women who feel the same way.
More than one in three men (37%) believe their company appropriately handles gender diversity matters when they arise, compared to 23% of their female colleagues. Although 58% say gender diversity is a very important or top personal priority, only 47% of men agree.
The advertising world, especially media agencies dominated by women, should lead by example rather than settle for being part of the industry average, says Siftly founder Frank Striefler. "Our day job is to change peoples behavior and attitude."
According to the job platform's online survey conducted exclusively for MediaPost during the last week of November, seven in 10 advertising professionals of both sexes say they don't care about the gender of their superior.
That said, among those who do have gender preferences, women are more comfortable working with women. One in five (22%) women prefer to work with a woman, while only one out of seven men (14%) prefer working for a man. This gender preference having a woman or man as your boss goes down with women as they become more senior.
It's also important to recognize that each situation provides an opportunity to learn and grow from the experience. Yes, there are men who are misogynists. But talent needs to acknowledge the shops fighting for gender equality.
Recently, Interpublic's FCB Mayo hired the first female creative director in Peru. Let's hope Jorgelina Diaz will thrive in a male-dominated culture like South America.
Still, it isn't easy to overcome sexist attitudes, particularly when they are endemic. Too often, people are unaware they are expressing them. Education and commitment are key to eliminating this major barrier for women, says Robinson.
Education helps acknowledge the problem and creates the awareness of what unconscious bias means. The commitment from the top to put the necessary training into place to eliminate these biases will help achieve gender diversity in organizations.
Despite the fact The Social Element has always been a female-led and owned agency, a few years ago, the U.K.-based social-media shop had a senior-level team member who didn't gel with its culture. "He never seemed 100% happy, and others reported they found him abrasive and difficult to work with," says Wendy Christie, Chief People Officer, The Social Element.
He made a point of mentioning the overwhelming female demographic at his exit interview, she says. "This really underlined for us how vital it is to recruit to our values and culture, to ensure that the people we hire will be able to collaborate effectively with our team, so that theyll be happy here."
Perhaps the most important aspect of gender equality is simply bringing the matter up for a broader discussion.
Men, for instance, don't seem to realize there is a sharp imbalance between gender and compensation. While women comprise the majority of talent in the media (61% vs. 39%), they make 24% less than men ($90,705 vs. $112,703), according to Siftly and MediaPost's 2017 Salary Survey.
More than 60% of ad professionals expect to change their job within the next 12 months, meaning many could possibly work under female leaders, reports Siftly. Both genders ultimately need to feel comfortable discussing their thoughts and concerns. Women were even hesitant to take a poll querying about this issue, per Siftly.
While not directly related to the gender of their superior, Siftly's report also finds that a significantly high number of female advertising professionals (11%) report having been a victim of sexual harassment or assault in the ad industry. This number spikes to 36% among those having been victims of sexism or/and sexual misconduct.
As #MeToo illustrates, awareness is critical to ending a culture that permits abuse. "This [entire issue] needs fixing," says Striefler. "Lets be the change wed like to see in the world, and make agencies a zero-tolerance zone for sexual harassment. Human decency demands it. The talent war requires it."
Just imagine you're just cleaning and doing your job, but you stumble upon a dinosaur corpse. How freaked out would you be?
This is exactly what has happened to an electrician cleaning out a sub-station that had been left untouched for 35 years in Jaspur, in Uttarakhand. Is this the real life, or is this Jurassic Park?
But, the most baffling part about this discovery of a partially-preserved corpse is that it still had flesh on its bones. It does resemble a small dinosaur, but since flightless dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years, scientists are struggling to identify it.
Penn News
This freaky creature has currently gone for analysis, and after carbon dating, its age will be revealed. According to Dr Parag Madhukar Dhakate, a Conservator with the Indian Forest Service, that even though it looks like a dinosaur, the creature is still a mystery and nothing can be confirmed until the analysis is done.
He said, It looks like a dinosaur, but we can't say anything until all the tests are done.
But, according to Aaryan Kumar, who is pursuing a PhD in Paleontology from Delhi University, it was impossible for a dinosaur skeleton to be so well preserved after so long.
Penn News
He said, Non-avian dinosaurs have been extinct for the past 65 million years but it does resemble theropods, a suborder of dinosaurs which included bipedal carnivores. But a dinosaur skeleton could not have been found in such a well-preserved condition after millions of years without it being in a fossilized state.
The only even slightly possible way is it was chemically preserved to store it in a museum. But if that was the case, how did it end up here?
Wikipedia
Apparently, the mysterious creature could be the Deinonychus, the Coelophysis or the Dromaeosaurus, but we don't even know for sure yet that it's a dinosaur. Another suggestion could be a genetically distorted goat foetus, but we'll just have to wait for the confirmation.
There are many variations of the Menudo tripe soup in the state of Veracruz, like the one in todays recipe, which has a heavy Spanish influence. During the Spanish colonization period, Veracruz was the entry port for the Spaniards, as well as the main port for all merchants and travelers coming from the Old World.
Menudo Veracruz Style
This soup is made with tripe along with chorizo and ham, similar to the Spanish dish Callos a la Madrilena, although the difference between the two is that in Mexico we dont add paprika or saffron. Instead, we use Chile Ancho to add color to the soup.
This recipe is for one of the simplest variations of this dish, as there are some families that make it with carrots, cabbage, potatoes, plantains, as well as capers and olives. Indeed, some people make very complicated versions of this soup, but they are truly delicious!
As with most of these types of soups, this menudo (tripe) soup tastes even better when you add beef feet to the cooking broth. You can also add diced potatoes and carrots.
I prefer to use the @RUMBA Meats brand, they offer fresh quality, and their products come in a vacuum sealed package, I'm sure you will love cooking this meal for your family and friends. And for those of you living on the East Coast, remember that [email protected] Meats are sold at your local GIANT Store.The flavors of this soup are enhanced the next day!
How to make Menudo Tripe Soup Veracruz Style
JUMP TO FULL INSTRUCTIONS
INSTRUCTIONS:
Place the 3 lbs. of tripe, onion, 4 garlic cloves, and 1 bay leaf in a pot with 3 L of water. Cook for 2 2:30 hrs. (or 30 min. in an Instant Pot).
While you are cooking the tripe, clean, cut, and deseed the Ancho peppers, then roast them on a griddle for a few seconds on each side. Remove them promptly and soak in hot water for 25 minutes, until they are softened.
In the same griddle, roast the tomatoes, onion, and garlic clove, turning them to have an even roasting. Place them in your blender along with the softened pepper, cumin, and vinegar. Process until you have a smooth sauce. Set aside.
In a large pot, heat the oil and fry the chorizo in it. After a couple of minutes, add the ham and fry for three minutes.
Pour the blended sauce into the pot, and cook for 8 more minutes.
Once the tripe is cooked, add to the pot along with its broth and the garbanzo beans. Keep cooking for 15 minutes. Season soup with salt and pepper.
Serve with warm corn tortillas, lime wedges, and dried oregano for seasoning. If you like, you can also serve chopped serrano peppers and chopped onion.
I hope you enjoy this delicious Menudo Tripe Soup Veracruz Style recipe.
Provecho!
Mely,
I hope you enjoy this recipe and also enjoy this recipe from the State of Chiapas, delicious Tripe Quesadillas!
This recipe was made in collaboration with RUMBA MEATS. Im very selective with whom I partner up with as I dont want to overwhelm my readers with products & sponsorships. Therefore, if you see a company or product Im working with, its because they rock! They help this little blog of mine keep producing delish recipes and showing you the things I love.
For those of you living in the Northeast, you can find these brand at your local GIANT store. Check the following link for coupons in your next purchase. GIANT
It's well known that the United States has a detailed plan for deploying military force in response to North Korean aggression if such action is required, though few details have been made known. But the commandant of the Coast Guard offered a small peek behind the curtain this week, saying the Coast Guard had a specific part to play.
"We are written into the campaign plans for North Korea," Adm. Paul Zukunft said this week in an interview with Military.com at the Coast Guard's Washington, D.C. headquarters. "So I've got a force identified; if called upon, it must be ready to carry out that mission as well."
North Korea's aggressive missile testing this year, including unprecedented tests with intercontinental ballistic missiles, has caused global consternation.
President Donald Trump and other U.S. leaders have said repeatedly that "all options are on the table" when it comes to defending against a North Korean threat, although officials have stressed they continue to lean on traditional tools, such as sanctions and diplomacy with China, North Korea's sole ally. Reuters reported earlier this year that the United States was also quietly pursuing direct diplomacy with North Korea.
However, military contingency plans regarding North Korea date back decades. The United States and South Korea collaborated in 2008 to develop OPLAN 5029, a document the laid out a military plan of action in the event that the North Korean regime collapsed due to a coup, revolution, or external factor such as a national disaster.
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Predating that is OPLAN 5027, another joint plan dating to the 1970s that plots a course of action in case of North Korean invasion.
Most recent is OPLAN 5015, developed in 2015, which reportedly sketches out, among other things, the possibility of a preemptive strike on North Korea.
All military contingency plans regarding North Korea are classified, and Zukunft said he could provide few additional details about the Coast Guard's prospective role in a North Korea campaign.
"Most plans are written to ask for everything and we've got a lot more going on in the world than just the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] right now," he said. "...But we've got ships, planes, port security units that are written into these campaign plans."
The revelation highlights the comprehensive nature of military planning regarding North Korea. The Coast Guard, while a military service, falls under the Department of Homeland Security. While the service has played a role in major combat efforts including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, its primary missions focus on non-combat operations, including drug interdiction and maritime law enforcement. It has been early on the scene in a combat mission in the past, however; in January 2003 the Coast Guard sent eight cutters to the Persian Gulf to provide port and waterway security ahead of the Iraq invasion.
Zukunft said the Coast Guard stood ready, although a North Korea mission would require the service to sideline some other efforts.
"They're already doing current-day missions," he said, of the elements identified for action. "I have no force in garrison. We will have to stop doing something else if we have a much bigger away game in support of a military campaign."
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
Officials say the device was known as an "unexploded ordnance," or an explosive weapon that did not explode and still posed a...
6:52pm: Pence is not in the deal that will send Moore to the Rangers, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets. Shea and colleague Henry Schulman (Twitter links) add that, while Pence is not currently being dealt and has not been asked to waive his no-trade clause, its likely the Giants are trying to move him.
5:55pm: The Giants are nearing a significant swap that will open up payroll space, according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). The pact will involve either or both of lefty Matt Moore and outfielder Hunter Pence.
Details of the arrangement including the prospective trade partner arent yet known. But Shea says a deal is in place pending physicals, so it certainly appears that a move of some kind is imminent.
While the Giants embarked upon a major effort to land high-priced star Giancarlo Stanton earlier in the offseason, there have been rumblings that the club may shift gears given how things have shaken out thus far. While theres still no reason to believe that a rebuilding effort is afoot, the Giants may attempt the difficult task of improving their competitiveness without going past the luxury tax line in 2018.
Moore, 28, is owed just $9MM this year and can be controlled for 2019 through a $10MM club option (otherwise hell be owed a $750K buyout). Thats not the bargain it once seemed likely to be, but sill seems a reasonable price for a youthful pitcher. While he struggled to a 5.39 ERA in 2017, Moores peripherals were within his usual range, he was much more effective in 2016, and he has been at full health of late.
The respected Pence, meanwhile, fell off drastically in 2017 after a long run of well-above-average production at the plate. Over 539 plate appearances, Pence managed only a .260/.315/.385 slash line. He is set to earn a hefty $18.5MM in the final season of his contract, which seems a fair bit more than hed command on the open market. Of course, theres still value in a hard-working player who might be seen as a rebound candidate. But its important to note that Pence enjoys full no-trade rights and has become a Bay Area fixture.
15.12.2017 LISTEN
US-based Ghanaian film producer and director Leila Djansi has challenged a Facebook critic to an open air-fight.
Leila in a post, threatened to beat the man, known on Facebook as Oppong-Brenya Osei Joseph and spray pepper over his face, should he dare face her in the fight.
How did we get there?
Leila Djansi has for some time been rallying support for embattled Electoral Commission (EC) boss, Charlotte Osei who is facing investigation by a committee put together by the Chief Justice over allegations of abuse of office levelled against her.
In series of posts on Facebook, the producer said: Poor poor Charlotte Osei. I sure youre used to it. Behind you 300%. You need a position far and away from the 3rd world. So, where do I stand now? Dumb, Ignorant, Stupid, Silly. Make room. Welcome the market warriors.
Another post, which triggered heated reactions, read: Poor poor Charlotte Osei. If my support for her hurts you so much, ummm its so easy, dont come to this wall. Stay on yours. Ghana folks just like to fight! All these paid patriarchy princesses. Rolling pretty my eyes.
The fight
After a series of back and forth, Leila dared Oppong-Brenya Osei Joseph to face her if he has the balls.
You really can say these to my face? You are sure? If I ask you to meet me in Ghana this week and say these, you can? Dude, have an ambulance on standby. And make sure you have health insurance. Because I will take you on."
"I will give you an appointment, in a public place when I land in Ghana and you will repeat every word to my ugly face. I triple dare you."
"And when youre done, I will beat you to a pulp, pepper spray your stupid face and then use my taser. So, come prepared. I dare you. Tuesday 8pm golden Tulip hotel parking lot. I dare you, she challenged.
Oppong-Brenya Osei Joseph swiftly responded: Really? Why don't you take a little time to find out more about me. Know where I work and know how to address me. We have a date then, I dare you!
16.12.2017 LISTEN
WHAT IS HOMOSEXUALITY , if l may ask ?
The Greek word HOMOS means the same.
In general terms, the word or terminology has come to be understood as the manifestation of sexual desire toward a member of one's own sex or the erotic activity with a member of the same sex.
Ordinarily, the current debate about homosexuality in our country should have been deemed as a non -starter, given no true religion be it christianity, islam ,traditional or any other religious faith has an open door policy towards this social phenomenon.
However, given the persistent approach and the insistence to propagate if not root homosexuality within the fabrics of our communities, may account for the need to place the subject in perspective
Whether it is a right ,appropriate , wrong or unacceptable social phenomenon, the view may depend on which individual or groups of individuals are asking the question.
On my part therefore , my contribution to the subject of the place of homosexuality in our Ghanaian society will focus solely upon the basis of true christianity-the Bible , the divinely inspired Word of Jehovah God. A truly christian standard of ethics, that reflect the conduct of divine revelations neither of impirical research nor of public opinion of the christian.
Undoubtedly, the Bible is the absolute and supreme authority for either christian belief or standard of conduct , behaviour and lifestyle.
The Bible has said much about sex sins in general, but for the purposes of this discourse, my focus will be on what the Bible really teach on the subject of homosexuality.
Homosexuality is condemned in the Bible.
Apostle Paul in his writing inspired by the holy spirit, declares that HOMOSEXUALS '' shall not inherit the kingdom of God ''-Cor. 6: 9-10.
Homosexuality , is an illicit lust ,forbidden by God, as he told the Israelites '' thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind''. Lev. 18 :22 .
In Lev.20 :13, homosexuality is seen as an abormination, ''if a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood be upon them.
These passages reflect the condemnation of homosexuality as a prime example of sin-sexual perversion.
Clearly, no true christian worthy of it's kind, cannot and should not attempt either to alter Jehovah God's view point or deviate from it.
The biblical accounts use the term sodomy as a synonym for homosexuality, with Jehovah God speaking succintly on the issue when he said '' There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel- Deut.23:17 .
The whore and the sodomite as used here, are in the same category of sinners. Indeed, a sodomite was not an inhabitant of sodom or a descendant of an inhabitant of sodom, but a man who had given himself to homosexuality, and the unatural vice for which sodom was known- Gen. 19 4-8
It is well known and acknowledged that the Hebrew word for ''KNOW'', as reflects in verse 5, is ''Yada'', a sexual connotative terminology, used frequently in describing sexual intercourse-( Gen. 4:1, 17, 25, Matt. 1 :24-25.
The message that reflects in Gen. 19, is evidently implicit, where Lot pled with the men to ''do not so wickedly''.
Homosexuality is a wicked act and must and should be recognised as such, else there will be no hope for the homosexual, who may be asking for help to be extricated from sinful way of lifestyle.
MARRIAGE.
This refers to the unique union of a man and a woman to live together as husband and wife according to the standard set out in the Bible.
Marriage thus is a divine institution, that provides for intimate relationship between husband and wife along with a feeling of security because there is a climate of love and because a personal commitment has been made by each mate.
When establishing the institution of marriage, Jehovah God did so not only to provide a close companion who would complement a man but also to make the provision for producing more humans and doing so within the framework of a family arrangement.- Gen. 1 :26-27 ,2: 18-25.
Thus,referring to a union of two persons of the same sex as a ' marriage'', from the biblical perspective is a misnomer, given we see the Bible defining marriage as a divinely ordered institution, designed to form a permanent union between one man and one woman, for the the one purpose among others of procreation or propagating the human race peiod.
Significantly,this is Jehovah God's order in the first of such a union, as recorded in Gen.1:27-28, 2:24 and Matt.19:5.
If in his original creation of humankind, Jehovah God had created two persons of the same sex, there would not have been a human race in existence as it is today or has been in history.
The whole idea of the same sex marrying is nothing less than absurdity gross ignorance, hollowness, foolish pride ,ridiculous, unreasonable and stupidity
We need to get one thing very clear and that is, a clergy might bless a homosexual marriage, but Jehovah God is not in it, he won;t bless it today, tomorrow or at anytime.
PUNISHABLE SINS IN THE BIBLE .
The book of Romans 1: 26-31, lists twenty three punishable sins of which homosexuality leads the list.
In his writing, Paul indicated '' Because they do this, God has given them over to shameful passions. Even the women pervert the natural use of their sex by unnatural acts.
In the same way the men give up natural sexual relations with women and burn with passion for each other. Men do shameful things with each other, and as a result they bring upon themselves the punishment they deserve for their wrong doing.
....They know that God's law says that people who live in this way deserve death, yet not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them.''
Some socio-religious commentators describe the behaviour and social conduct of homosexuals as 'vile affection' translating the Greek word for ''vile'' ATIMIA,which means dirty, filthy, evil, dishonourable
The word affection in Greek is patnos, used by the Greeks of either good or bad desire. Thus in the contect of the book of Romans, the word may have been used in a bad sense
The ''vile affection'' as used , presents a degrading passion , a shameful lust. Both this desire ( lustful affection) and the act of homosexuality are condemned in the Bible as SIN.
Biblically, the debate about homosexuality should be unnecessary and waste of precious time, a time that should well be devoted to learning more about the truth as contained in the holy scriptures
For one thing, homosexuality need be accepted and conceptualized for what Jehovah God says it is , - SIN.
It is open hypocrisy for some homosexuals who attempt to circumvent the plain and open teaching of the bible, with the argument of being created by Jehovah God in this way -as a homosexual.
. There is no empirical evidence or the slightest of indication in the scripture to give credence or support this fallacy or claim.
God never created man with a so-called '' homosexual-need''. No child is born homosexual. Everybody is born either as a male ( man) or female ( woman )
Notably, in every circumstance the Bible refers to homosexual, the emphasis is on the perversion of salvation.
Any practicing homosexual or their apologists, are just guilty of ''leaving the natural use of the woman- as in the book of Romans 1:27, which clearly explains that his behaviour is much against ''nature'',as in the case of of the lesbian in Roman 1:26.
Given that homosexuality as described above is much against nature, the acceptable and most reasonable position is to debunk the genetic concept and dismiss it out completely as irrational ,foolish, naivety and ambigious
Evidently, were homosexuality to be a genetic problem, there would be none or little hope for the homosexual, simply because there is no chance for the genes in a person to be altered in any shape or form.
ADVICE TO THE CHURCH
The sixty-six books and letters that make up the Bible, are inspired work of Jehovah God. -2 Timothy 3:15.
In 2 Peter 1 :21 '' Men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit''. Thus the Bible as we come to know, contains God's message, not that of the men who wrote it down, and that the entire Bible truthfully is ''the word of God.''-1 Thessalonians 2 :13.
Against this pre-disposition, it can be said with ease of conviction that there is nothing foundationally essential for the church and the world than to return to the TRUTH, the word of Jehovah God-the BIBLE.
Someone recently said that the church and the world are suffering from a famine, of the worst type. and that modern society is in a degenerating and deteriorating state, created by a stark departure from the TRUTH.
Unequivocably, this TRUTH, does not exist independently of Jehovah God, and his written word the BIBLE, and his begotten son Jesus Christ.
The TRUTH,as discussed earlier,is not and never a sense of a man's imagination or convictions, for man in his fallen state ( Genesis 3 :1-19 ) does not know TRUTH, and that is why man contines to sin.
It has become obvious that a civilization without the truth is doomed to obscurity. Historical accounts are good testomonies to this fact.
Every civilization be it ancient or medieval,that ignored and treated the word of Jehovah God , the truth and his laws with contempt and dishonour has crumbled
No doubt, our current civilization is well on the ''hard road to travel,'' -road to doom..
There cannot be any escape or survival independently of Jehovah God and his words of truth and wisdom
It is crucially vital for the church to return to the truth , the whole truth, nothing but the truth , founded and grounded upon HIM who said'' l am the truth- John 14:6, and also on the reflections of John 17:17....'' Dedicate them to yourself by means of the truth,your word is truth.''
It is very necessary and important for the churches to undertake clear and unambiguous discourse of the scriptures and a continuing exaltation of the person and work of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, if our civilization and it's citizens are to be saved from the disaster, doom and total destruction that overcame past civilizationS.
For evidently, any historical epoch or civilization with the philosophy or doctrine which denies the real TRUTH, does not stand a dog's chance of survival.
WORD OF CAUTION
The current homosexual upsurge in our community today, is a reflection of one phase of declining trend in morality.
When the disciples of the Lod Jesus Christ asked himof '' what shall be the sign of his coming,, and of the end time, he told them that ''iniquity shall be abound''-Matt.24:3-12.
There is so much permissiveness and promiscuity in sexual behaviour and conduct unprecedented in today's Ghana .
There is little or no restraint upon the widespread of material containing pictures and writings depicting erotic conduct and behaviour, intended to cause sexual excitement and or arousal.
The view is that this is what is contained in our Lord's prophecy about'abounding iniquity'.
There is also a prophetic statement in Paul's second epistle to Timothy, which has some implications for this discourse and our country.
Paul wrote '' This know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters,proud, blaphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful ,unholy, without natural affection-2 Timothy 3:1-3.
Homosexuality is an unatural affection, practised by individuals ''that defile themselves with mankind-1 Timothy 1 :10, which the New American Standard Version translates as ''homosexual'', and in the New International Version as ' perverts'.
Against these revelations of the bible, the upsweep of homosexuality is more than definately a trend which is indicative of the approaching end of the age- the end of this civilization, the end time.
THE CHRISTIAN'S RESPOND TO HOMOSEXUALITY
As true and practising christians, there is the need for us to be guided that homosexuals like all of us sinners are the object of Jehovah God's LOVE.
The Bible says''But God commandeth his love toward us, in that while we are yet sinners,Christ died for us-Romans 5:8
Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only,but also for the sins of the whole world- 1 John 2:2
As we share Jehovah God's love for lost sinners as Christians, it will be worth to seek to reach the homosexual with the message of truth, gospel of the Christ which is '' power of God unto Salvation, to everyone that believeth- Romans 1:16.
As Christians we should and must hate all SIN but not the SINNER. The homosexual is a precious child for which Jesus Christ paid the ransom sacrifice, through his death on the torture stake.
We can resolve to point all sinners to the Lord and Saviour, who commissioned us to ''Go ye into all the world , and preach the gospel to every creation- Matt. 16:15
The true practising Christian is obliged and duty bound to take the good news-the gospel, the message of truth to all ( sinners) inclusive of the homosexual.
The body of Christ the church and the Christian can help the homosexual by endevouring to draw their attention to what Jehovah God say in his word, in a kind and loving spirited manner, demonstrating to the homosexual that they are wrong in their total disregard, disobedience and the rebelliouness towards Jehovah God and his words of truth
However, it is significant the homosexual must have to admit to the fact that their lifestyle is sinful and demonstrate the humility of commitment and the desire to be made free from sin.
For a trully born again Christian cannot and must not continue to practice sin without reaping the fruits of sinfulness-misery and unhappiness brought about by the loss of fellowship with Jehovah God, the fear of retribution and the anxiety produced by guilt.
The homosexual would need to ask he/herself if the value of the temporary sexual gratification of the flesh he/she is cacooned in is worth all the consequences and the losses he/she would be subjected to.
Karpowership Ghana Company Limited has reiterated its commitment to the supply of uninterrupted and consistent electricity to the national grid.
This assurance was given at the inauguration of its new 470 megawatts Karadeniz Powership Osman Khan at the Tema main harbour yesterday [Thursday] to help in the supply of consistent electricity power in the country.
This to adds up to the already existing 235 megawatts brought into the country in the year 2015 when Ghana was faced with its power crisis.
The second Powership deployed to Ghana, has an installed capacity of 470MW and is the biggest Powership in Karpowership's fleet and in the world.
The CEO of Karpowership, Orhan Remzi Karadeniz stated that Karpowership's presence in the country is in complete fulfilment of the contractual obligations for providing 450 MW of electricity to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
He said the company having fulfilled its contractual obligations with Ghana will position Ghana as an energy export hub in the sub-region.
He said, at Karpowership, we have invested in technology and innovation to ensure continuity of our ventures that indirectly demonstrates Turkey's affinity for growth and development. Today, Turkey exports its value-added products and services in the energy, technology and entrepreneurship sectors. Karpowership has crossed seas and offered the hand of friendship to supply electricity to many countries around the world that are in need of this basic necessity.
The Deputy Minister of Energy, Joseph Kudjoe, noted that the success of governments flagship programme of one district one factory would largely depend on the availability and reliability of electricity supply.
To this end, he said the government in that regard is putting in place measures to offtake gas from the Sankofa field in Takoradi unto the 450mw Karpowership when it is relocated to Sekondi.
He said government is paying attention to the erratic nature of gas supply from the West African Gas pipeline and that serious measures are being put in place to develop the indigenous sources including the provision of required infrastructure for liquefied natural gas for various generational plants in the country.
By: Elvis Washington/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
The post New powership to add 470MW to national grid appeared first on Ghana News .
Charlotte Osei
16.12.2017 LISTEN
The lawyer representing some aggrieved staff of the Electoral Commission (EC) who petitioned President Akufo-Addo for the removal of the Chairperson of the commission, Charlotte Osei, from office on grounds of gross abuse of office and corruption, has asked President Akufo-Addo to suspend the EC boss.
The suspension, which is in the spirit of Article 146 (10) (b) of the 1992 Constitution, according to Lawyer Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, is to pave way for the final determination of the matter by the Committee established by Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo to probe the allegations leveled against the three top EC officials without any undue interference from Mrs Osei.
Mrs. Osei and her two deputies Georgina Opoku-Amankwa (in-charge of Corporate Service) and Amadu Sully (in-charge of Operations) are being probed over allegations leveled against them.
The probe is being undertaken following the activation of Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution after petitions and counter petitions against the three top officials of the electoral body had been sent to the president.
President Akufo-Addo earlier this year referred the matter to the CJ for consideration, and a prima facie case against the EC officials was reportedly established by the Chief Justice in a preliminary investigation, paving way for the formation of a five-member committee, chaired by a Supreme Court judge.
The committee has already had a meeting with the parties in the case.
The preliminary investigations into the allegations started in August when the Chief Justice wrote officially to the commissioners to file their official responses to the allegation leveled against them in the respective petitions.
Mrs. Osei, who is currently enjoying support from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), wrote to the president, appealing to him for copies of the petitions against her which she claimed she had not been served with copies but she was directed to go to the CJ.
According to Communications Director at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, the president handed over all documents relating to the matter to the Chief Justice for consideration.
But Lawyer Opoku-Agyemang said that In a related matter involving the investigation of Mrs Georgina Opoku-Amankwa, one of the two deputy chairpersons of the Electoral Commission by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission wrote to her (Mrs. Opoku-Amankwa) to proceed on leave to pave the way for unfettered investigations.
Since then, Mrs. Opoku-Amankwa remains on leave and appears before the CJ committee together with Amadu Sulley, another deputy commissioner of the EC; and Mrs. Osei who remains at post as the case is being heard, leaving many to wonder whether the same reasons for which she asked Mrs. Opoku-Amankwa to proceed on leave are not likely to happen in her case.
I communicate as lawyer for the petitioners in the petition for the removal from office of Mrs. Charlotte Osei, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, dated 13th July, 2017, lodged with your office and subsequently referred to the Chief Justice, Ms Sophia Akuffo, CJ, for the determination of a prima facie case, the lawyer said in a letter to the president dated 13th December, 2017.
As your Excellency may have been informed, the Chief Justice has established a prima facie case with respect to some of the grounds submitted by the petitioners and has in accordance with Article 146 (4) established a Committee to investigate the allegations contained in the petition.
The petitioners, in this matter, are workers of the Electoral Commission over whom the chairperson of the Electoral Commission has direct supervision and control and therefore the likelihood that they may be victimized in their work at the Electoral Commission is still extant especially when they also attend upon the Committee established by the Chief Justice above mentioned, and therefore are known to the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, the lawyer argued.
He further posited, In the foregoing, and in the spirit of Article 146 (10) (b), I humbly call upon your office to initiate the process to suspend Mrs Charlotte Osei as Chairperson of the Electoral Commission pending the final determination of the matter by the Committee, as petitioners believe that her suspension would go a long way to allow them to work their case without fear of intimidation and victimization by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission or her hirelings at the Electoral Commission.
According to him, It is also my fervent belief that as the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, her continuous presence in the said office is likely to compromise the outcome of the matter as she would have to be consulted when for instance individuals at the Electoral Commission are subpoenaed to testify against her or documents are requested for the purposes of the enquiry by the Committee.
By Melvin Tarlue
The former Consul to Dubai, Daniel Osei, says the approach adopted by the leadership of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to re-register its members is a scam.
It is being done to give former President John Mahama and his camp total control of the party so that he will have an undue advantage over the other contestants who are preparing to become the NDC's flagbearer for the 2020, he said.
We are sleeping folks, and the NPP is cruising to victory in 2020. I am vexed. Its shameful what these enemies of progress are willing to do without regard to our party, he said on one of the NDC social media platforms.
According to him, The scattered and expensive process leading to the next primaries of the party, including 'fake' and 'useless' registration booklets is 'unsustainable.
For those who have participated in branch elections in the past, when did national ever print booklets for branch exercises?
So this gargantuan mess will continue to thrive until we get to their ace card where it becomes so expensive for other candidates to compete, theyll have their guys in place to control events and their candidate who will fund the entire exercise -including the 'Nokofioo' for the delegates and their transportation etc will become the obvious choice! he fired.
Its all a big scam and must be rejected with the urgency it deserves.
What the leadership of the party is seeking to implement has the 'sole purpose' of helping the greedy 'bastards' impose their chosen one as flag bearer.
To allow these crooks to use the same repressive tactics to continue to steer the affairs of the party can only yield one result; defeat in 2020, and it will be more disastrous than 2016.
He said the Mahama camp is going to overwhelm the process with money and become the obvious choice and you and I know their chosen one cant win a national election in Ghana, adding dont be fooled by the silly busing of a handful of people to make noise, as indicative of broad support.
Talk to your friends and neighbours and you will see person after person, who supported Mills in 2008, supported NDC in 2012, same people rejected Mahama in 2016!
Mr Osei charged the rank and file of the NDC who he called comrades to use information wisely.
He said that if the NDC wants to elicit the support of the electorate for 2020, the party must listen carefully and partner them intelligently and proactively.
Talk to the business community and you will see they rejected Mahama and dont want him back! Talk to the leadership and members of AGI, talk to the bankers, engage the entrepreneurs and businessmen and have a candid conversation. Talk to members and leadership of GREDA and they will tell you they cant support him. Traders, farmers, nurses, teachers all rejected the former president.
He added the international community did not hide their disdain for his governance and style, so much that foreign diplomats in the country went rogue, voiced their opinions and openly demanded change.
The former consul said in the opinion of workers and the labour front, Mahama was a disaster.
We are the party of workers and he systematically destroyed our working relations with labour unions, all in a quest to score silly political points instead of paying attention to the needs of workers and empowering labour as our social democratic ideology instructs.
We leaked information to make doctors look bad for no other reason than to pat ourselves on the back and claim 'weve out smarted them and to what end?
Enough is enough. Forget about them and their evil plots. Reject their low-level thinking and bankrupt ideology of sycophancy, he fired, adding speak truth to power. Rise up and take back your party.
By William Yaw Owusu
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Ga West Assembly, Clement Wilkinson, has called on residents of Kuntunse to exercise restraint and desist from causing unrest in the area.
He said the assembly would resolve the dispute between residents and management of Happy Sunshine Company Limited, a tomato factory operating in the area.
The residents of Kuntunse-Satellite have announced plans to embark on a demonstration on Saturday, December 16, 2017 to protest against the operations of the tomato factory.
According to the residents, the peaceful demonstration would commence at about 8am.
The protestors would march through the main street to Koans Estate and return to the main entrance of Happy Sunshine Company Limited, the tomato factory.
However, Mr Wilkinson said even though residents have the right to embark on demonstration, there was also the need for the parties to remain calm to enable the assembly and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address the problems.
The company, which is situated on about four plots of land, near the satellite zone, employs about 300 residents of the area.
He said the closure of the company would negatively affect the employees, adding that the activities of the company must be checked to ensure that residents are satisfied and their rights not infringed upon.
As father for all, I will have to make sure that residents live in peace while those without employment also have their peace to work. I will personally look into the matter, and have the problems resolved, he told residents.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently shut down the multi-million tomato facility operated by some Chinese expatriates after residents complained of thick smoke and noise from the factory.
Residents have called for the relocation of the company from the residential area.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey
([email protected])
The Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors today [Friday] donated an amount of GHc 50,000 to the Burns Unit of the 37 Military Hospitals in Accra, Ghana.
The Chambers CEO, Senyo Hosi, noted that the unit is a very critical one, both for our industry and the citizenry hence the need for the unit to be well resourced to help support its patients.
Receiving the cheque donation on behalf of the burns unit of the hospital, the Brigadier General M.A. Yeboah Agyapong expressed the hospitals gratitude to the chamber.
He affirmed that the donation was very much needed to cater for victims of various explosions in the country, including victims from the June 3 fire and flood disaster at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle who are still receiving treatment at the unit.
Brigadier General Yeboah Agyapong also used the opportunity to call on the general public to extend a helping hand to the unit to enable them effectively cater for victims of burns.
The Chamber in 2016, also donated to the unit following a gas explosion at La.
By: Roberta Edem Abbeyquaye/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The post CBOD donates GHc50,000 to 37 Military Hospital Burns Unit appeared first on Ghana News .
The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) says reports about its inability to reconcile monthly bank accounts which cost the state over 1.5 billion in 2015 are unfounded.
Dr Kingsley Antwi-Boasiako, Public Affairs Manager of TOR, said the reports which referenced the 2016 Auditor Generals Report wrongfully said an Accountant of TOR instead of an Accountant of the Tema Oil Refinery based Customs Outfit/Division.
He said the latter happens to be the subject of an Auditor General investigation into the collection of taxes by the Customs Division located on the companys premises.
According to the reports, the failure of an accountant of the refinery company to prepare monthly bank reconciliation statements resulted in the loss of 1,561,434,333.31 to the state, as contained the 2016 Auditor Generals Report.
The amount which covered the period between January and September 2015 was said to have been debited to the petroleum revenue account without the knowledge of TOR.
But Dr Antwi-Boasiako explained that the Auditor Generals investigation is about the activities of the Customs Outfit which happens to be located on the premises of TOR, which is only serving as collection point of Petroleum revenues from the Bulk Distributions Companies (BDCs) and the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) by that outfit of Customs.
He explained that the two entities are completely independent of each other.
TOR is a State Owned Limited liability company which has KPMG, a private auditing firm as its auditors and not the Auditor General as wrongly purported in the story.
The Auditor General has never audited our accounts, we have no business with the Petroleum Revenue and we have no such account at the Bank of Ghana, he added.
He said they sought clarification from the Auditor Generals Department since the reports attributed its source to the 2016 Auditor Generals Report.
Dr Antwi-Boasiako added that, in their engagement with the Auditor General, the Department admitted there was an error in the 2016 Audit report with regards to an Accountant of TOR instead of an Accountant at the Tema Oil Refinery Custom Outfit.
Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com | JoyBusiness
16.12.2017 LISTEN
The largest shareholder of the Agricultural Development Bank (adb), Belstar Capital is working to sell its shares in the bank.
This is subject to securing regulatory approval from the Central Bank and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
JoyBusiness understands an agreement between Belstar and Unibank in principle has been reached to carry out the transaction; that is pulling out its investments in ADB.
Reasons
Although there is no official reason yet, persons with information about the transaction say the move has been influenced by governments decision to merge adb and the National Investment Bank (NIB).
It is also being rumoured that Belstar Capital is rather being forced out, because of questions surrounding its takeover of adb.
Proposed share sale
Information available to JoyBusiness indicates that Belstar has given existing shareholders, especially government the first right of refusal, before it considers other investors in selling its shares in adb.
Sources say other banks are also racing to take up Belstars stake if government does not take up that right.
Where is Belstar Capital going?
JoyBusiness is reliably informed that Belstar is planning to take the money realised from the share sale and invest it into Unibank.
According to a source, Belstar Capital could invest at least 600 million into Unibank, but this would not make Belstar the new owner of Unibank, but the owner of a significant stake in the bank.
The capital injection would help increase its minimum capital requirement to at least 500 million.
This would help Unibank join the league of banks that have already met the new Bank of Ghana (BoG) capital levels of 400 million, even before the December 2018 deadline.
Could this transaction face any challenge?
The fear of some industry watchers, especially strategic investors, is that Belstar Capital can sell its shares to and whether the approval would come on time to aid the movement of this capital into Unibank.
Would Belstar movement pave way for merging of adb and NIB?
It appears one of the major stumbling blocks in putting these two banks together is getting Belstars blessing to merge adb with NIB. If Belstar finally moves out, then government may be able to go ahead with this plan.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, recently confirmed to JoyBusiness that government is working to merge with the two banks to create National Development Bank.
Shareholding structure of ADB
At the time that adb held its first Extraordinary General Meeting in June this year, this was the shareholding structure of the bank.
Belstar Capital - 34.3 percent
Government 32.3 percent
Starmount Development Company - 11 percent
Bank of Ghana 9.5 percent
EDC now (Ecobank Capital) -6 percent
However, JoyBusiness has learned that Belstars stake may have gone up further after listing adb shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com | JoyBusiness
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is within touching distance of South Africa's top job, previously had his presidential hopes dashed and opted for life in business that brought him spectacular wealth.
After failing to clinch the ANC nomination to succeed president Nelson Mandela in 1999, the veteran trade unionist swapped politics for a lucrative foray into business that made him one of the wealthiest people in Africa.
His failure came as a surprise to many as he was seen as Mandela's preferred candidate -- with Mandela describing Ramaphosa as one of the most gifted leaders of the "new generation".
Along with President Jacob Zuma's ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Ramaphosa, 65, is now a top candidate to become the ANC's new leader at the party's five-day conference opening Saturday. The winner will be well-placed to be the next president.
During his business career, Ramaphosa held stakes in McDonald's and Coca-Cola and made millions in deals that required investors to partner with non-white shareholders.
He became one of the richest men on the continent -- reaching number 42 on Forbes list of Africa's wealthiest people in 2015 with a net worth of $450 million (383 million euros).
Out of politics for a decade, Ramaphosa returned to frontline politics in 2012 when he was elected to the ANC's number-two post.
He became deputy president of the nation in 2014 and has since trodden a careful line between serving Zuma and delivering occasional, cautious criticism of his political master.
'A silent deputy'
Nelson Mandela with Cyril Ramaphosa, who the South African president described as one of the most gifted leaders of the "new generation", in 1993
Mmusi Maimane, leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, has accused Ramaphosa of being "at best a silent deputy president, and at worst a complicit one".
Born on November 17, 1952 in Soweto township west of Johannesburg -- a centre of the anti-apartheid struggle -- Ramaphosa became involved with student activism while studying law in the 1970s.
He was arrested in 1974 and spent 11 months in solitary confinement.
After studying, he turned to trade unionism -- one of the few legal ways of protesting the white-minority regime.
He founded the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in 1982 which grew to 300,000 members and led massive mine strikes in 1987 that shook the foundations of white rule.
When Mandela was released in 1990 after 27 years in prison for opposing apartheid, Ramaphosa was a key part of the taskforce that led the transition to democracy.
Ramaphosa won global prominence as the ANC's lead negotiator in 1993, with his contribution seen as one factor in the success of the talks and the resulting peaceful democratic handover.
He then led the group that drew up the country's world-renowned new constitution.
Ramaphosa -- who is relaxed and low-key at public appearances -- has managed to steer clear of major corruption scandals but his return to politics has not been free from controversy.
His popularity was badly shaken in 2012 when 34 striking mine workers were killed by police at the Marikana platinum mine, operated by London-listed Lonmin, where he was then a non-executive director.
'Powerful insider'
After failing to clinch the ANC nomination to succeed Mandela, Ramaphosa swapped politics for a lucrative foray into business
Shortly before the massacre -- the worst police killing since the end of apartheid -- Ramaphosa had called for a crackdown on the strikers, whom he accused of "dastardly criminal" behaviour.
Ramaphosa has four children with his second wife Tshepo Motsepe, a doctor.
Earlier this year he was accused of having affairs with several young women, which he denied.
Ramaphosa did admit to an extramarital affair but told local media that he had since disclosed the relationship to his wife.
Some saw the sudden revelations as a smear campaign by associates of President Zuma determined to ensure that Dlamini-Zuma takes the ANC top job.
The impact of the scandal was short-lived, and Ramaphosa has based his campaign on his pledge to rebuild the country's economy, boost growth and create much-needed jobs.
"Our ability to overcome these challenges has been undermined over the last decade by a failure of leadership and misguided priorities," he said in a rally speech.
"For the first time since the advent of democracy, there is a real chance that the transformation of our country may suffer significant reverses."
If he wins the leadership of the ANC and then becomes president, his opportunity to try to transform the country will finally have arrived.
"Ramaphosa has no association with any of the corruption scandals that have plagued South Africa," wrote his biographer Ray Hartley in "The Man Who Would Be King".
"But the years he spent at Zuma's side, playing the 'inside game' suggest he is more comfortable as a powerful insider than as a radical reformer."
The Brong-Ahafo regional office of ActionAid Ghana has appealed to stakeholders for their support to fight against gender-based violence to end it in the Region.
The appeal was made in a press release signed by Ms. Melody Azinim, the Regional Programme Manager, and copied the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, at the end the Region's celebration of this year's 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, which is celebrated annually.
The event, scheduled between November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women to December 10, Human Rights Day, was part of a global celebration by the United Nations and its partners on the theme 'Leave No One Behind: End Violence against Women and Girls'.
The regional office held various radio discussions as part of the campaign to advocate and galvanize support in the fight against gender based violence cases and to raise the awareness on the current trend of the menace, to solicit stakeholders support in reducing its occurrence, if not total prevention in the Region.
The release noted that currently violence against women and girls continued to be a global concern affecting human rights, the dignity and self-worth of women, while denying women and girls their right to live in safe cities and enjoy fundamental freedoms in the world.
The international campaign originated from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Centre for Women's Global Leadership in 1991, declaring the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
The release explained the theme which was also for this year's Global Campaign to reflect 'the core principle of the transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'.
'This reinforces the Global Campaign's commitment by all to a world free from violence for all women and girls, while reaching the most underserved and marginalized people living with disability, indigenous and deprived peoples in the world,' it added.
The release indicated that ActionAid Ghana observed the 16-day period, reflecting on key interventions implemented over the years and geared towards mobilising over 3,000 mass movements of women to fight against all forms of violence against women and girls in Ghana and solicited stakeholders support for its community interventions and regional campaigns.
It said those interventions included community education, a campaign to end child marriage and other dehumanizing traditions and cultures, and the piloting of Community-Based Anti-Violence Team (COMBAT) to fight violence in the communities.
Others comprised campaigns for the opening of more Domestic Violence and Victim Support Units (DoVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service to contribute to addressing the structural causes of violence and secure women's economic justice, the release added.
Later in an interview with the GNA on Wednesday, Ms. Azinim emphasised 'ActionAid believes that no one should suffer from any form of violence'.
She stressed 'as an organisation one of our focus areas is to address the structural causes of violence against women and girls and as we focus on women and girls who are mostly the victims of violence we call on everyone to take action by speaking against violence, reporting cases of violence and supporting victims to achieve justice'.
'We must not take for granted the impact of violence in our development agenda and in achieving the SDG's. We must therefore ensure that every woman and every girl is protected and safe in their homes, schools and communities,' Ms. Azinim added.
GNA
By Nana Osei Kyeretwie, GNA
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has partnered with the Accra Symphony Orchestra (ASO), to promote African and Ghanaian music in a more positive way to the international community.
The partnership also aims at bringing cultural and economic benefits to the partners, whiles improving the quality of life of the people of Accra through music.
Speaking at the function to sign the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between the AMA and ASO, Dr Mensah Otabil, Founder of ASO and General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) said the choice of Accra for the project was justified, because it would positon ASO as the city's orchestral and cultural ambassador to the residents of the Metropolis.
'It was also to provide the necessary platform for ASO to share its musical experience with Accra residents including all international Sister City Programmes', he said.
Dr Otabil said ASO would create and implement programmes at parks and event centres within the city, create an incubator for the training and development of classical and opera music for young people and develop and nurture musical talents.
He said ASO was determined to represent Accra at international musical competitions and to help promote the city as a hub for the arts and culture in Ghana.
Mohammed Adjei Sowah, Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of the AMA, expressed gratitude to Dr Otabil for his vision and for accepting to partner with the city on this exciting journey.
He said the partnership with ASO would also add value 'to our international Sister Cities Programme between Accra and cities in the world'.
'Our intention as city authorities is to provide through this partnership, a unique opportunity for residents to enjoy, not only providing green spaces for relaxation, but also good music to provide calm within the hustle of their lives', he stated.
He said 'this will ultimately contribute to crime reduction in our communities because of the feel good effect and value that community concerts will being'.
Madam Korkor Amarteifio, Executive Director of ASO, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the music industry was booming with new talents and successful musicians and the ASO would continue to support the young ones to enable them to sell Ghana through music to the rest of the world.
She said, 'when we think of great artistic creations, we invariably associate them with the cities of their birth, hence throughout history, cities have incubated and cultivated the creative energies of its citizens'.
She said it is in cities that people feel safe and secure enough to reach out and grap something bigger than themselves and their immediate needs.
Madam Amarteifio said through extraordinary had work of the musicians and the generous support of the people of Accra, we saw the young orchestra grow and flourish.
'I admire the courage of the musicians, who decided to adopt classical music and opera as their music of choice, learned it, practising it, and creating audiences for it', she said,
GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
A two day national consultative review workshop on a diagnostic report for development of the Water Charter for Water Governance and Sustainable Trans-boundary Water Resource Management within the White Volta Basin is underway in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.
Participants are expected to review a draft report on the technical, legal and institutional diagnostics study conducted by BRLi consultants, a French consulting firm supported by the World Bank.
The stakeholders will jointly identify priority problems and also come out with commitments in an effort to develop measures for the Volta Basin Water Charter.
Mr Robert Dessouassi Yaovi, Executive Director of the Volta Basin Authority, who outlined the background to the project in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the project was part of a 10- year strategic plan spanning from 2015 to 2024.
He said out of the ten years, a five-year priority plan, implemented through the Volta Basin strategic Action Program Implementation Project (VSIP) from 2015 to 2019 as a first component of the project will help develop the water charter for the basin.
Mr Yaovi said the laws, when developed, would govern the management of the basin and serve as a as reference to the six partner countries including Ghana, Mali, Benin, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso that share the Volta basin.
The Executive Director said water from the Volta River was jointly used by the partner countries and it is necessary to regulate its use adding that the laws would help to avoid future conflicts within the basin.
He said that there could be no cooperation without legal basis and added that for the implementation of projects within the priority actions to be successful, partner states have to come together with processes for drafting the water charter.
Mr Yaovi said the Council of Ministers were expected to adopt the draft, while a summit of head of states and the heads of the six countries and their Parliaments would sign the pact to ratify the document with copies submitted to the African Union and the United Nations.
He congratulated Ghana for her great performance for establishing the Akosombo and Bui dams to produce electricity adding that power from the grid is shared by some of the partners.
Mr Donnan Tay, an official from the National Water Directorate, said the Akufo-Addo government was committed to water and sanitation challenges in the country.
He pledged continuous coordination and monitoring to ensure that institutions responsible for implementation of activities in the basin played their mandated roles.
The Volta River Basin Authority was established in 2007 charged to promote cooperation among parties in the development of the basin, promote implementation of integrated water resource management and the equitable distribution of benefits resulting from the various activities.
GNA
By Fati Anafu Astanga, GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Management of GhanaVeg Programme, which seeks to improve and sustain vegetable productivity in Ghana, has held its 17th Business Platform Meeting in Accra.
The Business Platform Meeting brings together key sector actors to brainstorm and table issues that should inform the activities of the GhanaVeg Programme, an initiative supported by the Netherlands Embassy.
Papa Kow Bartels, Team Leader, Industrial Sub-Contract and Partnership Exchange, Ministry of Trade and Industry said the horticulture industry held a lot of potential for growth and investors to venture into that area of farming.
'The horticulture sector is opened for investment, especially exports and involve in cooling and knowledge transfer,' he added.
The 17th Business Platform Meeting was on the theme: 'Investing in Ghana's Horticulture Sector.'
Papa Bartels said the sector needed agronomists to deliver quality services and transform the sector to improve on the economy.
He said government was looking at industrial transformation to easy up doing business in the country.
He, therefore, called on stakeholders to take advantage presented in the horticulture sector to improve on their living conditions and contribute to the growth of the economy.
On the lifting of the ban on vegetable export, Dr Ken Fenning, a Researcher at the University of Ghana Soil and Irrigation Research Centre urged farmers to comply with quality and safety standards in line with the European Union market requirements.
He said commended government for upgrading the sanitary and phytosanitary systems and the equipping of the Kotoka International Airport to facilitate exports of vegetables to the EU market.
He said one other recommendation was to enhance intense research activities on the vegetable sector.
He said stakeholders have designed a roadmap strategy, which needed to be adopted to put in preventive measure like monitoring and there should be an enhanced dissemination of knowledge on pest reduction in vegetables.
The event was used to launch the Ghana Green Label (GGL) scheme website, which seeks to provide information on the scheme for certification.
The Ghana Green Label is aimed at promoting safe food production, postharvest handling and distribution using good and environmentally sustainable agricultural practices.
Mr Sam Quarcoo, the Chairman of GGL, said the scheme was also to assure availability of locally produced high quality, safe and affordable fresh fruits and vegetable in the Ghanaian market.
He said the website: www.ghanagreenlabel.org would also have information on application for certification.
GhanaVeg used the opportunity to present certification to 22 Agronomists through the Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands, after they completed the Agronomy Training of Trainers course.
The Agronomy training has been designed to improve farmer productivity and post-harvest management.
The one-year in-depth training course focused on six key areas including seedling production, crop protection, spray techniques, irrigation and fertilization, production planning and adult learning.
The event also hosted the fourth trade mission delegation from the Netherland to Ghana to seek investment opportunities in the sector.
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Mr. Francis Ackah, Acting Director of Operations and Resources Management at the Petroleum Commission, has said the Saltpond Oil Field would be decommissioned next year.
He said the Saltpond Oil Field, the nation's oldest oil producing field does not produce any more oil hence the decommissioning.
He said costs and other implications that might occur during the decommissioning but were almost completed to give way for a smooth decommissioning of the oil field which has been producing oil since the 1970s.
Mr Ackah was speaking at the third annual consultative meeting with the Western Regional House of Chiefs and other stakeholders in Takoradi.
The meeting was to among others enable members of the Commission to interact with key stakeholders in the region on the upstream petroleum sector and other related activities.
It also created a platform for the international oil companies to share with the chiefs their corporate social responsibility projects and initiatives in the region and receive feedback.
Mr Ackah, who spoke on the current updates in the sector, said since the oil discovery in the Saltpond offshore area in the 1970s additional 25 discoveries have been made including the three offshore basins and one onshore basin.
He said the major oil activities were currently on the Tano Cape Three points basin.
Mr Ackah said last year a Petroleum Act was developed which has made bidding competitive, adding that the government would soon enter into an agreement with Exxon Mobil.
He said they were still negotiating with Exxon Mobil and by next year government would sign a new block agreement with them.
On the ITLOS Marine border dispute results, he said new boundary resulted in both gains and loss of acreage, but that no upstream activities were adversely affected, adding that companies that were affected have since been asked to commence operations.
He appealed to the companies to explore more so as to get more oil wells stressing that in the next 20 years, production in the existing wells would fall.
On the way forward, Mr Ackah appealed to the chiefs to educate fishermen to desist from operating around the rigs noting that they should value the rigs as national assets and should respect them.
He also urged the people in the six coastal districts in the Western Region to endeavours to manage their expectations well since it will take some time before they see the full benefits of the oil and gas discoveries.
Mr Ackah urged the chiefs to get involved in the local content issues and that by 2020/2022 about four FPSO would be operating in the region.
For her part, Mrs Judith Blay Community Relations Manager at the Petroleum Commission, said there were three international oil companies in Ghana and that her outfit has ensured that they all perform their corporate social responsibility in their operational areas.
She mentioned fishing incursions as the most challenging problem they incur at the community level and stressed that by law there should not be any fishing activity 500km away from the rig.
Mrs Blay appealed to the chiefs to help solve the problem adding "the sea is big enough for all and the law will surely catch up with those who break it".
The managements of Eni, Tullow and HESS all international oil companies pledged to continue with their corporate social responsibility projects to their operations area.
Most of their CSR projects are in the areas of education, health, water and sanitation as well as agro-business.
GNA
By Justina Paaga, GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
A security man has been put before an Accra District Court for allegedly damaging four air conditioners belonging to the Animal Production Unit of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) over nonpayment of his salaries for the past seven months.
Mustapha Yakubu who has been charged with causing unlawful damage, pleaded not guilty.
Mr Frank Yeboah, an agriculturalist and Veronica Tetteh, a cleaner both of the unit testified before the court about Yakubu's culpability.
During the trial on Thursday before the court presided over by Ms Aret Nsemoh, Yakubu narrated how he came to destroy the air conditioners after sorting several assistance from his superiors including the accountant of the unit to get his salary.
According to the witness he has also paid several visits to the Ghana Commercial Bank branch at the Ministries over salary but to no avail.
Yakubu said a biometric registration was conducted by Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and he took part in the exercise at the Ministry.
After the exercise, the accused person said was asked to go SSNIT office which he did.
'I was given a form at SSNIT and took it to the accountant of MOFA to work on it. I however did not have access to my salary arrears,' accused told the court.
He said he admitted before to two staff of the Ministry that he destroyed the air-conditioners because he had not been paid for the past seven months.
During cross examination by the Prosecution led by Sergeant Joyce Ofori, Yakubu admitted damaging the four air conditioners valued at GH 12,000 cedis.
He told the court that he destroyed the subject-matter with a cutlass which had been tendered in evidence.
Yakubu told the court that he committed the act in the night.
According to Yakubu after destroying the air conditions he was yet to receive his salaries.
He admitted that his duty at the Ministry was to protect property but he rather ended up destroying them.
The court has fixed December 22, this year to deliver its judgement.
On November 23, this year, Yakubu, who also a night watchman on duty at MOFA destroyed four air conditions.
The following day, prosecution said Madam Veronica saw one of the air-conditioners fell off from one of the rooms at the Ministry and reported the matter to her superiors.
GNA
By Joyce Danso, GNA
The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) has inducted 12 entrepreneurs into the business incubator.
The entrepreneurs were made up of the second cohort of inductees selected from a pool of over 100 applicants across the country. The first was made up of 11 entrepreneurs.
The programme is supported by the World Bank, the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands.
The Centre is managed by a consortium led by Ashesi University College with Ernst and Young, SNV Netherlands Development Organization, and the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.
The inductees are Dr Sachibu Mohammed, a Development Professional, Mr Desmond Koney, a Mechanical Engineer, Mr Conrad Kaaiwula, Founder of EL Balicon Limited, Mr Isaac Brenyah, Green Entrepreneur, Mr Lincoln Winimi Peedah, Team Executive Officer of Neat Meat Limited.
Others are Mr Sulley Amin Abubakar, Founder of Zaacoal, Ms Salma Abdulai, Founder of Unique Quality Product Enterprise, Ms Nicole Poindexter Founder of Energicity and Mr Charles Boatin, CEO of Arela Chemicals.
The rest are Mr Kwami Williams, Co-Founder of Moringa Connect Company Limited and Mr Philip Akaboa, a welder.
Mrs Patricia Appiagyei, the Deputy Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation commended the Centre for the initiative, saying that, it would give hope to entrepreneurs to develop their business potentials.
She said the future of the country is in the youth and that it was imperative to create the enabling environment for entrepreneurs as well as give them the needed direction and counseling to succeed in life.
Mrs Appiagyei said government, as part of its strategic development agenda, would in 2018 develop 50 entrepreneurs from each district to create job opportunities for entrepreneurs to be productive.
She said government would work assiduously to ensure that the initiative was sustained, and urged the youth to be creative and innovative to develop realistic business ideas for their success.
Mrs Appiagyei posited that government was committed to building the capacities of youth entrepreneurs to address the needs of society and as well meet the sustainable development goals.
Mrs Ruka Sanusi, the Chief Executive Officer of GCIC said the centre is a business incubator that supports local small and medium enterprises to successfully commercialise and scale up the most innovative business solutions to climate change.
She said the centre provides technical know-how as well as structured, tailored business advisory services that enable entrepreneurs to elevate their entrepreneurial potential and optimize their successes.
'The center primarily will provide office space and facilities, business skills training and mentoring, proof of concept grants, funding facilitation, market growth and market access support services, technical assistance with technology and product development as well as policy advocacy and regulatory support services', she added.
Mrs Charlotte Ntim, Representative from the World Bank said they are supporting the programme to empower entrepreneurs to be innovative and turn climate change into opportunities for growth.
Mr Desmond Koney, one of the inductees and the CEO of CIBUS Technologies said the company's mission was to become an African household name for innovation solutions to domestic challenges using renewable energy technologies.
Mr Koney, who is also a Mechanical Engineer, was optimistic that the company would become a powerful player in the climate protection industry.
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Parliament on Wednesday approved GHC107.34 million for the services of the Ministry of Information for the 2018 financial year, but expressed worry over the dire straits of agencies operating under the Ministry.
The budgetary allocation for 2018 for the Ministry fell below its requirement of GHC184.86 million, and also fell short of 24 per cent of GHa141.07 million that was allocated to the Ministry in 2017.
'Unfortunately, the Ministry is grossly under-resourced. The allocation to the Ministry for the year 2018 means that the Ministry will find it difficult to procure some critical logistics and equipment to carry out its operations,' Mr Ken Ohene Agyaponng, Chairman of the Committee on Communications said in a report, presented to the House.
According to the report, as at October 2017, a little over 47 per cent of the total budgetary allocation of GHa141.078 million to the Ministry had been released.
'The delay and in some cases the non-release of funds prevented the Ministry from undertaking some planned programmes and activities for the year,' the report added.
The agencies and institutions responsible for the implementation of the policies and programmes of the Ministry are the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Information Services Department (ISD), the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Ghana Publishing Limited, the Graphic Communications Group Company Limited and the New Times Corporation.
The Ministry of Information exists to facilitate free flow of adequate, timely and reliable information and feedback between the Government of Ghana and its various publics for socio-economic empowerment and enhanced democratic citizenship.
However, Members of Parliament, in contributions to the debate on the annual budget estimates on the Ministry regretted that Government has reduced the allocation of the budget to the Information Ministry, noting that, it would plunge the institutions into further distress.
From logistics constraints through shortage of staff, to power cuts, due to non-payment of electricity bills, the House called for effective measures to address the challenges for the GNA, GBC and the ISD to really fulfil their expected assigned roles.
'GNA is a pale shadow of itself,' said Mr Alhassan Suhuyini, MP for Tamale North, who is also a broadcast journalist.
He said as the national news Agency, it has not been handled well, and called for conscious effort with adequate budget allocation to resurrect it.
The Communications Committee report alarmed the House on the difficult challenges the Agency and the ISD found themselves, despite the urgent need for the nation to prepare itself to host globally the World Press Freedom Day in May next year.
The House was informed that despite its improved visibility on the international space by signing news exchange programmes with South Korea News Agency and the Palestine News and Information Agency, 'the Agency has no functional platform for commercial news gathering and distribution and gradually losing its relevance, as private media takes over the landscape to the disadvantage of government communications.'
Also, the Agency's News Management System is not functioning, and the agency plans to restore it, under a two year strategic programme.
Additionally, delays in the release of funds for the year 2017 affected the Agency's ability to purchase electricity, broadband and fuel for its operational duties as well prompt payment of stringers fees, news gathering processing and dissemination.
Again, the Committee report indicated that the Agency lacks the requisite staff to drive modern news agency practices. In the year 2015, the Agency's staff strength was 219, but by October 2017, the Agency's staff stood at 127, a reduction of 92 staff members.
Unfortunately, the Agency has not received financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance to recruit and is still awaiting response to letters to recruit at least 20 workers.
Mr Alhassan B. A Fuseini, The Minority Spokesperson on Communications and MP for Sagnarigu, called for more support for the Agency and other institutions under the Ministry.
The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), an incubator for Ghanaian 'cleantech' businesses with a focus on solar, has launched the 'Ghana Clean-Technology Market Intelligence report for efficient use of technology for climate security.
The report seeks to, among other things, enlighten people on how to turn waste into productive use and to inspire them to recognise the many interesting opportunities in technology.
It also seeks to provide market intelligence information on developments and trends within the focal area of GCIC to support its strategy from global and domestic perspectives.
Mr Maarten Kleijn, a senior energy advisor at SNV Netherlands Development Organisation in Ghana, said the report focused on water management and purification, energy efficiency, renewable energy (solar), and waste management.
Launching the report, Madam Patricia Appiagyei, the Deputy Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said the Government would soon commercialise research works to generate income.
She said a number of research findings were sitting on the shelves of schools because there was no knowledge on how to sell them.
'We need to build a commercial centre where people can consult and use appropriate technology, and we are coming out early next year to introduce all the programmes,' she said.
Madam Appiagyei said the Government believed that if the country made environment, science, technology and innovation the basis of development, there would be an improvement in the sector.
The Government believed that the country's poverty gap was mainly a technology gap and, therefore, there was the need to introduce technology into every facet of life in the sectors to be developed, she added.
The Ghana Clean-Technology Market Intelligence Report indicated that the factors to consider in assessing the regional clean-tech businesses were market tracking, financing, partnership, and leadership.
It said deepening partnerships and networks between authorities and other stakeholders was crucial to the success of the clean-tech business.
According to the Report, climate change had taken a toll on climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, forestry, health, energy production, water and sanitation.
It added that innovative strategies were required to support commercial and industrial activities such as building construction, energy efficiency and power generation, telecommunication, transport, water and sanitation.
The report noted that a significant number of players in the business incubation and hub space had agribusiness as a focal area saying businesses likely to operate along the path of export diversification strategy of the Government would likely receive broad institutional support beyond micro-business strategy.
It added that an effort to integrate informal waste collectors into an organised supply network without loss of job and income would add significant value to businesses that were likely to operate in the industry.
The GCIC in one of the seven centres in a climate technology programme global network.
The network amplifies the scope of each centre by providing a platform to share knowledge and data, create international business-to-business linkages, and facilitate trade across regions.
GNA
By Kodjo Adams/Julius K. Satsi, GNA
The Sales and Distribution Manager, South East Business District of MTN, Mr David Woasey has cautioned the public to be weary of social deviants and criminals ahead of the xmas season, who are deceiving Ghanaians and defrauding them of their money using the mobile money Service.
He advised customers not to respond to any request on their mobile money service, because it is a security service and it requires that all security information is kept by the individual, who registered for the service.
''If you have a pin code and anyone calls you to approve a transaction with your pin code, which you have not authorized, we advice that you do not respond to it'' he emphasized.
He urged customers to call the MTN call centre for any information or clarification concerning any transaction that they are not certain about.
Mr Woasey made this assertion in an interview with the media, when MTN made a donation to the chiefs and people of Mamfe to support this year's Ohum festival and the 20th Anniversary Celebration of Osabarima Ansah Sasraku III.
The donation included a cheque of GHC10,000.00 and a drink hamper, whiles data activation would be placed at vantage points to give customers the benefits of internet and data services during the festive period.
He said the donation was also to signify his outfit's commitment to the promotion of the rich Ghanaian Culture through the celebration of the festival.
Osabarima Ansah Sasraku III, the Mamfehene and Kyidomhene of the Akuapem Traditional Area, who received the donation thanked MTN for the kind gesture extended to the people of Mamfe.
He used the occasion to invite citizens of Mamfe and all Ghanaians to join them in celebrating this year's festival to make it a memorable one.
16.12.2017 LISTEN
A delegation of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) on Thursday held discussions with officials of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation on how to reduce mercury usage in artisanal mining.
The meeting, also attended by members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), representatives of Small-Scale miners and other stakeholders, also briefed participants on a UNIDO collaborative project aimed at supporting Ghana to gradually eliminate mercury usage in the country.
A Minamata Convention on Mercury adopted by countries, including Ghana in August this year, has an article that talks about artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM), which stipulates that countries develop national action plans for the gradual elimination of mercury.
Mercury is very harmful to the health of humans, animals, and the general environment.
The Convention has a Global Environment Fund from which countries could assess funds through implementation agencies, of which Ghana and UNIDO had partnered to access 500, 000 dollars to run the artisanal mining project.
The Convention also requires the reduction and the elimination of the use of mercury and the use of sustainable technologies in compliance to environmental needs of local communities.
The meeting, therefore, discussed how Ghana could integrate the Minamata Convention on Mercury in its progammes.
Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said because activities of illegal mining was heavily polluting the environment, the Government placed a ban on artisanal small scale mining in the course of this year.
He said that action was to enable the Government to partner with stakeholders to sanitise the sector, adding that; 'The challenges encountered in the mining sector give Ghana the opportunity to do things right and better'.
He said the Minamata Convention seeks to regulate and ultimately ban the use of mercury in artisanal mining and in the health sector, and it was in that vein that UNIDO was partnering Ghana to carry out its obligation.
The Minister said already, a national action plan had been started to help Ghana deal with mercury poisoning, especially in artisanal gold mining.
He said that National Action plan fitted into what President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had commissioned the nine-member Ministerial Committee to do in dealing with the challenges in the mining sector.
'We need to draw our national action plan, set up certain structures and put in certain measures and articulate our needs so that eventually, we can get funding to deal not only with this menace but also to look at the health effects, for example examine people, examine the soil and some of the fish, to see how they will impact on human health.
'We need to teach our artisanal gold miners how to mine sustainably, especially with the use of equipment that will not need the deployment of mercury,' Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said.
Ms Rodica Ella Ivan, Industrial Development Officer of UNIDO, said by its mandate, UNIDO supports inclusive and sustainable industrial development, which is one of the SDGs and a higher priority for the Organisation.
She said the artisanal small scale gold mining was an issue that fell within sustainable development management issues, and that the UNIDO project aims to support authorities in developing an action plan to better regulate the artisanal mining sector.
It also seeks to supporting the sector with technology transfer and know-how and reducing mercury use and its total elimination ultimately, to the benefit of local communities.
'UNIODO will continue working with the relevant stakeholders in the countries to support the artisanal gold mining sector,' Ms Ivan said.
The project is a two-year project that started in 2017, involving partner agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ghana Health Service, and the World Health Organisation to gather data among mining communities, educate miners on harmful effects of mercury and provide mercury-free technology in the mining sector.
GNA
By Lydia Kukua Asamoah, GNA
Accra, Dec. 14, GNA-Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament has directed the Communications Committee of Parliament to furnish the House with a detailed report on how much debt the state broadcaster, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) owes and how much is owed it, and who.
This follows an application by the Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensa-Bonsu, demanding details of how much GBC received as proceeds from advertising campaign messages for political parties in the run up to the December 2016 general elections.
'I will serve notice to the committee, as part of their oversight, to indicate to us how many of such adverts GBC, both on radio and television took, and what were their earnings on radio and television.'
Mr. Speaker, let it be the assignment of the committee, before they talk to us about any indebtedness,' the Majority Leader said, in a contribution to the debate to approve the 2018 Government budget allocation to the Ministry of Information.
Government has in the 2018 Budget reduced the allocation to the Ministry of Information from GHa141 million in 2017 to GHa107.00, and that has attracted criticisms from the House. The Ministry made a budgetary request of GHa184.86 for the 2018 financial year.
The Agencies and institutions responsible for the implementation of the policies and programmes of the Ministry are the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Information Services Department (ISD) the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Ghana Publishing Limited, the Graphic Communications Group Company Limited and the New Times Corporation.
The Ministry of Information exists to facilitate free flow of adequate, timely and reliable information and feedback between the Government of Ghana and its various publics for socio-economic empowerment and enhanced democratic citizenship.
However, Members of Parliament, in contributions to the debate on the annual budget estimates on the Ministry regretted that Government has reduced, 'capped' the allocation of the budget to the Information Ministry, noting that, it would plunge the institutions into further distress.
From logistics constraints through shortage of staff, to power cuts due to non-payment of electricity bills, the House called for effective measures to address the challenges of the GNA, GBC and the ISD to really fulfil their expected assigned roles.
During contributions on the motion to approve the budget, it came to light that the GBC indebtedness had let to power cuts, which had negatively affected its operations. Conversely, a number of political parties and state institutions, including Parliament are in arrears to the GBC.
However, Mr Kyei-Mensa-Bonsu said proceeds from coverage of political parties' activities should be accounted for before government looks at possible ways of helping GBC settle its indebtedness of about GHa44 million.
The Majority Leader called for a forensic audit into the activities of the GBC, saying, 'Mr. Speaker, the Ministry stands for transparency, accountability in government and GBC should radiate same principles. In the lead up to the elections, we know of private media houses that took advertisement from the various political parties.
The GBC and Ghana Television run a number of advertisements for various political parties.
Concerns have been raised about government's continuous support to the state broadcaster, with suggestions that that GBC should be self-sufficient by generating its revenue to run and pay its staff without relying on government subvention.
It came up that government allocation to GBC for next year had been reduced by 27 per cent.
Mr. Osei Owusu was of the opinion that given the infrastructure that it has, GBC ought to be in a good standing despite its indebtedness but a detailed report on its financial books will better advice the House.
Alhajji A.B.A .Fuseini, the Ranking Member on the committee on Communications, said if government was to be paying for coverage of national events, GBC would have been on a sound financial footing.
Other budgets approved were that for the Judiciary and Judicial Service, which were jointly allocated GHa375 million and the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation which had GHa183.6 million.
GNA
By Benjamin Mensah, GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
The United States Embassy in Accra, has posted 26 Peace Corps Volunteers to four regions to help improve agricultural production towards attaining national food security.
The Northern Region received the highest of number of volunteers with nine, followed by the Upper West, which received eight. Brong Ahafo received seven volunteers, while Upper East got two.
This batch brings to 5,000, the total number of Americans who have served as Peace Corps Volunteers in Ghana over the past 56 years.
Mr Robert P. Jackson, the US Ambassador to Ghana, speaking at the swearing-in ceremony for the Peace Corps Agriculture Volunteers, in Accra, on Thursday, paid tribute to the long, unbroken record of Peace Corps Volunteers.
They have been working alongside Ghanaians; engaged in development challenges and increasing mutual understanding, goodwill and friendship.
"As those development challenges have evolved over the years, the Peace Corps has responded, adapting Volunteers' work to meet the changing needs," Ambassador Jackson said.
"Regardless of the nature of the challenges, Volunteers rise to meet them - working with partners in communities throughout the country to improve the daily lives of the Ghanaian people.
The Ambassador said: "Our ideas and ideals - expressed through individuals working in partnership - have extraordinary impact. I see this every day in our development programmes in Ghana. We change and save lives through agriculture, education and health, water and sanitation programmes".
"I see it in the exchange programmes we facilitate, including the Mandela Washington Fellowship, where young leaders from Africa hone their skills at US colleges and universities and return to the continent to craft solutions - in Africa, for Africa, by Africans.
"We follow the principle of helping people gain strength to help themselves. Peace Corps is at the front line of that work."
Ambassador Jackson said the Volunteers working diligently in their communities would touch lives in unimaginable ways and advised them:"Through your actions and attitudes, your service and your kindness to others, you will show that Americans care deeply about Ghanaians."
Mr Jackson reminded the Volunteers that by working in the agriculture sector, they would be engaged in the economic activity that was central to Ghana's future.
"Introducing new seed varieties, crops, ways of using fertilisers and more can have an enormous impact on your host communities," the Ambassador stated.
Ms Carla E. Ellis, the US Peace Corps Country Coordinator in Ghana, said the Volunteers represented all that America had to offer.
She said, however, that the success of Peace Corps would not have been possible without the support of the governments of the US and Ghana, and the host communities.
Mr George Oduro, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, commended the Volunteers for their spirit of volunteerism, saying: "I commend you, particularly, for accepting to serve in the rural and poorly resourced communities, under conditions which even some Ghanaians will not want to be in".
"My advice is that in whatever community you find yourselves, remember you are role models, change agents and most importantly, you are ambassadors of the US."
At the ceremony was Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Chairman of the Board of Cocobod.
Two of the volunteers, Ms Summer Elliot and Mr Austin Harrison, in separate interviews with the Ghana News Agency, expressed their joy about coming to serve in Ghana.
Ms Elliot, who would be based in the Brong Ahafo Region, said she would be assisting the people in the rural communities to understand Home Economics and undertake income generation activities.
Mr Harrison, who would be serving in the Northern Region, said he would improve knowledge in farm record keeping, animal rearing and staple crops production.
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Rice yields are projected to rise by at least four folds following the implementation of the Rice Seed Scaling project, which has ensured increased availability of certified seeds for cultivation.
This will help in reducing rice importation into the country, which currently stands at approximately 550,000 metric tonnes per year at a cost of between $300 million to $600 million per annum.
Mr Gary Mullins, Chief of Party of the Agriculture Technology Transfer project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said at a stakeholders' workshop to end the Rice Seed Scaling project at Nyankpala, near Tamale.
The Rice Seed Scaling project was implemented from 2015 to 2017 by AfricaRice and the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) amongst other partners with funding from USAID to stimulate the development of a sustainable rice seed system in the northern part of the country.
The project trained technicians from SARI on breeder seed production while private seed companies were also trained on foundation and certified seed production and seed business management to ensure continuous production of early generation and certified seeds for cultivation.
During the project period, rice farmers' access to and cultivation of quality certified seeds such as AGRA Rice and Jasmine Rice increased, which was significant for the development of the country's rice system.
Mr Mullins said efforts would be made to disseminate the productivity-enhancing technologies to more farmers to join efforts in stemming the flood of rice imports into the country.
Mr Boubakary CissA, Seed Expert and Country Coordinator of the Rice Seed Scaling project, said the project had re-established trust for various classes of seed amongst farmers, which was essential for the sustainability of the rice sector.
Mr CissA expressed the need for all actors in the rice sector to consolidate the project achievements through backstopping, on-the-job training, establishment of demonstration plots and media campaigns to ensure increased cultivation of certified rice seeds for increased yields.
Mr William Boakye-Acheampong, Northern Regional Director of the Department of Agriculture urged private sector to take advantage of the project by ensuring the availability of certified seeds for cultivation.
Mr Martin Pwayidi, Organizing Secretary of Seed Producers Association of Ghana, Upper East Region, said the project helped to ensure technology transfer for stakeholders assuring that seed producers would work to ensure availability of certified seeds.
GNA
By Albert Futukpor, GNA
A sod-cutting ceremony has been performed for the construction of an accident and emergency block for the Apinto Government Hospital in the Western Region.
The project funded by the Apinto Divisional Council is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
Speaking at the programme, Nana Dr Adarkwa Bediako, Gyaasehene of Apinto Divisional Council, explained that the project was estimated to cost eight hundred thousand Ghana cedis.
He stated that as part of the Apinto Divisional Council's development agenda, they decided to put up the building for the Hospital to help improve the primary health care needs of its people.
Nana Bediako pointed out that even though Apinto Divisional Council initiated the project, it was not was solely for them.
The Gyaasehene, therefore, entreated individuals and companies in Tarkwa Nsueam Constituency to come together and support the traditional authorities to complete the project on scheduled.
Dr Frank Berdu Ansah, Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, said accident and emergency care was one challenging area for almost every hospital in Ghana.
He emphasized that the Accident and Emergency Ward at Apinto Government Hospital can currently accommodate only five beds and stressed that they became stranded when emergency cases increased.
"The location of the Hospital is very strategic. So in terms of emergency we are the first point of call. So there is the need that we get a modern emergency unit that is well equipped so we can manage cases," He added.
Dr Berdu Ansah thanked the Apinto Divisional Council and said what they were going to get now would really help them to handle more emergency cases and save lives as well.
GNA
By Erica Apeatua Addo, GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
The Ghana Police Service (GPS), has in its first edition of the 'Weekly Crime Prevention and Safety Tips', warned the public against falling prey to fraudulent vehicle sellers, and urged the media to help spread the caution.
In a statement signed by the Director-General of Public Affairs, Assistant Commissioner of Police David Eklu, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, the Police urged the media to collaborate with it to reduce crime in the coming days, which it said criminals describe as: 'As the reaping season'.
'Auto theft is a widely suffered crime and hopefully these precautions we have provided will help curb them in this festive season', it said.
The Police, thereby, advised prospective buyers of vehicles to always meet the sellers before making payments, and always make payment through the banks rather than cash, because it was safer.
The public, it urged, should also be wary of syndicates who advertised their cars on the internet for sale with telephone numbers affixed on them.
Explaining the modus operandi of some of these syndicates, the Police said: 'Syndicates or suspects normally arrange a meeting place for inspection of cars, collection of money and handing over of the said car, keys and documents to victims.
'Whilst victims drive the car away, the syndicates then track the car and halt the engine at a distance with a device in their custody. This will necessitate victim to reach out suspects for a complaint and solution.
'In an attempt to meet the seller half way as directed, another group tracking the car will use a spare key already in their custody to move the said car away.
'Victims after fruitless effort to locate the supposed frontier at the supposed meeting place returns to the scene only to find out that the car has been taken away'.
The 'Weekly Crime Prevention and Safety Tips' provides information on how individuals could prevent robbery and safeguard lives.
The Police, in the past few weeks, has made provisions to beef up security over the Christmas festivities, which include deploying hundreds of personnel to places regarded as prone to crime, such as the Zongos, Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Ashaiman and the markets.
It said it would be of immense help if these crime prevention and safety tips were aired on prime time TV and radio programmes, as well as published in newspapers and on portals.
It said the subsequent weekly tips would be available on its social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter pages.
It named the 'GhPoliceService' as its Facebook page, '[email protected]' as it's Twitter, and 'ghanapolicetube' as its YouTube page, where the information would be available.
GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Mr. Dominic Nitiwul, the Defence Minister, has commissioned a 1.33 Million Euro Defence Intelligence Training Centre (DITC) of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), funded by the Government of Germany to enhance intelligence activities of the military.
The two-storey building block, which was funded through the German Armed Forces Technical Assistance Group (GAFTAG), started in 2003 when the Government of Ghana entered into a bilateral agreement with the Federal Republic of Germany to support the GAF as part of Germany's commitment to the ECOWAS Standby Force.
The DITC has a 60 seat auditorium for central lectures, 20 seat syndicate rooms, a research library, a language laboratory and offices for the Chief Instructor and his staff.
It also has a multi-purpose cyber office where real time information will be analysed as well as offices for the Strategic and Operational cells.
Mr Nitiwul said the operation of the new facility created enough space to accommodate the envisaged diverse roles of the Department as captured in the recently promulgated Charter of the Department of Defence Intelligence.
"This therefore makes the Training Centre an Important addition to the training of our operatives in the Intelligence agencies within the country and the sub-region," he added.
He said there were plans to further equip the facility with the necessary infrastructure to serve its original purpose with the capacity to extend or share with sister West African countries.
He thanked the German government for the gesture and assured that the facility will be put to good use.
'The objectives for this immeasurable infrastructure support will be kept in focus and the benefits would be to our mutual advantage in ensuring a peaceful nation.
'A nation at peace with its neighbours and one that contributes its modest quota to make the sub-region a safer place to live in', he said.
Mr Nitiwul said government was willing to continue with the bilateral arrangement between Germany and Ghana when the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) ends in 2020.
He said the GAF would continue to strengthen relations with its development partners, bilaterally and multilaterally.
Mr Christoph Retzlaff, the German Ambassador to Ghana, said the facility had shown that Germany and Ghana are together in a strong bond of friendship and common goal of striving for peace, security and stability, not only in their respective countries alone, but in the other parts of the world.
He commended Ghana for her immense contributions to Peace keeping Missions across the world and wished the users of facility success in addressing the challenges and issues of peace, security and stability in the future.
Under the Federal Republic of Germany Equipment Aid Programme for Foreign Armed Forces, an agreement was reached to assist the GAF equip a squadron of Engineers to effectively carry out the mandate for a construction Engineer Company of the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF).
The agreement, which was signed in 2005, has evolved over the years with the renewal of two successive MOUs (2013-2016 and 2017-2022), aimed at carefully selected programmes and projects.
The projects did not stop with the Ghana Army Engineer Corps but has extended to other branches of the GAF.
Notable beneficiaries include the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME) Corps, where the Base Workshop and the EME Technical Training School have received significant support.
Others are the Armed Forces Mechanical and Transport Training School, the Provost Marshal's Outfit and the Defence intelligence Department.
GNA
By Kwamina Tandoh/Dennis Osei Gyamfi, GNA
Vice President Dr. Mahammudu Bawumia has underlined the need to for new thinking to enable the nation to take control of its natural resources to propel it into economic prosperity.
He said it should not be business as usual and that it was time to think outside the box.
This required building the skills, capacity and expertise to become better managers of the gold, bauxite, cocoa and other resources the country had been blessed with.
Dr. Bawumia was addressing the opening of a two-day meeting of Regional Ministers in Kumasi on Friday.
Facilitated by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), it provided the platform to discuss ways of ensuring the successful implementation of the government's development agenda.
The Vice President repeated their unwavering determination to build a robust and resilient economy to overcome the over-reliance on foreign aid for development.
He added that the various programmes, it had rolled out were meant just to achieve that goal - create jobs for the people to enhance their ability to contribute meaningfully to revenue generation and promote economic growth.
He reminded the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs), Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to deepen stakeholder engagement in the execution of development programmes.
Dr. Bawumia indicated that the one district, one factory, planting for food and jobs and the infrastructure for poverty eradication, were all private sector driven, and it was important to help the people to own them.
He noted that it would be difficult to achieve any meaningful development without the active participation of the people.
'As key representatives of government at the local level, Regional Ministers and District Chief Executives, are expected to always engage and build consensus with the people in respect of their development needs and how these could be addressed.'
Dr. Bawumia said the overall economic development strategy of government was based on inclusion, adding that, the citizenry should become participants and not passive observers in the implementation of development policies.
He spoke of the need to make sure that the local governance structure and systems worked for efficient and effective service delivery to bring prosperity to the people.
Nana Adu Gyamfi II, Adontehene of Kumasi, said effective local governance was the basis for improving the living conditions of the people and called for the assemblies to be more development-oriented.
GNA
By Stephen Asante/Florence Afriyie Mensah, GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Ghana must prioritse the establishment of a National Infectious Disease Institute which would house a properly equipped and efficiently-manned National Infectious Disease Hospital, and a specialised laboratory facility for the isolation and confirmation of diagnosis.
The Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GHPS) and Ghana Public Health Association (GPHA), in a joint statement on the recent reports of disease outbreaks, said this will be in line with the Africa Centers for Disease Control Five Year Strategic Plan (2017-2021) of the African Union Commission Agenda.
'We call on the government and development partners to prioritise this initiative as a matter of urgency and fast track its establishment,' it said.
The statement signed by Professor Jacob Plange-Rhule, Rector of the GCPS and Prof Edwin Asare, the President of the GPHA, said the Institute should also have facilities for the training of field epidemiologists and biological scientists, as well as research facilities.
It also urged the Government and the Ministry of Health to mobilise resources needed for the Ghana Health Services and related agencies, to place the national surveillance system on the highest high alert required.
This, the health bodies said, would enable the detection, diagnose and containment of any new outbreaks, be it H1N1 or other infectious disease.
It described as 'encouraging' the announcement by the Director Public Health, Ghana Health Service, that the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service, the process for the establishment of a National Infectious Disease Hospital had been initiated.
'We associate ourselves with this initiative as it is long overdue because emerging and re-emerging Highly Pathogenic Infections will be with us for a long time to come,' the statement said.
'We give our fullest assurance to all, that our institutions are ready to provide technical support and collaborate with health officials in addressing this challenge,' the release said.
Ghana, the statement said, had to plan ahead for any disease outbreak, adding that reviews of Ghana's emergency system had shown that the country lacked the capacity to properly manage Highly Pathogenic Infections, such as Ebola, Human Influenzas and multi-resistant tuberculosis, without exposing health workers, patients and the community to great risks.
The GPHA, it said, had followed with keen interest the reported outbreak of H1N1 Swine flu at Kumasi Academy, in the Ashanti Region, and commended efforts made by health authorities, regional administration and other public and private agencies to bring the situation under control.
'We also note the role played by some responsible media outlets in providing timely and accurate information to the general public; this has no doubt helped to minimize panic in the population,' it said.
The statement, however, expressed concern about 'the reported high death rate among such a small cluster of people, and, persistent media reports of new outbreaks in other localities'.
It advised individuals, families and the public to take decisions on personal and household safety, based on information provided by their local and district health departments, and other outlets identified by the Ministry of Health.
GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
The Circuit Court in Tarkwa has remanded a mason into police custody for allegedly murdering his 22 year-old pregnant girlfriend at Asankrangwa.
The accused person, Felix Kwasi Zumaba, who has been in custody since the incident occurred behaved strangely when he made his first appearance in court.
His plea was not taken and the presiding judge, Mr. Emmanuel Bart-Plange Brew directed that Felix should be sent to the psychiatric hospital for examination.
He would re-appear before the court on January 30, 2018.
The Prosecutor, Chief Inspector Faustina Celestina Anaman, informed the court that the complainant in the case is a landlord at Newtown, a suburb of Asankragwa whiles the accused, a tenant in the complainant's house, lived with the deceased who was five months pregnant.
She said on December 9 at 11:20 pm, while the complainant was asleep Felix went and pounced on his door.
The prosecutor said when the complainant came out of his room he met the accused with blood all over his body, he questioned him, but Felix kept saying "my wife, my wife".
Inspector Anaman said the complainant raised an alarm and other tenants and neighbours came around.
She said on seeing the crowd the accused quickly rushed back to his room and locked the door so they reported the matter to the police.
The Prosector said when the police arrived, they found the accused door opened with the deceased and himself lying in a pool of blood with a cutlass beside them.
She said the police also identified three deep cuts on the girlfriend's called Alifatu's forehead, left jaw and neck, whilst one was seen on the accused throat.
Inspector Anaman said the accused person was sent to the Catholic hospital in Asankragwa for treatment under police guard whilst the body of the deceased was deposited at the Enchi government hospital for autopsy.
On December 11, the Prosecutor said accused was discharged from the hospital and confessed before an independent witness that he used a cutlass to slashed Alifatu severally in their room following a misunderstanding that ensued between them.
Inspector Anaman said after the act accused attempted to commit suicide.
Photon Energy Ghana Limited, a Renewable Energy Company has donated a 15 Kilowatt Solar Power system with storage batteries and a reverse net meter, to the Ministry of Information in Accra.
Mr Isaac Okyere, General Manager of the Photon Energy said the Company is a subcontractor of RESOLAR ENERJI SISTEMLERI, a Turkish based Solar Energy Company, and believes that cheap power was the future of sustainable energy in West Africa.
'This was why the company decided to start its campaign of preaching the use of solar energy by the donation of the 15KW solar power to the ministry.'
Mr Okyere said with the usage of renewable sources like the sun and wind, cost of production and eventually cost of energy to consumers would be low.
He said Photon Energy is a company built by young Ghanaian entrepreneurs, who believes that renewable energy through its installation, servicing and maintenance services, would offer jobs to thousands of Ghanaians.
Mr Okyere said the objectives of their existence in the country was to provide cheap power and create jobs to compliment Government efforts, adding that, 'Since charity begins at home, we thought it wise that one of our initial installations should be a donation to a leading government institution like the Ministry of Information.'
'We hope this system provides power fort the offices of the Ministry, backup battery to store excess power for use in non-sunny periods and a net reverse meter, which can feed excess power back into the national grid to net-reduce grid bills and assist in working for mother Ghana,' Mr Okyere said.
He said Government's intention of moving all state facilities on to renewable energy platforms in 2018, should lead businesses and households to adopt renewable energy systems.
The General Manager said the usage of renewal energy will cut the cost of energy and help Ghana in its effort to fighting climate change.
Mr Mustapha Abdul Hamid, Minister of Information said, Government plans to embark on an MDA Solar Rooftop Programme from 2018 as part of its renewable and alternate energy drive.
He said the programme, dubbed: 'Government Goes Solar' will ensure that, government institutions switch to renewable energy to reduce Government's expenditure on utilities.
Mr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the Minister of Information expressed gratitude to Photon Energy and was hopeful that the company could have future collaborations with Government to save the country energy cost.
Mr Joseph Cudjoe, a Deputy Minister of Energy, said Government through the Ministry of Energy was determined to leverage on the benefits of solar energy and expand its usage across the country.
He said the switch to solar power will mitigate the power crisis the country has been facing for the past four years, which has a general discontent amongst the populace
Photon Energy products for the Ghanaian people are in three packages, namely the retail packages of five to 10 kilowatts systems, Corporate packages of 10 and 50 kilowatts systems and Commercial packages, customized to the interest of large scale customers.
GNA
By Amadu Kamil Sanah/Emmanuel Kwame Donkor, GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
The African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) at its 57th Council Meeting held in Khartoum, Sudan, in November, discussed effective ways to mobilise and position the organisation for it to benefit from the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA).
Promoting trade among African countries by taking advantage of the CFTA is one of our ultimate goals, says Professor Alex Dodoo, Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA).
'Within the next 24-months Ghana will be trading significantly in Tuna fish with Morocco'.
The purpose of CFTA is to 'Create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments, and thus pave the way for accelerating the establishment of the Continental Customs Union and the African Customs Union, expand intra African trade through better harmonization and coordination of trade liberalization and facilitation regimes and instruments across RECs and across Africa in general'.
'Resolve the challenges of multiple and overlapping memberships and expedite the regional and continental integration processes and enhance competitiveness at the industry and enterprise level through exploiting opportunities for scale production, continental market access and better reallocation of resources'.
At the Meeting, the Ghanaian delegation made up of Prof. Dodoo, and Mr Frank Anagattey, GSA's Deputy-Director Operations, assured ARSO of GSA's preparedness to champion the intra-African mission.
The meeting started with the adoption of Minutes of the 56th ARSO Council Meeting held in Ougadogou, Burkina Faso earlier this year.
Participants went on to discuss the 'Involvement of the African Union, UNECA and the ARSO Goodwill Ambassadors to explore opportunities available for funding within the CFTA, create for the adoption and implementation of African standards, make use of the CFTA TBTS/SPS policy documents to draw ARSO Programmes and activities'.
As part of the meeting, the final draft of African Standards for 34 products in the Textiles and Leather category were approved.
Officials who made interventions at the Meeting included Dr Awad Mohamed Ahmed, Sudanese Standards and Metrology Organization (SSMO) Director General, Dr Hermogene Nsengimana, ARSO Secretary General and Dr. Eve Gadzikwa, ARSO President.
Dr Nsengimana delivered a lecture on 'Role of Quality Infrastructure and Standardisation in facilitating Trade and Sustainable Development within the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA)'.
On the sidelines, the Ghanaian delegation and SSMO Director-General discussed ways of collaborating in the area of Gold Hallmarking.
SSMO is a member of ISO, ARSO, the Arab Standards and Metrology Organization (ASMO), Codex Alimentarius Commission and the Arab Industrial and Mining Organization (AIDMO).
The 57th Council Meeting was hosted by the Government of the Republic of Sudan, through the Sudanese Standards and Metrology Organisation.
GNA
Dr. Prince Kwakye Afriyie, the Wenchi Municipal Chief Executive, has commended the management of the Wenchi Rural Bank for fulfilling its corporate social expectations in the society.
He said the Bank belonged to the chiefs and people of Wenchi and urged natives at home and abroad to adopt and do transactions with it to improve on its assets.
Addressing Management, staff and shareholders at its fifth annual general meeting at Wenchi in the Brong-Ahafo Region, Dr Kwakye said the Bank was performing well in the area of water supply in the Municipality.
He said the Bank has constructed several boreholes in local communities such as Subinso number one and Subinso number two, and these have brought a great relief to residents.
Dr Kwakye said the Municipal Assembly also appreciated the Bank's effective collaboration in helping to address security challenges in the Municipality.
He said the Assembly has opened its doors and was ready to welcome innovative ideas that would spur socio-economic growth and development of the Municipality.
Mr Yaw Odame Darkwa, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank, appealed to the Municipal Assembly to use the Bank in all their transactions.
He said as the Bank executed its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes to enhance the livelihood of the residents in the Municipality, there is the need for the Municipal Assembly to also open savings account with the bank.
Mr Darkwa said in 2018 the Bank would refurbish the children's ward at the Wenchi Methodist Hospital and also construct more boreholes in the deprived communities.
GNA
By Dennis Peprah, GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
President Nana Akufo-Addo has appointed Mr Hayford Siaw as the Acting Director of the Ghana Library Authority. The letter from the Presidency explained that the appointment was in pursuant to Section (6) (1) (a) of the Ghana Library Authority Act 327.
The Former Street Library Boss would serve in acting capacity pending the receipt of the advice of the Governing Board of the Authority in consultation with the Public Services Commission.
According to the appointment letter, Mr Siaw would take over from Mrs Rebecca Odua Akita.
Mr Siaw is a Social Entrepreneur and Development Consultant with experience spanning a decade.
He has built organisations serving Ghana and Africa and founded Street Library in 2011, which he has grown to serve six regions of Ghana and three other African countries.
As a skilful negotiator and a fundraiser, he has mobilised resources from partners in all continents of the world to support his initiatives.
Among his notable innovations within Street Library is a mobile crowd sourcing platform for oral narratives in Africa, currently funded by European Commission and with partners including Fraunhofer PT and Microsoft PT.
Also in partnership with telecommunication company, Tigo, Mr Siaw launched the first Electronic Library on Wheels service in West Africa in 2015, which currently serves over 20,000 children annually in Ghana through varied library modules he developed.
He is also the founder of Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa, an organisation that specialises in recruitment and placement of volunteers from around the globe on development projects in Ghana and Liberia.
Mr Siaw is a Ford Motors International Fellow, Goodwill Ambassador for World NGO Day and a Tigo/Reach for Change, Change Leader.
He holds an Executive MBA from University of Ghana Business School with specialisation in Project Management and, in addition, he has undertaken training in Leadership and Management from Picker Center for Executive Education of the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, USA.
GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Karpowership Ghana Company Limited has commissioned the world's biggest Powership Karadeniz Osman Khan at the Tema Fishing Harbour.
The powership, with a generation capacity of 470 megawatts (mw), arrived in August this year and was connected to the national grid, after it completed all requisite commissioning works and operational tests.
The operation of Karadeniz Powership Osman Khan was in line with the Power Purchase Agreement signed with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), requiring Karpowership to supply a total of 450 MW into the national grid for 10 years.
The Inauguration of the biggest power ship this month, marks exactly two years since Karpowership began operations in Ghana.
Speaking at the inauguration, Deputy Minister of Energy, Mr Joseph Cudjoe, said the new Karpowership was in line with government's plan to ensure energy efficiency for the country's industrial take off.
He said government would add additional installed capacity of 340 megawatts in continuance of its plan to ensure stable and affordable supply of power for domestic and industrial use.
He reiterated government's determination to put an end to erratic electricity supply to domestic and commercial consumers.
Mr Cudjoe said the annual electricity demand in the country increases by 10 percent, and coupled with government's flagship of 'one district, one factory' programme, serious attention must be paid to constant power supply.
The Deputy Minister was optimistic that the new addition would complement government's agenda of producing at the lowest cost to Ghana for thermal power generation as the new powership runs on dual fuel engines and combined cycle power generation technology.
He expressed the hope that Karpowership's power supply would help reduce electricity cost in the country when the ship switch to the use of gas next year.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Karpowership, Orhan Remzi Karadeniz, said Karpowership was committed to Ghana's development and as a strategic partner would continue to provide all Ghanaians with sustainable, reliable and affordable electricity.
According to him, Karpowership has a proven track record of supplying sustainable, reliable and affordable electricity with its first Powership - Karadeniz Powership Aysegul Sultan - adding that, 'The 470 MW Karadeniz Powership Osman Khan will also supply uninterrupted and reliable electricity at one of the lowest prices for thermal power generation.
He said the operations of Karadeniz Powership Osman Khan would have a significant contribution to Ghana's electricity supply and create employment opportunities.
In his welcome address, Volaan Buyukbicer, Country Manager for Karpowership Ghana, expressed his deepest gratitude to all stakeholders and staff of Karpowership for their dedication, hard work and support, which had contributed to their successful operations in Ghana.
He said Karpowership had fulfilled its terms of contract with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to supply it constant electricity.
GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday cut the sod for the commencement of the Marine Drive Tourism Investment Project, expected to generate some 150,000 jobs for Ghanaians.
The project, estimated to cost some 1.5 billion US dollars, is situated on a total of 241 acres of prime beach front land, stretching from the Osu Christianborg Castle right to the Arts Centre, is a Public-Private Partnership geared towards boosting tourism, creating jobs for the youth, especially those within the catchment area, and increase economic growth.
At a brief ceremony at the Marine Drive, behind the Independence Square in Accra, President Akufo-Addo expressed appreciation to stakeholders, who helped ensure that the project came to fruition.
He was optimistic that the Marine Drive Tourism Enclave would be completed within the stipulated construction period.
'I am confident that all of us, gathered here, will be present again here, very soon, for the commissioning of this project', he added.
The project, which has been on the drawing board since Ghana's Independence era, is aimed at developing the coastlines of Accra. It would be a tourism hub for investors and tourist.
The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is the lead implementation agency. The project would be executed by two anchor developers-Attachy Constructions and Fridough Limited.
President Akufo-Addo said the project is a realisation of a pledge he and his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made in the run- up to the 2016 elections, to revive the country's tourism sector.
'Today, we begin the realization of this pledge, with the construction of the Marine Drive Tourism Investment Project.
"We are all aware how countries all over the world, particularly our neighbours in West Africa, have made good use of their beachfronts, and, as a result, rake in considerable revenues for the development of their communities and countries. We intend to go down that path,' the President said.
The President was happy that, inspite of the many unsuccessful efforts to implement the project since its conception some six decades ago," today, we are beginning this project.'
'It is noteworthy, also, that the required consultations have been done prior to this ceremony. I am happy to hear that the Chiefs have given their full support to the project, and that their concerns have been addressed.'
President Akufo-Addo commended the planners of the project for not considering only the economic aspect, but also ensuring that the interest of the public was factored into the design. Typical of projects such as this, planners, most often than not, consider only the economic or financial benefits.
'They have put in place a network of well-connected, multi-use public spaces that fit with the surrounding communities' he noted.
The architects have also included in the project, a Theme Park, in honour of the founding fathers of our Ghana, to celebrate their contributions to the liberation of the country from colonialist.
GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Professor Kwabena M. Bosompem, the Deputy Director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, has said research ethics has made tremendous progress across the African continent.
He said once you consider research ethics in its correct perspectives, you would end up coming with signs that rules at global standards, and once your signs meets global standards, you can be sure that it has become competitive.
Prof Bosompem was speaking at a symposium organised by the Ghana Administrators of Research Ethics Committee (GHAAREC) held under the theme: 'Promoting ethical research in Ghana: The role of stakeholders'.
The programme was one of the key activities of GHAAREC for the year 2017 as part of its on-going effort to bring together entities and stakeholders of research ethics to inform, educate and deliberate on matters relating to research ethics in Ghana.
He said the African continent has come to realise that ethics is a driving force, not just for many things but also especially for maintaining standards.
Prof Bosompem said as researchers, their role should be ethical in order to contribute to the socio economic development of the country.
This, he said, was the drive to innovative change which was the solution to the relevant issues in communities, adding that, researchers must be sure that every research conducted has a positive impact on the society.
Madam Helena Baidoo, the President of GHAAREC, said with the upsurge of IRBs in Ghana, it became necessary to form an association that will bring on board the administrators of IRBs for a common goal.
She said this gave birth to GALIB, with its motto as 'Promoting the well-being of research participants', adding that, 'its mission is to create a platform for networking among members, sensitise the general public to adhere to high ethical research standards and promote professionalism amongst administrators of research ethics committee in the country.'
Madam Baidoo said the symposium was to contribute to the realisation of another major objective of the association, which is to create educational platforms such as seminars, workshops and conferences for IRB members, administrators and stakeholders to stay abreast with relevant issues.
She expressed the hope that GHAAREC in the future would be able to embark on public sensitisation and educational programmes through various forums to create more awareness on research ethics and it relevance to national development.
She also expressed hope that such activities will be sustained through the support and cooperation of the various institutes represented at the symposium.
Dr Kwesi Odoi Agyarko said the four principles of ethics were respect, (Autonomy), doing good (beneficence), non-malfeasance and justice; and that these principles were making things in research better for everybody.
He said: 'You cannot build a reputation on what you are going to do, we can talk all the good talk, but the magic of achieving any goal is in the doing. We can sit around and talk about it, plan it meticulously, set up spreadsheets and charts, but unless we actually do something, nothing is going to happen.'
The GHAAREC is an umbrella association that is composed of all Administrators of Institutional Review Boards or Ethical Review Committees in Ghana.
GNA
By Amadu Kamil Sanah, GNA
Mr. Mustapha Abdul Hamid, Minister of Information, has said Government's plan to embark on an MDA Solar Rooftop Programme from 2018 was in the right direction.
He said programme dubbed: 'Government Goes Solar' will ensure that, government institutions switch to renewable energy to reduce Government's expenditure on utilities.
The 'Government Goes Solar 'project also seeks to address the huge expenditure of state institutions to purchase power into prepaid meters.
Mr Abdul Hamid said this when Photon Energy, a Private Solar Energy Firm, handed over a 15 Kilowatts Solar Power Panel to Ministry of Information in Accra.
The Solar Panel is being donated to the Ministry as a test system to complement their efforts to reduce the Ministry's cost of electricity payment.
He said his outfit was already saddened with electricity debts and that the solar panel will help in bailing out the Ministry by reducing its power purchase.
The Minister said it is very rare to see institutions donating to Government agencies, adding that, 'We live in a society where everybody is requesting what they want from Government.'
This he said the donation will register the company 'Photon Energy' name in the good record book of Government as the country was preparing to move away from Hydro and Thermal to Renewable Energy.
Mr Isaac Okyere, General Manager of Photon Energy said the objectives of their existence in the country was to provide cheap power and create jobs to compliment the Government efforts, adding that, 'Since charity begins at home, we thought it wise that one of our initial installations should be a donation to a leading government institution like the Ministry of Information.'
'We hope this system provides power fort the offices of the ministry, backup battery to store excess power for use in non-sunny periods and a net reverse meter which can feed excess power back into the national grid to net-reduce grid bills and assist in working for mother Ghana', Mr Okyere said.
He said Government's intention of moving all state facilities on to renewable energy platforms in 2018, should lead businesses and households to adopting renewable energy systems.
The General Manager said the usage of renewal energy will cut the cost of energy and help Ghana in its effort to fighting climate change.
Mr Joseph Cudjoe, a Deputy Minister of Energy, said Government through the Ministry of Energy was determined to leverage on the benefits of solar energy and expand its usage across the country.
He said the switch to solar power will mitigate the power crisis the country has been facing for the past four years which has led to a general discontent amongst the populace.
Ghana and Germany on Wednesday December 13, 2017 jointly signed a $100 million agreement towards a mutual programme in the area of energy efficiency and renewable energies to the G20-Africa renewable programme, based on reform initiatives in Ghana.
This agreement follows an earlier Memorandum of Understand signed between the two countries in Berlin, Germany, on the sidelines of the G20-Africa Partnership Summit in June this year.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) enjoins countries to provide sustainable, affordable and reliable energy for all by 2030.
GNA
By Amadu Kamil Sanah/Emmanuel Kwame Donkor, GNA
16.12.2017 LISTEN
The Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Frimpong Boateng has revealed government's intentions to drastically reduce the use of mercury in mining activities in the country as it poses serious health hazards.
As a result, Ghana has signed an agreement with the MINAMATA Convention.
The Convention seeks to ban the use of mercury in artisanal mining to reduce health risks.
In an interview with Citi Business News, Professor Frimpong Boateng also indicated that plans are advanced to wipe out mercury usage and its health implications in Ghana.
Already, a national action plan has been started to help Ghana deal with mercury poison especially in artisanal gold mining and this national action plan more or less fits into what our President has commissioned a committee to do; a nine member ministerial committee to deal with the challenges associated with illegal and artisanal mining he said.
The Minister added that we are here interacting with UNIDO on how they can help us in this regard. A lot of things have been discussed. We need to draw our national action plan, set up certain structures and put in certain measures and articulate our needs so that eventually we can get funding to deal not only with this menace but also look at the health effects.
Meanwhile the General Secretary for the Small Scale Miners Association, Godwin Amaang is optimistic the right policies will be instigated as government is engaging the miners' appropriately.
The level of engagement is really good concerning the MINAMATA convention because the association is represented at a steering committee, the miners views are also on board so policies that will come out we think it will not be misaligned with the realities on the ground. Because most often you get some policies and because the miners are not part of the whole process, it becomes very difficult to implement. But with this we have been involved from the inception so the level of engagement is really good.
By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
The post Environment Ministry to ban mercury use in mining appeared first on Ghana News .
These days it is no longer news to have cops arrested for leading armed robbery gangs, selling or hiring firearms to criminals.
When a cop is nabbed for being involved in armed robbery it is a painful matter to brood over because the law enforcement agency to which they belong, is critical in the law administration chain. Weak links, like bad cops, do not augur well for the image of the law enforcement institution in spite of the existence of many highly professional personalities within it. But for the overwhelming number of such good nuts in the Police Service, we would have just written it off.
We cannot do without a Police Service in spite of such occasional yet critical shortcomings as personified by the ilk of Cpl Raymond Amegashie who made negative headlines not for himself alone but the institution he represents.
When greed overwhelms people, it leads them to engage in such acts which are incompatible with the noble profession of policing they have sworn to be part of.
Raymond Amegashie was busted after the armed robbery operation he is said to have led was exposed. The cop is definitely going to join other colleagues of his in prison for similar offences.
One of the dangers of having law enforcement officers involving in such anomalies is that it makes it difficult for citizens to determine when a policeman is on an authorized duty or on a robbery mission.
The awesome powers of a police officer in uniform are so huge that such officers must be of exceptional moral standing. An officer without such an attribute can lie that the man he has shot resisted arrest and even sought to disarm him. Therein lies the importance of ensuring that cops are persons with a high sense of moral upbringing who would not only hire out their firearms to criminals but won't join gangs for robbery missions.
The arrest of Raymond and others in recent times is significant because thousands of Ghanaians have applied to join the Ghana Police Service where they hope to make a career.
It is gratifying that these young Ghanaian youth have showed such an interest in the Ghana Police Service. Some of these applicants might have genuine interest in becoming police officers but others are just turning their attention there for want of something to do as the unemployment challenge bites harder.
Those who seek to join the Police must show genuine interest in the law enforcement system otherwise they would soon discover that they are nut cut for it.
This is the time to ensure that all prospective recruits are adequately screened for criminal records and to ensure their moral eligibility.
Although we cannot vouch for a hundred percent success of screening, it is nonetheless better than not doing anything peeping into the closets of prospective recruits.
Those who fail this integrity test should not, under any circumstance, be recruited into the law enforcement agency. Cpl Raymond Amegashie and others have presented adequate reason for this recourse.
A police corporal and his three accomplices, who allegedly robbed a supermarket at Nungua in Accra, have been remanded into custody by an Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Aboagye Tandoh.
Corporal Raymond Amegashie, who is with the Tema SWAT Unit believed to be the leader of the robbery gang managed to escape after the robbery incident but was later arrested at Tsopoli Barrier on his way to the Volta Region.
The other three Ibrahim Ayirebo, motor rider; Bright Dorkanu, mechanic and Stanley Akorli, driver were arrested at Abbatoir, a police snap checkpoint, on December 12, 2017, when they tried to escape in a taxi with registration number GX 9514 14.
Corporal Raymond Amegashie on the night of the robbery reportedly left his duty post at Glotec Ghana Limited, where he was detailed to guard, with his AK47 rifle and 20 rounds of ammunition.
He reportedly joined the other suspects and drove to Nungua where they allegedly attacked the supermarket, near the Agricultural Development Bank amidst sporadic firing of gunshots.
They allegedly made away with GH45,000 and $1,000.
Corporal Amegashie and his accomplices drove off towards Tema in the taxi which was being driven by Stanley, but were intercepted at the Abattoir police checkpoint and the cop managed to escape.
Upon their arrest, the police retrieved an amount of GH19,500 and $600 from the suspects.
The four are facing two counts of conspiracy and robbery to which they all pleaded not guilty.
The judge, Mr Tandoh, remanded them into custody to allow police investigations into the matter.
They will reappear on January 4, 2018.
Facts
Chief Inspector Kwabena Adu, presenting the facts of the case in court, said the four suspects planned to go on a robbery expedition.
He said the cop abandoned his post with his duty rifle and met up with one suspect Ibrahim Ayirebo also wielding a pistol.
He told the court that upon getting to the supermarket, Corporal Amegashie, Ibrahim Ayirebo and Bright Dorkanu alighted from the taxi and entered the supermarket amidst sporadic firing of gunshots, robbed the operator of the supermarket of an amount of GH45,000 and US$1,000.
Chief Inspector Adu narrated that the suspects, after the robbery, took with them their booty, boarded the taxi and headed towards Tema.
He said the operator of the supermarket later made a report and the accused persons, in their bid to escape, were grabbed at the Tema Community 18 Abattoir snap checkpoint.
According to the prosecutor, Ibrahim Ayirebo, Bright Dorkanu and Stanley Akorli were arrested in the taxi but the cop managed to escape with his AK47 rifle.
He said upon the arrest of the three, GH19,500 and $600 were retrieved from them.
Chief Inspector Adu told the court that Corporal Raymond Amegashie, who spent the night at the Tema motorway, near the Aflao Station, returned his duty rifle the following day and in his attempt to escape to the Volta Region, was arrested at the Tsopoli Police Barrier and handed over to the police for investigations.
By Gibril Abdul Razak
Couple of months ago, we all gathered in Cape Coast as a party to deliberate on some issues that has to do with our dear party. It was indeed our first Congress after the Almighty God granted us an overwhelming victory to lead the good people of this country.
At the meeting in Cape Coast, suggestions and recommendations were made for constitutional amendments which catapulted the setting up of a committee to review such recommendations.
The work of the committee has been done and they have submitted their findings to the National Executive Council. I believe that tomorrow's meeting is in clear consonance and accord with our democratic principles and vision as a party. We have a broadened democratic perspective and vision now that we have power and we intend to consolidate our political gains and fortunes of our tradition.
As a matter of fact, I would like to wish all delegates and members of our party a peaceful trip as we all journey to Kumasi to enact and adopt for ourselves proper and efficient constitutional amendments which will not tear up our long standing democratic credentials but will rather aid in further fortifying and strengthening our internal democracy.
Let us meet tomorrow in unity and in oneness. Let us continue to demonstrate to the good people of the country that our tradition is devoid of violence and unnecessary antagonism. Let us once again prove to them that the NPP is the only party that can provide them with Good Governance. Safe journey and may the Good Lord protect us all.
God Bless Ghana
God Bless NPP
God Bless Us All.
Signed...
Nana Agyemang Daakyehene
Deputy National Communication Director(NAYAS)
It is the sort of blunder or contretemps that has no easy and/or simple explanation, except the sort of human factor that often threatens the theoretically objective administration of justice. In the Akufo-Addo/Siaw-Agyapong Case, we have a clash between the personal and the official, friendship and the cold reality of the law. It was in the extremely difficult attempt to negotiate this treacherous terrain and context that President Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo was ineluctably caught off-guard (See Emile Short Claims Osafo-Maafo Did Damage Control for Akufo-Addo MyJoyOnline.com/Modernghana.com 12/5/17).
It is extremely difficult because, if, indeed, the operatives or principals of the JOSPONG Group of Companies inflated contractual expenditures, especially in the area of sanitation, and defrauded the Ghanaian taxpayer, as has been widely alleged, this racket was definitely accomplished with the full complicity of the Mahama cabinet appointees very likely the extant ministers of Health, the Environment and, perhaps, even Local Government and Finance who signed off on such contractual terms of reference. If the crimes being investigated and/or alleged to have been committed are proven to have teeth or criminal culpability can be established against the accused, then, of course, what this clearly means is that the sector ministers who signed off on the JOSPONG contracts did not conduct the legally required due diligence to ensure that the Ghanaian taxpayer was not shortchanged, or got a reasonable value for the services promised and/or delivered.
This in no way absolves JOSPONG from criminal culpability. What it clearly does is to simply widen the net to capture both appointees of the Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the JOSPONG principals. There was enough evidence indicating that the operatives of the JOSPONG Group of companies were less than kosher in their managerial culture, though the most egregious case in point, we are told, occurred in Liberia, where a World Bank-underwritten sanitation project entrusted to JOSPONG was allegedly so flagrantly botched that the World Banks authorities responsible for overseeing the successful execution of the project blacklisted and suspended JOSPONG from any contractual concessions or bids involving the global lender for a considerable number of years.
While it does not necessarily follow that the same underhanded contractual dealings may have occurred in Ghana, the home base of JOSPONG, nevertheless, there is good reason to believe that a similar fraudulent pattern may very well have been repeated here in Ghana. This, I hope and believe, is what the operatives of EOCO, the Economic and Organized Crime Office, are seeking to either confirm or disprove. Ultimately, I dont think that the right way to go at it is for President Akufo-Addo to issue an official statement clarifying his JOSPONG faux-pas, as Justice Francis Emile Short, the seminal Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is suggesting.
Rather, what the President needs to do is to say absolutely nothing about the JOSPONG contretemps and, instead, wait for the outcome of the EOCO investigation of the Siaw-Agyapong Group. And then let the law take its unfettered natural course. About the only statement that Nana Akufo-Addo may want and, in fact, may need to issue on JOSPONG, is to simply make it plain and clear that whatever he said to Mr. Siaw-Agyapong, by way of compliment and commiseration, during his working tour of the Greater-Accra Region, ought not to be taken by the general public to mean that he has any prejudice against the credibility and/or the integrity of the EOCO operatives.
*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
The Russian Export Center (REC) is created as a state specialized institution to support Russian export to foreign markets. It has a group of companies that provides comprehensive financial and non-financial support to Russian export-oriented companies and industries in the single window format.
One of the key tasks is to interact with relevant ministries and departments in the sphere of improving and developing foreign trade of the Russian Federation to Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.
In this interview, Peter Fradkov, General Director of the Russian Export Center (REC), discusses some aspects of Russian trade operations, strategies and challenges as well as future plans in the direction of Africa during a recent meeting with Kester Kenn Klomegah, an independent researcher and a policy consultant on African affairs in the Russian Federation and Eurasian Union.
Here are the interview excerpts:
Q:Could you please tell us about the Russian Export Center and why it was established as a subsidiary of Vnesheconombank in 2015?
A:In recent years, Russia has been making every effort to avoid the "raw-materials" export model and focus on developing export-oriented industries. The launch of the Russian Export Center was a key step towards the development of a full-fledged national export support system. Previously, the exporter had to apply to various authorities on different issues. In the course of time it became clear that it was necessary to create a "one-stop-shop" for exporters to receive a full range of services and support their products in foreign markets.
The reason behind creating a Russian Export Center within Vnesheconombank, based on the mandate of Vnesheconombank as a development institution, was the need to unite the Center, the EXIAR insurance agency and Roseximbank in one group in order to offer our customers a full range of financial and non-financial services, to provide Russian exporters with ample tools for entering foreign markets.
Q:With a focus on South Africa, is there any possibility for it to be used as a gateway to reach the market of southern African region? Do you also plan to develop or localize production centers and cooperate or compete with other foreign producers there?
A:Let me address the last question first. It is unlikely that upon entering the South African market, Russian companies will pursue any competition objectives. On the other hand, they are not afraid of competition, as Russian industrial products, primarily machinery, are quite competitive and can occupy positions not only in the market of South Africa, but also in other African countries. Russian manufacturers have a number of specific competitive advantages. Let's take, for example, agricultural machinery. The main advantage of Russian products as compared to the counterparts by major foreign manufacturers is a lower price and almost the same level of capacity, quality and useful life. Moreover, the cost of operation, including maintenance, repairs, etc. is often lower than that of the foreign competitors worldwide. Considering the fact that Africa has 60% of the world's resources of untreated but agriculturally suitable land, we recognize remarkable opportunities for supplies of agricultural machinery, fertilizers, plant protection products and other solutions to improve the efficiency of agricultural activities in African countries.
Besides, a number of Russian companies operating in South Africa, such as Rosatom, Rostselmash, and Renova are implementing educational programs to train local specialists for the subsequent operation and maintenance of equipment, facilities or plants built with Russian support. This is an important contribution to the social development of the African country.
As for the plan to establish production there, it is a very interesting form of cooperation, which the Russian companies are now considering. And what matters here is that a reliable partner has to be chosen. In this context, cooperation with local and foreign producers in South Africa looks very promising The Russian Export Center takes an active part in the development of state support measures to create a service and repair infrastructure for Russian companies operating abroad, the launch of which is scheduled for the next year. The Republic of South Africa offers good conditions for the creation of joint manufacturing facilities and opportunities for them to enter the markets of the South African Customs Union (SACU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries in the future.
Q:Do you also think there is a lot of potential in terms of raising trade and economic cooperation between the African continent and Russia? Doing business in Africa is not easy but what kind of approach do you envisage to adopt?
A:Today, African countries are taking an increasingly active part in the global political and economic space. The Soviet Union made a significant contribution to the social and economic development of African countries by building large industrial and infrastructure facilities and helping to establish national education and health care systems. However, in the 1990s the Russian-African relations came virtually to a standstill. At present, Russia's foreign trade turnover with Africa is about 12 billion US dollars, which is a rather modest achievement. Nevertheless, the African continent remains a rather promising market for Russian industrial goods.
When working with exporters, we are witnessing increasing understanding that Africa is a new global market with a population of more than 1 billion people, with great potential for economic growth and, accordingly, consumption.
On the other hand, I can't recall of any special difficulties, inherent to the Russian-African business partnership. Perhaps, I should point out a still insufficient awareness of the real economic opportunities, market conditions and specific counterparts in African markets by Russian businesses and, accordingly, poor awareness of capabilities of Russian partners incumbents by Africans.
As I already said, what really matters for Russian companies is to find potential partners and distributors. Many companies do not possess competencies for searching foreign partners. Any successful project which came to exist had very often a spontaneous nature and was forged due to some historical experience, exhibitions or some other events. And we haven't undertaken any focused effort based on modelling of business processes to find dealers and distributors. Russian Export Center actively engages in tackling this issue in order to reconcile consistently supply and demand with each other.
Q: What are your key focus, products and services? Would you also focus on big companies and who are your potential clients? And what about medium-size enterprises?
A:Customers of the Russian Export Center include representatives of very different industries: machine building, agro-industrial complex, IT, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and many others. Our customers cooperate with countries in Asia, CIS, Africa, South America and Europe. The important thing is Russian Export Center deals with both major businesses and small and medium-sized exporters. Of course, the goals and opportunities of these companies vary. The medium- and small-sized exporters e.g. submit inquiries relating to non-financial support, search for partners, analysis of foreign markets, educational services in the field of exports. The major players are more interested in financial and insurance support. Russia is a big country, so we pay special attention to working with regions. According to data for 2016, a significant proportion of REC customers (about 70%) accrued exactly to the regional companies. And it comes without surprise since the vast majority of manufacturing companies are located in the regions. We are pleased to witness a higher interest shown by the regional companies in entering African markets, most of these companies represent small and medium businesses.
Q:So, what are the key challenges here with regard to the latest economic developments which are faced by other foreign players on the African continent now?
A:Currently, lots of countries worldwide are intensifying efforts to get a foothold in Africa. Russia has traditionally and historically built very good, trust-based relations with the African continent. At the same, I should notice that trade and economic relations with many countries do not meet the achieved level of political relations. Trade turnover could be much more sizable in terms of both quality and numbers and both sides could experience such growth.
Reinforcement of positions of Russian exporters in Africa requires creation of certain conditions. The main one of them is penetration into the market. We are often faced with discriminatory barriers, which are there not because we are from Russia, but because we have just not thought about how to remove these barriers. For example, in some African countries we deal with the fact that European or American companies have to pay really low customs dues or do not have to pay them at all, while we often have to pay away 20-40 % custom duties, for example, for cars or cement. The government authorities, both intergovernmental commissions and the Russian Export Center, are primarily concerned with removing barriers for Russian exporters and opening up foreign markets for them.
Q:What do you hope to achieve over the long term in the market in Africa? Describe the African market and say your final words to your potential clients who are located in different countries and regions in Africa?
A:Global goal of the Russian Export Center is to create favorable conditions for the growth of Russian exports. Being a key state institution for export support, the Government of Russia has set important tasks before us. This year we are to involve more than 6.5 thousand new companies in export activities and also support export deliveries worth at least $ 20 billion.
The world of today has gone global, and without the integration of world trade into the processes business scaling would be impossible. Our primary task is to gradually change the thinking of Russian entrepreneurs, who are often skceptical about entering foreign markets, including African ones. Secondly, we strive to promote the image of Russia as a producer of diverse and high-quality products. For this purpose, the Russian Export Center has launched a program to promote Russian goods and services under a single country brand "Made in Russia". And in this context, Africa is a very important partner for us, though not an easy one.
Currently, the REC Group which includes EXIAR and Roseximbank has developed a comprehensive line of financial and non-financial instruments for the support of Russian companies in foreign markets operating or going to enter the African markets. In my opinion, the key products are financing of goods supplies (including, credits to the buyer or the buyer's bank), insurance of export contracts and international investments, issuance of guarantees. The potential customers in Africa should be aware that the beneficiaries and consumers of these governments support measures are not just our exporters since we additionally arrange financing for supply of products and take other special support measures which are in fact assumed by the Russian state. Thus, the Russian Export Center aims to reach a mutually beneficial, long-term cooperation with our African partners
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Sustained international action is urgently needed to end the horrific human rights violations taking place in South Sudan, said Amnesty International today as the countrys armed conflict entered its fifth year.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, thousands more subjected to sexual violence, and close to four million displaced since the conflict began on 15 December 2013.
Coordinated and sustained international action is needed now more than ever to end the suffering in South Sudan, especially as the rainy season ends and the dry season begins, heralding an escalation in fighting, said Sarah Jackson, Amnesty Internationals Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.
Regional states and the international community must work together to find a lasting solution to this crisis and put an end to the litany of human rights violations.
The last four years of fighting have had a devastating impact on civilians. Thousands of men, women and children have been subjected to unimaginable acts of violence, including sexual assault, by government and opposition forces, some of which could amount to crimes against humanity or war crimes.
In the Equatoria region, Amnesty International found that government and opposition forces cut food supplies to certain areas, systematically looted food from markets and homes, and targeted civilians carrying even the smallest amount of food across frontlines.
Food has been used as a weapon of war, and as a result today approximately 4.8 million people are considered to be food insecure. This state of affairs will continue, unless speedy action is taken to end the humanitarian crisis, said Sarah Jackson.
Efforts to end the conflict must also include imposition of an arms embargo on all parties to the conflict and concrete measures to deliver justice to victims of grave human rights violations, chiefly through the setting up of the much-delayed Hybrid Court for South Sudan.
During the prolonged conflict, journalists, human rights defenders, and opposition supporters have been harassed, arbitrarily arrested and in some cases tortured, and humanitarian workers have been prevented from carrying out their duties.
The South Sudanese authorities must restore unfettered access to aid agencies to distribute much-needed food and medical supplies to victims of this conflict. They must also allow civil society actors to operate freely.
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,
Thank you for honouring our invitation to be here this morning. We have called this Press Conference ahead of the NPP extraordinary conference due to be held in Kumasi, on Sunday, 17 December, to consider proposals for the constitutional amendments.
The proposed amendments in consideration, are wide ranging. They include provisions that will fundamentally alter the extent of participation and future role of External Branches in the affairs of our Party generally, and in the structure and leadership of our Party in particular. We therefore want to focus the attention of the press, and Ghanaians,today, on issues that impact the role of External Branches of the NPP in the affairs of our Party,and the overall participation of Ghanaians in the diaspora, in the democratic process in Ghana.
The NPP has over 25 External Branches today. These Branches have made significant contribution to the development of the Party since inception, and have continued to do so, culminating in the effective support External Branches, collectively, made to deliver success to the Party at the 2016 general elections. Members of External Branches have contributed at every level of our Party structure. They have previously held, and continue to hold high office in Ghana.
Our members by virtue of their overseas domicile, are dual citizens citizens of their host nations, and citizens of Ghana - as duly recognised under the constitution of the republic of Ghana.
Our Party, NPP, has been at the forefront of implementing progressive changes that will increase participation of Ghanaians in the democratic process in Ghana. President Kufours administration passed the ROPAL bill. President Akufo Addo has continued to engage positively with Ghanaians in the diaspora, urging them to become involved in every way in the affairs of our dear nation. We have made great gains as a Party, and as a nation, in that respect, and we commend the NPP for that foresight and leadership. The direction of travel is clear, to ensure that within our own Party structure, and indeed in the affairs of the nation, Ghanaians in the diaspora (dual citizens) have equal rights as any citizen of our dear country. We must consolidate the gains we have made along this journey, and move on from here, to go further, to address other provisions of the Ghana constitution that today stand in the way of that progress.
It is our strongly held view, that the proposals to be considered by NPP delegates in Kumasi, as part of this constitutional review, in particular, that relating to the rights of members, include amendments that will not reverse the gains made by our party, as it pertains to the role and participation of external branches in the affairs of our party.
The partyin the view of External Branches, has a unique opportunity, to use the mechanism of constitutional review, to advance the Partys development on a number of fronts, including deepening the participation and inclusion of members of the Party in the external branches in particular, and Ghanaians in the diaspora in general, in the democratic process in the party, and in the nation at large, while ensuring the principles of democratic accountability are upheld at all levels of the Party structure.
Statement by NPP External Branches
In its recent report, the NPP Ad hoc Constitutional Review Committee, set up pursuant to Art. 9(B)(1) expressed the hope that,
The Extraordinary Delegates Conference will adopt amendments which will ensure cohesion within the Party, enhance efficiency of the functioning of relevant organs of the Party, reduce the risk of controversies and/or litigation as well as make the provisions generally tidy.
The Chairpersons and members of NPP branches in the Diaspora NPP External Branches - are of the collective view that the Party is at a crucial inflection point in its Genesis, as it ponders far reaching proposals for amendment to the NPP Constitution.
On behalf of our members we are deeply concerned about those proposals, which bring into sharp focus, the future role of external branches, in the structure and leadership of the Party. We observe, that with the ongoing review, and the forthcoming extra ordinary delegates conference scheduled for Sunday 17 December, in Kumasi, the Party has a unique opportunity, to use this important mechanism, to advance the Partys development on a number of fronts, including; deepening the participation and inclusion of members of the Party in the external branches in particular, and Ghanaians in the diaspora in general, in the democratic process within the Party, and the nation at large. While at the same time, ensuring the principles of democratic accountability are upheld at all levels of the Party structure.
We have carefully considered the proposed amendments and are particularly concerned about those, under the heading Rights of Members.The relevant parts of which, are reproduced below in their entirety for ease of reference.
C - Rights of Members
A member shall have the right to:
(iii) Contest for any position or office within the Party in accordance with rules and regulations governing elections.
(iv) Subject to Article 55(8) of the 1992 Constitution the Party shall not have as a Founding Member, Patron, or Member of its executive a member / person who is not qualified to be elected as a Member of Parliament or to hold any other public office.
(v) For the avoidance of doubt
1. A member shall be disqualified from holding any office or contesting any election in the Party if he or she:
a) Owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana
The theme of the 2017 Delegates Conference held at Cape Coastwas, the past, the present and the future, it is therefore apt, that at such a crucial juncture in our Partys genesis, we should be attempting to make changes to the NPPConstitution, that serve to, build upon the progress we have been making as a political tradition, and as the foremost democratic political party in our country, and dare we say it, the continent of Africa.
The NPP Constitution is a sacred document which has in the past, and will in the future, continue to guide how we conduct our affairs as a political party.We appreciate the need for it, and its importance, in regulating the activities, of not only the Party at home in Ghana but also the growing numbers of members in External Branches across the globe.As such, the review process matters, and all concerned, are determined that we get it right!
The exercise is one of such importance, not only for us here and now, but also for posterity, that we deem it appropriate for the process to be guided by a clearly defined set of principles, which as one would expect, include those that have guided the development of equity, and have underpinned, the core values of our Party, since its inception.
Our members have noted with incredulity and dismay that the ad hoc committee did not include a single representative from any of the External Branches. The exclusion of such a large cross section of Party Members is inexcusable and hurtful!
We are all very much alive to the fact that the provisions of the NPP Constitution must not run contrary to those of the Constitution of the 4th Republic, (the 1992 Constitution).
Having said that, in reaching for the future we must not forget the past.
We have not forgotten, the way, in which, the 1992 Constitution,at the end of an era of a brutal dictatorship,in transition to a democratic dispensation,was drafted and, the fact that Provisions like Art 55(8) and 94(2)(a) were inserted to keep political opponents, both real and perceived at bay.We understand that those provisions which have now been enshrined in our supreme law for over a quarter of a century, were not the brain child of our political tradition.
We appeal to all delegates to the conference, that any constitutional amendment proposals which,in essence are, or maybe retrogressive, or which pose a present danger to the gains we have made in our 25-year history as a party, should not be entertained. In fact, they should be rigorously rejected with every fibre of our collective being.
The NPP, was birthed out of the stable of a rich political party tradition that has stood for 70 years. It is built on sound principles of democracy and the belief in individual freedoms, equality and accountability at all levels. The Party has survived diverse adversities, largely due to its unwavering focus on stamping out any attempts, measures, or provisions in its Constitution, which may weaken the spirit of democracy which is hardwired in our DNA!
We have said it before, and we reiterate the need to ensure that we uphold our rich traditions and strengthen the party structures and organisation at all levels to accord with those principles that have stood the test of time.
We need to strengthen our party structures from the polling station level, constituency level, regional and External branch levels, through the leadership of elected officials who are answerable to our party workers and members in their respective areas of operation, and in accordance with the dictates of our structures that guarantee discipline, cohesion, and respect for all.
Today, we have over well 20 external branches officially recognised by the Party. We are the Party that passed the Representation of the People Amendment Act, which when implemented, would be another battle ground in our quest for votes from Ghanaians resident abroad, and which could in time to come, determine the outcome of future elections.
This is a strong position we can leverage for the good of the party and our nation. This is a solid platform on which to progress.
The External Branches must continue to have elected executives who shall be the custodians of the party in the Diaspora. We are members of the IDU, we have an excellent relationship with our sister parties in the Diaspora and some of our members do hold dual citizenship. That does not mean that there is a conflict of loyalty. Far from it.
There must be collaboration and respect for the role of the External Branches and their executives and their counterparts back at home, be they Party Executives, MPs or Committee Members.
With regard, to the role of external branches going forward, we have indeed reached an inflection point! We have made great strides in the recent past, extending membership of the Party to thousands of enthusiastic Ghanaians.
NPP External Branches made a huge contribution, in terms of time, effort, energy and resources (both human and financial) which led to the Partys resounding victory in the 2016 General Election.
We are proud to have played such an important role. Our members travelled home at great personal expense, to help with the campaign on the ground. They didnt only do it only in 2016. They did it in 2012 and 2008, and other elections since the dispensation of the 4th republic. The current proposals for constitutional amendments pertaining to rights of members in particular, serve only to dampen the spirits of these gallant men and women.
The implication of the proposed change under rights of members,if implemented, is that there will be no place for External Branch members who are also dual citizens, in any leadership role in the Party they have worked so hard to sustain.
Local politics, must not be seen, as being antagonistic towards our brothers and sisters who live in the Diaspora.Policies which will discourage further participation in the democratic process should not be countenanced.
These ill-advised proposals could kill off the NPP External Branches!
There is no evidence supporting the suggestion that dual citizens are less loyal than those who do not hold dual citizenship. In fact, the preponderance of the evidence demonstrates otherwise.Ghanaians in the diaspora, as we know continue to make a huge contribution, through remittances, to the economy of Ghana.Many, want to make a valued contribution to the development of our nation.
We have a unique opportunity now, to use the mechanism of constitutional review to advance our Partys development, on a number, of fronts, including deepening the participation and inclusion of members of our Party in the external branches, and including them in the leadership structure of the party, with appropriate representation and a seat at the table.
As the Party delegates gather to consider the proposed amendments, the External Branches of the NPP, hereby urge all delegates, at this crucial moment in our history, to rise up to the challenge posed.
We need to collectively ensure that any proposed amendments we adopt, only serve to underline our core principle as a party, deepen our democracy, ensure accountability, and help us build a Party that all, will feel proud to belong to.
The guiding principles that have informed our current stance are as follows:
The aim and indeed, the essence of reviewing or amending a national constitution should be the fixing of the ineffective or broken parts, and the exercise, should largely be based on objective, impartial, broad-minded, and carefully considered reasons. The need to continue to strengthen and deepen our democratic credentials through further integration of all groups represented in the Party, including in particular, the Party in the Diaspora. The need for strong institutions namely, a well-resourced, well-structured Party not strong men. That whilst we should be guided and informed by our illustrious history, constitutional changes should not be driven by worst case scenarios, knee jerk reactions or a misplaced fear factor. That the principle of democratic accountability should always be upheld and foremost in our thinking. We should, with progress in mind, be always factoring in the role and contribution of external branches at every level of the Party. And, last, but not least, we should always ask ourselves, if the proposed amendments, either individually or collectively, deepen democracy in our Party, and if they ensure accountability of our elected officials at all levels of our Party?
Holding dual citizenship should not be a bar to holding office in the NPP, at home or in the Diaspora.
A time has come for us to help build that Party of the future! A party that is progressive in extending the boundaries of participation. A party that is inclusive. A party where every member, irrespective of domicile, has equal rights, and can achieve their best for our Party and indeed our nation. That time, that moment in history, is now!
Signed:
For and on behalf of Chairpersons, and Members of NPP External Branches
Drafted by: Michael Ansah, Chairman, NPP UK, David Yianoma, Vice Chairman, NPP UK
14 December, 2017
16.12.2017 LISTEN
At about 6pm on Friday 15th December 2017, I listened to Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh Member of Parliament for Juaboso express his displeasure and unhappiness on citifm evening news segment dubbed Eyewitnessnews about a certain conduct which many Ghanaians described as a unpleasant posture put up by no less a person than the Chief Justice herself Madam Sophia Akuffo in an open sometime this week.
After listening to the narration by the member of parliament which was more of a corroboration to what some media outlets in the country published earlier in the week on their platforms, I am unable to resist the temptation to also proffer my view point on the issuing conversation. First of all, its important to situate this conversation in a proper context so that people can appreciate the conversation very well.
It thus appears to me that, there is a certain subculture that is gradually gaining grounds in the judiciary in this country which must be curbed before it gets out of hand. Its difficult to appreciate why some learned persons at bar or bench would often make some political utterances against certain individuals or group of persons perceived or believed to be affiliated to NDC with impunity.
For the purpose of this discussion, I will highlight two or three of such utterances made in the past.
For instance, Justice Jones Dotse is reported to be the author of this phrase create, loot and share in reference to a certain case before the court during the ndc era which subsequently became a vile political slogan for the NPP prior to the 2012 elections against the then ruling NDC government.
That statement could not have been made by mistake. In fact many school of thoughts say that it was deliberately made by the said judge to ridicule the government of the day then.
Fast forward to 2016, similar disrapaging remarks were made by the learned Justice Sophia Akuffo in connection with the contempt case involving the montie 3. In this specific montie 3 case, she was the presiding judge and the following comments were attributed to her Even the president cant control. This was a statement many Ghanaians including myself found to be appalling to have come from such seasoned judge, in fact many Ghanaians felt that the statement was a mark of gross disrespect to the President at the time.
A year on, one would have thought that following the public reactions that greeted her utterances in 2016 as I have restated which many found to be too political, she would have learned her lessons to refrain from such utterances but this doesnt appear to be.
According to Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh Member of Parliament for Juanoso, earlier this week he together with his counsel appeared in court in connection with a case he Hon. Akandoh and Hon. Ernest Norgbe Member of Parliament for Ashaiman sent to the Supreme Court for interpretation regarding Ghanas National Service law. It will be recalled that after the nomination of Madam Otiko Djaba, it came out that she didnt do her national service which she subsequently confirmed at her vetting. The issue generated a national debate as to whether its really mandatory for persons who complete tertiary education either in Ghana or abroad to do one year national service. It was on the back of this controversy that the two members went to the SC to seek the proper interpretation of the laws.
But apparently in their claims to the court, their names had the word honourable as prefixes which Justice Sophia Akuffo didnt take kindly to.
Ironically we are told by Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh that, the same person (Chief Justice) who had strong issues with the two Members of Parliament for prefixing their names with Honourable subsequently asked why Madam Otiko Dzabas name was NOT prefixed with the word honourable, something the Chief Justice openly ridiculed in open court.
According to Hon. Akandoh, Madam Sophia Akuffo went on to ask if Madam Otiko Dzaba wasnt also a Member of Parliament.
When she was answered in the negative, she then went on to ask if Madam Otiko Djaba didnt deserve to be referenced as Honourable Otiko Djaba since she was a Minister even if she was NOT an MP. This sounds so contradictory to what she openly ridiculed.
But the plaintiffs had good reasons why they didnt address the then nominee as Honourable Otiko Djaba.
As at the time they filed the writ at the Supreme Court, she had not been approved and so she was still a nominee, which is understandable anyway.
What is not understandable however is the alleged contradictory statements of the Chief Justice in open court. In one breath, she appeared to be against MPs prefixing their names with honourable and turned around to advocate for the application of same prefix she reportedly spoke against in the case pf Madam Otiko Djaba.
My interest in this whole issue comes from the fact that if our law courts especially the highest court in Ghana, Supreme Court that is supposed to be final place in the country to deliver justice to all manner of persons regardless of ones political affiliation, religious beliefs, ethnic background etc in a just and fair manner is now seen to be turning into a place where citizens of Ghana who may belong to certain political affiliations do not feel confident or have trust in their handling of critical national issues in view of some of these partisan pronouncements on the part of some justices, then where would we be heading towards as a country?
It beats my imagination as well as many other Ghanaians why the learned Chief Justice would commit such blunder or contradictory in an open court especially when she attempted to ridicule these members of Parliament. Couldnt she have communicated her observation to the speaker of Parliament through a memo or written correspondence if she felt so strongly about the issue?
Besides, during her own vetting in parliament after her nomination by the president, why didnt she make that known to the appointment committee because members of the committee especially the chairman constantly referred to his colleagues as honourable ......?
I think its fair for those of us outside the court system to find out what her motivation was in ridiculing the two MPs in open court especially when she had other avenues to make her case known or listened to.
This is important because members of parliament belong to one of the third arms of government in the country and they deserved to be respected as such just as Ghanaians hold the judges in high esteem.
In my humble view, its only when members of these three arms of government respect the independence of one another and recognize the important roles they each play, that there would be mutual cooperation and understanding among them. This would enhance further our democratic gains and consolidation.
Its not for nothing that Parliament often refrain itself from discussing into details issues that ate pending before the law courts in this country when such issues are brought before Parliament. It is a recognition of how these three organs of that state need to respect and appreciate the different works they all do.
Its often said that respect is reciprocal, therefore one would expect that, the appropriate thing for Madam Sophia Akuffo to have done was to communicate formally her position to the leadership of parliament especially she being the head of the Judiciary in this country, and more, that was a peripheral issue to have been dealt with in an open court in the manner she reportedly said it.
The two honourable members of parliament deserved to respected, commended and appreciated for seeking to expand the frontiers of our democracy by taking the challenge to bring to an end whether one can decide not to do national service or not rather than the raw deal they got.
Granted that the use of the word honourable as a prefix to the names of members of parliament is even wrong as said bu the Chief Justice Madam Sophia Akuffo for which she reportedly ridiculed the two MPs, one would like know, on what basis did she reportedly asked why Madam Otiko Djaba wasnt addressed as honourable?
Again, one would like to know from the learned Chief Justice, which of our laws disallow members of parliament from using such descriptions as titles before their names if they so wish? Answer to this question will educate the rest of us the general public.
Its open knowledge that judges especially at Supreme Court are often addressed with the word Justice prefixed to their official names, is our learned Madam Sophia Akuffo saying that, this practice is also wrong? If its not, what then makes the case of Members of Parliament who are often addressed by their constituents and the general public as Honourable A or B wrong?
For God sake, the learned Chief Justice is the leader of the entire judiciary service in the country, and fourth topmost officer in the country after the President, Vice President, and Speaker of Parliament, therefore, the public utterances, posture and conduct of occupants in these offices MUST be above board or reproach at all material times.
As a citizen of Ghana, I felt scandalized as why why our learned CJ would treat members of Parliament in open court in such undignified manner especially when Members of Parliament are direct representatives of the people.
I felt that its appropriate to add ones view point to help point out this creeping tendencies that when allowed to continue would not auger well for our growing democracy in country.
I wished that the Chief Justice under this circumstances in my candid opinion could speak to the two members of parliament involved directly with signs of remorse especially when the merit of the case is NOT determined so that they can feel comfortable appearing before her in court otherwise this may NEGATIVELY affect the morale and confidence and trust of the two MPs in the process especially in the CJ going forward and it may lead to a discontinuation of the case since its only dismissed on technical grounds but not on its merits. The final determination of the merits or otherwise of their case will help enhance our democracy.
There has been peaceful coexistence among all the three arms of government as earlier stated in this country over the years and we must not look on as citizens when we notice issues that have the tendencies derail this peaceful coexistence and success chalked.
In my estimation, the Chief Justice went overboard especially when the matter before the Supreme Court had nothing to do with the interpretations of the titles of members of parliament either assigned to themselves or as they are often addressed by their constituents or the general public.
God bless our homeland Ghana
Thank you
Baba Musah
[email protected]
16.12.2017 LISTEN
Renowned human rights lawyer, Dr. Raymond Atuguba has written to the Nima Police station over the illegal arrest of the Chairman of the People's National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah.
In the letter which was also copied to President Akufo-Addo, the Chief Justice, IGP and Attorney General, Dr. Atuguba sought a response from the police on the circumstances under which Mr. Mornah was arrested and what charges had been laid against him.
Dr. Atuguba, who acts as counsel for Mr. Mornah said he immediately dispatched a staff to gather details about the incident and the last report I received from our Staffer was to the effect that some or all of the 20 persons arrested were being processed to be locked up in the Nima Police Station cells.
He noted in the letter that this morning, as the rally was about to commence at the Kawukudi Park, a band of police officers descended upon them, forcibly dispersed the gathering, rounded up about twenty (20) members of the Movement and detained them at the Nima Police Station. As of the time he was speaking to me, he and the others were being held at the Nima Police Station. As at the time of writing this letter, the Police have still not informed them the reason(s) for their arrest and detention and they are still under detention.
Bernard Mornah and about 12 other people were arrested by the Nima Police on Saturday morning when they gathered as members of the Ghana-Togo Solidarity movement to hold a peaceful march to draw the attention of local and international authorities to the political crisis in Togo.
Bernard Mornah arrested
Reports say Mr. Mornah, who is the leader of the movement, failed to inform police about their action on the Kanda Highway today [Saturday], hence the action by police.
Dr. Atuguba however in his letter indicated that He [Bernard Mornah] informed me that he had previously written to the Ghana Police Service on behalf of the Ghana-Togo Solidarity Movement, seeking permission to hold a rally in Ghana, in support of persons in the Republic of Togo whose rights were being violated.
The Police requested for a meeting with the Movement to urge them not to hold the rally, as they claimed they were short of numbers to provide the requisite protection. The position of the Movement at the meeting was that, as a lot of resources had already been invested by them in preparation for the rally, they would be unable to cancel or postpone same. In the alternative, the Movement informed the Police that they could resort to the terms of the Public Order Act to secure a court order to postpone the rally, the letter said.
Copy of the letter pre-informing the police about the march
He is since requesting the Police to urgently inform him:
1. Whether or not our Client, BERNARD ANBATAAYELA MORNAH, is in the custody of the Nima Police Station, any of the affiliates of that Police Station, or any officer or worker or affiliate or agent of that Police Station;
2. Whether or not our Client has been charged with any offence(s), and if so what offence(s);
3. Whether or not our Client will be granted bail, and if so on what day and time; 4. Whether or not our Client will be put before a Court of law, and if so on what day and time and at which Court.
Meanwhile, the police is yet to give a reason for the arrest but according to Bernard Mornah, they said it was order from above.
By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The post Atuguba writes to IGP, Nana Addo over Mornahs illegal arrest appeared first on Ghana News .
South African President Jacob Zuma on Saturday blamed infighting and perceived corruption for the troubles of the ANC party, which risks losing power for the first time since the end of apartheid.
Zuma, whose reign has been marred by graft scandals, spoke at a party conference that will elect his successor as head of the African National Congress, though he will remain as head of state ahead of 2019 elections.
The two front-runners in the divisive party leadership race are his ex-wife and former African Union head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a wealthy businessman.
The 75-year-old Zuma said the party's poor local election results last year "were a stark reminder that our people are not happy with the state of the ANC".
He blamed the decline in support on "perceptions in society that we are soft on corruption, self-serving and arrogant."
"Petty squabbling that takes us nowhere needs to take a back seat," he said.
"Our people are frustrated when we spend more time fighting among ourselves instead of solving the daily challenges they experience... Factionalism has become the biggest threat to our movement."
The ANC is still South Africa's biggest party by far, but the 54 percent it won in local elections last year was its worst poll result since the 1994 elections that marked the end of white-minority rule.
Elections loom
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former African Union chief and President Jacob's Zuma's ex-wife, is one of the favourites to be the next ANC leader
Opposition parties the Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters are both hoping to exploit the ANC's woes in the 2019 election, with one possible outcome being a coalition government.
Soaring unemployment and government corruption have fuelled frustration at the ANC among millions of poor black South Africans who face dire housing, inadequate education and continuing racial inequality.
The five-day ANC meeting outside Johannesburg to elect a new leader is widely seen as a pivotal moment in the country's post-apartheid history.
The battle between Dlamini-Zuma, who is reportedly backed by Zuma, and Ramaphosa could even split the party.
The conference started seven hours late after an acrimonious dispute over which delegates will be qualified to vote. The day of the vote remains uncertain.
Dlamini-Zuma, 68, headed the African Union commission until earlier this year and is a former interior, foreign affairs and health minister.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa led the historic negotiations in the 1990s to end apartheid before launching a business career
But her critics say she would pursue Zuma's failing economic and political policies, and would protect him from criminal prosecution over graft allegations.
The couple had four children together before divorcing in 1998.
Ramaphosa, 65, a former trade union leader, led the historic negotiations in the 1990s to end apartheid before launching a business career that made him one of the country's wealthiest men.
He is often accused of failing to confront Zuma while serving as his deputy since 2014.
Sparse applause
Zuma also criticised the media, the judiciary, some civil society groups and the private sector in a speech in which he described himself "an outgoing president".
Zuma must step down as president when his second term ends in 2019.
The ANC candidates had agreed "to abide by the outcome of the conference. I want each of them to bear that in mind," he said.
"I am convinced that the ANC will sail through the current rough and stormy seas."
Zuma's speech was greeted with sparse applause and a partial standing ovation after raucous party delegates had danced and sang songs in support of their chosen candidate to succeed him.
Tefu Velaphi, a 38-year-old delegate, told AFP: "Zuma's legacy is disastrous. He only cares about himself and his friends. We want them to be arrested.
"That lady will protect Zuma," he said, referring to Dlamini-Zuma.
The five-day ANC meeting to elect a new leader is widely seen as a pivotal moment in the country's post-apartheid history
But Matthew Tsepang, one of her supporters, said: "We cannot judge a person by her previous life. She can be a former wife but have her independence. She is a capable leader."
Other leadership hopefuls include parliament speaker Baleka Mbete, presidency minister Jeff Radebe and Zweli Mkhize, the party treasurer.
An associate Protection Officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ghana, Edmund Kwofie has stated that the UNHCR does not recognize the presence of Liberian refugees in Ghana.
According to him, they are are not persons of concern to UNHCR, since the conditions that allowed them to stay in the country have changed.
He said In 2012, the UNHCR decided that there was no longer the need for Liberians to stay in the country as refugees because the circumstances that led to their immigration as refugees have changed.
Mr. Kwofies comments come after some Liberians on Friday picketed at the premises of the UNHCR demanding that they be given some relief packages and relocated to a different countries following a demolition exercise at the Budumburam camp, where they previously lived.
The demolition, left many of them displaced. was carried out by the Gomoa Chiefs of the Central Region on whose land the camp was built after an agreement between them and the government to host the Liberians there during the civil war in Liberia.
Several years after peace was been restored in Liberia, the Liberians continue to live in the camp with some integrated through marriage with Ghanaians.
The residents however recently received a letter from the government directing them to leave the camp.
They lamented that they have been rendered homeless and have nowhere else to stay.
The Liberians have since been relocated to the Cantonments District Police Command but insist they want to be resettled in countries such as Canada and the United States since their home country is still not safe for them.
But Mr. Kwofie said they are not entitled to any resettlement. In 2015, they were given the opportunity to appeal to government to be resettled but many did not meet the criteria. Only 350 people were accepted. The rest were rejected. And those people are those who were picketing outside our office The best we can do for them is to speak with the Liberian Embassy and inquire from them what we should do with their people.
By: Marie-Franz Fordjoe/citifmonline
The post We dont recognize Liberian refugees in Ghana UNHCR appeared first on Ghana News .
The paramount chief for the Wassa Amenfi Traditional Area, Tetrete Okuamoah Sekyim II has endorsed the proposals to split the Western Region.
Speaking at the third public consultative exercise held by the nine-member Commission of Enquiry at Wassa Akropong in the Wassa Amenfi East District, Tetrete Okuamoah Sekyim II explained that the move will fast-track the region's development.
It's been sixty years since Ghana attained independence b ut our roads, particularly in Wassa Amenfi have been very badIf I want to travel to my own hometown Wassa Manpong, I have to go through Ayenfuri, and then continue to Diaso. Meanwhile, there is a 30-minute route that is in a deplorable state so today, I have had to travel 2 hours before I can travel the same distance I could have done within 30 minutes.
Okuamoah Sekyim II further noted that it has also been difficult getting support from the central government over the years to our district so if the government says it wants to split this region so it can extend support to us effectively, I think it is a good call and we must all support it.
Other residents and stakeholders who had come from the Amenfi West and Central Districts also threw their weight behind the creation of another region from the Western Region.
I work at the district education office at Asankragua but I can also agree to the split of the region because of the difficulty it is to exchange correspondence from the north with the south. The split could fast-track development and many hours will not be wasted just on travelling. I fully support the split, one resident said.
There were others who despite agreeing that the region be split, did not want the capital situated in the Sefwi part of the region.
Others also felt the move will have traditional implications on the power and territories of Wassa Amenfi Traditional area, while some called for the three Amenfi Districts to be added to the Southern part of the region.
By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The post Wassa Amenfi chief backs Western Region split appeared first on Ghana News .
The Asanteman Association of Denver Colorado a non-profit organization located in Denver Colorado, USA whose simple mission is to help Ghanaian communities in need.
Besides several medical projects undertaken by the organization, in 2014 they began efforts to improve the conditions of life in A3, with the renovation of the labor ward at the Okomfo Anokye Hospital in Kumasi.
This was done through various fundraiser and events held in Denver to raise money for the hospital.
Renovations included creating private rooms for patients during childbirth and providing resources such as beds, curtains, and medical supplies to promote better care across facilities in the hospital.
On November 1, 2017, employees of the hospital and members of the association gathered to observe and celebrate the improvements and renovations of the A3 ward.
Executives of the Asanteman Association of Colorado who were present at the event were Nana Wiafe Anane (Asantefuohene), Comfort Sarpong (Obaapanin), Oheneba Danso (President), Joe Bawuah Addei (Vice President), and Kobina Annor (Treasurer).
Various members of the Ghanaian community were also in attendance to commission the adopted A3 at Okomfo Anokye Hospital. The hospital executives was led by the CEO Oheneba Owusu Danso, Nana Adusei Atenewaa Ampem III (Tepa Omanhene) representing Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, as the special guest , friends , other associated and the some organization were there to grace the occasion.
Those present at the event did a walk through of the renovations that had been completed in the ward. These renovations included a new water heater installed in the bathroom, floor tiring, a new remodeled bathroom and a nursing station inspected by the members present.
Nana Wiafe Anane , the Asantefuohene of Denver Colorado and the executives presented two 50 inches Element TV to the A3 Ward.
Members of the community and employees of the hospital expressed their heartfelt appreciation to the Asanteman Association of Colorado as they admired the improvements of the hospital. In addition to their appraisals, they appealed for additional beds to help the patients of Okomfo Anokye.
Nana Tepa Omanhene commended the Denver Association of their efforts to improve the lives in Ghana and provide relief to areas in need.
Oheneba Owusu Danso expressed his profound gratitude to the association for their kind justure and promised to put the items into a good use.
The organization hopes to do more to continue improving the healthcare system in Ghana and the Okomfo Anokye Hospital and some hospitals in Ashanti Region in due course.
16.12.2017 LISTEN
The police in Kyekewere in the Upper Denkyera East District in the Central Region have declared a 24-year-old Apraku Owusu Samuel wanted for murder following the death of four persons in his mining pit on 1st April 2015.
Mr. Apraku has been on the run since then but after three years of the thorough investigation, police had placed him on the wanted list.
Narrating the story to NEWSMEN the police commander of Kyekyewere police station said Mr. Apraku who is well known in the town for his illegal mining activities had a pit in which the prospects for gold and when he was not getting enough gold he abandoned the pit and moved to another area to prospect for gold without covering the old pit.
The police officer said on the 1st April 2015, a group of five young men decided to enter the old pit to prospect for gold but sadly the pit caved in, killing four of the five young men.
The one who survived was taken to the Kyekyewere hospital escaped from the hospital bed but police have been able to arrest the alleged fugitive after three years from his hideout.
According to the police, the suspect name withheld for security reasons mentioned the name of Mr. Apraku as the one who dug the pit.
The police have mounted a manhunt to for Apraku Owusu Samuel for the role he played in the death of illegal miners.
Illegal mining which is referred to as galamsey in Ghana has destroyed the river bodies and the environment and as such anyone caught in the act could face several years in jail. As at the time of filing this report the Government of Ghana has formed a task force to check the menace.
The Nima police have released Peoples National Convention Chairman, Benard Mornah and Irbard Ibrahim, a security analyst, who were arrested earlier Saturday alongside 16 others for staging an unauthorized rally.
The rally was to draw the attention of local and international authorities to the political crisis in Togo.
Lawyers for Mr. Mornah had written to the police demanding reasons for his arrest and whether or not he would be granted bail.
Speaking to Joy News' Daniel Dadzie after his release, Mr. Mornah said he had written to the Inspector General of Police requesting police presence at their rally but was called just Friday day to be informed that the police were short of personnel.
It was not until yesterday that DSP Kwasi Ofori called me to meet with the Regional Police Commander, George Mensah. When I went they told me that their officers are overstretched because within the period, over 1,500 of them have been called to write promotional exams, he said.
I told them that this was not a demonstration, it was not a protestation but a rally so one or two policemen will be enough so I will be expecting them, he added.
According to Mr. Mornah, the police came in Rambo-style and arrested them on their way back from the said rally.
then on the return, they came and started chasing people. When I got down to ask them what the problem was, they took me like a piece of wood and threw me into the bucket of a pickup that I was under arrest on orders from above, he said.
Meanwile, Member of Parliament for Kunbungu Ras Mubarak is demanding the immediate release of the other 16. He says it is unfair for them to be held in custody because violating the laws of demonstration is a bailable offense.
Violating the laws that deal with demonstration is a bailable offense so I dont think we should be making exemptions for people in high places, I am taken aback that the others are still in custody," he said.
At the time of filing this report, Mr. Mornah was still at the police station in a bid to facilitate the release of the 16 others, PNC Deputy General Secretary, Haruna Mohammed told Joy News.
The police have not been available to comment on the issue.
Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline.com| Oswald K. Azumah
Protesters again took to the streets of Togo's capital Lome on Saturday to demonstrate against the rule of President Faure Gnassingbe, who was in Nigeria chairing a summit of West African leaders.
Anti-government marches have been held across the country nearly every week since August, attracting hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the exit of Gnassingbe, who has ruled for more than 15 years.
Gnassingbe was in Abuja chairing a summit for the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as he currently holds the regional bloc's rotating presidency.
The ongoing political crisis in Gnassingbe's own country is not on the summit's agenda, which is expected to address integrating Morocco into the group and the situation in Guinea-Bissau.
On Thursday the opposition coalition said Gnassingbe's counterparts should "put everything in place so that at the Abuja summit, the regime that has governed the country for more than 50 years takes on board and finally accepts the alternation of power".
The opposition also described Togo as an "unacceptable political anomaly" in the region.
"All institutions in the country are locked up in favour of a single family and... the ballot box has no meaning," it added, warning that action was needed to prevent the situation becoming "uncontrollable".
Gnassingbe's father General Gnassingbe Eyadema ruled the country for 38 years before Gnassingbe took over after his death in 2005.
'Our fight is just'
Togo President Faure Gnassingbe, left, with his Ivory Coast conterpart Alassane Ouattara
Demonstrations were also held on Wednesday and Thursday, and like the previous marches they called for the introduction of a maximum two-term presidential mandate and a two-round voting system.
However Gnassingbe refused to rule out running for president again in an interview to be published Sunday in the Jeune Afrique (Young Africa) magazine.
"Constitutions are for the future, not the past," he said when questioned about the opposition's push for consitutional reforms to make presidential term limits apply retroactively.
Asked whether he would be a candidate in 2020 elections, he said he was "not yet in a position to have a perspective".
He also said that planned preliminary talks with the opposition will happen "very quickly... before end of the year celebrations".
On Tuesday the opposition coalition boycotted government consultations, which had been called for by the international community, describing them as a "diversionary tactic".
The protesters in Lome on Saturday seemed divided on whether the ECOWAS summit would affect the situation.
Noussougan, a nurse, said he was "certain that the leaders currently at the Abuja summit will give us support. They know that our fight is just. It is time to liberate this country".
"I do not expect anything from the ECOWAS heads of state. They will not be able to tell the truth to Faure (Gnassingbe). The fight continues," said a motorbike taxi driver who gave his name as Follygan.
Government is determined to punish severely, anyone whose actions and or inactions negatively impact on the smooth implementation of the Free Senior High School programme, the Vice President of the Republic, Alhaji Dr MahamuduBawumia, has warned.
The Free Senior High School policy is a major flagship programme of the New Patriotic Party government, began in September 2017. However, there have been reports of pilfering by some school authorities of the free food supplied by government, as well as the charging of unapproved fees by some school heads.
In perhaps the most high profile of the reported thefts, the Police Criminal Investigations Department invited Madam Comfort Oduro Bruce, senior matron and Reverend Abraham Donkor, headmaster respectively of Ghana Senior High School popularly known as GHANASS in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital, to assist in investigations after Madam Oduro Bruce was allegedly caught by a member of the schools security attempting to cart away a number of food items at night.
Matrons at the Buipe and Tolon Senior High Schools have also reportedly been arrested for allegedly trying to steal and sell food meant for the feeding of first year students in their care.
Giving the warning at the 50th anniversary celebration of the enstoolment of Nana BoakyeTromu III as Omanhene and President of the DuayawNkwanta Traditional Council in the BrongAhafo Region Saturday, Dr Bawumia said government would move beyond naming and shaming to actual prosecution to deter any saboteurs.
In spite of many challenges and doubts, we have successfully started the implementation of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) programme. We need to ensure that no Ghanaian child is denied access to public secondary education. Poverty should not be a barrier for children to have access to a better future.
However, it is sad to note that in the implementation of the FSHS policy, there is the desire by some Ghanaians to make sure the programme does not succeed. In the last few months we have had reports of deliberate attempts by some individuals ranging from matrons, heads of institutions, and others attempting to circumvent the regulations and stealing materials intended to benefit the children who are in their care. This is unacceptable, Dr Bawumia stated.
Government is determined to punish severely wrongdoers and those who have made it a habit to steal and or to obstruct. Actions to curb the situation should not just end at the doorstep of naming and shaming but also with prosecution, where applicable.
Touching on the genuine challenges confronting the programme, the Vice President assured that Government was working round the clock to address them.
While there may be challenges with the implementation of the Free Senior High School programme, the good news is that Government has taken note of the problems and is working feverishly to address them and by the Grace God, Ghanaians will reap the benefits in the very near future.
Nevertheless, I want to see sterner actions taken against such persons [sabotaging the smooth implementation of FSHS], particularly those who decide to divert or steal resources meant for the FSHS programme, Dr Bawumia stated.
Over Four Hundred Thousand (400,000) children are currently benefiting from the Free Senior High School programme, according to figures from the Ministry of Education.Officials say out of the 400,000, at least Ninety Thousand (90,000) would not have had the chance to benefit from secondary education without the free SHS.
16.12.2017 LISTEN
The world is at a crossroad, and has confused rights with rots. What was naturally and morally considered as fundamental human privileges are being misunderstood by many. Rather, societal evils are now being advanced as human rights and promoted through enactment of laws. Among these ills is homosexuality.
According to the United Nations, Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. These include right to life and liberty, free from slavery and torture, freedom of expression and opinion, socio-cultural freedoms, freedom of association, right to choice relationship and marriage partner, among others.
These among many other rights and freedoms are being considered as fundamental and inalienable and no citizen of the world should be vetoed from enjoying them. Campaigners of human rights have step beyond the boundaries of human rights and mixed rights with rots. The turn of events in relation to the advocacy for protection of homosexuals and global campaign for enactment of laws to favour the practice of homosexuality is rather a threat to the existence of human rights in the first place.
Generally, homosexuality denotes romantic and sexual relationship between two or more persons of the same sex or genders, that is, man-to-man and woman-to-woman sexual relations. This form of sexual orientation is alien, barbaric, evil and dangerous to human race.
We must be frank; laws are made by humans and for humans, not against humans. In any case, each country and community have its own peculiar culture and customs which are to be respected by all as stated in the UN fundamentals rights page. We should allow countries who wish to promote gay and lesbian marriages do so to detriment of their countries future, whiles countries who shun the practice of same sex relationships do so to safeguard their countries future existence. There is no need for pressure on all nations to legalize homosexuality. The promulgation of homosexual rights are hampering the efforts of promoting child rights as in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) or the Geneva Declaration of the Right of the Child, including all efforts that are being made to improve child birth, reduce child and maternal death rate.
More importantly, the promotion of sustainable development is a top priority for human society today. According to the UN SDGs goal 11 by 2030, the future we want include cities and communities of opportunities for all, with access to basic services, energy, housing, transportation and more and goal 4 put emphasis on the need to promote accessible, quality, and universal basic, secondary and technical education for all children devoid of any form of inequality and discrimination. Sustainability looks at the future and the future of society lies on birth of children. Simply put, no child no future, no future no sustainability.
Unfortunately, the proponents of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the same who are campaigning for homosexuality. The future belongs to who? Homosexuals or children? Certainly, the advocates of this act of homosexuality do not consider the repercussions of the future existence of the world, how much more SDGs. The act of homosexuality is tantamount to erasing the entire human generation in the universe. It is heinous and unacceptable in any right-path human society. Frankly speaking, homosexuality and lesbian relationships pose more threat to human rights than violent conflicts. The act of homosexuality is cruel than terrorism, it is more deadly than suicide bombing and more damaging than volcanic eruption.
However, homosexuals are humans and deserve to enjoy their rights as humans including freedom to choice relationship partner, freedom of association, and free from torture. The fact that one must enjoy rights should not guarantee societal rots. If homosexuals have rights, then armed robbers, rebels, suicide bombers, and many other negative groups equally have rights such as freedom of association. One Ghanaian poet popularly known as Gombila the Poet once said, I love homosexuals but I hate homosexuality. The negative impact of homosexuality is irreversible and irreparable. It decays the human body; erase societal conscience and morality, a threat to fundamental human rights of children and those yet to be born, and a hindrance to sustainable development efforts. The act of homosexuality should have no place in civilized society and must be condemned in totality.
Abu Ibrahim Azebre
Economics Tutor
Fumbisi SHS, UER.
Two Danish nationals were wounded Saturday in a knife attack in Gabon's capital apparently committed in retribution for "US attacks against Muslims", a minister said.
The two men, who were reporters for the National Geographic magazine, were stabbed while shopping in a popular tourist area, said defence minister Etienne Massard.
"According to the first testimonies at the scene, the assailant, a 53-year-old Nigerien man, shouted 'Allahu Akbar' ("God is Greatest") during the attack. He was arrested on the spot," said Massard.
The man, who has lived in Gabon for 19 years, "in his first statements said he acted in retaliation for US attacks against Muslims and America's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital".
The two victims were sent to a hospital in the capital Libreville, one in a serious condition, government spokesman Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze told AFP.
Massard said the government was treating the attack as "an isolated act" and said an investigation had been launched.
"Following this cowardly and despicable act, the government wishes to assure the people that Gabon will not become a theatre for attacks against our way of life," he said in a televised address.
"Everything will be done to ensure that the perpetrator and any accomplices are punished to the full extent of the law."
Gabon, a small French-speaking former colony with 1.8 million inhabitants, has so far been spared the Islamist-inspired attacks that have taken place in some neighbouring countries.
West African leaders on Saturday threatened to slap Guinea-Bissau with sanctions unless the country's grinding political crisis was resolved within two months.
In a summit in Nigeria, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said it was "disappointed with the absence of progress in the peace process" in the tiny west African state, which has been in the grip of a power struggle since August 2015.
The crisis erupted when President Jose Mario Vaz sacked then prime minister Domingos Simoes Pereira.
Talks mediated by Guinean President Alpha Conde and Togolese counterpart Faure Gnassingbe in October 2016 had envisaged naming a new prime minister and assembling a unity government.
ECOWAS called on Conde and Gnassingbe "to continue consultation within the next two months without which collective and individual sanctions will be handed down against all those who constitute themselves into an obstacle".
Vaz had this week proposed fresh talks to find a way out of the crisis but opposition parties objected to the plan.
Guinea-Bissau has been plagued by military coups and instability since its independence from Portugal in 1974.
Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie, Town Council Member Kathy Landing and Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce President Chris Staubes joined CBCs office leadership team at the grand opening. On hand from CBC were John Parnell, branch manager, and Loan Officers Amy Edwards, Andy Schwartz and Brandy Atkinson.
I stuck to what the coaches ...
Plane Crash In Calaveras County View Photos
Valley Springs, CA The identities of two elderly men injured in Thursdays plane crash in Calaveras County have been released along with their conditions.
As reported here Thursday afternoon, sheriffs officials stated that a witness saw the airplane flying low and believed it may have clipped a tree near the end of the runway but it was unknown if the plane was taking off or landing on the private air strip along Hogan Dam Road between Valley Springs and Copperopolis.
Sheriffs officials have identified the pilot as 72-year-old Robert Pina of Lake Camanche and his passenger is 75-year-old Richard Campbell of Pine Grove. Both were flown from the scene and today, sheriffs officials report both are listed in stable condition.
It was also revealed that a dog was onboard the plane. Calaveras County Veterinary Hospital officials evaluated the canine and report it is in stable condition as well.
The National Transportation Safety Board has taken over the investigation of the crash, but last night deputies provided overnight security at the crash site, according to sheriffs officials.
Sonora, CA Health officials say the flu is spreading across the nation, with a dozen states including California now reporting widespread flu cases just ahead of the holiday season.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta says other states reporting widespread cases of the flu are Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The Deep South is among the hardest-hit regions, with Louisiana and Mississippi reporting high levels of flu-like illness.
Georgias Department of Public Health says this years flu season is likely to be a rough one nationwide. One reason is that more than 90 percent of the influenza specimens tested nationwide are Influenza A (H3N2), which bring typically higher rates of hospitalization and deaths in seasons when it is the dominant strain.
By Sheldon Whitehouse, a United States senator from Rhode Island. Originally published at Grist
In the recent Frontline documentary, War on the EPA, the CEO of the Murray Energy Corporation the largest coal mining company in the United States brags that he had given the Trump administration a three-page action plan on rolling back environmental regulations. Less than a year into his term, the president and his officials had already completed the first page, Murray Energy Corporations Bob Murray says in the film.
Indeed, the administration has gone straight to work undoing environmental safeguards: reevaluating emission standards for cars and trucks, pressing for the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline, disbanding science advisory committees, lifting the moratorium on federal coal leasing, trying to expand offshore drilling, and opening national monuments and marine sanctuaries to energy companies. The EPA is working to eliminate rules on the leaking and flaring of methane and has rescinded requirements for reporting methane emissions. It is also stalling on monitoring carbon pollution. And, of course, the president announced his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement.
At the top of Murrays wish list, Frontline reports, is repealing the Clean Power Plan, the 2015 EPA rule to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from American power plants. Many utilities and states support the initiative. But the big polluters do not. So it is in the Trump administrations crosshairs. But any attempt to unravel Barack Obamas signature environmental policy will likely have to survive a lengthy legal fight.
The benefits of the Clean Power Plan to public health, the climate, and the economy outweigh the costs of energy sector compliance by $26 billion to $45 billion every year, according to the EPAs own calculations. In order to rescind the Clean Power Plan, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has to make those benefits disappear.
So he cooked the books, using two tricks:
The first derives from the fact that todays carbon pollution causes harm and financial losses later often many years after pollution is emitted. In financial accounting, future costs and benefits are balanced against present costs and benefits using a discount rate. The theory stipulates that its more valuable to receive a million dollars now than a million dollars, say, 20 years from now.
In 2015, the government set a 3 percent discount rate for the out-year costs of carbon pollution. In other words, a certain amount of carbon emissions costs $100 in harm and losses today, but is worth $97 one year later and roughly $94.26 two years later. Pruitt jacked that rate up to 7 percent, so out-year harm, injuries, and losses appear to cost less. Our children and grandchildren will suffer exactly the same harm, but this adjustment gives present-day polluters a big break on their emissions.
Pruitts second trick is to count only the harm from carbon pollution generated and accrued within the United States borders. In fact, we suffer from other countries emissions, and they suffer from ours. But if each country only counts its own emissions and its own harms, guess what happens? All the cross-border impacts never get counted. They still takes place in real life, but they vanish from the ledger.
As Michael Greenstone, an economist at the University of Chicago who helped develop the governments estimate of the social cost of carbon, put it: Pruitts sleight of hand was not evidence-based policymaking this was policy-based evidence-making.
Luckily, theres a real obstacle to this fuzzy math becoming the new standard for pricing pollution. As the executive branch and Congress go about trying to blow up environmental regulations, the courts still stand in the way of the Clean Power Plans repeal.
They may take notice that these accounting stunts are arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedures Act. They may take notice that Pruitt, who has long depended on campaign donations from the energy industry, has massive conflicts of interest in seeking the plans reversal.
They will surely note that the Supreme Court said in 2007 that greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act, and that the EPA is legally obligated to regulate them. They will surely note the agency issued its so-called endangerment finding in 2009, proclaiming that greenhouse gas emissions threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations a determination the D.C. Circuit resoundingly upheld in 2012. Hopefully, they will notice Pruitts stall tactics in preventing regulation of carbon pollution.
The Trump administrations determination to carry out industrys marching orders through bogus accounting or deliberate delay is a dire threat to environmental protection as we know it. But these tactics will face much stricter scrutiny in the truth-based arena of the federal courts.
A hot attraction among Bostons many: obese squirrels Boston Globe (furzy)
Holy cow! Stormy the cow makes a break from live nativity BBC
Yacob and Amo: Africas precursors to Locke, Hume and Kant Aeon (Chuck L)
Indonesian island found to be unusually rich in cave paintings PhysOrg (Chuck L)
Marshall Islands: Concrete dome holding nuclear waste could leak New Zealand Herald
Engineers develop floating solar fuels rig for seawater electrolysis PhysOrg. Chuck L: Could be a game-changer for the hydrogen economy.
Have we just achieved the moon landing moment of quantum computing? Silicon Republic
Nigerian man pleads guilty to taking part in global email scams Reuters. EM:
You kinda have to admire the ingenuity of these guys, and the irony of one of the wire-transfer-fraud victims being a Wall Street firm, given that collectively the Wall Street iBanks are far and away the largest fraud ring in the world, under cover of their TBTF legal immunity. Oh, you fraudulently securitized a trillion dollars worth of junk mortgages and sold them to unwitting investors around the world, helping to blow up the global financial system when the magnitude of the scam and the leveraged greed became too large to sustain? Heres a bunch of bailout money for you, for a job well done.
What Can AI Experts Learn from Buddhism? A New Approach to Machine-Learning Ethics Aims to Find Out MIT Technology Review. I am waiting for the Butlerian jihad.
China
North Korea
North Korea Is Not Just a Nuclear Problem but Also a Complex Security Challenge The Wire (J-LS)
Brexit
December 15 Guidelines European Council (Carolyn F). Need to check, but the language regarding honoring the first phase commitments appears to have been toughened up a tad. Brexit is going to get harder, EU leaders warn Theresa May, as new demands enrage Eurosceptics Independent. These are not new demands. No10 tells EU to forget banking our 39 billion unless it boosts UKs divorce deal The Sun. I dont understand why Barner has gone as far as he has in try to save Theresa Mays face (see the discussion in an Irish Times article where Barnier and May identified 6 industry areas where somehow in Ireland theyd have a low friction trade regime. That is never never never going to happen, yet it appears to have been discussed in detail). All it does is lead the ultras to continue to convince themselves their batshit demands will be honored. Although the flip side is, as you can see below, the UK press refuses to read the very clear language of EU documents, even short ones. The draft guidelines were just brutal, even with the bureaucratic sheen, and as you can see below, the changes by the EU Council all ran in one direction, making them even tougher. Brexit: the march to a vassal state Richard North. Key section: In broad terms, though, the guidelines say just one thing. The UK has been shafted the only thing we dont get is the orange jump suit. The stupidity of Mrs May and her advisors and all those precious little groups of intellectual pygmies who eschewed the Norway option have led us down the path to perdition, the very outcome we could have avoided by re-joining Efta and staying in the EEA.
Billionaire Presumed Murder
Syraqistan
Imperial Collapse Watch
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Trump Transition
Tax Reform
U.S. lawmakers are redistributing income from the poor to the rich, according to massive new study Washington Post. Of course, the Dems will at most tinker at the margin if they manage to get back into power in 2020, unless the Sandernistas succeed in turfing out enough mainstream Dems. Joe H: I just dont know what is going to happen in the future for the ordinary citizens of the USA or how this republic will survive. I am in my twilight years. I dont how those days will be for me and for my grandchild. Really depressing. BREAKING: GOP leaders inserted last-minute provision into final tax bill that could enrich top GOP lawmakers and President Donald Trumps real estate empire https://t.co/k2PWTdzKIG David Sirota (@davidsirota) December 16, 2017 The GOPs Corporate Tax Cut May Not Be As Big As It Looks FiveThirtyEight/ Wait till they get done reorganizing their lives to take advantage of it. US tax bill imposes steep levy on overseas earnings Financial Times. This is wildly overstated. What is happening is that 1. The plan was alway to repatriate the overseas profits, as in the IRS would just Do It; companies dont get to choose whether or not to repatriate the earnings. However 2. They were expecting to have a super low rate, like an 8% tax. They are still going to get a break even v. the new 21% corporate rate, but they are really unhappy that it will be 15.5% on liquid assets, and only 8% on funds that are less liquid. Will be interesting to see how they draw the line. The companies with big offshore profits are tech giants, which are solid Team Democrat supporters, and Big Pharma. With Billions at Stake in Tax Debate, Lobbyists Played Hardball New York Times. Resilc flags the money quote: In all, more than half of the 11,000 registered lobbyists in Washington reported working on tax-related issues through the first nine months of the year, according to a report released this month by the nonprofit group Public Citizen.
Obamacare
Jones v. Moore
Steelworkers mobilization in Mobile helped tip Alabama race to Jones Peoples World. Timotheus: Local unions mobilized without waiting for national AFL-CIO or Dems.
Sex in PoliticsNot!
Peter Jackson admits to blacklisting actresses on advice of Harvey Weinsteins company ABC (Australia). Kevin W: Clickbait headline. Jackson had no idea what was behind the recommendations. Could prove useful testimony in a future lawsuit for Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd though against Weinstein and does show how his influence played out in practice.
The power of touch, good and bad Boston Globe (furzy). Those of us of the WASP persuasion see this sort of thing as an effort at dominationand in fact, studies have shown that a person who touches the other in a relationship almost always winds up being the dominant party. And that goes for more casual relationships, like a salesman putting his hand on your forearm while laughing at your joke.
Democrats in Disarray
Democrats need an agenda and they need it now The Week (Mle Detroit). Help me. Its obvious what their agenda ought to be. They dont want to go there because the consultants that appear to run the party would take a huge hit to their revenues.
Fake News
Gusty winds could expand deadly California wildfire Reuters (EM)
Europes Sovereign-Bank Doom Loop Cant Be Broken Bloomberg
Race to launch bitcoin futures stirs anger Financial Times. Two readers neatly summed up the issues:
Lily Bitcoin for all its libertarian ideals, is actually piggybacking off the real financial system. The clearing house members are collectively exposed for defaults (in real currency), and that could provide contagion to legitimate instruments. Bunje Ten day Volatility 129% Thirty day Volatility 102% Fifty day Volatility 87% Let us not forget that the Merc came within three minutes of failing in 1987, and the only reason it didnt was that the CEO of Contintental Illinois, where the CME had a $400 million overdraft due to a customer default, was in the office early, and authorized overriding bank policy and extended credit. This decision might have had something to do with the fact that Continental Illinois was still in FDIC receivership at the time. John Phelan, chairman of the NYSE, said if the Merc hadnt opened that morning, the NYSE wouldnt have either, and it might never have reopened.
Russia, N. Korea Eye Bitcoin for Money Laundering, Putting It on a Crash Course with Regulators Defense One
A bombshell letter charges that Uber hacked into competitors networks and wiretapped people at a hotel Business Insider (David L). Too late for SoftBank to change the terms of its tender.
GDP Has a Glaring Blind Spot Bloomberg
The Amazon machine Benedict Evans (resilc)
Class Warfare
Antidote du jour (Lawrence R). One of the National Geographic nature photo finalists, this of mountain goats at Mount Evans, Colorado, by Evior Kutcha:
See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
The AroundTown section of the Clipper-Herald is to notify the public of upcoming events and to publicize pertinent information from individuals, groups or organizations that are not for profit.
PEOPLE
Rhita Hock will celebrate her 94th birthday Dec. 16, 2017. A card shower has been suggested. Cards may be sent to: Rhita Hock, 43580 Rd 758, Lexington, NE 68850.
A card shower has been suggested to honor Muriel Shea, who will celebrate her 85th birthday on Dec. 20, 2017. Cards may be sent to: Muriel Shea, 1601 North Madison, Lexington, NE 68850.
Steve and Judi York will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary Dec. 23, 2017. Cards may be sent to: Steve and Judi York, 1602 Grafton Drive, Lexington, NE 68850.
HAPPENINGS
Miller Dances: All Dances start at 7 p.m. Bring finger food and snacks. Questions? Call 308-325-2909. Dec. 16: Curt Pfeil, Dec. 23: John Stitt, Dec. 30: "Diamonds & Dust."
Daniel Zitterkopf will speak at Calvary Assembly of God Church in Lexington on Sunday, Dec. 17 during the Sunday School service at 9:30 a.m. and the Morning Service at 10:30 a.m. about his and his wife Libbys calling to serve with U.S Missions.
Lexington Relay for Life Holiday "Sweet Treat" Sale,Friday, Dec. 22, 8:30 a.m. until sold out. Dawson County Courthouse Commissioners Room, $4.00 per dozen.
Lexington Regional Health Center Auxiliary will have a Bake Sale and Gift Shop Open House Dec. 21 at the lobby of Lexington Regional Health Center from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Lexington Bloodmobile will be Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018,8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church 201 East 8th St., Lexington. For appointments call Mag Fagot, 308-320-3280.
A free parenting class, provided by Dawson County Rooted in Relationships will be given Saturday afternoons Jan. 13 - March 3, 2018 from 12 - 2 p.m. at Lexington Public Library. To register call Maricela Novoa at 308-324-1841.
WIC sites for Dawson County for January, February and March are: Lexington - Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska building, 931 West 7th, Tuesday thru Thursday, first four full weeks for each month. Call 308-324-6212 for an appointment. Cozad - Parkview Building, 120 E. 9th, Mondays, Jan. 15, Feb.5, March 12. Gothenburg - American Lutheran Church, 1512 Ave. G, Monday, Jan. 8, Friday, Feb. 2, Monday, March 5.
The Plum Creek Community Players will once again be bringing the Missoula Childrens Theater to Lexington. Please save the dates on your calendar from Feb. 19-24, 2018. The selected production is "Gullivers Travels." More information will be coming as the audition date of Feb. 19 approaches.
Love in Action Outreach, 907 West 8th St., Lexington, is open Monday through Thursday, 12:30 4 p.m. For assistance go to 909 West 8th St. Donations of clothes, furniture and other items any time back of store or contact 308-651-0925 for further assistance. Monetary donations are accepted as well.
Lexington Area Parkinsons Disease Support Group Meetings are held the second Thursday each month at 2 p.m. in the education room at the Community Health & Fitness Center (1600 W. 13th, Lexington) For more information contact Dixie Menke at 308-325-5350 or 308-784-4022 or Brenda Bierman at 308-324-2523 or 308-325-9216.
Events at the Lexington Grand Generation Center - Public Bingo on Mondays at 7 p.m. Must be 18 to play. For questions call 308-324-2498. Homemade Pretzel Baking on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 1 p.m. Cost to purchase pretzels is .50/pretzel, $6.00/dozen. Purchase and/or come help roll.
RYDE Transit - Public Transportation is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. To schedule a ride in Dawson County or Lexington call 308-324-3670. Public Transportation is easy to ride and open to everyone.
MEETINGS
American Legion in Lexington meets the first Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. at Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group meets every second Monday of the month from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 1616 W. 39th St., in Kearney. For more information contact Carol Rowedder at 308-237-2635.
COAT DRIVES
Calvary Assembly of God Church, in collaboration with Lexington Public Schools, is doing a coat drive this month. New (preferred) or gently used coats, gloves, hats and scarves will be collected at the church during office hours Monday - Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
American Family Insurance is partnering with Lexington Public Schools in conducting a coat drive to benefit area students.People are invited to bring clean, used coats in good condition (new ones are welcome too) to the office of American Family Insurance J.E. Krason Agency, Inc. at 120 E. 6th St. through Dec. 22. Contact LaNae Matousek for more information at 308-324-2562 or lmatouse@amfam.comm.
The Sumner-Eddyville-Miller Student Council is organizing a coat drive during the month of December. A drop box will be located at the school and at Tubs Pub. Lightly used and new coats of all sizes, shapes and colors will be accepted.
YMCA EVENTS
Fit Farmers and Friends Deadline Dec. 11. Event from Dec. 11 - Feb. 28 from 10:45 - 11:45 a.m. Kickoff luncheon on Dec. 11. $50 per person
Nov. 24 - Dec. 31 is the YMCAs Membership Drive. Focus on the CANS not the CANTS! If you are not a member you can bring in can food and we will waive your join fee.
LEXINGTON CHAMBER CHRISTMAS EVENTS
Santa Claus will be available for visits three Saturdays next month, on Dec. 16 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Pinnacle Bank Parking Lot located at downtown Highway 30 and Washington Street. Free for all ages. Fire truck rides, provided by the Lexington Volunteer Fire Department, will also be available.
The Lexington Council for Economic Development is sponsoring a free movie showing, of Home Alone, at the Majestic Theatre on a first come first served basis on Saturday, Dec. 16 at 3 p.m.
AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Wilson Public Library in Cozad is sponsoring a Winter Reading Challenge for children in grade 5 and younger. Patrons are invited to pick up a challenge form at the librarys front desk, located at 910 Meridian Avenue in Cozad. Participants should complete five of the challenges and return the sheet, no later than Feb. 1, 2018, for the chance to win a prize.
Wilson Public Library in Cozad is hosting a middle grades only activity from 45 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15. Dubbed "Reindeer Games," there will be a variety of holiday themed competitions with cocoa following. This event is free, but open to students in grades 6-8 only..
Cozads Wilson Public Library invites kids from Kindergarten to 5th grade to ring in the New Year early on Friday, Dec. 29, from 11 a.m.12:15 p.m. Crafts, photo booth, games, snacks and merriment will abound for the Noon Years Celebration. Register by Dec. 28 at the front desk, located at 910 Meridian Ave., or by calling 308-784-2019.
The Lexington Public Library will begin their Gently Used Book Sale on Monday, Dec. 11. Check out the tremendous variety of books and choose some for gifts or treat yourself to some books for the holidays! Hard back books are $2.00 a piece, everything else is $1.00 per item. Take advantage of the Gently Used Book Sale to stock up on books for your winter reading and support the Lexington Public Library.
Family Movie Night is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lexington Public Library. Families are invited to join us for a family friendly Christmas movie; light refreshments will be served. Take some time to relax with your family and enjoy this movie at the library.
Novel Stitchers meets on Tuesdays at 3:00 p.m. If you enjoy stitching--knitting, crocheting, quilting, cross stitch, needlepoint, or have another portable stitching project--join us at the library for two hours of stitching and visiting. We will meet on Tuesdays, Dec. 12, 19, and 26 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Lexington Public Library Board Room.
Story Time meets on Wednesday morning at10:30 a.m. Children and their caregivers are invited to join us at the Lexington Public Library for stories, activities, and music. Make time to join us for this fun and social program.
The Lexington Public Library will be close at 12 noon on Friday, Dec. 22 and will remain closed Saturday, Dec. 23, Sunday, Dec. 24 and Monday, Dec. 25 for the Christmas holiday. We will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon on Friday, Dec. 22 and we will reopen on Tuesday, Dec. 26 at 9:00 a.m.
LEXINGTON GRAND GENERATION CENTER
Exercise room is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Every Sunday the Center available for rent.
Monday
9 a.m. - Tai Chi
10 a.m. - FROG
12:45 p.m. - Ive Got It
3 p.m. - Strength Training
7 p.m. - Public Bingo
Tuesday
1 p.m. - Pretzels
1 p.m. - Foot Clinic
Wednesday
9:15 a.m. - Go4Life
9:30 a.m. - Coffee/Crafts
9:30 a.m. - Pool T. - Gothenburg
12:45 p.m. - Cards
1:30 p.m. - FROG
2:30 -3:30 p.m. - Hot Cookies
3 p.m. - Strength Training
LEXINGTON GRAND
GENERATION
CENTER MENU
Homemade bread everyday. Choice of skim, 2% or chocolate milk. No reservations needed except for large groups. Serving time: 11:30 a.m.
Monday
Chicken/rice/gravy, stewed tomatoes, cole slaw, pineapple
Tuesday
Meatloaf, cheesy hash brown casserole, roasted broccoli, apple slices
Wednesday
Turkey burger/bun, fresh yams, peas and carrots, mixed fruit
LEXINGTON SCHOOL MENU
Breakfast
Monday
Blueberry waffles/syrup or cereal and cheese sticks, variety fruit, 100 percent fruit juice, milk
Tuesday
Sausage, egg, cheese on muffin or cereal and cheese stick, variety fruit, 100 percent fruit juice, milk
Wednesday
Raised ring donuts/ a topping or cereal and cheese stick, variety fruit, 100 percent fruit juice, milk
Lunch
Monday
Beef shepherds pie, hot dog on bun, chicken patty on bun, sub sandwich, green beans, dinner roll, yogurt, cheese, muffin
Tuesday
Breaded chicken patty on bun, beef patty on bun, beef and bean burrito, sub sandwich, chicken rice, steamed corn, yogurt, cheese, muffin
Wednesday
Hot chiil soup/crackers, chicken patty on bun, beef patty on bun, sub sandwich, steamed broccoli, cinnamon rolls, yogurt, cheese, muffin
OVERTON SCHOOL MENU
Breakfast
Monday
Donut holes or English muffin and omelet
Tuesday
French toast or french toast sticks and sausage
Wednesday
Oatmeal muffin and yogurt
Lunch
Monday
Chicken stir fry, rice, relish tray, pineapple, oranges
Tuesday
Pigs in a blanket, potato salad, green beans, applesauce, pears, blueberry crisp
Wednesday
Potato soup, turkey and cheese sandwich, celery and peanut butter, jello, baked apples
ORGANIZATIONS
AA/NA: open meeting Friday nights at 7 p.m. at Plum Creek Mall at Two Bridges Counseling, 513 N. Grant St., Suite 3a, Lexington.
Westside Group: AA/NA open meeting on Monday and Wednesday nights at separate locations at 8 p.m. Monday night meetings at First Christian Church, 1206 N. Erie St. in Lexington. Wednesday nights at Community Health Center (west of hospital) 1600 W. 13th St. in Lexington.
AA Elwood: at 8 p.m. on Sundays at United Methodist Church, 601 Rush in Elwood. Contact: 785-3567 (Tom).
Al-Anon meets Mondays, 8 p.m. at the LexChristian Church, 13th & Erie; Wednesdays, 8 p.m. at Lexington Regional Health Center Board room, use east entrance; Thursdays, noon at Grace Lutheran Church, 105 E. 17th, use office door. For more information call 308-651-0143.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings, non-smoking: at noon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at St. Anns Catholic Church basement, 301 E. Sixth St.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings, non-smoking - Smithfield: At 8 p.m. on Thursdays at Hope Lutheran Church, 74098 Road 436 in Smithfield. Call 785-3567 or 472-3376.
Celebrate Recovery: a 12-step, anonymous program helping participants overcome any hurts, habits, addictions or hang-ups. Meets twice: 1) at 7 p.m. on Thursdays at Lexington Evangelical Free Church, 810 S. Washington Street. Contact: 308-324-3825 or 308-238-1298. 2) at 6:30 p.m. on Fridays at Parkview Baptist Churchs Y.A.C., 1105 Park St.. Contact: 308-324-4410.
Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska Public Immunization Clinic, 1st & 3rd Mondays every month: Open 10 a.m.-noon and 2-4 p.m. by appointment at 931 West 7th St., Lexington. Clinics serve ages 2 months - 18 years. Children must be accompanied by an adult, previous vaccination records required. Contact 308-865-1352 ext. 143.
Dawson/Gosper County CASA: seeking Volunteers. CASA Volunteers are everyday people from all walks of life, who advocate through the court system in the interests of children. Contact 324-7364.
Grupo Lexington AA (Spanish Speaking) open meeting Saturday nights at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 11 p.m., at 114 West 6th St. in Lexington.
Lexington Area Grief Support Group: meets at 4:30 p.m. on the first Mondays of each month at Fitness Center, 1600 W. 13th Street. Open to anyone experiencing the death of a loved one. Contact Lexington Regional Health Center Home Health office, 324-8300.
Lexington Lions Club meets the 4th Monday of every month at the Lexington Grand Generation Center hospitality room. Dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., followed by a program and meeting.
Daniel Zitterkopf will speak at Calvary Assembly of God Church in Lexington on Sunday, Dec. 17 during the Sunday School service at 9:30 a.m. and the Morning Service at 10:30 a.m. about his and his wife Libbys calling to serve with U.S Missions.
Lexington Relay for Life Holiday "Sweet Treat" Sale,Friday, Dec. 22, 8:30 a.m. until sold out. Dawson County Courthouse Commissioners Room, $4.00 per dozen.
Lexington Regional Health Center Auxiliary will have a Bake Sale and Gift Shop Open House Dec. 21 at the lobby of Lexington Regional Health Center from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
WIC sites in Dawson County for November are: Lexington - Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska Building, 911 West 7th St., Tuesday thru Thursday, the first four full weeks for each month. Call 308-324-6212 for an appointment.
The Plum Creek Community Players will once again be bringing the Missoula Childrens Theater to Lexington. Please save the dates on your calendar from Feb. 19-24, 2018. The selected production is "Gullivers Travels." More information will be coming as the audition date of Feb.
A San Diego County firefighter died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries while battling the massive Thomas Fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, a medical examiner determined Saturday.
Cal Fire Engineer Cory Iverson, 32, of Escondido was part of a strike team made up of five engines with Cal Fire San Diego that were in an active area of the Thomas Fire in Fillmore, California when an accident occurred at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
Iverson was killed in the accident. The Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office said Saturday Iverson died of thermal injuries and smoke inhalation.
Cal Fire said they are conducting an investigation into the incident, which will provide insight into the circumstances surrounding the death.
A procession will be held Sunday starting at 10 a.m., transporting Iverson's remains from Ventura County across several Los Angeles and San Bernardino county freeways before entering San Diego County via southbound Interstate 15 at about 1:20 p.m.
The procession will continue to travel along I-15, passing SR-78 at about 1:45 p.m. and Camino Del Norte at about 1:50 p.m. before exiting at Miramar Road at 2 p.m.
Iverson's remains are expected to arrive at El Camino Memorial Park on Carroll Canyon Road at 2:12 p.m.
A memorial service will be held for Iverson at The Rock Church on Rosecrans Street in Point Loma next Saturday at 10 a.m.
Iverson leaves behind his wife, Ashley and their two-year-old daughter. The couple was expecting their second child in May.
Those who knew Iverson said the top priority right now is to take care of his family. Online fundraising efforts are underway to do just that.
An online fundraising page was created by a close friend and co-worker of Iversons widow to assist the family with funeral costs and other expenses they may have. In it's first few hours live, the page had already raised $20,000 for the Iversons.
By Saturday afternoon, the page was nearing $300,000.
Cal Fire San Diego County Firefighters Benevolent Fund has also set up a donation page for Iversons family. Donations can be made here.
Iverson's remains were taken in a procession to the coroner's office Friday. Along the way, firefighters stood in salute on a freeway overpass and on top of fire department vehicles lining the side of a street.
The 32-year-old had spent most of his life fighting fires. Iverson was an eight-year veteran of Cal Fire and had previously spent seven years with Harmony Grove Fire Department.
Iversons friends and co-workers said theyre heartbroken over his death.
I can only imagine the pain that his family and his are going through, said Cal Fire Capt. John Heggie. My hearts shattered knowing what happened to him and knowing what his family is going through.
They described him as a model firefighter and happy man who was always in a good mood, whether he was at the fire station on or the lines.
To put it bluntly, hes the kind of man youd want your daughter to marry and the type of fireman youd want your son to grow up to be, Heggie added.
Following Iversons death, 17 San Diego-based firefighters with Cal Fire were taken off the Thomas Fire lines so they could return home to grieve the death of their colleague.
The death is the second attributed to the fire, which was in its 12th day of burning Saturday and spanned both Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
The blaze had exploded to 259,000 acres, surpassing the 2007 Zaca fire to become the state's fourth-largest wildfire on record.
Cal Fire estimated firefighting costs were nearing $104 million.
Firefighters had the blaze 40 percent contained with full containment expected Jan. 7, 2018.
San Francisco police were handed a few unexpected firearms during a Saturday gun buyback: An AT-4 a.k.a. a Bazooka-like anti-tank weapon, a rocket launcher and a cannonball.
The weapons were turned over to officials during a "no questions asked" gun buyback event in San Francisco.
A picture on the @SFPDCares Twitter account shows an officer holding and peering down at the weapon.
Police said that was one of 280 firearms turned over during the gun buyback, which was hosted along with United Playaz, a San Francisco-based violence prevention and youth development organization.
United Playaz is a violence prevention youth organization.
"I am not against the Second Amendment but I am against senseless gun violence," said United Playaz executive director Rudi Corpuz Jr.
Each person who turned in a handgun received $100 and each person who turned in an assault weapon received $200.
According to Corpuz, all promotions for the event were done by 10 men who were serving life sentences and are now on parole.
San Jose police said Friday that officers have arrested three people in connection with a 2016 fatal shooting of an 18-year-old man at a gas station.
After investigating the homicide for nearly a year, detectives were able to identify the suspects involved in the Dec. 18, 2016 shooting in West San Jose, which killed 18-year-old Cesar Ponce Sanchez of San Jose.
On Wednesday, officers arrested San Jose residents Angel SantaCruz, 24, Jose Alcantar, 21, and Alicia Vallejo, 40. SantaCruz and Alcantar were both arrested on suspicion of murder, while Vallejo was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory after the fact, police said.
A fourth suspect has been identified as 24-year-old Joseph Duran of San Jose and a warrant has been issued for his arrest on suspicion of murder. Detectives believe Duran may have fled to Mexico.
San Jose Police Department
The day of the shooting, officers responded at about 11:50 p.m. to the Mobil gas station at 1465 S. Winchester Blvd.
There, they found Sanchez suffering from one gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital, where he died soon afterward.
Police are asking anyone with information about the case to contact Detective Sgt. John Barg or Detective Wayne Smith at (408) 277-5283. Callers wishing to remain anonymous can call (408) 947-7867.
Those who provide information leading to the suspect's arrest and conviction may be eligible for a cash reward from the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers, police said.
A girl from Middleboro, Massachusetts has been recognized with a national award.
It started out as a small lemonade stand to raise money for her sick friend, but nearly $60,000 later, Ella Morrison has been named a national winner of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes.
Morrison opened the lemonade stand when she was six years old when her best friend Hailey was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.
After Hailey passed away, Morrison continued to sell lemonade and donated the proceeds to cancer research.
On Friday, Morrison was at Children's Hospital in Boston to donate books, hoping the gifts will put a smile on the kids' faces.
"We've done the book drive this year, pajama drive and logo drive. And we've donated to the Boston Children's Hospital, so the kids can have something to do while they're in treatment," she said.
Only 25 kids each year are awarded the Barron Prize, receiving a $5,000 cash award to support their service work or higher education.
State lawmakers plan a full investigation in January into the 13 deaths at the Quincy Veterans home in downstate Illinois, a state lawmaker told NBC 5.
Those deaths that happened since 2015 are tied to Legionnaires disease at the state-owned facility.
State Sen. Tom Cullerton confirmed that on Jan. 9 there will be a joint hearing in Chicago, bringing together the Senate and House Veteran Affairs Committees.
The Quincy deaths are quickly becoming a political issue for not only the Governor's race, but also the Attorney General's contest, as former Governor Pat Quinn is a candidate for the job that Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced she would be leaving at the end of her term
Quinn promised a new veterans home in Chicago eight years ago, but it is still not completed. Quinn has spoken out for veterans for years, but there were new questions this week amid the controversy over whether or not he is to blame for the incomplete project.
When asked about the controversy, Quinn directed the blame at current Governor Bruce Rauner.
When I left office it was on target, we had a groundbreaking, and we went forward, Quinn said. I got the funding for it and I think that its very important that there would be a veterans home in the Chicago area.
Although Quinn defended his handling of the slow-moving project, his opponents in the race still have questions that they want answered.
Youve got to keep your promises, State Sen. Kwame Raoul said. The bottom line is, we have to make an investment to take care of our veterans.
Quinn first promised the home in his 2009 State of the State speech and mentioned it again in 2013. Work wasnt started on the project until 2014, just two months before he lost in his bid for re-election, and since then the project came to a stop.
The states budget stalemate contributed to the laggard pace of the project, but Gov. Rauners spokesman says that the project is finally moving forward.
The deaths of 13 residents at an Illinois veterans' home is dominating the race for governor. NBC 5's Mary Ann Ahern has the latest on the situation, and the calls for a deeper investigation.
The issue re-emerged after a WBEZ report exposed the deaths of 13 people due to a series of outbreaks of Legionnaires disease at a veterans home in downstate Quincy. Some officials are calling for the facility to be shut down all together, and some, including gubernatorial candidates J.B. Pritzker and Chris Kennedy, are calling for an investigation into Governor Rauners handling of the situation.
State Senator Tom Cullerton is calling for an audit of the facility, and he announced that he will call a hearing to examine care practices at the home.
Governor Rauners administration defended its handling of the situation, saying that they quickly brought in the Centers for Disease Control and followed their recommendations.
NBC Connecticuts consumer team recently received a priority mail envelope with a $1,690 check enclosed.
It appeared suspicious at first glance, but it was addressed to NBC Connecticuts Christiane Cordero and looked like it had legitimate qualities.
When questioning a check, the first clues are on the check itself.
Make sure its tied to a legitimate business, a legitimate bank and has routing and account numbers.
Other possible indicators that it could be real, one perforated edge and a check number higher than 100. The one NBC Connecticut received meets all of that criteria.
The check sent to NBC Connecticut has a return address listed as 16 Allen Avenue in Beverly Hills, California.
Not only did the sender spell 'Beverly' wrong, but the address doesnt exist.
The check was issued by a legitimate business, May Trucking Company, but when NBC Connecticut called the company directly, a representative confirmed the check was fake.
She said she has since received three calls about the fake check and May Trucking Companys checks do not look like the one sent to NBC Connecticut. She advised against depositing it.
Sometimes, the person behind the scheme will contact the recipient shortly after he or she receives it, to try and convince that person to send part of the sum back.
If someone sends their money and deposit the check, the fake check will likely bounce.
The best thing to do with the fake check is the shred it.
A New Britain father of three received word he will be allowed to stay in the country for now.
Mariano Cardoso Sr. feared he would have to leave his family by Friday.
Surrounded by loved ones and supporters, Cardoso was overwhelmed that hes back at home in New Britain.
Gracias, very, very happy, Cardoso said.
The 49-year-old had been preparing to take sanctuary inside a church in Old Lyme.
But then the Board of Immigration Appeals reportedly granted him a last-minute stay of deportation.
The father had faced an order to return to his native Mexico by Friday.
Happy that fairness and justice have prevailed, at least temporarily, and I feel great relief and joy, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D- Connecticut, said.
Cardoso entered the country illegally nearly 30 years ago.
Since then his attorney says Cardoso has followed the rules, started a successful business and raised his three kids.
But then recently federal immigration authorities said he would no longer be able to stay, despite his large family here.
Weve been through such troubles and we learn so much, Mariano Cardoso Jr. said.
For now Mariano Cardoso Sr. still wears his ankle tracking bracelet, hoping it can be removed soon.
His family thanks those who have helped with the fight to keep him here.
At the end of the day, we did it because of them and I know tonight the community won, Cardoso Jr. said.
The familys attorney tells us the wait now begins to see if the deportation case can be reopened and if there is a pathway for Cardoso to stay here legally.
Wreaths Across America is a national program that pays tribute to our veterans, making sure they arent forgotten during the holiday season.
On Saturday at the State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown, and at other locations across the country, volunteers will lay wreaths at the graves of soldiers.
In the ten years since Wreaths Across America brought their campaign to Connecticut, theyve never been able to raise enough donations to collect wreaths for all the veterans buried in this cemetery, until this year. Volunteers have collected 9,200 wreaths to lay this year.
A formal ceremony begins at noon and will include speaking every veterans name aloud as a wreath is laid on the headstone.
Volunteers interested in assisting with the wreaths are encouraged to arrive at 11:30 a.m. CPT. James Sanborn of Civil Air Patrol, who organizes parts of the event every year, said theyll never turn a volunteer away.
A former "Today" show production assistant says she had a brief, consensual relationship with Matt Lauer nearly two decades ago, explaining she felt too intimidated by his stature to turn down his advances after reaching out to NBC's star anchor for career advice.
Her account of a secret workplace affair when she was 24 years old and Lauer in his 40s is the latest accusation of sexual misconduct against Lauer, who was terminated from NBC News in November after a colleague's complaint of inappropriate sexual behavior. Other women have come forward with other alleged incidents of sexual misconduct.
Addie Zinone said that Lauer flirted with her by instant message, asked her to lunch when she asked for career advice then invited her to his dressing room for a quick encounter, the first of several, including one at the 2000 Democratic National Convention a relationship that began a few weeks before she was scheduled to leave the show.
She said in an account in Variety, which was corroborated with a friend she told at the time and records she kept of the instant messages, that, "even though my situation with Matt was consensual, I ultimately felt like a victim because of the power dynamic." She said she left her subsequent job as a local news anchor in part because she "didn't want to start my career being known one of Matt Lauers girls."
"I was in shock," Zinone told NBC News. "One day I'm just a normal, hardworking PA ... and now I'm walking in a cloud of confusion."
Zinone confirmed to NBC News the account she provided to Variety. NBC News also confirmed that she worked at "Today" during the time in question.
A representative for Lauer had no comment on Zinone's account. Lauer has previously said he is "embarrassed and ashamed" and sorry for what he did to hurt people, though he also said some of what he's been accused of is "untrue or mischaracterized."
The Variety report includes print-outs of messages sent between Lauer and Zinone, who arrived at "Today" as an intern in 1999 and said she was close with the other anchors, Katie Couric, Al Roker and Ann Curry. She said she got the following message from Lauer out of the blue, after she accepted a position as an anchor for her hometown station.
"hey i hope you won't drag me to personnel for saying this. but you look fantastic. i don't know what you have done, or what is going on in your life but it's agreeing with you. just thought i would mention it," Lauer purportedly wrote.
He complimented her appearance in another message, then invited her to his room after their lunch, she said.
Zinone later left her job to become a journalist in the Army Reserve, then joined "Access Hollywood." She said that on a day when she was featured on the "Today" show for Veteran's Day years later, Lauer didn't come to work.
Her account of meeting with Lauer in his dressing room is consistent with what others told Variety, which previously reported that Lauer made use of a button under his desk that locked the door to give him privacy for such liaisons.
NBC News management declined to comment on Zinone's account to Variety. A representative has previously said that "current NBC News management was never made aware of any complaints about Matt Lauer's conduct" before hearing from the woman whose account on Nov. 27 resulted in Lauer's termination later that week.
An attorney for that woman, whose identity NBC News has not reported, told Stephanie Gosk that the network has not done enough to protect the confidentiality of his client. He wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Friday that he's received many questions about her identity, but that she wants to maintain her privacy.
NBC News responded with this statement: "The network has protected the victim's anonymity all along and will continue to do so."
A New Hampshire judge on Friday put off a decision on whether to dismiss a lawsuit accusing a Vermont man of killing his millionaire grandfather and possibly his mother for the inheritance money.
The lawsuit accused Nathan Carman of playing a role in the 2013 shooting death of 87-year-old real estate developer John Chakalos in Connecticut. No one has been arrested and the case remains unsolved. He also has been questioned about the day his boat sank last year near Rhode Island. His mother somehow went overboard and is presumed dead.
Carman has denied any involvement in either case and he wants the lawsuit dismissed.
His attorney argues that Carman and his grandfather weren't residents of New Hampshire at the time of the elderly man's death.
Attorneys for the sisters also are calling for additional documents related to the case to remain sealed. They argued in court that the documents could impede the investigation and bring unwanted media attention to anyone named in them.
The judge ruled more discovery is needed for the motion to dismiss, but no date has been set for that hearing.
"Its clear there are holes, not just in Nathans boat, but in Nathans story. Nathan bought a $3,000 assault rifle, the same caliber used to murder John Chakalos. He refused to tell the police about it, he refused to tell the Court in Rhode Island until Court ordered and he refused to tell the Court here in New Hampshire, claiming in his response filing that he was without knowledge. How does a clever, calculating person like Nathan buy a $3,000 assault weapon, lose it, and then forget about it? There are still, too many questions without answers and too many answers without justice," stated Dan Small, Holland & Knight LLP, and Attorney for The Chakalos Family.
In July, the sisters filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire accusing Carman of killing Chakalos and possibly Carman's mother. They've asked a judge to block Carman from collecting money from his grandfather's estate. Chakalos left more than $29 million to his four daughters, including Carman's mother Linda, and $7 million of that money could go to Carman.
Neither Carman nor the sisters of his mother, Linda Carman appeared in court on Friday.
At the Grand Prairie Police Academy, 21 cadets are just three weeks away from graduation. Eight of them have a military background and are training to serve their community in a new way.
For David Jordan, service is nothing new.
"After I finished serving my country I wanted to continue to serve in some way. In my opinion, that's something that drives me. I like to be able to serve something greater than myself," Jordan said.
Jordan says he enlisted in 1996, his sophomore year of college, as a way to pay for school.
His most recent job before retiring from military service was collecting intelligence.
"I talk to people and I write reports, which is exactly what you do as a police officer," Jordan said. "And you have to be able to get information from them, but they may not be fully willing to give it up. And be able to talk to them just in a regular way, get the information you need to do the job that's at hand, and be able to do it with the utmost professionalism."
Jordan said his overall history in military service helped get him ready for this next phase of his life.
"It prepared me for a lot of the things you'll see in law enforcement: long odd hours, a high stress environment, having to focus on attention to detail and still maintain discipline and baring."
At 40 years old, Jordan is one of the oldest cadets in his class, but his life experience and military background are proving beneficial.
"First day in the academy I was in my element," Jordan said. "And I could see for the other guys in the military it was just another day in a military-style environment. We were in our element."
Now he's just three weeks away from the end of the academy, and then after a year's worth of training he'll be on the streets of Grand Prairie serving his community once again.
The Grand Prairie Police Department, and others, give military veterans five extra points on their exams to honor and credit their experience in the military. Those points can help their ranking as cadets.
Summer thunderstorms in North America will likely be larger, wetter and more frequent in a warmer world, dumping 80 percent more rain in some areas and worsening flooding, a new study says.
Future storms will also be wilder, soaking entire cities and huge portions of states, according to a federally-funded study released Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The U.S. in recent years has experienced prolonged drenchings that have doused Nashville in 2010, West Virginia and Louisiana in 2016 and Houston this year. The disasters cost about $20 billion a year in damage.
By the end of century if emissions aren't curbed, these gully washers will be much worse because they will get bigger, said Andreas Prein, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, who led the study.
Prein and colleagues used high-resolution computer simulations to see how global warming will likely change the large thunderstorms that are already daily summer events in North America. Previous studies projected more frequent and wetter storms, but this is the first research to show they likely will be more widespread, covering an entire city instead of just half of it, Prein said.
The man piloting a small aircraft that suffered engine failure shortly after takeoff, crash-landing into a Clairemont home and killing two people, has been identified to NBC 7.
Josh Reikes has been flying for most of his life, most recently for Sun Country Airlines, according to his LinkedIn page.
Reikes was flying a six-seat single-engine 1995 Beechcraft Bonanza from Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in San Diego Saturday when something went wrong.
Reikes attempted to land the plane in a school's yard near Chandler Drive in Clairemont, but the plane crashed four minutes after takeoff, skidding through the school yard's fence and into a nearby home.
The home and the plane went up in flames.
Dr. Mike Zareski and Robert Sterling were killed instantly. Reikes and Sterling's wife Dawn were injured but survived.
Reikes' father told NBC 7 that his son was released from the hospital and was recovering.
Dawn has since returned to Southhampton to be with family.
Reikes had flown with Continental Airlines for nearly a decade, but had recently been working for Sun Country Airlines.
Sun Country Airlines released the following statement on the crash:
"Our thoughts are with all of those involved in this terrible accident. We're in touch with (the pilot's) family and are doing everything we can to support him and his family during this time."
According to Reikes' online profiles, he resided in Torrance, Calif. with his wife and child. His wife is a veterinarian.
Zareski was a father of four and a well-known veterinarian at the Western Veterinary Group in Torrance.
Robert Stelling was a businessman. His wife Dawn owns an animal hospital in Southhampton, New York, according to the family's acquaintance Gil Flanagan. Together, they had three children.
The Sterlings and Zareski were in San Diego for a veterinary conference.
The home in Clairemont was still lined with police tape nearly a week after the crash. On Thursday, neighbors gathered near the crash site to remember the victims.
Residents were still shocked by what happened in their neighborhood.
"You can expect anything to happen on the streetcar accident, train accident but you can never think that something from the sky is going to drop on you," neighbor Abe Bejjani said.
The plane was owned by Altitude Aviation Inc. in Hermosa Beach, California. A spokesperson for the company responded to NBC 7s request for comment stating, The NTSB and FAA are working on the investigation.
What to Know 267,500 acres consumed by Saturday. 40 percent of the blaze is contained.
1,000 structures have been destroyed.
Cost associated with the Thomas fire is $110,000,000.
This article is no longer being updated. For the latest information on the Thomas Fire, click here.
The massive Thomas Fire exploded to 267,500 acres by Saturday evening after it scorched through Ventura and Santa Barbara County for a 12th day. Fire crews have been able to contain the monstrous blaze by 40 percent and expect it to be fully contained by Jan. 7, 2018, with the cost of the extensive fight expected to reach $110 million.
Dry heat and Santa Ana winds have posed a threat for firefighters as conditions have been fueling the blaze since it first began on Monday, Dec. 4. A red flag warning will remain in effect through Sunday evening, with experts expecting gusts of winds to reach up to 40 mph.
The northerly "sundowner" wind was driving the fire south and west.
"When the sundowners surface in that area and the fire starts running down slopes, you are not going to stop it," Mark Brown with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said at a news conference. "And we are not going to stand in front of it and put firefighters in untenable situations."
The flames destroyed nearly 1,000 structures and the cost associated with battling the fire is $110 million, according to Cal Fire. One Cal Fire engineers life was claimed by the fire after 32-year-old Cory Iverson of Escondido died battling the inferno.
The wind-driven blaze, which has been dubbed as the states third-largest wildfire ever, prompted mandatory evacuations for some 95,000 people in the flames path.
Evacuation orders are still in effect for the areas of Sespe Creek to the west, Burson Ranch to the east, the Los Padres Forest boundary to the north and the Fillmore City limits to the south.
By around 10 a.m., new mandatory evacuations were issued for the areas north of the 101 Freeway, south of the 192 Freeway, west of Toro Canyon Road and east of Summit Road. The 101 Freeway was closed at Seacliff Road to allow people to evacuate.
The Santa Barbara Zoo, which is near the mandatory evacuation zone, announced it was putting some animals in crates to prepare for possible evacuation. The zoo has about 150 species of animals, including a pair of Amur leopards, a critically endangered species.
Everything about the fire has been massive, from the sheer scale of destruction that cremated entire neighborhoods to the legions attacking it: about 8,400 firefighters from nearly a dozen states, aided by 78 bulldozers and 29 helicopters.
Numerous schools announced closures in wake of the fire:
Fillmore Unified School District
Santa Paula Unified School District
Ventura Unified School District
Briggs Elementary School
Mupu Elementary School
Oxnard Union HSD
Rio Elemantary School
Santa Clara Elementary School
Ventura Charter School
California State University, Channel Islands Goleta campus will remain closed through Dec. 23.
All VCOE-operated schools in the Ojai Unified and Ventura Unified School Districts will be closed through Dec. 22.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Police are investigating a shooting that happened in Miami that left a 17-year-old man dead Friday night.
According to police, the victim was inside the Trinidad Trailer Park, located at the 8200 block of NW Miami Court.
Police said the shooter got out of a white car and shot the victim, who has not been identified.
When rescue officials responded to the scene, they found that the victim was dead.
The shooter left the scene in the white car and remains at large.
Police are urging anyone with information to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
The House Ethics Committee said Friday that it has opened an investigation into Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen after reports of sexual harassment against the Nevada congressman.
"The Committee notes that the mere fact that it is investigating these allegations, and publically disclosing its review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee," a statement from the committee said.
Two women have accused the Democrat of misconduct. His former finance director told Buzzfeed in a Dec. 2 story that Kihuen repeatedly propositioned her for dates and sex during the 2016 congressional campaign, offers she rejected. The woman, who withheld her last name, also claimed he touched her thighs without her consent on two occasions.
A second woman spoke to The Nevada Independent in a Dec. 13 story, claiming Kihuen made repeated sexual advances while he was a state senator in 2015 and she was a lobbyist. The woman, who remained anonymous, also said he touched her thighs and buttocks on several occasions.
In a statement to the Independent, Kihuen said he would not discuss the allegations.
"During my 10 years in the legislature, I dated several different women. Out of respect for their privacy, I won't discuss my communications or any other details of those relationships," the statement said.
In a statement to NBC, Kihuen said, "I intend to fully cooperate, and I welcome an opportunity to clear my name."
Both House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, called for Kihuen's resignation.
A ski lift malfunctioned Saturday morning at a small mountain near State College in central Pennsylvania, injuring five skiers and stranding others, according to NBC affiliate WJAC.
Initial reports indicated that a portion of the lift at Tussey Mountain in Boalsburg, Centre County, had collapsed sometime around 10 a.m., but the resort tweeted at noon that there was no collapse.
State College authorities told WJAC that five people were injured in the incident.
#UPDATE State College police say as of now there were 3 injuries.. people are still be taken down off the chair lift right now. pic.twitter.com/YPWZ7EkGBt Alexis Wainwright (@AWainwrightTV) December 16, 2017
The extent of their injuries were not immediately known, but authorities said they were all minor in nature. Other skiers were still stuck on the lift at 12 p.m., according to WJAC.
Despite the lift incident, Tussey Mountain officials said on their Facebook page that some of the mountain would remain open.
It is unclear how many skiers remain stranded on the lift, but a WJAC reporter tweeted shortly after noon that rescue operations were still underway to get the remaining people off the broken down lift.
Check back for more details as they become known.
What to Know An FBI agent and a Yonkers detective shot and killed a bank robbery suspect Friday evening
The two law enforcement officers were attempting to pull over the suspect's vehicle in Yonkers when they apparently spotted a gun
The suspect later died; an investigation into the shooting is ongoing
A bank robbery suspect was shot and killed by an FBI agent and a Yonkers detective Friday evening, three sources familiar with the investigation say.
The agent and detective were conducting an investigation into the alleged bank robber near Van Cortlandt Park when they tried to pull him over at Aqueduct and McLean avenues for questioning, the sources told News 4.
The two apparently saw the man with a weapon and fired at him, the sources said, adding that a gun believed to belong to the suspect was recovered at the scene.
An FBI NY Special Agent and an officer with the Yonkers Police Department were involved in a shooting in Yonkers, NY today while conducting law enforcement activity. The subject was taken to a hospital, where he later died. No further information will be released at this time. FBI New York (@NewYorkFBI) December 15, 2017
The man was pronounced dead at an area hospital, according to the sources. He has not yet been identified.
The FBI and the Yonkers Police Department are both investigating the case, the sources said.
In a statement on Twitter Friday evening, the FBI confirmed a New York special agent and a Yonkers police officer were involved in a deadly shooting. "No further information will be released at this time," the agency wrote.
An investigation into the shooting is underway, according to the sources. Police tents were erected and crime scene tape was put up around the snowy scene Friday night.
The gunfire startled residents on the usually quiet suburban street. Islajal Sdranovic told News 4 that in the 20 years he had lived on the block he'd never heard gunshots, adding that he didn't believe the neighbors that gathered around the crime scene tape when they told him about the shooting.
"We thought people were joking around," he said.
Top Tri-State News Photos
A Delaware State Trooper fatally shot a suspect who dragged the trooper during a traffic stop, state police said.
The trooper was hurt, but was treated and released from the hospital Friday.
The incident happened Friday just before 4:30 p.m. near Farrand Drive and Hammond Place in Wilmington, state police said. The trooper, who has been with state police for 11 years, tried to make a traffic stop and was dragged by the vehicle he stopped, according to police.
The trooper fired at the suspect, police said. The suspect was taken to a local hospital, where he died.
Police didn't reveal the suspect's name, but said he was 30 years old and from Wilmington.
The 37-year-old trooper, who was also not named, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, police said. That is in keeping with state police policy.
State police continue to investigate. Anyone with information should contact Detective M. Csapo of the Delaware State Police Homicide Unit at 302-741-2729. Or, anyone with information can contact Delaware crime stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333 or here.
San Diego County will be under a red flag warning on Sunday beginning at 8 a.m., the National Weather Service said Friday.
Originally, the NWS had the county under a fire weather watch but that was elevated Friday afternoon because of the gusty offshore winds and low humidity expected to arrive Sunday morning.
The warning means critical fire weather conditions are either occurring or will shortly.
Any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly and be difficult to contain. Outdoor burning should be avoided.
The most recent fire weather warning for San Diego County expired Friday morning.
On Thursday, Dec. 7, when the region faced critical fire risk, the Lilac Fire broke out in the North County.
The fire destroyed more than 100 homes and burned 4,100 acres.
High fire risk is expected to last into January, adding to fears that months of deadly and destructive wildfire danger will extend into early next year.
In Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, the nearly 250,000-acre Thomas Fire has burned since Dec. 4.
Los Angeles County was under red flag warnings for 12 straight days until Friday, but the risk of wildfire is not yet over.
The warnings were first issued early last week because of gusty Santa Ana winds combined with very low humidity levels, then extended every day.
An 11-year-old boy is healing after his father's friend accidentally shot him in the chest, and the child's father said the family is mending their relationship with the man.
Caleb Harry is the boy who was shot in Suitland, Maryland, on Dec. 5. He had multiple strokes and had heart surgery and brain surgery.
But his father, Mark Harry, said he is hopeful about his son's progress.
"We're going to fight to get him back where he was," Mark Harry said Friday outside Children's National Medical Center in D.C.
Mark Harry said he's maintaining close ties with his friend after the tragic accident.
"I couldn't lose both a friend and my son at the same time," he said.
Caleb Harry's friend was spending time with Caleb the night of Tuesday, Dec. 5 at the man's home on the 3000 block of Bellamy Way. The friend is a 33-year-old military veteran who earned a Purple Heart, Harry said.
"My son and him, they do just about everything together," the father said.
The man told Mark Harry he was putting away a 9 mm pistol when it fired.
He rushed the child to Joint Base Andrews hospital.
Mark Harry was on a business trip in California at the time.
"My good buddy, my neighbor, actually picked up the phone and said, 'Hey, man. I accidentally shot Caleb, and I'm taking him to the hospital,'" Mark Harry said.
Doctors stabilized Caleb, and then he was moved to Children's National Medical Center.
Police responded about 6:40 p.m. after the shooting was reported.
No charges will be filed against the man.
Mark Harry said Caleb and the friend will work to heal their relationship.
"They had a little chat, talked about the injury, talked about where to go from here," the father said. "My son and him are so close that my son cried, [the neighbor] cried. For me, the most important thing was getting the both of them together and working on their relationship."
The friend "was traumatized," Mark Harry said.
"He's actually taking therapy for what happened, because PTSD kicked in after all of this," he said.
Mark Harry said he expects that Caleb will be released from the hospital next week. He is speaking and beginning to walk. Next, he will undergo physical therapy.
A GoFundMe page set up for the Harry family aims to raise $50,000 to pay for Caleb's medical bills. More than $6,700 had been raised by Friday afternoon.
In the holiday spirit of giving, Latino and African American officers in Hyattsville, Maryland, gave families in need Christmas baskets filled with food and other donations.
Officers handed out baskets at La Chiquita Restaurant located at 1500 University Blvd East Friday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers also delivered baskets to families without transportation.
Since 2000, the Hispanic National Law Enforcement Association has prepared food baskets for predominantly Latino communities in an effort to bridge the gap between their organization, community members and Latino officers.
Over the event's 17 years, donations have expanded from 20 baskets to 1,500. The number of volunteers, community members and police officers involved has also grown.
The eight-hour event was hosted in collaboration with the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association's National Capitol Region chapter, United Black Police Officers Association and the Association of Police Attaches Latin America.
For more information about the donation drive and how you can help, contact HAPCOA president Joe Perez at 240-244-9189.
The case seemed clear-cut. A woman working as a house cleaner in Fairfax City, Virginia, confessed to stealing three rings from a home.
A jury convicted her of a felony, but they imposed a fine of only $60 and gave her money to pay the fine, plus an extra $20. The woman had faced as long as 20 years in prison and a fine of as much as $2,500.
After The Washington Post first reported the story, News4's David Culver spoke with the maid and the jury foreperson on Friday.
The group chose to have compassion toward the maid, Sandra Mendez Ortega, 19, a mother of two, jury foreperson Jeff Memmott said.
"I could see in her that she was a good person that made a mistake," he said.
Mendez Ortega was working inside a home when she swiped the rings. They were the victim's engagement ring, wedding ring and a third, inexpensive ring, the Post reported.
Speaking inside her simple apartment in Falls Church, Virginia, with her baby boy at her side, Mendez Ortega said she took the rings out of desperation.
"I only work to provide for my kids," she said in Spanish, through tears.
Mendez Ortega initially denied stealing the rings. But she confessed later and gave them back.
The jury found her guilty but thought she didn't deserve time in prison. They decided on a $60 fine but wanted to do more.
One of the female jurors pulled out a $20 bill and said, 'I want to help pay for her fine,'" Memmott said. "And I dont know if it was everybody, but the vast majority of jurors did the same thing, including me."
Together, they collected $80, $20 more than the cost of the fine.
The jurors' action did not sit well with the crime victim, Lisa Copeland.
I just pray that theyre never in my shoes, she told the Post. She did not respond to News4's inquiries.
Memmott said he feels good about what he and his fellow jurors did.
They werent out anything. They got back their property. They got justice," he said, referring to the victims.
Mendez Ortega said she was relived.
"I feel very happy," she said, overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers.
The Trump administration reportedly banned staff of the nation's top health protection agency from using seven words or phrases in budget-related documents. But federal health officials on Saturday pushed back on the report as members of the science community publicly denounced the idea of such a directive, NBC News reported.
Policy analysts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were told during a meeting Thursday that they couldn't use the words "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based," The Washington Post reported Friday.
The meeting was led by Alison Kelly, a senior leader in the agency's Office of Financial Services, The Post reported. She gave no reason for the ban, according to an anonymous analyst who spoke with the newspaper.
In a statement provided to NBC News, a spokesman with the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, said the assertion that there are "'banned words' had mischaracterized actual discussions."
Greenfield filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against several distributors and manufacturers of opioid medications, joining a growing list of municipalities and states seeking to recoup the cost of dealing with the epidemic.
The city is the first municipality in the state to file such a suit, said Pete Merrigan, of Merrigan Sweeney, the city's law firm. Dozens of states, counties, municipalities and even hospitals across the country have filed similar lawsuits.
The city, home to 18,000 residents, seeks unspecified damages caused by the opioid epidemic, including the costs of providing medical care and treatment for the addicted.
"Let's stop kidding ourselves and have them own up to their obligation to be compliant with the law, which would prevent community addiction," Greenfield Mayor William Martin told The Recorder newspaper.
The city seeks to "eliminate the hazard to public health and safety" caused by the opioid epidemic and recover money spent "because of defendants' false, deceptive and unfair marketing," according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield.
One of the nearly two dozen defendants is Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, the developer of OxyContin.
"We are deeply troubled by the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis, and are dedicated to being part of the solution," the company said in a statement. "We vigorously deny these allegations."
Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan, the prosecutor whose jurisdiction includes Greenfield, endorsed the lawsuit.
"Opioid manufacturers and distributors need to be held accountable for their outrageous sales and marketing practices," Sullivan said in a statement.
The Massachusetts attorney general is part of a multistate coalition investigating whether drug-makers sought to increase profits by misrepresenting the dangers of prescription painkillers and ignoring the public health risks of spiking opioid sales, but a spokeswoman says no lawsuit has been filed.
The city of Quincy indicated in late October that it intended to sue opioid manufacturers, but a spokesman for Mayor Thomas Koch said no suit had been filed as of Friday.
Merrigan Sweeney represents several other Massachusetts cities considering lawsuits, Merrigan said.
A former aide to Rep. Bobby Scott on Friday accused the Virginia Democrat of sexual misconduct and said he fired her after she rebuffed his alleged advances, NBC News reported.
At a press conference, Macherie Reese Everson, who goes by Reese, said that Scott touched her inappropriately on two occasions in 2013 and that he flirted with her. Everson said that when she declined the overtures, she was "retaliated against" by being fired.
Everson said the conduct occurred when she was a Congressional Black Caucus Fellow working in Scott's office, when she was "touched inappropriately" by the lawmaker on her back and knee on two separate occasions and that he once invited her to join him at an event in California.
Scott strongly denied Everson's allegations in a statement: "I absolutely deny this allegation of misconduct. I have never sexually harassed anyone in my 25 years of service in the United States Congress, or in my 40 years of public service, or at any other time."
The toxic nature of chemotherapy poses a great challenge to clinical treatment of cancer. A team of scholars from the School of Chinese Medicine (SCM) of Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) devoted their efforts to the development of a new generation of smart anti-cancer drug molecules. The tumor-specific aptamer-drug conjugate they developed performs well in the treatment of tumors and reduces possible toxic side-effects. The team has submitted a patent application to China for the molecules and the research findings were recently published in the internationally renowned academic journal Nature Communications.
The research team is led by Dean of SCM Professor Lyu Aiping together with Director of the Technology Development Division and Associate Director of the Teaching and Research Division of SCM Professor Zhang Ge. Other researchers include SCM's Research Assistant Professor Dr Li Fangfei, Post-doctoral Research Fellow Dr Lu Jun, Post-doctoral Research Fellow Dr Liu Jin, Post-doctoral Research Fellow Dr Liang Chao, and the research team of Dr Zhang Baoting of the School of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Professor Lyu explained that since chemotherapy drugs could not distinguish cancer cells from normal cells, both are damaged during treatment. This not only limits the therapeutic effect of chemotherapy drugs but also creates certain side-effects on patients. To address this problem, the research team connected a tumor-targeting aptamer with a plant-derived cytotoxic drug to form a novel tumor-specific aptamer-drug conjugate.
Aptamers are single strand oligonucleotides that could form 3D structures and bind to specific cell types or proteins. They have been widely used for targeted drug delivery of small molecules and siRNAs due to their advantages, such as good water solubility, low immunogenicity, high permeability and stability.
To date, nucleolin aptamer has been proven safe and tumor specific. By conjugating nucleolin aptamer with a first-line chemotherapy drug paclitaxel into one molecule, the aptamer could improve both water solubility and tumor-targeting ability of the conjugated paclitaxel. By enhancing the delivery of drugs via body fluid to the different parts of the human body, the therapeutic effect is therefore strengthened.
Professor Zhang Ge said the research team developed a nucleolin aptamer-paclitaxel conjugate with good water solubility. An enzyme-sensitive linker was utilized to connect the aptamer and paclitaxel. The linker remained stable in the circulation, and broke inside tumor cells and released paclitaxel for action. The results showed that the conjugate exhibited excellent antitumor activity and decreased toxicity in the experiments using a mouse model.
Source: http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/
Two Johns Hopkins prostate cancer researchers found significant disparities when they submitted identical patient samples to two different commercial liquid biopsy providers. Liquid biopsy is a new and noninvasive alternative to tumor tissue sequencing, and it is intended to specifically detect and sequence tumor DNA circulating in patients' blood. The results are used to help guide doctors to tailor the best treatment for patients at each point of their disease.
Gonzalo Torga, M.D., a postdoctoral research fellow at the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins and Kenneth Pienta, M.D., director of research for the Brady Institute and a prostate cancer researcher at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, reported their findings in the Dec. 14 issue of JAMA Oncology. The results, they say, raise the possibility that cancer patients could be prescribed different treatments depending on which commercial provider is used for liquid biopsy.
The two liquid biopsy panels compared were the Guardant360, from Guardant Health, Inc., which sequenced at least part of the coding sequences of 73 genes, and the PlasmaSELECT panel from Personal Genome Diagnostics, which sequenced coding segments of 64 genes.
Both laboratories were licensed by Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, known as CLIA, and accredited by the College of American Pathologists, and report having high sensitivity (in this case, the ability to correctly identify mutations when they occur) and high specificity (the ability to correctly report as negative when those mutations are not present).
The two companies differ in which genes, and regions within each gene, are covered. Just 25 of the 40 patients in the study had at least one genetic mutation reported within the overlapping genetic sequences covered by both companies.
Even when the companies were analyzing DNA from the same blood drawn, their results rarely matched each other. When comparing results within the overlapping genetic sequences, the results from both companies completely matched for all the mutations reported in only 7.5 percent (3 of 40 patients) of cases. In 15 percent of the patients (6 of 40), both companies' results matched for at least one of the reported mutations. In 40 percent (16 of 40) of the patients, no mutations reported that were potentially covered by both panels were detected by both companies.
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Torga and Pienta's research was aimed at finding the best commercial lab to test patient samples from their metastatic prostate cancer clinic. "We wanted to make the best choice for our patients, so we started submitting the samples to both places at the same time to compare results," Torga says.
Patients may respond differently to cancer drugs depending on what kinds of gene mutations they have in their tumors. Oncologists use the results of a liquid biopsy to see if a patient is responding to treatment and to monitor tumors to see if they are progressing and may require a new or extra therapy. They may also use the results to select patients for clinical trials, if a specific mutation is found in their tumor's DNA.
A small study published earlier this year in JAMA Oncology compared mutations identified in tumor tissue samples and in liquid biopsy results from the same patients and found a similar lack of congruence.
Each commercial test costs about $4,000, Torga notes, and patients usually only have their samples sent to one lab for testing. "Liquid biopsy is a promising technology, with an exceptional potential to impact our ability to treat patients, but it is a new technology that may need more time and experience to improve," says Torga. "We can't tell from these studies which laboratory's panel is better, but we can say that certification for these laboratories must improve."
Torga and Pienta say they want to make sure oncologists are aware of the inconsistencies so that they do not blindly trust liquid biopsy results.
Source: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/liquid_biopsy_results_differed_substantially_between_two_providers
Researchers from Lancaster University are exploring whether technology could be the key to tackling the UK's loneliness epidemic by better connecting older adults with their communities.
Ironically, isolation and loneliness have spread rapidly as communication has become easier - particularly among older adults. According to Age UK, 3.9 million older adults see the TV as their best form of company - an issue that carries serious consequences. Loneliness is said to increase the risk of death by 26% - equivalent to factors such as smoking and obesity - and cost the nation 6,000 per person in health costs and pressure on local services.
In an age when increasing services and information are available online, how can a non-digitalized generation engage with technology to help improve the quality of their lives?
Lancaster University researchers are working on a 2.9 million project involving more than 100 older adults across Europe to co-create apps and digital services to deal with complex social issues such as isolation, exclusion and access to services.
The UK arm of the 'Mobile Age' project, which will culminate in written policy briefs for the EU and UK government, is focused on the South Lakeland area and centers around reducing social isolation and loneliness.
As part of the project, a new app is being co-created with a group of 10 local older adults. Using open data, the app shows users social opportunities available in their chosen area based on their preferences, as well as offering real-time information on factors that research suggests discourage older adults from venturing out - such as weather and levels of daylight. The app will also provide clear information on what the route is like, including its terrain, whether it's walkable, transport services available and toilet facilities along the way.
Professor Niall Hayes from Lancaster University is leading the UK research. He said: "The over 60s constitute a large and ever-growing group of very capable, active people with a will and the time to get involved with their communities - yet loneliness is an issue that affects millions across the country.
"Older adults are a largely untapped source of smart, sociable people but they are at risk of being excluded from the digital age as they often cannot access the information that others have at their fingertips. Rather than isolating them from the digital world, our research looks at co-creating something that works for them - opening up a brand new world of information that should create more social opportunities and a greater feeling of community."
While a large proportion of the community see devices like tablets and smartphones as ways to enhance social circles, research shows older adults don't feel the same way. They haven't grown up with technology and often fear it could replace real, face-to-face social engagement.
Working in conjunction with Lancaster University's Nigel Davis, a professor in Computing and Communications, an app is in its last stages of development and will be rolled out within the UK's chosen pilot community - South Lakeland in Cumbria - in the New Year.
Professor Hayes said: "The app is designed to be intuitive and easy to use but now we need to test it with different community groups. We want to capture the views of as many people as possible before passing on our policy recommendations - which will include the recommendation that large screens are displayed within existing community groups so all attendees get into a routine of accessing information and planning their next participation.
"We are working with local charities, support services and the local council and anticipate that lessons learned in this project will help shape local digital services in the future."
Over the next 12 months, the researchers will also continue to co-create with local participants, this time focusing on the role of carers and volunteers in supporting older people to use the app and access events.
Dinosaur found in Uttarakhand town? Scientists baffled with lookalike flesh and bone structure
Uttarakhand : Dinosaurs had gone extinct from Earth nearly 65-million-years ago, the only way we can watch them today is by animated graphics, but then here is a news. Scientists have found a creature body with flesh and bones that resembles to the dinosaurs.
An electrician found the partially-preserved corpse in Jaspur, a small city in Uttarakhand, India. The creature was found while a man was cleaning a substation abandoned for 35 years.
Scientists are baffled by the shape and structure of the body as it has major resemblance to the dinosaurs. It has been sent for carbon dating to know the real age.
Until the completion of scientific analysis, the creature would remain a mystery, Dr Parag Madhukar Dhakate, a Conservator with the Indian Forest Service said.
"It looks like a dinosaur, but we can't say anything until all the tests are done," he was quoted as saying by the Dailymail.
It was not possible for a dinosaur skeleton to be so well preserved after so long, Aaryan Kumar, who is pursuing a PhD in Paleontology from Delhi University, told local media.
"Non-avian dinosaurs have been extinct for the past 65 million years but it does resemble theropods, a suborder of dinosaurs which included bipedal carnivores," he said.
"But a dinosaur skeleton could not have been found in such a well-preserved condition after millions of years without it being in a fossilized state," he added.
"The only even slightly possible way is it was chemically preserved to store it in a museum. But if that was the case, how did it end up here?"
The 28cm-long creature resembles some of these dinosaurs the Deinonychus, the Coelophysis and the Dromaeosaurus.
Google to open Artificial Intelligence research lab in China, first in Asia
San Francisco : In an apparent move to rebuild its presence in China, Google on Wednesday said it will open a research lab focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Beijing -- its first such centre in Asia.
Google's search engine and many of its services -- including YouTube -- remain blocked in mainland China.
The "Google AI China Centre" will join the other AI research groups that the company has in other parts of the world, including in New York, Toronto, London and Zurich.
Focused on basic AI research, the lab will consist of a team of AI researchers in Beijing, supported by the company's engineering teams.
"We've already hired some top experts, and will be working to build the team in the months ahead," Fei-Fei Li, Chief Scientist, Google Cloud AI and Machine Learning, wrote in a blog post.
Google said China is home to many of the world's top experts in AI and machine learning and the objective behind opening the centre in Beijing was to tap the best AI talent in the country.
"I believe AI and its benefits have no borders. Whether a breakthrough occurs in Silicon Valley, Beijing or anywhere else, it has the potential to make everyone's life better. And we want to work with the best AI talent, wherever that talent is, to achieve it," Li added.
The "Google AI China Centre" will publish its own work, support the AI research community by funding and sponsoring AI conferences and workshops and work closely with the AI research community.
Google shut down its Chinese search engine seven years ago after a direct confrontation over Beijing's censorship policies.Earlier in the month, Google's India-born Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said that a lot of the tech giant's work actually helps Chinese companies.
Attending the fourth edition of the Chinese state-run "World Internet Conference" in Wuzhen, near Shanghai, Pichai said that many small and medium-sized businesses in China take advantage of Google to get their products to many other countries outside of China.
Popular Science is reporting that China has secret railgun and electromagnetic launcher programs that are competitive with the United States.
Above is the US 32 megajoule railgun undergoing rapid fire testing
Landbased electromagnetic launchers have been photographed undergoing tests in China. There had not been any indication that China had a competitive railgun program.
Chinas landbased electromagnetic launcher
The US has been the leader in Railgun testing and has placed an electromagnetic plane and drone launcher onto its most recent supercarrier.
The United States Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division demonstrated an 8 MJ railgun firing 3.2 kg (7.1 lb) projectiles in October 2006 as a prototype of a 64 MJ weapon to be deployed aboard Navy warships. A BGM-109 Tomahawk will deliver 3,000 MJ of destructive energy to a target but railguns shots are a fraction of the cost of a missile and will be much harder to shoot down versus future defensive systems. The Rheinmetall 120mm gun used on main battle tanks generates 9 MJ of muzzle energy. A Mark 8 round fired from the 16-inch guns of an Iowa-class battleship at 2,500 ft/s (762 m/s) has 356 MJ of kinetic energy at the muzzle.
BAE Systems has delivered a 32 MJ prototype (muzzle energy) to the U.S. Navy. The same amount of energy is released by the detonation of 4.8 kg (11 lb) of C4.
In July, 2017, Tom Beutner, head of Naval Air Warfare and Weapons for the Office of Naval Research indicated that within 12 months the railgun program would achieve ten shots per minute at 32 megajoules.
Recently, Rear Admiral Ma Weiming told Chinese experts in electromagnetic research that China has made breakthroughs in key areas of electromagnetic applications, such as railguns and electromagnetic-assisted launch system (EMALS) catapults.
The EMALS catapult is likely to equip the second domestically built 002 aircraft carrier, which will likely be launched sometime after 2020. In November 2017, it was reported that the Chinese Navy had developed a new means of powering electromagnetic catapults with conventional power sources instead of nuclear reactors, and construction of the Type 002 was due to begin imminently.
In 2016, retired Rear Admiral Zhao Dengping discussed plans for a follow-up warship to the Type 055; a Universal Combatant Ship that would be equipped with laser, railguns, and, most intriguingly, electromagnetically assisted missile launchers, which could increase missile range.
China has desire, technical and financial resources for solid directed energy and railgun programs
National Interest indicated US experts believe China is likely making substantial progress in directed-energy devices, based on efforts being made and the resources available. China also has effective espionage and can purchase western technology and companies.
Chopper where it fell from sky Power Workers statement
The Power Workers Union has identified the four men killed in a helicopter crash near Tweed Friday. In a release the union said it is mourning the loss of our fellow brother, James Baragar and our colleagues Jeff Howes, Darcy Jansen and Kyle Shorrock. Our deepest sympathies go out to their families and their loved ones. We know that the crew was travelling in the Hydro One helicopter to perform work on a 230kv transmission tower at the time of the incident, but for now, all other information surrounding the fatal aviation accident is scarce. We ask that everyone co-operate with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigation team members as they conduct their investigation. It is reported that the crew was performing routine placement of screening over power lines whose purpose was to deflect lightning strikes. The crew is said to have been experienced at such work.
Do you own or plan to buy a home? Yes No Good for you, but less so if you live in a state with high property taxes. The final bill would keep the mortgage interest tax deduction, but would only allow interest on a mortgage up to $750,000, lowered from $1 million, to be deducted. And if you live in a state with high property taxes, like New Jersey, you can no longer deduct more than $10,000 in property taxes. This change would expire after 2025. In 2014, more than 32 million households claimed the mortgage interest deduction. No impact for you. The final bill would keep the mortgage interest tax deduction, but would only allow interest on a mortgage up to $750,000, lowered from $1 million, to be deducted. And if you live in a state with high property taxes, like New Jersey, you can no longer deduct more than $10,000 in property taxes. This change would expire after 2025. In 2014, more than 32 million households claimed the mortgage interest deduction.
Do you pay the penalty for not having health insurance?
Do you make charitable contributions? Yes No Keep giving! The bill would keep deductions for charitable gifts if you dont take the standard deduction. In 2014, 36 million households deducted charitable contributions. But Republicans have proposed to nearly double the standard deduction, which means that fewer people would claim charitable deductions. No impact for you. The bill would keep deductions for charitable gifts if you dont take the standard deduction. In 2014, 36 million households deducted charitable contributions. But Republicans have proposed to nearly double the standard deduction, which means that fewer people would claim charitable deductions.
Do you have children? Yes No You may get more help, but the bill includes new restrictions. The child tax credit would increase to $2,000 from $1,000, but the bill would require each child to have a Social Security number to claim the refundable and nonrefundable portions of the credit. This change would expire after 2025. No impact for you. The bill would increase the child tax credit to $2,000 from $1,000, but it would require each child to have a Social Security number to claim the refundable and nonrefundable portions of the credit. This change would expire after 2025.
Do you live in a high-tax state like California or New York? Yes No Ouch! The bill would keep the itemized deduction for state and local taxes, but it would cap the deduction at a combined $10,000 for property and either income or sales taxes. With these new limits on deductions, people in high-tax states and cities would most likely pay more. This change would expire after 2025. Its a good thing you dont. The bill would keep the itemized deduction for state and local taxes, but it would cap the deduction at a combined $10,000 for property and either income or sales taxes. With these new limits on deductions, people in high-tax states and cities would most likely pay more. This change would expire after 2025.
Do you earn at least $500,000 a year? Yes No Oof! Many households in your income range pay the alternative minimum tax, which is meant to keep you from using loopholes to avoid paying taxes. President Trumps original tax plan and the House bill would have eliminated it, but the final bill would keep this tax, raising the threshold so that fewer households would pay it. The tax would mostly affect individual taxpayers earning at least $500,000 and married couples earning at least $1 million. This change would expire after 2025. Youre probably not affected. The bill would keep the alternative minimum tax, which is meant to keep high-income earners from using loopholes to avoid paying taxes, but the bill would scale the tax back so that fewer households would pay it. The tax would mostly affect individual taxpayers earning at least $500,000 and married couples earning at least $1 million. This change would expire after 2025.
Do you send your children to private school? Yes No Good for you. The bill would extend a tax benefit available for higher education by allowing you to open a 529 account to save for elementary and secondary school tuition. But public school advocates warn that it would hurt public schools by incentivizing parents to send their children to private schools. No direct impact for you. The bill would extend a tax benefit available for higher education by allowing parents to open a 529 account to save for elementary and secondary school tuition. But public school advocates warn that it would hurt public schools by incentivizing parents to send their children to private schools.
Do you stand to inherit wealth or businesses worth more than $5.6 million? Yes No Cha-ching! The bill would keep the estate tax for the very few people who inherit large estates, but it would double the amount, to $11.2 million from $5.6 million, that you get to keep tax free. This change would expire after 2025. No impact for you. The bill would keep the estate tax for the very few people who inherit large estates, but it would double the amount, to $11.2 million from $5.6 million, that beneficiaries get to keep tax free. This change would expire after 2025.
Do you have large, uninsured medical expenses? Yes No You might receive extra help. The I.R.S. currently allows you to deduct qualified medical expenses greater than 10 percent of your income. Claimed by 8.6 million households in 2014, these deductions would be expanded by reducing the threshold to 7.5 percent of income for 2017 and 2018. No impact for you. The I.R.S. currently allows you to deduct qualified medical expenses greater than 10 percent of your income. Claimed by 8.6 million households in 2014, these deductions would be expanded by reducing the threshold to 7.5 percent of income for 2017 and 2018.
Do you have large, unreimbursed business expenses? Yes No Thats unfortunate. Under current law, unreimbursed business expenses that exceed 2 percent of your income are deductible. The bill would eliminate these deductions, claimed by 14.5 million households in 2014. This repeal would expire after 2025. No impact for you. Under current law, unreimbursed business expenses that exceed 2 percent of your income are deductible. The bill would eliminate these deductions, claimed by 14.5 million households in 2014. This repeal would expire after 2025.
Do you have large, uninsured casualty or theft losses? Yes No Were afraid you lose again. Only 90,000 households claimed casualty or theft losses in 2014. But if your house were to be broken into and valuable items stolen, the bill would eliminate the option to deduct the losses on your taxes. The only exceptions would be for victims of federally declared disasters. This repeal would expire after 2025. No impact for you. Only 90,000 households claimed casualty or theft losses in 2014. But if your house were to be broken into and valuable items stolen, the bill would eliminate the option to deduct the losses on your taxes. The only exceptions would be for victims of federally declared disasters. This repeal would expire after 2025.
Do you have a creative accountant? Yes No Have you ever thought of yourself as a business? The bill would allow people with pass-through business income to deduct 20 percent of that income from their taxes. You may be able to take advantage of the deduction if you register as an L.L.C. This change would expire after 2025. You might consider getting one. The bill would allow people with pass-through business income to deduct 20 percent of that income from their taxes. You may be able to take advantage of the deduction if you register as an L.L.C. This change would expire after 2025.
Do you take the standard tax deduction? Yes No Good news: It could double. The bill would roughly double the standard deduction, so many more people would end up taking it instead of itemizing the deductions listed above. If a married couple pays less than $24,000 in itemized deductions, the couple would do better under the bills new standard deduction. This change would expire after 2025. That may be your best bet in the future. The bill would roughly double the standard deduction, so many more people would end up taking it instead of itemizing the deductions listed above. If a married couple pays less than $24,000 in itemized deductions, the couple would do better under the bills new standard deduction. This change would expire after 2025.
Heres how things look for you. You missed some questions! The Republicans' bill would... For you, that is... Keep the mortgage interest tax deduction. Keep deductions on charitable gifts. Double the child tax credit. Cap the state and local tax deductions at $10,000. Retain the alternative minimum tax for U.S. taxpayers. Expand the use of 529 college savings accounts to include K-12 private school tuition. Keep the estate tax but double the exemptions. Expand deductions for uninsured medical expenses. Eliminate deductions for unreimbursed employee expenses. Eliminate deductions for uninsured casualty or theft losses. Allow pass-through companies get new deductions. Double the standard tax deduction.
As Republican leaders worked out the final details in the bill, the negotiators agreed to provide slightly more help to low- and middle-income Americans by reducing some benefits for higher earners. And at the heart of their sweeping rewrite of the tax code is a large, permanent tax cut for corporations, which Republicans say will spur economic growth and create jobs.
But all these tax cuts would come at a cost.
As Sonia speaks of retirement, Congress says dial down the excitement
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Moments after Sonia Gandhi said that her role was now to retire, the Congress hurriedly asked everyone to dial down the excitement. The party came out to clarify that she was only retiring as the Congress President and not from active politics.
When asked about her role after Rahul Gandhi takes over as Congress president, she said, " my role now is to retire."
Immediately after she made the comment, the day was spent interpreting her statement. Congress leader Randeep Surjewala tried to dial down the excitement with a tweet. He said, " I would sincerely request friends in the media to not rely upon innuendos. Sonia Gandhi has retired as president of Indian National Congress and not from politics. Her blessings, wisdom and innate commitment to Congress ideology shall always be our guiding light."
Amidst this there was also speculation that Priyanka Gandhi may contest from Rae Bareli in 2019 if Sonia Gandhi vacates the seat. Analysts say that Sonia's message was to the party workers that she is giving a free hand to her son.
Her messages has however not gone down too well with the old guard who have been her trusted aides since the past 20 years. It is clear that many who form the old guard have not found favour with Rahul Gandhi and they may eased out over a period of time.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 6:36 [IST]
As the nation awaits the Gujarat verdict..
India
oi-Oneindia
By Sandeep Shastri
With the last vote having been cast in the Gujarat Assembly poll, on Thursday evening the attention shifted to the Exit Polls all of which predicted a victory for the BJP in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. As one eagerly awaits for Monday, the day of counting, it would be useful to reflect on what factors arecontributing to what is being projected by the exit polls and its implications for political developments at the national level.
Coming first to the less emphasized smaller state, Himachal Pradesh. The BJP seems to be set to come to power in this picturesque hill state. The state has a reputation in the recent past of not giving a second chance to the ruling party androtating power between the BJP and the Congress.
The Congress did not makes its task any easier with a lack lustre five year performance under a Chief Minster who faced a surfeit of complications and corruption allegations. Age too was not on his side and the Congress did not think it fit to bring in a change of leadership mid way through its term.
The BJP had further bolstered it s chanced by announcing P.K.Dhumal as its Chief Ministerial nominee thus putting an end to any infighting below the surface and capitalizing on his reasonably good image and capacity to lead the campaign with greater energy and enthusiasm. Come Monday, a defeat for the Congress in Himachal Pradesh would add one more loss to a party that has been unable to hold on to the States it is in power, especially after the crushing defet of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This places much more pressure on the party to do well in Karnataka which is the next big round of elections. The Karnataka analysis will of course be a subject of a separate analysis!
Gujarat has seen an electoral contest marked by a high decibel, acerbic and often vitriolic campaign between the principal opponents. Soon after Uttar Pradesh, many in the BJP assumed that Gujarat would be an easy and effortless cake walk. The exit poll trends indicate a different picture and the BJP and its leadership had to make that extra effort to hold on to a state that they have been in power for over two decades.
If the exit polls trends come true on Monday, it is clear that the BJP victory in Gujarat is on account of the personal effort and charisma of the Prime Minister who in a way single handedly led the party campaign in the state, especially in the last two weeks. It is also patently clear, that if not for the presence of the Prime Minister, it would have been difficult for the BJP to stave off anti-incumbency.
The disenchantment of the Gujarat voter with the track record of the state government is discernible. Rural Gujarat seems to express this disquiet more stridently and the Congress appears to have gained considerable ground in the villages and small towns. What appears to have helped the BJP is its continued presence and popularity in urban areas.
It is also important to record that to challenge twenty two years of incumbency requires a sustained effort with a credible and visible leadership on the ground. The Congress seems to have woken up to its responsibilities as an Opposition rather late in the day. This helped the ruling party contain the anti-incumbency sentiment.
Discontent with the ruling party could not translate itself into a vote for the opposition as the alternative did not appear to generate the needed confidence of the voter. Further, the real Opposition seemed to be led by the triumvirate - Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani, who aligned themselves to the anti-BJP platform even as they remained outside the Congress party. On the other hand, though the BJP had little to offer in terms of a local face, the presence of the Prime Minister as the true face of the party, appeared to have helped stave off the negative impact of two decades of incumbency.
What would be the larger national ramifications of these two state election verdicts. If the exit poll predictions hold good, the headline would clearly be that the BJP has emerged triumphant in both states. Yet, the deeper narrative cannot be lost sight of. If BJP comes back to power with a similar or significantly lesser tally as compared to 2012, it would truly be a stunted victory.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have carried the day, it raises important questions about the capacity of the BJP local leadership to deliver. In 2018, the BJP would be facing the polls in three states where it would have to defend its performance. In Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh they would be seeking a fourth successive term. Its advantage in all the three states is the presence of Chief Ministers who are leaders in their own right.
On the other hand, the Congress too appears to be privileging its new strategy of empowering its state level leaders to galvanize their campaigns. Karnataka would see the next big electoral contest where the BJP would once again showcase Brand Modi. Given the deep dissensions in the State BJP and the fact that there were in power five years ago and did not cover themselves in too much of glory would once again force the party to depend on the national leadership. On the other hand, the Congress has clearly entered the electoral contest under the leadership of its Chief Minister. If the exit poll results hold good, Gujarat would see a strong recovery for the Congress and under a new Party President they may well aim at changing the narrative from a personality based contest to an issue and policy based debate with the ruling BJP. As 2017 draws to a close, 2018 is likely to herald a witness a keen contest between key players setting the stage for the big battle of 2019.
(Dr Sandeep Shastri is a leading psephologist and political scientist)
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 8:22 [IST]
Ghazwa-e-Hind in Assam: NIA roped in as Islamists plan destruction of India
Assam: Two NDFB militants gunned down
India
pti-PTI
Haflong (Assam), Dec 16: Two National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants were killed in an encounter with security forces and a kidnapped person rescued in Assam's Dima Hasao district today, police said.
Acting on specific information, an operation was launched in a forest area in Umrangso along the Assam- Meghalaya border and an encounter followed in which two NDFB militants were injured.
They succumbed to their injuries on way to the hospital, Dima Hasao Superintendent of Police, Ankur Jain said.
A 9 mm pistol was recovered from the encounter site. The police rescued the manager of a coal quarry, Mahendra Rai who was kidnapped by the militants on December four last from an area under Muriap police outpost area of Meghalaya.
Jain said that search operations were continuing in the area as they suspected that there were more militants who managed to escape.
PTI
Why NOTA, a blank vote, is a waste with no impact on election results
How BJP's win in Gujarat, HP is spreading happiness in the Indian market
In new Himachal Assembly, 52 out of 68 MLAs are crorepatis
Exit polls are bogus and manipulated: Virbhadra Singh
India
oi-Vikas
By Vikas
Rubbishing the exit polls prediction that the BJP may win Himachal Pradesh elections, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Saturday said exit polls are not based on facts. Singh further dubbed them as "bogus and manipulated.
"Exit polls are bogus, manipulated & not based on facts. I have visited corners of Himachal Pradesh & most people are in favour of Congress. I am confident that Congress will win with majority," Singh told the media.
Almost all exit polls predicted outright win for the BJP in Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections 2017. Himachal assembly has 68 seats and the magic number to form the government is 35.
Today's Chanakya exit poll for Himachal Pradesh predicts 55 seats for BJP and 13 for Congress. India Today-Axis My India exit poll projected 47 to 55 seats for BJP, 13 to 20 setas for Congress and 0-2 seats for others in Himachal Pradesh.
[Exit polls: BJP beats anti-incumbency in Gujarat, but cashes on it in Himachal]
Overall, the opinion poll projected big win for BJP. In Himachal Pradesh, News24 exit poll projected win for BJP with 55 seats, while the prediction for Congress is of 13 seats.
If the prediction by exit polls are to be believed then the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to continue its ruling spree in Gujarat while in Himachal Pradesh the saffron party is likely to wrest power from the Congress.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 19:33 [IST]
Nirbhaya: Still sad, but at peace knowing that justice has been delivered
Five years after Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder: Brave mothers long wait for justice
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
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Nirbhaya Gang rape : After 5 years , has the street become safer for women | Oneindia News
New Delhi, Dec 16: Nothing has changed since the brutal gang-rape and murder of the 23-year-old paramedic student inside a bus on December 16, 2012 in Delhi.
The brutally of the incident so much shocked the entire nation that people came out on the streets to protest against sexual violence against women.
A few months later, in March 2013, the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre gave India a new anti-rape law-- the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013--related to sexual offences.
Did a new law brought down sexual offences against women? No, not at all. Rapes and gang-rapes continue to happen in the country with shocking frequency. The saddest part is that the mother of Nirbhaya (the name given to December 16 victim) is still waiting for justice.
"Even after five years, her culprits are alive. If justice isn't served on time, people cease to be scared of law. A strong law needs to be formulated and mindset of everyone, be it a politician or a common man, needs to be changed," Asha Devi, mother of Nirbhaya, was quoted as saying by ANI.
Even after 5 years, her culprits are alive. If justice isn't served on time, people cease to be scared of law. A strong law needs to be formulated & mindset of everyone, be it a politician or a common man, needs to be changed: Asha Devi, Mother of #Nirbhaya pic.twitter.com/IsCFi4T5dA ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2017
In fact in November, Asha Devi raised pertinent questions regarding the delay in execution of four of the six accused in the case. On May 5, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty awarded to the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case by the Delhi High Court.
Two of the convicts in the horrific case--Vinay Sharma and Pawan Kumar Gupta--moved the apex court for review of its verdict upholding the capital punishment awarded to them.
The top court, on December 12, had allowed the counsel to file review petition for another convict Akshay Singh and listed the matter for hearing on January 22.
Exactly five years ago, on the fateful night of December 16, six persons, including a juvenile, brutally assaulted and raped Nirbhaya in a moving bus in the national capital. The male friend of the 23-year-old woman, who was with her, was also beaten badly by the accused. Later both were thrown off the bus.
In spite of all the attempts to save the victim, thirteen days after the incident, she succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital.
The four convicts--Pawan, Vinay, Mukesh Singh and Akshay Kumar Singh--were awarded death sentence by the Delhi High Court. The fifth accused, Ram Singh, committed suicide in jail. The juvenile accused has been released after completing mandatory probation period in a remand home.
In November, even the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) issued a notice to Tihar Jail Administration and Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) South District, questioning the delay in execution of death penalty to rapists.
Urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to create a stringent law to punish rapists, DCW chief Swati Jai Hind said, "At least when minor girls are raped there should be a law in this country in which such rapists should be punished and given death penalty within six months. This should be done in all the cases and we are requesting the Prime Minister to create a law which is there for the entire country in this regard."
Now, it needs to be seen when the four accused in the case would be executed as asked by the apex court. On the fifth anniversary of the dreaded episode, all Indian women and girls demand better safety mechanisms to be in place to make themselves feel safe inside and outside their homes.
The female population of India wants society to change their attitude towards women and girls to make the country a better place to live in.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 11:14 [IST]
Sakshi Maharajs 4 wives, 40 children remark
While talking to the media in Meerut, controversial BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj in January said that population rise was due to a certain community and it allowing four wives and 40 children.
"Population rise is not due to Hindus. It is the result of certain communities that allow 4 wives and 40 children," he had said.
The Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections were round the corner back then when Maharaj made this remark. His statement was seen as a clear violation of Supreme Court order on keeping religion off the table during campaigning for polls.
Rahul compares Congress symbol with Guru Nanaks hand
Congress president elect Rahul Gandhi drew flak of Shiromani Akali Dal in January this year for saying that he saw the Congress party symbol hand' in the hand of Guru Nanak.
Rahul, who was then the Congress vice president, had said, "The Congress symbol is in Lord Shiva's picture. The gods in every religion are showing the Congress symbol... When I see the image of Guru Nanak Dev ji, I see the Congress symbol, hand', in his hand."
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had described the analogy as "shocking in the extreme".
Sharad Yadavs Beti ki izzat comment
Former Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav had in January this year made yet another sexist remark while addressing a gathering of party workers in Bihar. While addressing, Yadav said that the honour of vote comes above the honour of daughter.
"Beti ki izzat se bhi vote ki izzat badi hai. Beti ki izzat jayegi to gaon aur muhalle ki izzat jayegi. Vote ek baar bik gaya, to desh ki izzat, aur aane wala sapna poora nhi ho skta? (If daughter's honour is compromised than it will bring shame to a village or a community but if votes are sold, it impacts our nation)," Yadav had said in his speech.
Vinay Katiyars prettier than Priyanka Gandhi remark
JP MP Vinay Katiyar's earlier this year joined the sexist Netas' league and said that there are prettier star campaigners than Priyanka Gandhi. He said this ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election held earlier this year
"Unse jyada bohut si sundar mahilayen hai jo star campaigner hain (there are prettier star campaigners than Priyanka)," Katiyar said.
Dayashankar Singh likens Mayawati to prostitute
In July this year, the BJP sacked its then Uttar Pradesh vice-president Dayashankar Singh from all party posts after he made derogatory remarks against BSP chiefMayawati.
Singh, while accusing Mayawati of selling party election tickets, questioned her character, saying her behaviour was worse than that of a prostitute and it was the reason why followers of Kanshi Ram were deserting her.
"Ek vaishya se bhi badtar charitra ki aaj Mayawatiji ho gayi hain. Isi liye Kanshi Ram ke banaye karyakarta unka saath chhod kar ja rahe hain aur BSP samapt ho rai hai... Mayawatiji kisi ko 1 crore mein ticket deti hain. Koi 2 crore dene wala milta hai toh usey ticket de deti hain, aur shaam ko koi 3 crore dene ko taiyyar hota hai toh usey de deti hain(Mayawati gives a ticket for 1 crore which she changes if she is offered 2 crore. And she changes even that ticket if she is offered 3 crore by evening)," Singh had said.
Army chief sadak ka goonda: Sandeep Dikshit
Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit had in June this year said Army Chief Bipin Rawat should not be making statements like a 'Sadak ka goonda' (Roadside goon).
"Pakistan can do only such things, they can only do uncalled for things and give statements. It feels bad when our Army Chief also give statements like a 'sadak a goonda'. Let Pakistan do it, they are like mafia. Why should our Army chief do it? We have a culture, a reputation in the world, so even if we do such things then it is cheap," he had said.
Religion before country, says Maviya Ali
In a controversial remark ahead of the Independence Day, Samajwadi Party leader Maviya Ali said that religious identity comes before national identity.
His remark cames at a time when the Uttar Pradesh government had instructed the madrassas to hoist the national flag, sing the national anthem and pay tributes to freedom fighters on the occasion of Independence Day.
"Pehle musalman hain phir Hindustani, duniya mein kahin bhi musalman ho pehle musalman hai phir kisi desh ka naagrik (We are first Muslims then Indians. Everywhere in the world, a Muslim is first a Muslim and then the citizen of the nation)," Ali had said.
(Image courtesy - ANI/Twitter)
Sangeet Som says Taj Mahal was built by traitors
BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Som had in October said that the iconic Taj Mahal was built by 'traitors' and cannot be included in the Indian history. The MLA from Sardhana also reportedly said that the Taj Mahal was a blot on India culture.
Raze monuments reeking of pre-independence rulers: Azam Khan
As if BJP MLA Sangeet Som's remark on the Taj Mahal was not enough to stir a controversy, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan went one step ahead.
Reacting to Som's comment that Taj Mahal is a blot on history, Khan said that all buildings constructed by pre-independence rulers should be demolished, including Parliament and the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
"Mai pehle se iss rai ka hoon ki ghulami ki un tamaam nishaniyon ko mita dena chahiye jisse kal ke shasakon ki boo aati ho...Akele Taj Mahal hi kyun? Parl, Rashtrapati Bhawan, Qutb Minar, Lal Qila kyun nahi? Ye sab ghulaami ki nishani hai (I have been saying that all the traces of slavery that reek of past rulers should be erased... Why only Taj Mahal? Parliament, Rashtrapati Bhawan, Qutub Minar, Red Fort are all symbols of slavery)," Khan told news agency ANI.
Taking a sarcastic jibe at Som's remark that Taj Mahal was built by traitors, Khan said that anything associated with the traitors should be demolished.
Mani Shankar Aiyars 'Neech' remark
Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "Neech kism ka aadmi" (a lowly person) has to be the remark which made the most impact, at least politically. It may have even swung some votes in Gujarat elections in BJP's favour. BJP, in the last phases of its campaigns, raked up the issue repeatedly, one of the BJP spokesperson even cried during a debate on this matter on TV.
Modi gave a "befitting" reply to Aiyar's "neech" remark by dubbing such nasty comments against him as the Congress' "Mughlai mentality".
Such was the impact of Aiyar's remark that the Congress was forced to suspend him form the primary membership of the party.
"One person who worked tirelessly towards achieving what Ambedkar ji wanted was Jawaharlal Nehru. To say foul things about that family, i feel this man is neech (lowly), he has no civic sense. What is the need for such dirty politics at this time," Aiyar had said attacking Modi after the latter accused the Congress of seeking votes in B R Ambedkar's name but trying to erase his contribution to building India.
Is it the right time for Rahul to take over as Congress president?
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
New Delhi, Dec 16: It's a momentous occasion for the Congress on Saturday as it is going to welcome its 87th president Rahul Gandhi to take charge of the grand old party formally.
Since the time of Congress' first president Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee back in 1885, the grand old party has been presided over by some of the finest and illustrious politicians who have left a huge mark in the entire politics of the country.
Now, the 47-year-old scion of the Gandhi family is stepping up to fill the big shoes of his predecessors, which definitely is not an easy thing to achieve. Nonetheless the reluctant politician has finally agreed to take up the big responsibility of helming the 132-year-old party officially.
It has been a while since the talk surrounding Rahul's elevation as the party president is going on. However, every time it proved to be a rumour. This time it did turn true as the Congress hosted an election, which many dismissed as a farce, to elect its new president after 19 years of Sonia Gandhi's rule.
The critics of Rahul's elevation as the Congress boss, especially the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), say that the grand old party is continuing with its dynastic politics by letting a sixth Nehru-Gandhi to become its president.
Rahul's promotion has come at a crucial time, just two days before the Gujarat Assembly elections results and more than a year before the all-important parliamentary elections in 2019. So, the first test of Rahul will be how much his campaigning during the Gujarat elections helped the party?
Since the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, Rahul, who has been unofficially heading the Congress because of Sonia's bad health, has been blamed for the party's regular defeats in polls.
However, the 47-year-old managed to stay away from taking the blame for the party's electoral defeats as he was not the formal chief of the party. Now, anything goes wrong with the party, Rahul has to take its responsibility. Or else what is the point in being a leader?
Political observers say that even if the Congress does not win the polls in Gujarat, but Rahul has shown enough signs of being a strong and matured politician during his relentless campaigning in the home turf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Experts add that Rahul should continue with the same zeal and energy to unite the party and its grassroots cadres before the Lok Sabha elections of 2019.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia, current and former chief ministers, MPs, senior Congress leaders, and all the Pradesh Congress Committee (PPC) chiefs and delegates will be present at the handing over ceremony of Rahul.
Gandhi had been the party vice president for over four years since 2013. Rahul's main challenge remains the revamping of party organisation, apart from electoral battles in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The party workers have already started their celebrations in Delhi and across the country to welcome their new chief. Soon after his "coronation", Rahul can't afford to waste a minute as the road ahead for him is full of thorns.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 8:49 [IST]
Joke of the year: Jaish terrorist dies in accidental blast, outfit claims martyrdom
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
The Jaish-e-Mohammad appears to be claiming martyrdom for almost everything. Take for instance this incident where a Jaish terrorist was found dead in Jammu and Kashmir.
Next to the body of this terrorist was a letter by the terror outfit. The letter read, " our fellow militant has attained martyrdom when a mine went off accidentally."
The body of the terrorist was found at Eidgah, Tral in South Kashmir. The police are investigating the incident and say that the letter had been left there by members of the Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Several Jaish terrorists have been gunned down by the Indian Army in the past year. This year alone, over 200 terrorists have been killed by the security forces. This is the highest number of terrorists that have been killed in the Valley in the past seven years.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 9:52 [IST]
KTET 2017 admit card released, check now
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
The KTET 2017 admit card has been released. The same is available on the official website.
Official notification for Kerala TET was released in July and the exam was held on 12 August and 19 August. Admit cards were released on 1 August. Usually, the KTET selection will comprise of four categories. While first three categories will be for teacher posts of lower primary, upper primary and high school classes, respectively; the last category will be for language teachers in Arabic, Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu (up to Upper Primary level), Specialist teachers and Physical Education teachers (up to High School level). The admit card is available on ktet.kerala.gov.in.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 7:38 [IST]
Malegaon blasts: This tale of two chargesheets baffles Bombay HC
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
The Malegaon blasts case of 2006 has seen many twists and turns. The case originally investigated by the Maharashtra ATS was then handed over to the National Investigation Agency.
Ironically, with two probe agencies came two chargesheets as well. This development has baffled the Bombay High Court which went on to ask how one case has two different sets of accused and multiple findings.
The observation was made by a Division Bench comprising, Justices Naresh Patil and Nitish Sambre while hearing a discharge petition filed by 8 Muslims who were arrested by the ATS. The Bench is also hearing petitions filed by four accused persons arrested by the NIA.
How could the four accused persons who were not named either by the ATS or CBI be chargesheeted by the NIA. How can the conclusions of the NIA be different from the ATS, the court asked.
Counsel for the NIA said that the four accused were held as the bi-cycles used in the blast had led the agency up to them. The state of Maharashtra argued that the trial court ought to have considered the charges filed by the ATS, NIA and CBI, instead of discharging nine accused in the case.
The blast on September 8 2006 killed 31 persons and injured over 300. The ATS arrested nine Muslims and the CBI which also probed the case concurred with this finding. The case was then handed over to the NIA which gave a clean chit to the nine accused.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 6:49 [IST]
Manmohan Singh takes a dig at BJP, cautions Rahul Gandhi over Politics of Fear
India
oi-Deepika
By Deepika
Former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh on Saturday congratulated Rahul Gandhi for taking over as the President of the Congress Party.
The former prime minister said that Rahul Gandhi that the party depends on him to transform the politics of hope that is needed, change in poverty and ignorance. "I am sure the party will scale new heights of glory," he said.
"Rahul Gandhi has travelled the entire nation and knows the situation very well. Manmohan Singh wished Rahul an excellent tenure and thanked Sonia Gandhi for training Rahul for a long period," he said.
Manmohan Singh said it was "a unique day in the history of the Congress" with Sonia Gandhi handing over the reins of the party to her son.
"Please pardon me if I get somewhat emotional on this historic day today, says Manmohan Singh. I remember a letter that Nehru had written to Indira Gandhi stating that one should be able to hold ones emotions on important occasions, but I seek your forgiveness should I get emotional today " Singh said.
Saluting Sonia Gandhi's contribution, Manmohan said that she has provided a powerful leadership and will be remembered by the party for a long time. The former PM said that he had the unique privilege of working with Sonia's Gandhi. "She took historic decisions. The growth rate was 7.8 pct per annum and 140 million ppl were lifted from poverty in 10 years," he said. "MNREGA was an important step and several other social legislation were taken under sonia Ji," he added.
Rahul Gandhi took charge as the Congress president on Saturday at an event was attended by all the major political leaders. Priyanka Gandhi also attended the event along with her husband Robert Vadra.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 13:43 [IST]
Mizoram: PM Modi dedicates Tuirial hydro power project to the nation
India
oi-Deepika
By Deepika
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday dedicated the 60 MW Tuirial Hydro Electric Power Project (HEPP) to the nation. The project has been built at a cost of 1,302 crore.
Speaking at the inaugurattion, the Prime Minister called the 60 Mega-Watt project a significant milestone in the history of Mizoram.
"Today we gather here to celebrate a significant mile-stone in the history of Mizoram: the completion and dedication of the 60 Mega-Watt Tuirial Hydropower Project," he said.
PM Modi said that this project will boost the socio-economic development of the State. He said the this project was first cleared by PM Vajpayee ji, way back in 1998 but got delayed.
"The project was first cleared by the Union Government of PM Vajpayee ji, way back in 1998 but got delayed. The completion of this project is a reflection of our commitment to complete ongoing projects and usher in a new era of development in the North Eastern region," the Prime Minister added.
PM Modi said that the development of Northeast started under former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the current government has taken that vision ahead.
"During the tenure of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee significant work was done for the development of the Northeast. We have taken forward this vision and are devoting resources for the progress of the Northeast. My ministerial colleagues are frequently visiting the Northeast," he said.
The Tuirial Hydro Electric Power Project (HEPP) has been constructed as a Central Sector Project and implemented by North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), under the administrative control of the Union power ministry.
Praising his cabinet, the Prime Minister said that there have over 150 ministerial visits from the current government.
"There have been over 150 Ministerial visits. Our initiative- the Ministry of DoNER at your doorstep has added impetus to the development of the Northeast. It has enabled us to understand the aspirations of the Northeast even better," he said.
Tuirial HEPP is the biggest power project located in Mizoram and will feed the entire energy to be generated to the home State. The State's current demand of electricity is 87 MW and this is being met by the mini power projects and availability of its share of power from central sector projects.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had cleared the project for implementation in July 1998 with commissioning scheduled in July 2006.
A Power Ministry statement said; "After completion of about 30 per cent of the project activities, the works were totally suspended from June 2004 due to local agitation. With sustained efforts by NEEPCO and with the active support of the Ministry of Power and Ministry of DoNER, Government of India and Government of Mizoram, the stalled works of the project were resumed in January 2011."
The first unit was commissioned on August 25, 2017 and the second November 28, 2017.
Mizoram will now be the third power-surplus state in North East India after Sikkim and Tripura.
The prime minister will also be addressing public rallies and inaugurating various projects in Mizoram and Meghalaya, which he said will give a fresh impetus to the development journey of the northeast. He is scheduled to inaugurate the new BJP Meghalaya unit office during the visit.
The Prime Minister's trip comes after several proposed visits to the state by BJP president Amit Shah were postponed earlier this year due to his engagements in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
BJP is already in power in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh among the northeast states.
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Been waiting for a long time: Sonia Gandhi as Congress votes for non-Gandhi president
Sonia says she 'feels relieved' as Kharge takes charge of Congress
My mother will contest from Rae Bareli in 2019 election, not me, says Priyanka Gandhi
India
oi-Deepika
By Deepika
Quelling all rumours following her brother Rahul Ganhi's takeover on Saturday as Congress President, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said her mother Sonia Gandhi would again contest the next national election from her constituency Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.
"There is no question of me contesting from Rae Bareli, my mother will be contesting," Vadra told NDTV, responding to speculation that she would make electoral debut by contesting the 2019 national election from Rae Bareli, the constituency her mother has represented since 2004.
"My mother is the bravest woman I've seen... She will be contesting 2019 elections from Rae Bareli, not me," she added.
Sonia's statement on Friday that her "job is to retire" had triggered buzz of the Congress leader quitting electoral politics.
However, the Congress leaders rushed to clarify that the lady was retiring from the post of party president, not from politics.
Taking to Twitter, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: "Sonia Gandhi has retired as President of Indian National Congress and not from politics. Her blessings, wisdom and innate commitment to Congress ideology shall always be our guiding light."
Recently, speculation rose over whether Priyanka Gandhi would contest from Rae Bareli if her mother vacates the seat in 2019.
A Congress party official Facebook page, 'Amethi Rae Bareli ki Kahani', or the story of Amethi and Rae Bareli, has its profile photograph of Priyanka Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi, who is the Member of Parliament from Amethi.
Though Priyanka was active in the election campaign in Rae Bareli and Amethi, the constituencies of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi respectively, she was apparently reluctant to take up any organisational responsibilities.
But a number of Congress leaders have publicly expressed a view that the party would benefit a great deal if she joins active politics.
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Nirbhaya Gang Rape: What has changed in 5 years?
India
oi-Shreya
Five years ago, on December 16, 2012, the gang rape of Jyoti Singh or 'Nirbhaya' as the national calls her in a tribute to her spirit, shook the entire nation with its sheer brutality. A 23-year old Jyoti was violated in the most unimaginable, horrifying way possible by 6 men, including one juvenile in a bus, her entrails were pulled out and she along with her injured companion was left to die in the chilling cold of the national capital.
Though Nirbhaya could not survive the monstrosity, her spirit to fight back was contagious, the entire nation took to the streets to demand justice for her.The accused have been awarded death sentence except for the juvenile who has been released and the prime accuses who was found hanging in the jail on March 11, 2013.
While upholding the death penalty for the four accused, the Supreme Court called the case - rarest of rare and said that it produced a 'tsunami of shock'
Has there been any change after 5 years?
Jyoti Singh made a sacrifice she might not ever have wanted to make, but her death indeed shook up the collected conscience of the nation which so far had been in a state of hibernation. However, not to our shock, nothing really has changed much on ground, and unfortunately, Jyoti was not the only Nirbhaya, the unwanted title has been conferred to 80-year olds to 8-year olds.
From 2013 to 2017, Delhi - the National Capital - the Delhi police data showed a figure of 10,124 rape cases. 2017 itself recorded a figure of 1968 till November 30.
The NCRB data clearly pointed out that the National Capital is no place for women recording highest number of crimes against women.
To have a better understanding of statistics, according to NCRB, Delhi recorded
79 cases of Gang rapes on women in 2016
1996 cases of rapes
144 cases of dowry deaths
669 cases of stalking
Delhi also recorded the highest number of crimes against children.
As the data showed, there is yet a lot to be done, especially in the national capital before India can claim to be safe for women. At a moment when the nation is fighting for a safer place for women, politicians and people at positions of responsibility must focus on improving the law and order condition and not put the onus of women for the crimes inflicted on them.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 10:48 [IST]
Gehlot speaks on Hardik's allegations
"Doubts should be resolved. It is necessary for democracy that the elections are unbiased. Questions raised over EVMs should be answered," Congress in-charge of Gujarat Ashok Gehlot told the media.
Hardik, in a series of tweets, alleged that BJP will win the Gujarat elections with the help of EVM tampering but will lose in Himachal Pradesh so that no fingers are pointed at it.
Hardik patel levels serious allegations
Hardik, who extensively campaigned against the BJP in the just concluded voting, said, "BJP is going to carry out a large-scale EVM tampering on Saturday and Sunday. That's because the BJP is set lose elections. It will fail to win even 82 seats if is unable to tamper with the EVM."
Hardik went on to say that the BJP's defeat in Gujarat would mark mark its downfall.
Congress knocks SC's door over VVPAT slips counting
A fresh and comprehensive petition would be filed by the Congress after the Supreme Court rejected a plea seeking counting of at least 20 per cent of the paper trail slips manually along with the votes cast in EVMs in each constituency in Gujarat.
"We are very shortly going to represent and then file a fresh comprehensive petition," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud permitted petitioner Mohammad Arif Rajput, a Gujarat Congress leader, to withdraw his plea but granted liberty to file a comprehensive petition later seeking election reforms.
Setback as Interpol cancels red corner alert against Zakir Naik
India
oi-Vicky
The Interpol has cancelled the red corner notice that was issued against religious preacher, Dr Zakir Naik. The decision was sent to the Interpol General secretariat which deleted the data from the Interpol's files in November 2017.
The Indian agencies had sought from the Interpol to issue a red corner notice in a bid to extradite Zakir Naik and bring him to India. The request was sent after he was chargesheeted by the National Investigation Agency in a terror related case.
The Interpol stated in the letter, "after a thorough examination, the commission found that the data challenged raised questions as to compliance with applicable roles. As a result, it considered that the retention of this data in the Interpol information system was not compliant with the Interpol's rules and decided that it should be deleted."
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 19:46 [IST]
Sweets, firecrackers, dance, Congress hosts Diwali to mark Rahuls coronation as its boss
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
New Delhi, Dec 16: It's Diwali time for the Congress, literally.
As Rahul Gandhi is all set to officially take charge as the party's 87th president on Saturday, party workers and supporters are in a celebratory mood. Right from distributing sweets, bursting firecrackers to dancing, Congress cadres' upbeat mood ahead of Rahul's "coronation" is very much visible in front of the party's headquarters in Delhi.
Even though there is apprehension about the results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections to be declared on Monday, it did not dent the party workers' energy to celebrate its "new era" with a new president.
In front of the Congress' headquarters in the national capital, posters of Rahul speak about the workers' happiness to get their new boss.
Right in front of a massive poster of Rahul, who was the party's vice-president for more than four years since 2013, the party workers have kept several plates of ladoos (sweets) as some kind of 'offering'.
What is more striking are the words on the poster--"Energy of India"--through which the party wants to convey the message that Rahul is going to reach out across the country with his new-found energy and zeal which was very much apparent during the 47-year-old's campaigning in the Gujarat Assembly elections which got over on Thursday.
Visuals from outside Congress HQ in Delhi; sweets brought in, supporters continue to celebrate & raise slogans ahead of Rahul Gandhi's takeover as party President. pic.twitter.com/e62Fgumr7t ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2017
Some posters of Rahul also claim that he is the second Mahatma Gandhi of India. "Rahul nahi yeh aadhi hain, dusra Mahatma Gandhi hain (This is not Rahul but a storm, this is second Mahatma Gandhi," reads a poster.
Supporters & party workers burst crackers & raise slogans in support of Rahul Gandhi outside Congress HQ at Delhi's Akbar Road, ahead of him taking over as the party president. pic.twitter.com/gM4ZXhrI2c ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2017
Since last night, party workers have been shouting slogans in praise of Rahul and bursting crackers to tell the world that it has found a new leader to revive the fortunes of the party which has been experiencing turbulent times since the Lok Sabha elections of 2014.
Rahul's main challenge remains the revamping of party organisation, apart from electoral battles in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, current and former chief ministers, MPs, senior Congress leaders, and all the Pradesh Congress Committee (PPC) chiefs and delegates will be present at the handing over ceremony of Rahul.
Rahul's promotion has come at a crucial time, just two days before the Gujarat Assembly elections results and more than a year before the all-important parliamentary elections in 2019.
So, the first test of Rahul will be how much his campaigning during the Gujarat elections helped the party? Now, it needs to be seen how good Rahul would prove himself as the boss of the grand old party.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 9:50 [IST]
This is the truth: All people of India are Hindus says Dr. Mohan Bhagwat
Vijay Diwas: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pays tribute to martyrs of 1971 war
India
oi-Deepika
By Deepika
As per ritual, Defence Minister and the heads of the Indian Army, the Navy and the Air Force gathered at Delhi's India Gate to pay tribute to the martyrs of the war at Amar Jawan Jyoti on Saturday.
Sitharaman, joined by Army chief General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa paid tributes to the martyrs by laying wreaths at the Amar Jawan Jyoti.
"On the occasion of #VijayDiwas , Smt @nsitharaman pays homage to the brave martyrs who lead India to victory in the war of 1971. She places a floral wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate. Jai Hind!," the defence ministry tweeted,
On this day, 46 years ago, 93,000 members of Pakistani troops raised white flags and surrendered to Indian Army and Mukti Bahini, calling an end to the Indo-Pak war of 1971.
This conflict was a result of the Bangladesh Liberation war, when Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) was fighting to seek freedom from (West) Pakistan.
The reason of the war was the clashes between East and West Pakistan. During the time West Pakistanis, also the ruling class of the period disrespected the culture, tradition and language of the people belonging to the East Pakistan. Upset by the approach East Pakistanis wanted a freedom from them.
In March 1971, the Pakistani Army's attack on Dacca University panicked the East Pakistani which forced around 9 million people to leave the region and take refuge in India. India welcomed the people with open arms and organised food and shelter for the refugees.
Later, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, took a courageous decision and expressed her support for the formation of a new nation by launching a war.
Finally, after 13 days, in association with Mukti Bahini, Indian soldiers fought the Pakistan Army. The defeated army was forced to surrender and the next day, an unilateral ceasefire finally ended the war.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 10:53 [IST]
2nd Lieutenant Arun Khetrapal
Unit: 17 Poona Horse
Date: 16 December 1971
Name of the battle: Battle of Basantar
Place of action: Barapind-Jarpal, Shakargarh, Pakistan
The Battle of Basantar or the Battle of Barapind (December 4-16, 1971) was one of the vital battles fought as part of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 in the western sector of India. The Indian troops won a hard fought battle that secured this area in the Punjab/Jammu sector. The name Battle of Basantar actually encompasses the entire gamut of battles and skirmishes fought in the Shakargarh sector. Courtesy:http://gallantryawards.gov.in
Major Hoshiar Singh
Unit: 3 Grenadiers
Date: 17 December 1971
Name of the battle: Battle of Basantar
Place of action: Basantar River, Shakargarh, Pakistan
During the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, the 3rd Grenadiers was given the task of establishing a bridgehead across the Basantar River in the Shakargarh Sector from 15-17 December 1971. The river was covered with deep minefields on both sides and protected by well-fortified defence by the Pakistani army. Major Hoshiar Singh, commander 'C' Company, was ordered to capture the Pakistani locality of Jarpal. The Pakistani Army reacted and put in sharp counterattacks. Major Hoshiar Singh went from trench to trench encouraging his men to stand fast and fight as a result his company repulsed all the attacks inflicting heavy casualties on the Pakistani army. Though seriously wounded, Major Hoshiar Singh refused to be evacuated till ceasefire.
Courtesy:http://gallantryawards.gov.in
Lance Naik Albert Ekka
Unit: 14 Guards
Date: 3 December 1971
Name of the battle: Battle of Hilli
Place of action: Gangasagar, Agartala, India
The Battle of Hilli or the Battle of Bogra was a major battle fought in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and Bangladesh Liberation War. It is generally regarded as the most pitched battle that took place in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. The battle of Hilli took place between 23 November 1971 and 11 December 1971, although the final surrender took place on 18 December 1971.
Courtesy:http://gallantryawards.gov.in
Flying Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon
Unit: No. 18 Squadron
Date: 14 December 1971
Place of action: Srinagar, J & K, India
He was an officer of the Indian Air Force. He was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military decoration, in recognition of his lone defence of Srinagar Air Base against a PAF air raid during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. He is the only member of the Indian Air Force to be so honoured.
Courtesy:http://gallantryawards.gov.in
Why it is premature to write Sonia Gandhis political obituary
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
New Delhi, Dec 16: Sonia Gandhi's life is no less than a Bollywood potboiler. It has all the highs and lows a person in a lifetime could experience. From a beautiful and stylish wife of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to a strong and powerful woman politician, the 71-year-old matriarch of the Congress has seen both the pleasant and ugly sides of politics and life in general.
In all the good and bad seasons of her life, it's her calm stoicism which has created an aura surrounding her. For most of Indians, the former Congress president, who helmed the grand old party for the longest period of 19 years, remains a mystery.
In spite of being in the thick of politics for almost two decades, Sonia decided to remain behind the camera, literally. When she got the "golden opportunity" to become the Prime Minister of the country in 2004 after the Congress' win in the Lok Sabha elections, she decided to give the post to a party loyalist, Manmohan Singh.
Her renunciation of power made her a legend among her supporters. The widow of the former PM, who was assassinated in 1991, was finally accepted as a "daughter" of India, who has long been subjected to the videshi bahu (foreign daughter-in-law) jibe, a favourite term coined by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to attack her by highlighting her Italian origin.
Someone who was thought to be a political misfit because of her foreign birth, gender and being a widow of a former PM from an illustrious family, everything was going against Sonia. Many expressed their reservations of letting a foreigner, who can't even speak Hindi well, inside the political club of the country.
She took her own sweet time, thanks to the backing and loyalty of the Congress, to evolve as a shrewd and calculative politician like any other Indian-born leader we see around us.
It is not just her sarees, which she started wearing immediately after her wedding to Rajiv back in 1968, and mannerisms that give a sense of "Indianness" to her whole personality, Sonia adopted desi-style of politics to the hilt to prove all her critics wrong.
Thus when her opponents were left confused over her refusal to become the PM of the country, she decided to take control of the reins of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre from the backstage.
The two successive UPA governments at the Centre had PM Singh as its front man. The "remote" was in the hands of Sonia, who was the power centre for 10 long years from 2004-2014.
In his book, The Accidental Prime Minister--The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh, by journalist-author Sanjaya Baru, who was also the former media advisor to Singh, wrote that the former PM himself admitted that there was only one power centre in the UPA and that was the Congress president.
At one point, the book says Singh conceded the greater part of the PM's turf to Sonia and his senior colleagues. But foreign policy was one area he guarded for himself, including the nuclear deal with the United States (US).
In a way, Sonia was the virtual ruler of the country minus the responsibility to answer questions. When the second term of the UPA government was deep-drawn into various scams, it was Singh who was mercilessly attacked for allowing corruption to take place under his nose.
With the end of the Congress regime at the Centre in 2014, Sonia was often found missing from the public space. It is her illness which left her away from active politics and that is when she gave the baton of the grand old party to her son, Rahul Gandhi.
A day before Rahul took over as the Congress president, when reporters on Friday asked her about her future role in the party, Sonia said, "My role now is to retire."
Immediately after she made the comment, political experts stated that Sonia is going to take sanyas (renunciation) from politics. However, the party clarified that Sonia had retired from the president's post, not politics.
Congress' communication chief Randeep Surjewala tweeted: "Would sincerely request friends in the media to not rely upon innuendos. Smt. Sonia Gandhi has retired as president of Indian National Congress and not from politics. Her blessings, wisdom and innate commitment to Congress ideology shall always be our guiding light."
There has been a lot of speculation regarding her role in the party now. According to reports, Sonia, who has been heading the Congress Parliamentary Party, has also expressed her desire to step down from the post as well.
Reports indicate that the Congress is likely to create a post of patron for the 71-year-old leader, who has served as the longest president of the Congress.
If "retire" is the word she told reporters, one should not believe the veteran politician easily. She had earlier "sacrificed" the PM's post given to her on a platter, but was controlling the UPA government.
If anything that keeps her away from public life, is her health. The Congress is unlikely to let her retire 'so soon', as Sonia has always been seen as a moderate who shares good rapport with leaders of opposition parties like Mamata Banerjee and Lalu Prasad Yadav.
She is also the crisis manager of the Congress, every time the grand old party experiences any political turbulence. In future it is her experience to deal with problems with elan that would come handy for the Congress. For the time being, as the Congress enters a new era, retirement of Sonia can wait for some more time.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 14:10 [IST]
Why you must delete every Chinese app and browser immediately
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Recently, the Ministry for Defence ordered the immediate un-installation of 40 Chinese applications being used by the Armed forces posted along the border.
This issue once again gains significance considering the fresh developments at Doklam as reports suggest that the Chinese have returned and built permanent structures.
India has been keeping a close watch on these developments and has also initiated a high-level probe to check how data, location and other details are being passed on to servers in China through their browsers and applications.
The issue was red-flagged by the Intelligence Bureau several times during the Doklam standoff. It is yet to be ascertained the extent of data that has been compromised.
Recently, the Defence Ministry ordered the troops to delete 40 Chinese apps from their mobiles. The Defence Ministry directed the troops to delete these apps as their servers are in China. The advisory was issued as China would be able to track the troops through these apps. This advisory is also important since China could on the basis of these apps track the deployment of the forces as well. Some of the apps that have been ordered to be deleted are Weibo, Wechat, Beautyplus, Nes Dog, CM Browser, MI Community, DU Privacy and Selfie City, Mail Master and MI Video call-Xiaomi.
Top officials in New Delhi say that the scanner on the UC browser has been enhanced. The government received complaints about UC browser sending its mobile of its users in India to China. It was found that even if a user had uninstalled UC or cleaned browsing data, the browser retained control of DNS of user's devce.
China was able to exploit Indian user data transmitted by Chinese smartphone companies for commercials gain. During Doklam, the government was told by the Intelligence that it was being used for strategic purposes.
A high level probe is underway to determine these complaints. The probe is looking into how UC was sending user details and location data to a remote server. The preliminary probe found that UC sends user and device identifiers such as IMSI and IMEI and location data to a remote server based in China. When a device was connected to the internet using WiFi, the phones and access points network information was sent to a remote server. This was alarming for the intelligence since UC has share of 50 per cent of India.
Take into account the recent directive regarding the 40 Chinese apps. The security agencies in India insisted on specific clearance for Chinese telecom products. Some companies such as ZTE and Huawei have not been allowed to be installed in the bordering areas as a precautionary measure. The IB says that these products have their master servers in China and hence should not be used especially in the bordering areas.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 5:58 [IST]
As India chanted Gujarat, Gujarat, here is what the Chinese were upto around us
International
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
For the past month and a half, the word on everyone's mouth was Gujarat. It appeared as though there was nothing else happening in the world.
There were a couple of very crucial events that all of us missed out or ignored thanks to the heat of the Gujarat elections.
There were reports that several Chinese troops had returned to Doklam and built permanent structures. In another development K P Oli, returned as the Prime Minister of Nepal. The Hambantota port was leased to China by Sri Lanka for 99 years.
These are clearly not the best of developments where India is concerned. Officials in Delhi say that they are keenly watching these developments and a resolution is round the corner.
Chinese back at Doklam:
There are media reports that the Chinese are back at Doklam. Reports further indicate that permanent structures have been set up, thus giving the impression that the Chinese want to stay there permanently.
Following the RIC meet in Delhi, the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi issued a statement and used the phrase, 'illegal occupation of Doklam by Indian troops.'
Oli back as Nepal PM:
K P Oli returned as the Prime Minister of Nepal. The unified Communist alliance of the UML and Maoists came back to power in Nepal and this is not the best of developments where India is concerned.
Oli has already promised to extend rail links with China. Oli is also set to seek China's help in setting up highways and airports. Oli is seen as pro-China and this is not a good sign for India. In 2015, India had played the big brother while encouraging a blockade led by the Madheshi parties on the ground of lack of representation.
Hambantota:
The Sri-Lankans granted the southern port of Hambantota on a 99 year lease to the Chinese state owned company China Merchants Port Holdings. This was a deal that was signed 7 years ago when Mahinda Rajapaksha was the in power. However after the new dispensation under Sirisena took over, the deal was re-negotiated and under the current plan, the Chinese company entered into a joint venture with Sri-Lanka's port authority with a 70 per cent stake.
Maldives:
China made a move to occupy the space that India vacated in Maldives. China signed a Free Trade Agreement with Maldives last week. The deal was signed during president Abdullah Yameen's official visit to China.
India had always backed Mohammad Nasheed. He was ousted and Yameen took charge, a development, India was never comfortable with.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 5:35 [IST]
This is the truth: All people of India are Hindus says Dr. Mohan Bhagwat
India most reliable partner in Afghanistan: Pentagon
International
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
The Pentagon has told the US Congress that India is the most reliable partner in Afghanistan. The statement was made as the Pentagon welcomed the additional economic, medical and civil support from India to Afghanistan.
"India is Afghanistan's most reliable regional partner and the largest contributor of development assistance in the region," said the Pentagon in its report to the Congress titled Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan.
This assistance includes civil development projects such as the Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam and the Afghan parliament building, the report said.
India provides significant training opportunities for Afghan officers and enlisted personnel and has frequently offered to increase its burden sharing for Afghanistan, it said, adding that approximately 130 Afghans travel to India each year to attend various military and commissioning programmes.
India has also donated limited security assistance, most notably four Mi-35 aircraft, the Pentagon said.
"The new South Asia policy highlighted our relationship with India and called on India to provide more assistance to the international efforts in Afghanistan. The United States welcomes additional Indian economic, medical, and civic support to Afghanistan," the Pentagon said in its report.
This is the first report of the Pentagon to Congress after President Donald Trump announced his new Afghan and South Asia policy in August.
"Our purpose in Afghanistan remains the same: to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a safe haven from which terrorist groups can plan and execute attacks on the United States, or our allies and citizens abroad. To accomplish this, we continue to support our Afghan partners and train, advise, and assist its military and government institutions," it said.
Under the new strategy, the US will continue to support the Afghan government and security forces in the fight against the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - Khorasan (ISIS-K), and other insurgents and terrorists, to strengthen the Afghan government and prevent reestablishment of terrorist safe havens in Afghanistan.
"A major change from our previous strategy is the shift from a time-based approach to a conditions-based one. This shift underscores the US commitment to the continued development of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF), provided that our Afghan partners satisfy their obligations," the Pentagon said.
The new strategy does not mean a return to US-led combat operations, instead, the key to success lies in improving ANDSF capabilities and allow them to lead in the fight against the Taliban, it clarified.
"We will continue to work by, with, and through the ANDSF to help them defeat their enemies and to ultimately arrive at a political settlement in Afghanistan," said the Pentagon.
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Story first published: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 6:41 [IST]
North Korean ICBM not yet a 'capable threat' against US, says Mattis
International
pti-PTI
North Korea's latest missile test, which US experts say indicated an increasing technological sophistication, did not demonstrate an imminent threat of nuclear attack on the United States, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis saidon Saturday.
"No, not yet," Mattis said when a reporter asked whether the Nov. 29 test indicated a full capability to strike the US.
"It has not yet shown to be a capable threat against us right now," Mattis added. His remark suggested he believes the Trump administration has additional time to pursue diplomacy before resorting to military options for eliminating the North's nuclear arsenal.
"We're still doing the forensic analysis," he added, apparently referring to intelligence agencies' study of imagery of the flight of the missile and its payload, which presumably included a mock warhead.
The Trump administration has not publicly disclosed what it knows about what happened to the missile's re-entry vehicle, which detaches from the missile body during flight and is designed to protect warheads from heat creating by re- entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
Shortly after the November test, Mattis said the missile flew higher than any previous North Korean test, and that it represented a continued effort to build a missile capable of threatening the US.
Since then, Mattis has said little about it publicly, and the administration has sent mixed messages about its willingness to begin talks with North Korea.
PTI
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Our nation is being no longer being opposed and subverted by our enemies outside our gates, but the enemies within.
From Gush Shalom
FOR GOD'S SAKE, are they crazy?
They congregate in the marketplace, boys of 15, 16 years, take stones and throw them at our soldiers, who are armed to the teeth. The soldiers shoot, sometimes over their heads, sometimes straight at them. Every day there are wounded, every few days there are dead.
What for? They do not have the slightest chance of changing the policy of the Israeli occupation. Only very rarely do the boys hit a soldier and cause him a slight injury.
Yet they go on. Why?
A FRIEND of mine sent me an article by a respected Palestinian. He described his first demonstration, many years ago.
The way he tells it, he was 15 years old, living in a village under occupation, hating Israeli soldiers. With a group of friends of the same age, he went to the center of his village, where a line of soldiers was waiting for them.
Each of the demonstrators picked up a stone -- no lack of stones in an Arab village -- and threw it at the soldiers. The stones fell far short, causing no harm.
But -- and here the adult man grew ecstatic -- what a wonderful feeling! For the first time in his life the boy felt that he was hitting back! He was no longer a despised, helpless Palestinian! He was upholding the dignity of his people! The old leaders may be subservient! Not he, not his friends!
For the first time in his life he was proud, proud to be a Palestinian, proud to be a courageous human being.
What a wonderful feeling! For this feeling he was ready to risk his life, again and again, ready to become a Shaheed, a witness, a martyr.
There are many thousands like him.
READING THIS description was exciting, because it reminded me of something in my own remote youth. When I was exactly the same age, 15.
It was in May, 1939. The British rulers of Palestine had just published a White Paper, putting the dampers on our Zionist vision. The world war was drawing close, and the British Empire needed the support of the Arab world.
A few months earlier, I had joined the National Military Organization (commonly called the Irgun), the most militant underground organization devoted to the fight against the British colonial regime. The last push for me was a disturbing event: for the first time the British had hanged a Jewish "terrorist." I was determined to fill his place.
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The Conservative thought he had a point and attempted to make it with former MSNBC Host Dylan Ratigan on a CNN panel. He forgot that Ratigan is a very quick thinker and he paid for lying on air.
Dylan Ratigan did not allow this Conservative to spread the false narrative that low tax Red States somehow subsidize high tax Blue States. The opposite is true.
"The other thing again that confuses me is why the targeting of SALT which is a huge issue in the North, basically all the Blue states," Dylan Ratigan said. "I mean it reads very political in the sense that basically the SALT deduction elimination, the fact that you cannot deduct your state and local taxes from federal taxes, is the direct expense of those higher SALT state and local income economies which are their densest population, the most economically vibrant and comes at the direct expense of the infrastructure in New York, California where you need that the most>"
The Conservative panelist went straight to his false talking point.
"And I'll tell you from someone who comes from Indiana in the Midwest where we believe in low taxes, responsible spending," the Conservative panelist said. "We also don't think that our tax dollars should be used to offset the bloated out-of-control spending of these traditional Blue states. Ans so that money is taken out of our pockets"
Dylan Ratigan had to convey an inconvenient truth.
"It's interesting that you would say that," Ratigan said. "Actually the Blue States actually pay two times as much to the Red States than the Red states receive. So what you said was not actually correct. What you're saying now is that in addition to taking money from the Blue States to pay for Indiana's infrastructure, you're also going to reduce the tax deduction for Blue State tax holders to pay for their own infrastructure while they still subsidize the Red States."
Republicans like to stress that the States are the laboratories in our union. It is where one can see results from experiments. The economic experiment is over. The fact that the Blue States must subsidize the Red States should humble those in the Red States trying to promote their ideologies to the Blue States. Why would a Blue State want to follow a failing experiment?
The numbers speak for themselves. The majority of the Red States are, in Romney's parlance, takers, they live off of the government. And for good measure, the Red States even fail in their moral values experiment when compared to the Blue States.
From The Nation
The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to eliminate "the First Amendment of the Internet," and in so doing it delivered the Trump administration's most brutal blow yet to democracy in America.
Despite overwhelming public support for a free and open Internet, the CFC's Trump-aligned majority engineered a 3-2 vote to overturn net-neutrality rules that have required Internet service providers to treat all online communications equally -- and, in a related move, the commission majority rejected the authority of the FCC to protect a free and open Internet. Commission chair Ajit Pai, the telecommunications-industry lawyer who has done Donald Trump's bidding in debates on a host of media and democracy issues, has cleared the way for service providers to establish information superhighways for political and corporate elites, while consigning communications from grassroots activists to digital dirt roads.
Addressing the American people on the day when the FCC dismissed millions of appeals on behalf of net neutrality, dissenting Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Thursday: "What saddens me is that the agency that is supposed to protect you is abandoning you."
Pai and his associates have moved to create what former FCC commissioner Michael Copps refers to as "a gatekeeper's paradise," where "our civic dialogue -- the news and information upon which a successful self-governing society depends upon -- would be further eroded."
"Telecom and media consolidation have wreaked havoc with investigative journalism and turned political campaigns into a crass reality show and our 'news' into bottom-feeding infotainment," warns Copps, who now works with Common Cause on media and democracy issues.
"I don't believe democracy can survive on such thin gruel. Throw in [the fact] that we, the people, will be paying ever-more exorbitant prices for this constricted future and you will understand why so many millions of people all across the land have contacted the FCC and Congress telling them to preserve our current net-neutrality rules." Click Here to Read Whole Article
Much of the debate about overturning net neutrality has been focused on the damage the move will do to consumers, and there can be no question that clearing the way for unprecedented profiteering by telecommunications corporations barters off our digital future to the same grifters who have turned broadcast- and cable-media platforms into vast wastelands of commercial excess. "ISPs want to turn the internet into cable," says Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA). "[They] want people to pay for every application."
But the biggest cost of eliminating net neutrality will be to the American experiment in citizen-driven dialogue, discourse, and decision making. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio says:
"The internet makes it easier for people to get organized and amplify their voices. Ending Net Neutrality will make it harder for the people to fight powerful interests."
That assessment was confirmed by activists who rallied outside the FCC headquarters Thursday. "You don't have the modern day anti-police violence movement without the open Internet," said editor and cultural critic Jamilah Lemieux. "Saving the Net is a civil rights issue that effects Asian Americans across the US," said Deepa Iyer, a senior fellow with the Center for Social Inclusion. Symone Sanders, who served as press secretary for the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and is now a CNN commentator, said: "There is no resistance without a free and open Internet."
Describing net neutrality as a racial-justice, social-justice, and economic-justice issue, Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, explained that "A free and open Internet allows us to organize and resist. We need that now more than ever."
Ellison is right. Those who would resist the Trump administration's most authoritarian and anti-democratic instincts -- on issues ranging from voter suppression to freedom of the press to civil rights and civil liberties -- have used a free and open Internet to organize throughout 2017. They will need to continue to do so in 2018 and beyond.
From Strategic Culture
Donald Trump's rash declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is so out of whack with global opinion and decades of international legal rulings, one has to surmise that the initiative stems from dubious inspiration.
Turns out that the likely authors of the harebrained idea are Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner (36), and 32-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS).
Kushner, a dodgy property dealer with no diplomatic experience, is Trump's unelected top aide, assigned to seal the "deal of the century" -- meaning bring peace between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Like the Saudi Crown Prince, with whom Kushner is said to be close friends, the two neophytes think of themselves as "creative innovators." Wunderkinds.
Numerous critics disagree. They say the two men lack understanding and experience in international relations.
Given Kushner's orthodox Jewish faith and fervent support for illegal Israeli expansionist policies in occupied Palestinian territories his supposed peace mission with the Palestinians is a dead letter.
American envoys down through the decades have hardly carried much credibility as neutral brokers in mediating the 70-year-old Arab-Israeli conflict. But Kushner's credentials no longer bother to conceal the flagrant bias.
For several months, Kushner has been touting an abstract peace plan that is billed as solving the long-running conflict, without giving away any details about what the supposed plan is prescribing for a putative solution. Sounds like Kushner takes after his business-mogul-turned-president father-in-law -- espousing lots of flannel to compensate for an embarrassing lack of detail.
However, from a report in the New York Times, we seem to get a sneak preview of what the Trump White House under Kushner's guidance is cooking up.
Three days before Trump made his rash declaration on Jerusalem being the capital of Israel last week, the NY Times reported that the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had already been briefed on a similar precipitate move -- not by the Trump White House but by Saudi Crown Prince MbS.
The meeting with Abbas in Riyadh took place in early November, about one week after Kushner had conferred with the Saudi Crown Prince in private discussions over several days at the royal residence, also in Riyadh.
During his below-the-radar trip to the Saudi capital, Kushner is said to have held late night discussions with the heir to the Saudi throne. What they discussed is not publicly known.
But one week later, the Saudi royal embarked on an abrupt mission: a bold crackdown on Saudi rivals, arresting dozens of family members; as well as making an audacious interference in Lebanese internal affairs by coercing the resignation of premier Saad Hariri (since rescinded).
Also around the same time, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was summoned to Riyadh by the Crown Prince. Abbas was reportedly told by MbS of a new deal being hatched to settle the conflict with Israel.
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Panelists on MSNBC have started aggressively pushing back on Fox News in a manner that wasn't before. They are countering a lot of the misinformation in near real time. This one was epic.
Nicolle Wallace's Deadline: White House panelists appropriately slammed Fox News panel for misleading Americans about the FBI text messages released recently. The pertinent section in the segment starts with Wallace playing a clip of Sean Hannity equating the Mueller investigation to Watergate on steroids.
"Just watch that little piece of tape again," John Heilemann said. "And just think, Useless Idiots."
Wallace pointed out that Hannity is the tip of the spear in the smear campaign. Republican strategist Steve Schmidt decomposed it all.
"There's zero evidence that they acted inappropriately on the basis of those opinions," Schmidt said. "They're Americans. They get to have political opinions. They didn't abuse their badge. They didn't abuse their office. That Fox News panel, the breathtaking dishonesty of it is beyond my ability to articulate. That is no longer a news organization. That is what American state media looks like. That is what White House controlled in the service of the president misinformation looks like. That is indistinct from propaganda in authoritarian countries. It is aimed directly at weakening essential institutions and misinforming the American people. It is appalling."
Heilmann would not be denied.
"And if you want to see just the clarity of it," John Heilemann said. "This is a tiny little thing that guy, one of those guys on Fox News, that guy Tom tom Fitton the other night said, 'Forget about shutting down Mr. Mueller. Do we need to shut down the FBI because it was turned into a KGB type operation by the Obama administration.' That is the level of discourse that's happening from Fox News right down this topic."
" Dishonest, pernicious nonsense," said Schmidt.
At some time in our lifetime, Fox News will be seen for the propaganda machine that it is.
Prayer of Thomas Merton
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Readings for Third Sunday in Advent: IS 61:1-2A, 10-11; LK 1: 46-50; 53-54; I THES 5: 16-24; JN 1: 6-8, 19-28.
Three years ago, I had an important spiritual experience that's relevant to today's liturgy of the word. I had the privilege of visiting the hermitage of St. Thomas Merton, the great Trappist mystic. (See my reflections here.)
It all happened in New Haven, Kentucky, just down the road from the Maker's Mark distillery -- far from any great urban centers and nearer to places with names like Bardstown, Paint Lick, and Gravel Switch. The experience inspired counter-cultural thoughts about Christmas. It made me struggle with the question (still unresolved for me): is it possible to once and for all break with this annual orgy of consumerism so counter to the gospel's commitment to the poor?
At Fr. Louis' Gethsemane, twenty of us sat in a circle in his living room absorbing the Life Force that still hovers over his simple cinderblock cabin. Trappist Brother Paul, the convener of the Merton Study Group responsible for the event, marvelously channeled "Louie's" spirit by reading Brother Paul's own poetic reflection on Matthew's words, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
Paul's thoughts connected nicely not only with Merton, but with this morning's readings for this third Sunday of Advent. There, John the Baptizer, his predecessor Isaiah, and Jesus' own mother Mary reiterate the essential connection between Jesus' gospel and standing in solidarity with the poor not only in spirit, but in actual fact. As Christmas approaches, the sentiments of the Baptizer, Isaiah and Mary suggest counter-cultural ways of commemorating the birth of the prophet from Nazareth. I wish I and my family were strong enough to entertain them seriously.
For me those culturally eccentric suggestions began emerging when in the course of his remarks, Brother Paul recalled Sister Emily Dickinson's words that reflect the mystical dimension of Matthew's (and presumably Jesus') understanding of both spiritual and physical poverty. As for the former, Brother Paul defined spiritual poverty as the emptiness reflected in Monk Dickinson's words,
"I am nobody.
Who are you?
Are you nobody too?
. . . How dreary to be somebody."
Those words almost paraphrase what John the Baptist says in today's Gospel selection. When asked who he is, the one identified by Jesus as the greatest man who ever lived (MT 11:11) says in effect, I am a poor man in Emily Dickinson's sense. I'm a nobody -- merely a voice out of nowhere. I am "a voice crying out in the wilderness." Only an empty vessel can be filled with the Holy Spirit.
So forget about me, John says, and focus on the one who is to come. His words will set you on fire that will sear everything in you that is not of the Spirit Jesus embodies -- everything that separates you from your brothers and sisters, especially material wealth. That kind of self-denial and openness to Jesus' Holy Spirit is the very definition of Matthew's spiritual poverty.
And the specific message of the One to come? (And here's where material poverty enters the picture.) Jesus announces the Divine Spirit's preferential option for the actually poor and its rejection of the materially rich. That bias towards the actually poor is reflected in today's first reading. As remembered by Luke in Jesus' preview of his own career, the words of the prophet Isaiah read:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (LK 4: 16-22)
Here Jesus' focus is real poverty and people subject to captivity and oppression.
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President Donald Trump's administration flip-flop policies toward North Korea failed to achieve the meaning full result. It changed the stability to the state of war. North Korea is pushing harder with their atomic bomb building to be used against the US and allies of the US in Asia.
The military power of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) is increased since President Donald Trump's elections. IRI is in control of Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey as an ally of Israel and the US has been taking few adventures to test out Iran and Russian policies in the Middle East. President Erdogan failed to achieve any result strategically. Russian and Iran are aware that he is an ally of Israel no matter what he says about Israel policies toward Arabs.
President Donald Trump's administration flip-flop policies toward Kurdish people under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan are not successful either. The US helped Kurds in Syria and hurt Kurds in Turkey and Iraq. President Donald Trump wants to stop Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) expansion. While allied with Iraqi Shi'a Governments as an ally of Iran. The US administrations are pretending to be deaf and blind toward Iraqi Shi'a connection to IRI.
The US, Turkey, and Iraq generals just had the meeting to strengthen military ties in the Middle East, which let Turkey send more military forces to fight PKK forces in Iraq since yesterday.
President Erdogan of Turkey in one of his adventures helped Iran and Iraq to take over 51% of the land of the Kurdistan Regional Governments of Iraq (KRG) region including oil-rich Kirkuk. It showed that Barzani and Talabani Mafia forces trained by the US and NATO were not capable to fight Iranian forces for one day. Barzani and Talabani Mafia powers diminished overnight.
President Erdogan of Turkey's adventures in KRG region of Barzani and Talabani region to fight PKK forces will be defeated and the US will lose the Kurdish people card to be used against Iran.
The entire Kurdish people are united under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan. The Kurdish people forces (PKK, PJAK, YPG, YPJ) from Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq are united.
President Donald Trump's administration cooperation with Iran, Iraq, and Turkey against Kurdish people forces loyal to Abdullah Ocalan are going to hurt the US interest in the Middle East.
Indeed, President Donald Trump's administration flip-flop policies in the Middle East will face failure sooner than later. President Donald Trump's policies failed in North Korea and Asia. And will face failure in the Middle East too.
References
US, Turkey, Iraq strengthen military ties in meeting of generals
http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/141220171
Haley: Missile debris 'proof' of Iran's UN violations
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From Truthdig
Let's all take a moment to savor this great grass-roots U.S. Senate victory in Alabama of Democrat Doug Jones over alleged child molester Roy Moore. Let's also celebrate the victory of the moderate Ralph Northam over the extremist Republican Ed Gillespie to be governor of Virginia, and a possible flip of the Virginia Legislature, with the influx of a strong contingent of progressive women.
Breathe deep. Stretch up your arms. Shout for joy.
OK?
Now let's use all that great new energy to fend off Donald Trump's twin assaults on net neutrality and our core economy.
Losing could leave us blind and impoverished. So don't even think about it.
On net neutrality, the fight is ongoing and long-term.
On Trump's tax scam, we have at best a few days.
A mass movement already is in place to save the internet.
Thursday's vile 3-2 FCC vote to end net neutrality has long been expected. Mass demonstrations, community organizing, court challenges, an attempt at a congressional reversal and much more are in motion.
This is new territory, a fight for control of humankind's central nervous system. The alternative to winning is brain death.
As for the GOP tax scam, the clock is ticking.
The Senate version passed 51-49 on Dec. 1. The House-Senate reconciliation committee wants a new version rubber-stamped next week. Despite the bill's immense impact, there's been a complete lack of public hearings or sane scrutiny.
It's not likely there'll be enough Republican votes in the House to stop it.
In the Senate, we need just three.
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Senator Howie C. Morales - (D)
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Senator Howie Morales of New Mexico
BREAKING NEWS: New Mexico's Attorney General Hector Balderas announced that he has joined other state attorneys general in announcing a multi-state lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission over its vote to rollback net neutrality protections. The planned lawsuit will be led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
news coverage: New Mexico attorney general joining suit over net neutrality | Albuquerque Journal
https://www.abqjournal.com/1107432/new-mexico-attorney-general-joining-suit-over-net-neutrality.html
>>>>>
This press release is posted by Stephen Fox in Santa Fe, in appreciation for this very quick action and response, by a very progressive New Mexico State Senator who is also running for Lieutenant Governor; he has also agreed, the first in the NM Senate, to write to our New Mexico Attorney General, Hector Balderas, to ask him to join with the 3 other states who are suing on this issue, now that the FCC has ignored the request to delay the ruling by 15 other Attorneys General; please see also John Nichol's OEN article on this, and to quote:
Legal observers say as many as 18 states could sue. In addition to the chief law enforcement officers of California, New York and Washington, the attorneys general of 15 additional states signed a recent letter urging the FCC to delay the Net Neutrality vote: Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 15, 2017 CONTACT: Sen. Howie Morales at 575/590.7804 or hcm260|AT|gmail.com" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window">hcm260|AT|gmail.comEmail address
Sen. Morales Announces Push for State Legislation to Keep Free and Fair Internet Access After FCC Strips Net Neutrality Protections
(Santa Fe, NM) -- State Senator Howie Morales today announced that he will propose legislation establishing net neutrality for all of New Mexico in the January meeting of the legislature. Morales' call for state net neutrality following the Federal Communications Commission controversial action affecting the Internet on Thursday that repeals Net Neutrality protections nation-wide.
"Since the federal government is abandoning its important responsibility to ensure free and fair Internet, we must push for legislation at the state level immediately to put in place strong net neutrality requirements here in New Mexico.
We have ample means to do it. We can require that the powerful broadband providers like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T that operate here strictly practice net neutrality, and we can impose it in state contracts. Our state cable franchise agreements also can be used to establish net neutrality as a condition for accessing the public right-of-way for internet infrastructure. States can protect free and open internet access, and I intend to do it in New Mexico," said Senator Howie Morales of Silver City.
A majority of the Federal Communications voted yesterday to allow private Internet provider corporations to divide the Internet into fast and slow lanes for the first time. This major policy reversal means the Internet as we have come to know it would cease to exist, and the ordinary consumer would lose out on access to ideas and information.
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From Palestine Chronicle
It is time for a new beginning.
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Now that the American mask has completely fallen, Palestinians require an urgent rethink in their own political priorities, alliances and national liberation strategy.
Business should not go on as usual after US President Donald Trump accepted Israel's definition of Jerusalem as its capital, thus violating the overwhelming international consensus on the matter.
The Fatah movement, which has controlled the Palestinian Authority (PA) since its inception in 1994, has preempted people's anger over the US move, by declaring a "day of rage." Several Palestinians were killed and many wounded in unrest throughout the Occupied Territories in what is understandably justified anger over the unwarranted American decision.
But the manipulation of Palestinian emotions by their leadership is contemptible to say the least. The "politics of rage," which has been used by the Palestinian leadership in the past has often worked to deflect popular discontent and criticism.
Sure, Israel and the US deserve all the condemnation for their role in sustaining, funding and defending the military occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people. But the Palestinian leadership is deserving of much condemnation as well. Those who have willingly participated in the futile game of the "peace process", dangling the dim prospect of a "two-state solution" before despairing Palestinians should not get off the hook so easily.
Palestinian leaders and an army of officials, politicians, pundits and contractors made billions of dollars from foreign funds to keep the "peace process" charade going for over 25 years, while the general population grew poorer and more despondent than ever.
Those who resisted, outside the acceptable political framework as presented by the Palestinian leadership were harassed, imprisoned and severely punished. This was the case not just in Gaza, but in the West Bank as well. Many journalists, academicians, artists and activists were treated harshly for questioning the PA's methods throughout the years.
Yet here we stand; the PA is calling on those very Palestinians to rage. Hamas too is calling for a new intifada. Oddly, Palestinian factions never learned from history. Real, sustainable popular uprisings are never a response to a party's or a politician's call. It is a spontaneous, genuine cry for freedom that originates from the masses, not the political elites.
While some Palestinian factions are hoping that the people's anger directed at the Israeli occupation will create a protective buffer so that they may survive another day, other groups are riding the wave for their own political interests.
But this is not a strategy. Sending bare-chested people to fight armed soldiers only to communicate a media message will neither pressure Israel nor the US. In fact, most American media outlets are centering their debate on "Palestinian violence," as if the violence of the Israeli occupation is a non-issue, and as if the safety of Israelis is the most compelling concern at the moment.
Nor will polite appeals to the US to reconsider its decision and pressure Trump to rescind his embassy move make a difference.
The final statement presented by the Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo on Saturday was an example of the lackluster language that will prove ineffective.
Calling on Trump to reverse his decision will not, on its own, make an iota of difference. The Palestinians need their Arab brethren to articulate a strong, unified position on the issue, without hesitating to explore new political routes and put real, tangible pressure on the US and Israel to relent.
The Palestinian leadership that has downgraded the Palestinian struggle, and wasted precious years chasing after an American mirage, must be held accountable.
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From Consortium News
The New York Times building in Manhattan.
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If Russia-gate is the massive scandal that we are told it is by so many Important People -- across the U.S. mainstream media and the political world -- why do its proponents have to resort to lies and exaggerations to maintain the pillars supporting the narrative?
A new example on Thursday was The New York Times' statement that a Russian agency "spent $100,000 on [Facebook's] platform to influence the United States presidential election last year" -- when the Times knows that statement is not true.
According to Facebook, only 44 percent of that amount appeared before the U.S. presidential election in 2016 (i.e., $44,000) and few of those ads addressed the actual election. And, we know that the Times is aware of the truth because it was acknowledged in a Times article in early October.
As part of that article, Times correspondents Mike Isaac and Scott Shane reported that the ads also covered a wide range of other topics: "There was even a Facebook group for animal lovers with memes of adorable puppies that spread across the site with the help of paid ads."
As nefarious as the Times may think it is for Russians to promote a Facebook page about "adorable puppies," the absurdity of that concern -- and the dishonesty of the Times then "forgetting" what it itself reported just two months ago about the timing and contents of these "Russian-linked ads" -- tells you a great deal about Russia-gate.
On Thursday, the Times chose to distort what it already knew to be true presumably because it didn't want to make the $100,000 ad buy (which is not a particularly large sum) look even smaller and less significant by acknowledging the pre-election total was less than half that modest amount -- and even that total had little to do with the election.
Why would the Times lie? Because to tell the truth would undercut the narrative of evil Russians defeating Hillary Clinton and putting Donald Trump in the White House -- the core narrative of Russia-gate.
Another relevant fact is that Facebook failed to find any "Russian-linked" ads during its first two searches and only detected the $100,000 after a personal visit from Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a leading legislator on Internet regulation.
In other words, Facebook's corporate executives dredged up something to appease Warner. That way, Warner and the Democrats could blame Russia for the Trump presidency, sparing further criticism of Clinton's dreadful campaign (in which she labeled half of Trump's voters "deplorables") and her neo-liberal economic policies (and neo-conservative foreign policies) that have alienated much of America's working class as well as many progressives.
Leaving Out Context
The Times also might have put the $100,000 in "Russian-linked" ads over a two-year period in the context of Facebook's $27 billion in annual revenue, but the Times didn't do that -- apparently because it would make even the full $100,000 look like a pittance.
Trimming the total down to $44,000 and admitting that only a few of those ads actually dealt with Clinton and Trump would be even worse for the Russia-gate narrative.
Ironically, the Times' latest false depiction of the $100,000 in ads as designed "to influence" the 2016 election appeared in an article about Facebook determining that other Russian-linked ads, which supposedly had a powerful effect on Great Britain's Brexit vote, totaled just three ads at the cost of 97 cents. (That is not a misprint.)
According to Facebook, the three ads, which focused on immigration, were viewed some 200 times by Britons over four days in May 2016. Of course, the response from British parliamentarians who wanted to blame the Brexit vote on Moscow was to assert that Facebook must have missed something. It couldn't be that many Britons had lost faith in the promise of the European Union for their own reasons.
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Telecom Order Management Sales Market Tracking current trends, opportunities, challenges and SWOT Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecasts To 2022
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ReportBazzar has released its latest research-based report entitled Telecom Order Management Sales market. This report provides a holistic approach to the market growth with a detailed and precise analysis of the overall competitive scenario of the Telecom Order Management Sales market. The report also provides a detailed analysis of key trends playing a prominent role in the Telecom Order Management Sales market growth. The overall market provides detailed dynamic and statistical insights pertaining to the market at both regional and global level.Information & Communication Technology industryThe information and communication technology market nowadays is growing in double digit. We deliver both syndicated and consulting reports for ICT market according to client needs and industry needs. We mainly focus on different new technologies, smart markets, mobile applications, telecommunications, software, middleware, audio-visual systems and storage.To Get Free Sample Copy of Report visit @A holistic report covers exhaustive information obtained from reliable industrial sources and through proven research methodologies. The report goes through both secondary and primary survey. The base year taken for the report is 2015 and 2016, and a forecast is done from 2017 to 2022.The data thus obtained is then combined with relevant tables and graphs to support the information revealed.The following points are covered in the report: Market segmentation Penetration & Growth Mapping Market Trends Market Driver Analysis Market Restraint Analysis Growth opportunities Porters Analysis SWOT AnalysisApplication Insights:Various competent analytical tools have been used to offer a comprehensive assessment of the market. The report comprises of each aspect of the global market for Telecom Order Management Sales. It starts with the basic information and then advances to the market segmentation based on different criteria such as technology, industry areas and regions in general. A detailed analysis is given on the areas of industries it is used and basically how the technology is helping the particular industry or driving the market growth of that particular industry.Regional Insights:Major regions, countries, and sub-segments have been analyzed for providing the better understanding of the market scope worldwide. The regions taken into consideration are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Central & South America. The regional markets for the Telecom Order Management Sales market are analyzed by evaluating the demand, and supply, the assembly of the products, how it is getting connected with the human interface as well as the historical performance of the market in the given region.To view the table of contents and know more details please visit:Competitive Insights:The report also provides insights on the competitive landscape of the global Telecom Order Management Sales industry with the leading players profiled in the report. Company profiles are purely tentative in nature and we can profile companies according to your interest at free cost. The company overview, trends, tactics, merger & acquisitions, business strategies, financial metrics of the major participants operating in the global Telecom Order Management Sales market have been reviewed in this study.Few Points Table Of Content:1 Telecom Order Management Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Telecom Order Management1.2 Classification of Telecom Order Management by Product Category1.2.1 Global Telecom Order Management Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Telecom Order Management Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Wireline1.2.4 Wireless1.3 Global Telecom Order Management Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Telecom Order Management Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 On-Premises1.3.3 Cloud1.4 Global Telecom Order Management Market by Region1.4.1 Global Telecom Order Management Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Telecom Order Management Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Telecom Order Management Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Telecom Order Management Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Telecom Order Management Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Telecom Order Management Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Telecom Order Management Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Telecom Order Management (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Telecom Order Management Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Telecom Order Management Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022).Check Discount on this report @About Us:Reportbazzar.com is your trusted source for the most inclusive and informative assortment of market research reports designed to empower you with the latest in industry information that translates to time and cost savings for your business. We not only help you give wing to your latent business ideas but also facilitate you in taking the best informed and strategic decisions that guarantee success in your most promising business endeavors. Our intelligence database comprises of vast arrays of strategically analyzed and high-level market research reports that encompass all major industries worldwide. All the specialized research reports available at Reportbazzar.com are tailor-made to suit your every business need, no matter how diverse or demanding it is.Contact for more details:Report BazzarUnited States30 Wall Street, 8th floor,New York, NY 10005.US: +1 (212) 389-6363Email: sales@reportbazzar.com
Global Body Contouring Market Research Report 2017 Analysis and Forecast to 2027
Body Contouring Market
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The Global Body Contouring Market report titled Body Contouring Market Research Report-Forecast to 2027 is a specialist investigation report by Market Research Future includes broad essential research alongside the definite examination of subjective and additionally quantitative perspectives by different industry specialists, key sentiment pioneers to pick up a more profound understanding of the market and industry execution.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Market Research Future published new report, titled Body Contouring Market -Research Report: Global Forecast to 2027.Adherium limited, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A., GSK plc, Propeller Health, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Body Contourings Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Some of the key players in this market are: Cynosure, Inc. (U.S), Meridian Co. Ltd., Syneron Medical Ltd.(Israel), Lumenis ( Israel), Alma Lasers GmbH (Germany), Palomar Medical Technologies. (U.S), Valeant (Canada) and othersGlobal Body Contouring Market - Overview:Body contouring is a procedure involves in the alteration of the body part by improving the appearance. It refer to removal of the excess body fat. The various body contouring procedures available are body lift, bra line back lift, body fat transfer, implants and abdominal etching. Body lift is the most common method involving the excess skin and fat from thigh, abdomen and buttocks. Similarly body fat transfer is also carried out.The global body contouring market is growing with the steady pace. The global body contouring market is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~9.8% during the forecast period 2017-2027. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global body contouring market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period growing rapidly. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2027, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017 2027).The market is expected grow with the same trends during the forecast period. The major drivers will be growing obese population around the globe has spurred the growth of the market. As per the research study, about 36% of North America total population is obese or 55% of total population is overweight or obese. Increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases like diabetes is also increase the possibility to cause obesity to diabetic patients. This is the major reason which has led to increase the market at a significant rate. Furthermore, adoption of fast food and lack of exercise and diseases like diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases led is responsible for increasing the excess fat of the body. Beside this technological advances and improved surgical treatment with increased success rate has provided fuel for the growth of the market. On the other hand, high cost of the surgery may restrain the growth of the market.GET FULL REPORT @Global Body Contouring Market - Competitive Analysis:Alma Lasers (Israel), Meridian (Michigan), Cynosure (US), Syneron Medical (Israel), Lumenis (Israel) and Palomar Medical Technologies (US). Other companied involved in the market are Valeant (Canada), GlobalMed Technologies (US), Asclepion Laser Technologies (Germany), Andrew Technologies (Canada), BTL Industries (US), Cutera (US), Fotona (Slovenia), GlobalMed Technologies (US), Chromogenex (UK), Human Med (Germany), InMode (US), Invasix Aesthetic Solutions (US), Erchonia (US),Wells Johnson Company (US) are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Body Contouring Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.The market for body contouring is characterised by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global market of body contouring appears to be getting competitive in this region due to high prevalence of the eye related diseases. Global players are increasingly expanding their footprint in the emerging nations, especially in terms of features such as type, product portfolios, and pricing. The market is witnessing intensified competition which is expected to increase with time during the forecast period. Due to increasing prevalence of obesity across the globe many of the companies are in the race to introduce better treatment for obesity. Companies are using a trend of strategic alliance and acquisition to gain the market and minimize the competition in the market.Companies like Syneron Candela got the FDA approval for their UltraShape Power, a product that uses pulsed mechanical ultrasound energy to target and destroy fat, offering measurable fat reduction to the abdominal area on June 2016. This will help the company to get an edge over other companies in terms of technology and applications.Moreover, in April 2016, Energy-based medical device company Lumenis launched a product named SlimMe at the Aesthetics Conference and Exhibition (ACE) 2016. This product is a non-surgical procedure for body contouring and shaping which will help the company to increase their product line and customer base.Furthermore, in 2017, CUTERA a leading provider of laser, light and other energy-based aesthetic systems worldwide launched a new product in body sculpturing segment truSculpt 3D. This truSculpt 3D is the newest advancement in non-surgical body sculpting, offering up to 24 percent fat reduction in a single treatment and will help the company to tap more customer base.This particular market the companies are focussing on various FDA approvals and product launches as a key strategy, thereby presenting a potential opportunities in body contouring market.Market Segmentation:Global Body Contouring market has been segmented on the basis of treatment types which comprises of invasive, non-invasive and minimal invasive. On the basis of procedure include Arm lift, Breast lift, Stomach lift and Lower body lift....CONTINUEDGET DISCOUNT @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com
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Global Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market Research Report 2017 Analysis and Forecast to 2023
Global Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market
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The Global Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market report titled Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market Research Report-Forecast to 2023 is a specialist investigation report by Market Research Future includes broad essential research alongside the definite examination of subjective and additionally quantitative perspectives by different industry specialists, key sentiment pioneers to pick up a more profound understanding of the market and industry execution.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Market Research Future published new report, titled Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market -Research Report: Global Forecast to 2023.Some of Key Players profiled in the report are Bharat Biotech, Merck & Co., Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc., Multinational pharmaceutical drug company and others.Global Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market - Overview:Rotavirus vaccine is used to protect against rotavirus infections which cause severe diarrhoea among young children. Symptoms of rotavirus infection include severe diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain which can result in disease. The global human rotavirus vaccine market is expected to reach US$ 12.3 billion by 2023, and the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of ~ 11.2 % during the forecast period 2017-2023. The major factors influencing the growth of the market include increasing government initiatives and funding for research and development, increasing biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, increasing incidence of various diseases in childrens, and growing government focus on prevention of diseases. According to the study by National Center for Biotechnology Information, in 2015 rotavirus related diarrhoea was responsible for killing about 600,000 children. According to the same study it was also been found that more than 80% of all rotavirus-related deaths occurred in in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Across the globe, rotavirus-related deaths denote for approximately 5% of the deaths in children more than 5 years of age. Most of the children are infected with rotavirus at least once by the age of five across the globe. Initiatives have been taken by the World Health Organization (WHO) and has suggested that rotavirus vaccine to be included in national routine vaccinations programs. The consumptions of these vaccines would be responsible to prevent 15 to 34% of severe diarrhoea in the developing countries and 37 to 96% of severe diarrhoea in the developed nations. The results of these vaccines were to be seen in Mexico. According to World Health Organization (WHO) a decline of up to 50% in diarrhoeal deaths in children less than 5 years of age was attributed directly to the use of the vaccine in the country. The development of these vaccines is significantly impacting and showing positive results, due to which there is huge demand of these vaccines and positively impacting the growth of the market. Moreover there is a huge opportunity in developing countries that is grabbed by various market players for expanding their presence in the region. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a double digit growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period 2017 2023.Global Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market - Competitive Analysis:There are majorly three pharmaceutical companies licensed for rotavirus vaccines, Rotarix that is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and RotaTeq manufactured by Merck & Co. Inc., a U.S. based company challenging these two major companies an Indian pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech launched the lowest price rotavirus vaccine named Rotavac. There are various companies are seeking interest in manufacturing of these vaccine due low presence of manufacturers. New necessities for the development, manufacturing and licensure of new vaccine candidates have caused a marked rise in manufacturers investment costs. To compensate these investments in research and development and engender profits while the manufacturer monopolizes the market.The company GlaxoSmithKline has offered to deliver this vaccine at price of US$ 2.50 every dose, which creates a 67% decrease over the lowest public price now available. Merck & Co. Inc. has offered to deliver the vaccine at price of US$ 3.5 every dose once the volume of purchase reaches 30 million doses. Although in 2011 there Indian company Bharat Biotech, announced the cost of its vaccine challenging GSK, Merck in the market. With its product Rotavac vaccine, the company quoted the lowest price i.e. 60 rupees that is less than 1$ for three doses of rotavirus vaccine.The successful launch of this products by Bharat Biotech brought an end to the products research and development since 1985. The company with the help of various institutes like PATH, NIH, CDC and the Stanford University School of Medicine made it possible for the successfully launch of the product. In 2015 the company raised a fund of about $20 million for constructing new facilities and supporting infrastructure at its Genome Valley plant. With this development in its infrastructure the company is expected to generate a capacity of 300 million doses every year. Due to this developments the company lead the market in India and gradually across the world.Bharat Biotech (India), Merck & Co., Inc. (U.S.), GlaxoSmithKline plc. (Belgium), are the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Human rotavirus vaccine Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.GET FULL REPORT @Global Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market - Regional AnalysisThe Americas account for a significant market share owing to extensive use of medications and high expenditure on the health care. Additionally, the fastest uptake of new technology in the US drives the global human rotavirus vaccine market. Also, concentration of major research companies and vaccine research sector in the developed countries of this region is adding fuel to the market growth.Europe is the second largest market in the world due to high income and healthcare penetration.Asia Pacific region is expected to grow rapidly and China and India are likely to lead this market due to fast growing healthcare sector during the forecast period.Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are estimated to drive the Middle East & African market. The African region is expected to witness a moderate growth owing to poor economic and political conditions and poor healthcare development.Market Segmentation:The global Human rotavirus vaccine market has been segmented on the basis of type and end users.Based on type, the market has been segmented as Rotarix, RotaTeq, Rotavac, Rotavin-M1, Lanzhou lamb and others.Based on the end users, the market has been segmented as hospitals & clinics, academic and research and others.MAJOR TABLE OF CONTENTS:Chapter 1. IntroductionChapter 2. Research MethodologyChapter 3. Market DynamicsChapter 4. Market Factor AnalysisChapter 5. Global Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market, By TypeChapter 6. Global Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market, By End UsersChapter 7. Global Human Rotavirus Vaccine Market, By RegionChapter 8. Competitive LandscapeChapter 9. Company ProfileChapter 10. ConclusionChapter 11. Appendix...CONTINUEDGET DISCOUNT @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Bioinformatics Market Research Report 2017 Analysis and Forecast to 2022
Bioinformatics Market
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The Global Bioinformatics Market report titled Bioinformatics Market Research Report-Forecast to 2022 is a specialist investigation report by Market Research Future includes broad essential research alongside the definite examination of subjective and additionally quantitative perspectives by different industry specialists, key sentiment pioneers to pick up a more profound understanding of the market and industry execution.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Market Research Future published new report, titled Bioinformatics Market -Research Report: Global Forecast to 2022.Some of the key players in this market are: Agilent Technologies, Illumina, Inc., QIAGEN N. V, and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Dassault Systemes, QIAGEN and others.Global Bioinformatics Market - Overview:Bioinformatics is the use of information technology in the field of biotechnology for the purpose of data storage, data warehousing, and analysing the DNA sequences. The market is going to grow at a sound pace during the forecast period. The major drivers will be the growing biotechnology sector, increasing global burden of the diseases, and increasing research and development expenses. According to the International Trade Administration, the total turnover for the biotechnology sector in the Germany reached from USD 3,280 million in 2015 to USD 3,410 million in 2016. Moreover, it was estimated that in 2016, the R&D expenditure for biotech sector was about USD 1,040 million. Moreover, increasing initiatives from government and private organizations followed by improved collaborative ties between companies and research institutes fuels the market growth. However, lack of well-defined standards and common data formats for integration of data, shortage of skilled bioinformatics professionals along with the lack of adequate user-friendly tools may restrain the market growth during the forecast period.The global bioinformatics market is growing with the sound pace. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global bioinformatics market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period growing rapidly .The market is forecasted to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2022, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a sound CAGR during the anticipated period (2017 2022).Global Bioinformatics Market - Competitive Analysis:Agilent Technologies, Illumina, Inc., QIAGEN, and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., and Dassault Systemes are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global bioinformatics market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Characterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global bioinformatics market appears to be highly competitive and fragmented. International players who are increasingly expanding their footprint in the developing economies, makes it difficult for regional vendors to compete with them, especially in terms of features such as product portfolios, quality, and pricing. The market is witnessing intensified competition which is expected to get more intensified further during the forecast period. The intense competition prevalent in the market dictates the consolidation among marketers.Well established players incorporate acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and product launch in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position.Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is one of the prominent players in the global bioinformatics market. It is headquartered in the U.S. and is one of the leaders in healthcare. The company is specialized in various biotechnology products such as Analytical Instruments, Laboratory Supply Chain Programs, Laboratory Equipment, Lab Services, Specialty Diagnostics and others. The companys net sales in 2015, was estimated to be about USD 16, 965.40 million in 2015 and reached USD 18,274.10 million in 2016.In May 2017, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., signed an agreement with Agios Pharmaceuticals to develop and commercialize a next-generation sequencing-based companion diagnostic for the latters investigational cancer drug ivosidenib.In December 2016, Agilent Technologies and Multiplicom N.V. signed a definitive agreement under which Agilent will acquired Multiplicom, a leading European diagnostics company with state-of-the-art genetic testing technology and products.In August 2017, Illumina, Inc. announced plans with Telegraph Hill Partners to establish Verogen, Inc. The independent new company has certain exclusive rights to provide Illuminas forensic sequencing technology to forensic customers, including for criminal casework and other human and nonhuman forensic applications. The creation of Verogen enabled an unprecedented focus on accelerating growth of Illuminas leading next-generation sequencing technology in the forensic genomics market.GET FULL REPORT @Global Bioinformatics Market - Regional AnalysisOn the regional backgrounds the Americas leads the global market for bioinformatics owing to growing biotechnology sector, increasing healthcare expenditures and presence of the developed technologies within the region. Following, the same trends Europe is second in the market. The Asia Pacific region is the fastest growing region due to the developing economies like India and China which are increasing their healthcare expenditures in the biotechnology sector. According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, in 2017, the Indian biotech industry held about 2% share of the global biotech industry and is expected to be valued USD 11.6 billion in 2017. Moreover, the government invested USD 5 billion to develop human capital, infrastructure and research initiatives. Middle East and Africa have the least market share, especially due to the presence of poor economies within the African region. On the hand, Middle East leads the regional market due to the presence of developed economies like Kuwait, Qatar, and others within the region.Market Segmentation:Bioinformatics market has been segmented on the basis of application which comprises of genomics, chemoinformatics, drug design, transcriptomics, molecular phylogenetics, proteomics, metabolomics, DNA sequences and others. On the basis of services and technology the market is segmented into data warehousing, sequence analysis, sequence manipulation and others. On the basis of sector the market is divided into medical bioinformatics, animal bioinformatics, agriculture bioinformatics and others.MAJOR TABLE OF CONTENTS:Chapter 1. INTRODUCTIONChapter 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGYChapter 3. MARKET DYNAMICSChapter 4. MARKET FACTOR ANALYSISChapter 5. GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY APPLICATIONChapter 6. GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY SERVICES AND TECHNOLOGYChapter 7. GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY SECTORChapter 8. GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY REGIONChapter 9. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPEChapter 10. COMPANY PROFILEChapter 11. List of TablesTABLE 1 GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY APPLICATION, 2013-2022 (USD MILLION)TABLE 2 GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES, 2013-2022 (USD MILLION)TABLE 3 GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY SECTOR, 2013-2022 (USD MILLION)TABLE 4 GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY REGION, 2013-2022 (USD MILLION)Chapter 12. List of FiguresFIGURE 1 RESEARCH PROCESSFIGURE 2 PORTERS FIVE FORCES MODELFIGURE 3 GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY APPLICATIONFIGURE 4 GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICESFIGURE 5 GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY SECTORFIGURE 6 GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET, BY REGIONFIGURE 7 GLOBAL BIOINFORMATICS MARKET: COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS, 2015 (%)...CONTINUEDGET DISCOUNT @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com
Exploration & Production (E&P) Software Market Future Demand & Growth Analysis with Forecast up to 2025
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The report provides analysis of the Exploration & Production (E&P) Software Market for the period 2014-2024, wherein the years from 2016 to 2024 is the forecast period and 2015 is considered as the base year. The report covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the Exploration & Production (E&P) Software market growth over the forecast period. It highlights the drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the market growth during this period. The study provides a holistic perspective on the markets growth in terms of revenue (in US$ Mn) across different geographical regions, namely North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South America.Request For Free Sample Report @The market overview section of the report showcases the market dynamics and trends such as the drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current nature and future status of this market. It also provides an overview about the key market indicators wherein the global production in oil & gas industry has been given across the five geographical regions. Under the porters five forces analysis section, a brief analysis of the level of competition within the E&P software industry and business strategy development is provided in order to determine the competitive attractiveness and intensity of the E&P software market.Global Exploration and Production Software Market: SnapshotThe global exploration and production software market has been gaining an accelerated momentum. The market is likely to be driven by the high adoption of technology make processes efficient and accurate. The report predicts that that global exploration and production software market will be worth US$14.7 bn by the end of 2024 from US$3.1 bn in 2015. The growth in the global market will be recorded at a CAGR of 18.9% between the forecast years of 2016 and 2024. The growth of the global oil and gas industry is the obvious reason for the soaring revenue of the exploration and production software market. Incremental investments in pipelines and refineries in the Americas, APAC, and Middle East & Africa are likely to be pivotal factors steering the global market toward growth.Global Exploration and Production Software Market: Scope of the ReportThe report also provides the competitive landscape for the Exploration & Production (E&P) Software market, thereby listing out all the major players according to their geographic presence, market attractiveness and recent key developments. The competitive landscape section of the report gives an overview about the market share of several key players in the market for the year 2015. The Exploration & Production (E&P) Software market data estimates are the result of our in-depth secondary research, primary interviews and in-house expert panel reviews. These market estimates have been analyzed by taking into account the impact of different political, social, economic, technological, and legal factors along with the current market dynamics affecting the market growth. Moreover, key takeaways section provided at the end of competitive landscape section would help the operating companies to make the best move in this market.Browse Complete Report With TOC @Global Exploration and Production Software Market: Segmentation AnalysisBased on different deployment options for E&P software, the report segments the Exploration & Production (E&P) Software market into on-premise and cloud-based software. On the basis of operation type, the market has been segmented into on-shore and off-shore. The market has further been classified into several E&P software types such as risk management mapping, seismic amplitude analysis, portfolio aggregation, performance tracking, navigation system, resource valuation, reservoir characterization, reservoir simulation, drilling and production. Moreover, the software type segments mentioned above has further been classified into different software types and analyzed throughout the report. In terms of geography, the global exploration and production (E&P) software market is classified into North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and South America.Key Players Mentioned in the Report are:Schlumberger Limited, Paradigm B.V., ION Geophysical Corporation, ETL Solutions Ltd., Exprodat Consulting Ltd., Landmark Solutions, Baker Hughes Incorporated, IHS Inc., Emerson Electric Co., Computer Modelling Group Ltd., Kongsberg Gruppen ASA, GE Oil & Gas, Pason Systems Corp., Ikon Science Limited, GEPlan Consulting Srl, Interactive Network Technologies, Inc., Peloton, Petroleum Experts Ltd., RockFlow Dynamics, LLC, OVS Group LLC, P2 Energy Solutions, Petrolink Services, Inc., EDrilling AS, and TDE Group GmbH are few of the key players which have been profiled in this study. Details such as financials, business strategies, SWOT analysis, and other such strategic information pertaining to these players has been duly provided as part of company profiling.The Exploration & Production (E&P) Software market has been segmented as below:The Exploration & Production (E&P) Software, By Deployment TypeOn-premise SoftwareCloud-based SoftwareThe Exploration & Production (E&P) Software Analysis, By Operation TypeOn-shoreOff-shoreThe Exploration & Production (E&P) Software Analysis, By Software TypeRisk Management MappingSeismic Amplitude AnalysisPortfolio AggregationPerformance TrackingNavigation SystemResource ValuationReservoir CharacterizationReservoir ImagingReservoir MonitoringSubsurface EvaluationPressure & Flow-rate MeasurementReservoir SimulationBlack Oil SimulatorCompositional SimulatorThermal Compositional SimulatorDrillingWell PlanningTrajectory DesignSurvey DatabaseDrilling EngineeringCasing DesignCement DesignHydraulicsMud DesignBHA Design & AnalysisWell BarrierAFEDrilling OperationsDrilling OptimizationOperational Efficiency KPI MonitoringWellsite ReportingData AggregationDrilling AutomationDrilling Data Management Well ControlProductionProduction EngineeringFlow Assurance EngineeringProduction AnalyticsProduction OperationsProduction Data Management Systems (PDMS)Digital OilfieldThe Exploration & Production (E&P) Software Analysis, By Country/RegionNorth AmericaThe U.S.CanadaRest of North AmericaEuropeGermanyFranceThe U.K.ItalySpainRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaAustraliaRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaThe UAESaudi ArabiaSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaSouth AmericaBrazilRest of South AmericaEnquire about this Report @About (MRRSE)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.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
A few years back, I couldn't imagine the day I didn't own a BMX. Since I was 3 years old and for more than 30 years, little wheels have been the main obsession in my life, but things started getting stale and over the last few years MTB has given me a refreshing boost in my love for two wheels. Riding MTB has opened up a whole new world to me, I feel like I'm learning new things, experiencing new places and meeting new people who share the same passion for the simple pleasure of having fun on a bike. This year I decided it was time to let the BMX go completely.Photo: Keith "Phunkt" Valentine2017 was about going with the flow, not many set plans, just to ride awesome places with great people. I returned to some of my favourite spots, Black Mountains, Barcelona and more local trips to Woburn among others. Even though they are spots I know quite well now, every visit throws up something different and exciting. The 50:01 line at Revolution Bike Park was probably the biggest adrenaline rush I had all year, it was like riding crazy trails on a DH bike. Like anything, I didn't go there committed to jumping it, I always take things on face value when I get there and see if I'm into it. Additionally, the Fury is not a bike I get to ride that often, so I'm not that used to throwing it around and wasn't sure how I would get on riding it on something like this. My apprehensions were unfounded however, and it wasn't long before I hit the first set and was hooked!I had a big surprise in August, when GT invited me to Crankworx Whistler. I had no idea I was going until about a month before the event! Whistler was definitely getting higher up my wish list of places to go, and Crankworx had been something that had been crossing my mind too, so when GT asked if I wanted to join them I couldn't believe it. It was a pretty intense week of events, but the vibe was just as I expected - pretty chilled with all the riders having a good time. To top it off I came back with a medal, grabbing a 3rd in the pump track event. Thanks so much for the experience GT!Photo: Sven MartinNear the end of the year I was lucky enough to be invited to some amazing secret spots I'd never been to before. Places like this always contain some of the most dedicated and passionate two wheel enthusiasts on the planet. It's not just the jumps they've built that are special but the tight communities they've built too. I can't thank those guys enough for welcoming me with open arms and sharing their stoke with me.That's what I live for, riding with smiles and sharing the stoke with like minded people, BMX or MTB, it doesn't matter. Although I may have left my BMX days may be behind me, you can probably tell that it will forever influence my riding. After all, you can take the girl out of the BMX, but you can't take the BMX out of the girl!Thanks to GT, Bell Helmets, Sombrio, ODI, Five Ten UK, Hardcore Hobbies,Wheel Fitness for the support and thanks to Chad Kindleysides for the video intro.
Opus company inks support deal with Hungary's Economy Ministry
Opus Global Plc. has announced on Friday that Wamsler SE, owned 99.93% by Opus, signed an agreement with the National Economy Ministry for a nearly 1.8 billion financial support.
Opus Global announced today that Wamsler SE Household Equipment European Company, whose 99.93% of voting stock is owned by Opus Global, has concluded an agreement of financial support with the Economy Ministry regarding the project, launched by Wamsler SE and named asThe value of the financial support is nearly HUF 1.79 billion that is to be utilized by Wamsler SE to complete the project at the total value of HUF 3.572 billion.The project includes the reorganization of the production process, the establishment of factories, the modernization of production equipment and capacity enhancement.The share price of Opus rose nearly 3% to HUF 704 on Friday compared to Thursdays closing price on the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE).
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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 36F. Winds light and variable.
Less than two weeks after Dylann Roof was sentenced to die for killing nine black church worshippers, a former white supremacist penned him a letter searching for signs of remorse.
Instead, Roof called Christian Picciolini a "traitor" and mocked his efforts to reform other racists.
"You couldn't handle the mental stress that comes along with white nationalism, so you took the easy way out. But what is so disgusting about you is that rather than just leave white nationalism behind, you decided to devote your time to undermining your own race," Roof wrote back.
Dylann Roof letter to Christian Picciolini Dylann Roof wrote this response to a former white supremacist who tried to reach out to him to reform his ways.
On Sunday, a "60 Minutes" report by Scott Pelley will feature Picciolini's journey from a neo-Nazi who hated African-Americans and Jewish people so much that he committed acts of violence against them to reformer who says he has counseled 200 racists to change their ways. In the report, Picciolini describes writing to Roof with hope he might also be receptive.
On April 13, Roof wrote back while locked up at the Charleston County jail. Barely three months had passed since his emotional federal trial ended with him found guilty in the Emanuel AME Church shooting.
"I hope you know that you are 100 times worse than the Jews you've surrounded yourself with," Roof wrote. He ended his letter saying he couldn't understand how Picciolini lived with himself.
Today, Picciolini helps train police, FBI and Homeland Security to understand the white supremacist movement. He co-founded a nonprofit called Life After Hate and works to reform virulent racists.
Like Roof, Picciolini was drawn to hate groups online as a teenager and now warns of their danger. In the "60 Minutes" report, he describes a life-changing realization after eight years in the movement.
"The truth is, I'd never met or had a meaningful dialogue ... with anybody that I thought I hated," he tells Pelley. "And when they took the step to try and reach me, the demonization of them that I had in my head started to crack."
Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the day a jury found Roof guilty of all 33 federal charges against him, including hate crimes and obstruction of religious freedom.
Roof, now 23, is being held at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the attack on her husband, Paul, by an intruder in their family home made her think about staying on as the House Democratic leader. She says she almost thought about being leader again because she couldnt give them that satisfaction of intimidating her out of politics. Pelosi spoke to reporters Thursday at the Capitol after announcing she would step aside for a new generation of leaders. She will remain the congresswoman from California. Pelosi says shes not sad about her choice to step aside but feels balanced in her decision. She has no plans to endorse a successor and no desire to meddle with the new leadership's vision. Read morePelosi's big decision: 'Theres a life out there, right?'
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Cielo Waste Solutions Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Cielo Waste Solutions Corp. (CSE:CMC). has issued a press release with the following headline:Cielo Announces Q2 Financial Results, Operational Update and Share IssuanceTo 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 Cielo Waste Solutions 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/Cielo Waste Solutions Corp.Source: Cielo Waste Solutions Corp. (CSE: CMC, FWB: C36, WKN: A1W4AC, ISIN: CA17178G1046)Date: December 15, 2017Time: 9:39 PM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Cielo Waste Solutions 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.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-16 00:19:13
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Erin Ventures Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Victoria, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Erin Ventures Inc. (TSX Venture:EV). has issued a press release with the following headline:Erin Ventures Announces Proposed 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 Erin Ventures Inc., 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/Erin Ventures Inc.Source: Erin Ventures Inc. (TSX Venture: EV, WKN: A0CAFT, ISIN: CA29570H1010)Date: December 15, 2017Time: 6:13 PM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Erin Ventures Inc. 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.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-16 00:35:12
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Family Memorials Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Thunder Bay, Ontario (FSCWire) - Family Memorials Inc. (TSX Venture:FAM). has issued a press release with the following headline:Family Memorials Announces Going Private TransactionTo 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 Family Memorials Inc., 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/Family Memorials Inc.Source: Family Memorials Inc. (TSX Venture: FAM, ISIN: CA30703P1018)Date: December 15, 2017Time: 6:33 PM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Family Memorials Inc. 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 Georox Resources Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Kelowna, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Georox Resources Inc. (TSX Venture:GXR). has issued a press release with the following headline:Georox Resources Inc. Announces Issuance of Stock Options and Assignment of LEI (Legal Entity Identifier)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 Georox Resources Inc., 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/Georox Resources Inc.Source: Georox Resources Inc. (TSX Venture: GXR, FWB: OF6A, WKN: A0Q8Q0 , ISIN: CA3736271089)Date: December 15, 2017Time: 8:00 PM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Georox Resources Inc. 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 Quantum International Income Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - Quantum International Income Corp. (TSX Venture:QIC). has issued a press release with the following headline:Quantum International Income Corp. Completes Further Acquisitions in Georgia Gaming MarketTo 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 Quantum International Income 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/Quantum International Income Corp.Source: Quantum International Income Corp. (TSX Venture: QIC, TSX Venture: QIC.U, ISIN: CA74766M1005)Date: December 15, 2017Time: 7:30 PM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Quantum International Income 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 Corporation on Saturday said it did not breach due process in the award of the controversial Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano, AKK, Gas Pipeline contract, or any other contract it handled.
Describing alleged breach or irregularity in the contract tendering process as misleading, the NNPC management also denied the contract was already approved before last Wednesday.
At the end of the FEC meeting in Abuja last Wednesday, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, told State House Correspondents that he had forwarded the controversial $2.7 billion (about N827 billion at N306.3=$1) for approval.
The contract had generated much tension in October after a memo Mr. Kachikwu wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari on August 30, 2017 leaked in the media.
In the memo, Mr. Kachikwu alleged insubordination by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, accusing him of not following due process in the tendering for the contract.
The minister had said Mr. Baru did not involve him as the chairman designate of the NNPC Board and the supervising minister of petroleum in the decision making process towards the final approval of the contract.
When asked to clarify why he had to again forward for approval the contract he had earlier accused Mr. Baru of awarding to a Chinese firm, the minister explained it was meant to correct observed irregularities in the tender process noted in his leaked memo to the president.
What I complained about (in memo to the President) was about due process not being following in the initial approvals obtained without seeking my concurrence or input, Mr. Kachikwu said.
He said before forwarding the memo to FEC on Wednesday, he had followed due process,
What I did was an inverse approval process, which is post-the fact, by taking the details of the contact tender back to the NNPC Board, briefed its members and obtained their buy-ins.
Whatever is their (NNPC Board members) opinion would be included in the recommendation by the minister to the president, to guide his decision.
Based on the presidents input as the full minister, then the contract tender would go to FEC for approval for the final award. That is the due process of how things should be done, he said.
However, on Saturday, the NNPC in a series of tweets through its Twitter handle, @NNPCgroup,apparently in reaction to the ministers explanations on Wednesday, insisted it did not breach any due process either in seeking approval for the AKK pipeline project contract tender, or any other contract it handled.
It is therefore most unfortunate the continued claim that there was an approval for the contract and that it had to be represented to the #FECagain to correct any infringement, one of the tweets read.
The NNPC said its tendering process required that all contracts be presented for approval by the NNPC Tenders Board, NTB.
Where the contract is above NTBs approval threshold of $20 million, it said, the process would require a final endorsement by FEC.
Insisting the AKK pipeline contract tender followed due process, the NNPC pointed out that the tender for the contract was considered and endorsed by NTB on July 12, for consideration by #FEC.
It was never approved by Mr. President, nor considered by FEC prior to 13th December, 2017, it said.
Nigerian soldiers engaged in the Lafiya Dole counterinsurgency operation in the North-east said troops on Saturday arrested 407 persons who are either Boko Haram fighters or members of their families hiding on the islands of the Lake Chad.
The arrests were made following a sustained air and ground coordinated offensive targeting locations of the insurgents around the various islands.
The arrest turns out to be biggest harvest of Boko Haram fighters by the military in recent times.
The arrested persons comprised 167 active Boko Haram fighters, 67 women and 173 children who were confirmed wives and kids of the insurgents.
The military said many of the insurgents were also killed during the coordinated raids on the island.
This was contained in a statement issued by the spokesman of the Operation Lafiya Dole, Onyema Nwachukwu.
Mr. Nwachukwu, a colonel, who is Deputy Director Army Public Relations, said 57 insurgents were arrested during a seperate operation on another location in the troubled sub-region.
He said within the past weeks, 15 other insurgents had surrendered to Nigeria troops.
Our heartfelt sympathy and condolences go to families and relations of troops as well as civilians who paid the supreme price in the encounters and callous suicide bomb and Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks by the terrorists.
While troops continue relentlessly in the ongoing offensive to decisively rid the north east hinterlands of insurgents, members of the public are implored to be more security conscious and vigilant in their homes, communities, places of worship , markets and other places of business to identify strange persons as well as any suspicious activity and promptly report same to security agencies. They are also urged to remember to Say something, if you see something, the statement added.
A British judge ruled on Friday that up to $85 million from the notorious Malabu oil deal should be returned to the Nigerian government.
This is the first money to be successfully recovered from the $1.1 billion sale of the fantastically rich offshore oil block, OPL245, that has been mired in corruption allegations and legal trench warfare for years.
The sale, which was brokered by the then-government of Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, supposedly resolved a long running contest for the block between oil giant Shell and shelf company Malabu, beneficially owned by former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete.
Mr. Etete effectively awarded the oil block to himself when he was oil minister in 1998, but only walked away with the money for it 13 years later after Shell and Italian oil company ENI paid the Nigerian government for the block.
The government paid $801.5 million to Malabu, but not before $215 million was restrained by the UK Commercial Court after an Etete associate brought a case claiming their share.
The $85 million is what remains in the UK courts funds office after years of legal wrangling.
The counsel for the Federal Republic of Nigeria argued alone before the judge, Justice Cockerill, on Friday after Malabu failed to attend the hearing.
Faisal Osman, counsel for the Nigerian government, told the court that Malabu had not responded to legal correspondence for more than a year, after another British judge had dismissed Malabus earlier legal bid to unlock the $85 million.
After the UK Crown Prosecution Service gave its consent to release the funds to the Nigerian government last month, the judge agreed that she was entirely satisfied to grant the order.
The money in question is the money of the Nigerian people, Mrs. Cockerill concluded.
The Nigerian governments legal arguments were prepared by UK law firm Verdant Solicitors and Lagos law firm Johnson and Johnson.
Nigerias solicitor general, Dayo Apata, attended the court hearing and said: We are very happy about this ruling. It has been a long road but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Nigerias attorney general, Abubakar Malami, had in October announced that his country had received the $85 million. But it appears that announcement was made in anticipation of Fridays court ruling after the UK Crown Prosecution Service indicated to Mr. Malamis office that they would not oppose a claim against the release of the money.
Mr. Malami was not available for comments on Saturday to clarify whether the money had actually been released before the Friday ruling. He did not return calls and short message to his mobile phone.However, it is understood that Fridays court ruling paves the way for the money to be released to the Attorney-Generals office within days.A further amount of around $100 million proceeds from OPL245 remains frozen by the Swiss authorities, and is understood to be another target for Nigerias legal team.
* Lionel Faull is a reporter with Finance Uncovered. *
As Nigerians continue to grapple with fuel scarcity following last weeks strike threat by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, another influential group in the oil industry says it is set to begin its strike from Monday.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, said on Friday it had no option than to call its members on strike after negotiations with the government over some labour issues stalled.
The group had earlier issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the government to intervene over allegations of anti-workers practices perpetrated against some of its members in Neconde Energy Limited, an indigenous oil company.
The umbrella body of senior workers in the oil and gas industry had accused the management of Neconde Energy of wrongful termination of the employment of some of its workers who belong to PENGASSAN.
Following the ultimatum, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, had offered to broker a truce between the union and Neconde Energy Limited.
However, the union in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES late on Friday by its spokesperson, Fortune Obi, said the peace meeting called by the Minister during the week ended in a stalemate without a positive resolution of the crisis.
Following the failure of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, to settle the rift between this body (PENGASSAN) and Neconde, the management of PENGASSAN has agreed to start the strike on Monday night (December 18th, 2017), Mr. Obi said in the statement.
Mr. Obi said the strike scheduled to commence midnight on Monday would be preceded by an emergency Central Working Committee meeting of PENGASSAN in the morning.
The union said it has already notified its members nationwide to be on standby for the final instructions to shutdown operations if nothing is done by the relevant authorities to avert the planned strike by midnight on Monday.
PENGASSANs Lagos Zonal Chairman, Abel Agarin, in a communique in support of the strike, warned against any act of victimisation against any of its members who would participate in the exercise.
The unions position has always been that the termination of employment of some workers by Neconde was unlawful, as it was not in line with equity, good conscience and industrial relations, best practices and extant labour laws, Mr. Agarin noted.
If the strike is allowed to proceed as planned, it will worsen the fuel supply situation nationwide.
Most parts of the country, including big cities like the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and others, have been struggling to recover from the impact of the crisis on businesses, as normalcy is gradually being restored in fuel supply.
The impact of another disruption in fuel supply will be well felt as Nigerians prepare for Christmas celebrations.
There is no going back on the supposed instructions by the 36 states governors for withdrawal of $1 billion from the excess crude revenue account for the fight against Boko Haram, despite dissent by Ekiti State counterpart, Ayo Fayose, the Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris, said Saturday.
Mr. Idris was speaking in Abuja at the special Federal Accounts Allocation Committee meeting for December where members resolved to share a total of N609.96 billion for the month.
The meeting was held a week earlier than usual to allow the three tiers of government pay their workers on time before the coming Christmas season and New Year celebrations.
Giving details of the allocations, Mr. Idris said gross statutory revenue stood at N549.5 billion, which was higher by N106.5 billion than about N443.05 billion realized in October.
The AGF said there was a decrease of about $69.49 million in revenue due to a reduction in crude oil production for the month by about 1.75 million barrels.
However, with average crude oil price increase from $48.66 per barrel to $52.07, the AGF said, made up for the shortfall, with the country earning extra $3.41 from every barrel of oil exported for the month.
He identified facility maintenance, sabotage and force majeure declared at the Bonny export terminal by Shell as some of the issues that negatively impacted crude oil production during the month.
On non-oil revenue, he noted a significant increase in earnings from import duty, company income tax, CIT, and Royalty.
The balance in the Petroleum Profit Tax, PPT account stood at about $133 million, while Value Added Tax, VAT revenue was about N77.209 billion, from N80.42 billion, after deduction of cost of collection by the relevant agencies.
Consequently, total distributable statutory revenue for the month, including VAT stood at N609.96 billion.
A breakdown of the revenue shared for the month showed that the Federal Government took a total of N248.23 billion, or 52.68 per cent; 36 states (N125.9 billion, or 26.72 per cent; 776 Local Government Council N97.07 billion, or 20.6 per cent, while N43.22 billion went to the oil producing states as 13 per cent derivation.
Besides, the revenue agencies, namely Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, received N5.24 billion or 4 per cent; the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS,N4.23 billion, or 7 per cent, and the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR N3.65 billion or 4 per cent as cost of collection.
ECA Withdrawal
Although the balance in the excess crude revenue account remained at $2.317 billion as at December 15, the AGF said the $1 billion the 36 state governors approved last week to procure arms to fight Boko Haram was yet to be withdrawn.
There is a process that needs to be followed before money is withdrawn from the account. The instruction needs to be given before money is taken. Unless it is taken, the balance in the account remains the same as at the reporting date, which is December 15, 2017, he explained.
On whether there was budgetary appropriation by the National Assembly for the withdrawal of the $1 billion, the AGF said since the governors of the 36 states of the federation had reached a consensus before giving approval, no other requirement was necessary.
Ordinarily, savings in the ECA should have been distributed to the three tiers of government, who are the owners of the money. So, if the same owners decide that part of the money be utilised to provide security for life and property in the country or make the system work, I dont think there is any issue in that, he said.
The entire Federation have decided. There is an instruction and directive to that effect. There is a consensus; a common position and no dissenting voice, we (FAAC) have no option than to go with the directive as given, he added.
Asked about Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, who issued a statement in the media to reject the decision by the Governors Forum on the withdrawal, the AGF urged the governor to direct his protest to his colleagues.
I dont know about Ekiti State governor as a dissenting voice. He should have made his position known to the Governors Forum. His dissention should not come to the AGF, or on the pages of media. He is entitled to his opinion though. But, he should direct it to the appropriate forum, he said.
On the details of what the money would be utilised for, the AGF told PREMIUM TIMES to direct its inquiries to the appropriate government agency responsible for the exercise the military.
I am not part of the military. I am not in the theatre of war. I do not know their needs. The military know where to apply the money. That is why the question should be directed to them, he said.
Giving an update on the payment of the Paris Club loan refund, the AGF said so far 27 of the 36 states have received their refunds, while the others were still in process of being paid.
The chairman, Finance Commissioners Forum, Mahmood Yinusa, said with the early distribution of the revenue for December, the challenge would be for the various states to ensure their workers were given a good Christmas with prompt payment of the salary for the month.
The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has felicitated with President Muhammadu Buhari as he clocks 75.
He however urged the president to quit politics given his age and fragile health condition.
The governor spoke at a session with journalists in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday.
Mr. Fayose said the president had served the nation to be best of his ability in spite of his age, saying he required the prayers of all Nigerians.
This is to congratulate Mr President as he clocks 75. I want to thank God for his life and pray for good health in the service of our nation and that he continues to age with grace, he said.
I wish him the best. He represents us all and we owe him prayers and co-operation where necessary, just as we also need to criticise him too where necessary.
Mr. Fayose said he congratulated President Buhari, not minding the political differences between them.
He however stated the President should consider his advice of quitting politics at this stage of his public service.
I am not a fan of an old man and this is not personal and peculiar to President Buhari, he said.
We need an agile president come 2019. We need somebody that is experienced and agile.
He shouldnt contest and the decision is his and his party. But that is not going to stop me and my party from taking over from him and his party come 2019.
Nigerias major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, last weekend elected a new set of leaders who will run the affairs of the party for the next four years.
The new party officials are mostly people with experience in local and state politics.
These are their profiles:
Uche Secondus (National Chairman)
Mr. Secondus has been in politics for 39 years He joined politics in 1978 during the Second Republic as the youth leader, in Rivers, for the now-defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN. He later became the state publicity secretary of another national party, the National Republican Convention, NRC, from 1993 to 1998.
Mr. Secondus became the acting national chairman of the PDP in 2015 after the resignation of the then chairman, Adamu Muazu, following the partys defeat in that years presidential election. Before then, he was the partys deputy national chairman.
As a businessman, he is said to have interest in Intels Nigeria Limited, a company that is linked to Nigerias former vice president, Atiku Abubakar. The company has been having running battles of late with the Nigerian government.
The new PDP leader, like most of his fellow party men, have had brushes with the countrys anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, since Muhammadu Buhari became president. He was detained by the EFCC in 2016 for illegally receiving on behalf of the PDP 23 luxury vehicles valued at N310 million from the controversial businessman, Jide Omokore.
The court later declared his arrest as being unlawful and awarded N10 million damages against the EFCC.
During the May 2016 botched Port Harcourt convention, Mr. Secondus wanted to contest for the deputy national chairman of the PDP. But he changed his mind that year and went after the partys top job.
Yemi Akinwonmi (Deputy National Chairman South)
Born on January 15, 1955 in Ijebu Ode, Ogun state, Mr. Akinwonmi attended the University of Benin and was appointed Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, under Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State.
Before then, he served as the Ogun State Secretary of the Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN, before leading 3,250 members of the party to defect to the PDP.
Mr. Akinwonmi was on April 11, 2011 arraigned alongside six others before a magistrate court in Akure Ondo State, over an attempt to violently disrupt the National Assembly elections held on April 9.
The prosecutor, Isah Atangbe, told the court that the accused were arrested by the police at Araromi estate in Ore, Ondo State, around 10 a.m on 9 April, when the National Assembly election had already started.
He said the suspects were arraigned on a five-count charge of being in possession of various dangerous items for the purpose of terrorising members of the public and disturbing public peace, contrary to section 516 of the criminal code, Cap 30 laws of Ondo State.
Babawo Gamawa (Deputy National Chairman North)
Born on February 2, 1966, he obtained a national diploma from the University of Jos, Plateau State.
Mr. Gamawa served as the Speaker, Bauchi State House of Assembly, and was picked by former Governor Isa Yuguda to serve as deputy governor, following the impeachment of the deputy governor at the time, the late Garba Gadi.
Mr. Gamawa was also elected senator to represent Bauchi North constituency in the Nigerian Senate in 2011.
He was defeated by the candidate of the APC candidate, Suleiman Nazif, in the 2015 elections.
Umar Tsauri (National Secretary)
Ibrahim Umar Tsauri was born in Katsina on April 9, 1952.
He was elected senator to represent Katsina Central from 2003 to 2007. He also served as a director and was number 3 in hierarchy in the presidential campaign office of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the run up to the 2015 election.
Emmanuel Agbo (Deputy National Secretary)
Emmanuel Agbo was a state chairman of the PDP in Benue.
Mr. Agbo was also the chairman of Conference of PDP Chairmen while he held sway as Benue state chairman of the party.
Aribisala Adewale (National Treasurer)
He was elected member, House of Representatives to represent Oye/ Ikole federal constituency of Ekiti State from 2007 to 2011. He was also a PDP governorship aspirant in Ekiti state in the run up to the 2014 election that eventually turned up incumbent Governor Ayo Fayose. Mr. Fayose defeated the then incumbent governor, Kayode Fayemi of the APC.
Abdullahi Maibasira (National Financial Secretary)
Mr. Maibasira, a former National Youth Leader of the PDP was born in Minna Niger state on January 30, 1983.
He attended Kings College, Lagos; Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto; and the Federal University of Technology, Minna, where he graduated in 2011.
Mr. Maibasira also served as the Director of Youth Mobilisation in the campaign office of President Goodluck Jonathan in the run up to the 2015 general elections.
Irona Gerald (Deputy financial Secretary)
Irona Gerald is from Imo state, and is a chemical engineer by training. He was born on August 1, 1966.
Mr. Gerald ventured into politics early in life and was elected for two terms as a councilor, representing Oguta Ward A in 1996 and 1997 respectively.
In 1998, he became the youngest state secretary of All Peoples party, APP, which later became All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP.
In 1999, Mr. Gerald contested and won a seat in the Imo State House of Assembly to represent Oguta State Constituency.
During the period, he was appointed chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum, Environment and Energy, a position he used to conceptualise, initiate and midwife the first ever Memorandum of Understanding between Oil Companies operating in Imo State and their host Communities.
He was also appointed member, presidential committee on verification of oil wells in the Niger Delta.
He was later appointed the Chairman, Transition Committee of Oguta LGA in 2003 and subsequently became the first chairman of the local government area when he was elected unopposed in 2004.
Mr. Gerald later in 2011 contested and won election to represent Oguta/Ohaji Egbema Oru West Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
Austin Akabondu (National organizing Secretary)
Mr. Akabondu, from Abia State, is a retired army lieutenant colonel. He is a former minister of state for defence under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. Before then, he was appointed the chairman of the board of the University Teaching Hospital, Ibadan, in 2013.
He also served as the national Vice Chairman, South-east of the PDP.
Hassan Yakubu (Deputy National Organising Secretary)
Mr. Yakubu, a lawyer, was the legal adviser of the Nasarawa state chapter of the PDP.
He also once aspired to become the state chairman of the party, in the congress held last year but lost to a former state lawmaker, Francis Orogu.
Kola Ologbondiyan (National Publicity Secretary)
Mr. Ologbondiyan hails from western senatorial district of Kogi State.
Until 2015, he was the special adviser on media and publicity to former Senate President, David Mark.
A graduate of Mass Communication from the University of Lagos, he worked with ThisDay newspaper where he rose through the ranks to become its group political editor, and then deputy editor of the daily title.
He covered beats such as the Presidency, National Assembly, State Government Houses and political parties.
Diran Odeyemi (Deputy National Publicity Secretary)
Mr. Odeyemi was a special assistant to Governor Alao Akala of Oyo State on communications and media matters and he also served in the same capacity for Iyiola Omisore when he contested to be the governor of Osun.
Mr. Odeyemi also served as the spokesperson of the PDP in Osun state.
Emmanuel Enoidem (National Legal Adviser)
Mr. Enoidem served as a commissioner in Akwa Ibom for nine years, traversing the administrations of former Governor Godswill Akpabio and that of current governor, Udom Emmanuel.
He resigned as a member of the state cabinet to run for the office of National Legal Adviser of the PDP.
Feelers from the PDP suggests that he left the cabinet and joined the PDP race on the advice of Mr. Akpabio.
Adamu Mustapha (National Auditor)
Nothing much is known about the new National Auditor of the PDP. Mr. Mustapha is from Yobe State and has been a stalwart of the party in the North-east. He served in the campaign office of President Goodluck Jonathan during the 2015 election.
Mariya Waziri (National Woman Leader)
Mrs. Waziri, from Kebbi state, emerged as the new National Woman Leader of the PDP after a keenly contested battle with another strong candidate, Baraka Sani, from Kano.
Mrs. Waziri was the zonal woman leader of the PDP for the North-west region. She was also a member of the National Conference put in place by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014.
Udeh Okoye (National Youth Leader)
Mr. Udeh Okoye was born on May 28, 1978 in Ohumagu Agbogugu village in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State.
He attended Central School Akegbe-Ugwu for his primary education, Community Secondary School Obuoffia and University of Port Harcourt respectively. He studied Political Science and Administrative Studies.
In 2006, Mr. Okoye became the leader of Enugu State Youth Coalition and in 2009, he became the National President of South-east Youth Movement.
He contested and won election as a member of the Enugu State House of Assembly in 2011. He was made the leader of the assembly from 2011 to 2015, despite being a first timer and the youngest member at the time.
He was re-elected as a state lawmaker in 2015 and until his election as National Youth Leader of the PDP, he was the chairman house committee on works, lands, housing and urban development.
Umar Babangida Maina (Deputy National Youth leader)
Mr. Maina is from Adamawa state and was one of the youngest candidates in the 2015 general elections. He contested for Mubi North, Mubi South Maiha seat of the federal house of representatives. He was also part of the PDP national youth committee for the 2015 presidential election.
Mr. Maina chairs the Namadi Sambo North-east Youth Forum and holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration and Management from American Liberty University, and an MSc in International Relations from the University of Abuja.
He is currently a director on the board of a Micro finance bank in Abuja.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the National Assembly to investigate the approval by the National Economic Council for the release of $1 billion to the Federal Government to fight insurgency in the North-east.
The PDP in a statement on Friday, signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, described the release as curious and alarming.
The PDP said it was alarmed by the manipulative plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration to secure the approvals without recourse to due process.
It added it was also alarmed that such an amount could be approved for purposes of fighting the insurgents the government claimed it had defeated.
The PDP wondered why the APC-led government avoided the direct constitutional appropriation channel of the National Assembly for funding of items already provided for in the federal budget if it actually has nothing to hide.
The PDP supports the fight against insurgency. We hold our officers and men confronting the terrorists and securing our territorial integrity in high esteem.
We are however concerned about the manipulative tendencies connected with the approvals and veracity of claimed purpose of the fund.
Nigerians would recall that the APC-led Federal Government had claimed that it has since defeated the insurgents.
If it would take a billion dollar from a nations savings to kill what they long claimed dead, then we challenge APC government to come clean and tell Nigerians the whole truth.
The party added: We therefore call on the National Assembly to interrogate this proposed disbursement and subject it to a thorough but rapid interrogation.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, AbdulAzeez Yari, has reacted to Governor Ayo Fayoses declaration that $1 billion withdrawn from the Excess Crude Account, for use in the fight against Boko Haram, is a ruse.
The Ekiti governor had said in a statement on Friday that the spending made no sense since the Buhari adminstration claimed it had defeated Boko Haram.
The governor alleged the withdrawal, approved by the governors forum, was meant to finance President Muhammadu Buharis re-election in 2019.
Mr. Fayose also denied that the withdrawal from the excess crude account received his approval.
But Mr. Yari, who is also Zamfara state governor, claimed the decision to allow the Federal Government access the money, was a collective one by the forum.
He said being absent from the meeting where the decision was taken did not clear anyone of responsibility for the forums resolutions.
I am saying that that statement was an unfair cut against the Forum, Governor Yari Abubakar said. When a decision is taken by the Forum in ones absence, once there was a quorum at the meeting where the decision was taken, (it) becomes binding on all. I am sure Fayose was not making the statement to undermine the Forum. He was just doing his thing.
Mr. Yari said the decision was a conscious sign by the two parties to show the synergy between the NGF and the Presidency, which ought not to be politicized,
This same lack of unity between governors and the presidency had brought about poor governance in the past, throughout the country and now that we are working together no one should constitute a wedge in the process, he said.
He added that you can never spend too much on security because the safety of lives and property are the most cardinal among all the principles of governance, in any democracy.
Governor Yari said the issue of drawing from the ECA was broadly deliberated at the forums meeting on the eve of the National Economic Council meeting where the decision was taken.
If Governor Fayose was there at the meeting, he would have seen the wisdom in the decision. Yes, the administration is claiming to have decimated the insurgents out of Sambisa Forest but they are reemerging in different flashpoints across the country. They need to be tackled wherever they are and the NGF decided to support the Presidency just as it (The Presidency) had been supporting states with their own problems, Governor Yari Abubakar argued.
A statement issued by the governors forum secretariat in Abuja said Mr. Yari was considering addressing a press conference on the matter to clear the air.
Governor Fayose is on his own. We have to protect our people and we have to do it with everything we have, he said. Let me reemphasize one more thing, Mr President is a responsible and honest leader who does not believe in money politics and he would never divert public resources into it.
In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Yinka Odumakin, the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, speaks on why the Afenifere supported ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, the federal governments neglect of the South-west and how the restructuring of Nigeria is the only panacea for economic and political growth.
Premium Times: Do you think the present government has been fair to Afenifere?
ODUMAKIN: You see, this government has not been fair to us, not because of sharing of appointments whatever, but because of the critical issues we care about are not being tackled, which was the basis of Awolowos intervention of Nigerias politics in 1947.
His intervention contributed to Nigerians Freedom. Until he breathed his last, it was about Nigeria as a multi ethnic nation, that it should be run along federal lines. Check Nigerias constitution, in page 52 or 50, Awo said any attempt to run Nigeria along unity line would be a product of disharmony, discontent, people fighting themselves and the whole machinery of Government would crumble under be bureaucratic centralism, except we get super humans to run the affairs of Nigeria.
Unfortunately, Nigeria is a country where the cream does not make it to the top. The best had never been able to make it to the top and you see it every now and then in terms of leadership in this country. At all levels, National Assembly, Government at higher levels, you see that most time it is the worst presiding over the best. In fact, most times, the best are now made to join the rest.
So, within that context, Nigeria has not been able to fulfill its destiny and that is why we need to continue to strive for Nigeria to be restructured. The only reason why Afenifere supported Jonathan in the last election was his promise to implement 2014 National conference which we believed held the key to reorganising Nigeria. But this government came and said no we are not part of the conference and we are not going to look at it. It should rot away in the achieves.
Northern senators said about two days ago that it was scared for southern senators to ask to implement 2014 conference report because it was not part of the meeting of the content of the report. The 2015 budget, was it not made by the Jonathan Government? Why did they implement that one? Are they part of the formation of 2015 budget? So you took time to implement the 2015 Jonathan budget but its only the conference report that was done not by Jonathan but by over 400 Nigerians who assembled for three months that is the only one you consider not being part of which shows clearly that we are fools. What you are saying is that you prefer the status quo to Nigerians that worked for it.
Three weeks ago, the president went to the National Assembly to read the 2018 budget of N 3.6 trillion for 200 million people? In 1983, Shagari was budgeting N 2.25 billion for 80 million people. So this shows you that if we stopped corruption in Nigeria today, Nigeria will still be poor based on un-productive economy that we are running by means of sharing, by means of collecting oil rents shared every month, whereas, we have so many other things that the federating units can prospect that will give us money, that Nigeria will be able to do about N50 trillion budget every year.
But because of the quest for command and control, some people will just sit down at Abuja request for bailout, budget support and control. That is what they know how to do. We have all that will make this country great. We have land, the land that we have been cultivating to share money, look at Niger state. The state is twice Netherland. But the land mass in Niger state is used to share money in Abuja, while Netherlands land is the second largest exporter of agriculture products in the world after U.S. This government has short changed or refused to accede to the demand to restructure Nigeria. This shows they have not been fair to us
PT: If you are complaining of this government not being for the South-west, the last PDP convention which most people believed the chairmanship position should go to the South-west was taken to the South-south may support this. Is your region losing its relevance?
ODUMAKIN: First of all, I wont say that PDPs move was targeted to the Yorubas. It was about their internal party affairs and not the South-west. But I was made to understand that before the election, they zoned the chairmanship to the south and the presidency to the north. The South now micro zoned it to the South-west. But they should have thought of what to do before they zoned it. Now coming to begin to say that South- west should be given the position, I dont think it was good enough. One thing that interested me in the convention was that the balance of the contest among Prof Adeniran, Chief Raymond Dokpesi , Sencondus and Adedoja
I took a small recess, I looked at the resume of Prof Adeniran, and it was intimidating. I looked at Dokpesi resume, it was frightening. Looking at Adedojas resume, it was great, buy looking at Secondus, I found nothing. All I saw was, he went to primary and secondary school. They did not name the schools he went. They are saying he had a diploma in London and emerged chairman with 2,000 votes. That is exactly my point. The best in Nigeria are suppressed.
PT: Does Afenifere have any plan to salvage this situation?
ODUMAKIN: Afenifere believes strongly that Nigeria should be rescued. We are talking with our friends across Nigeria for that rescue mission.
PT:- Before 2015, precisely, in 2011 you were president Buharis spokesman while contesting under CPC. In 2015, you left him and supported Jonathan. Why?
ODUMAKIN: I supported Jonathan based on his promises to implement the 2014 national conference report, and if there is that scenario again tomorrow, I will support the person that wants to restructure Nigeria against anybody who is not ready
PT: That means you have no regret supporting Jonathan?
ODUMAKIN: I dont have any regret. I stand on issues. In 2011, when I supported President Buhari, I went with that ticket because of Pastor Tunde Bakare, his running mate who I had known before then. My first contact with Buhari was in 2011. I never joined CPC. I was there as a media professional.
When they started their merger process, they put me in a committee with El-Rufai (Kaduna governor), Hadiza (NPA boss) and other persons. I went to them and said no I am not part of CPC. We met at Abuja in an office. That was where I met El-Rufai, Hadiza and the rest of the team. So, if Jonathan had not said he would implement the 2014 conference report, maybe I would not have voted in 2015.
PT: What is your relationship with Buhari?
ODUMAKIN: He is my President. That is the relationship I have with him.
PT: Do you have any relationship with APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu?
ODUMAKIN: I have known Tinubu for so many years. I dont have any political relationship with him at the moment. We have come a long way since 1998 and we have done a lot of things together.
PT: What about his visit to the National Chairman of Afenifere?
ODUMAKIN: Yes he did but unfortunately when he visited, I had other commitment elsewhere. He said it was a visit to reciprocate or a return visit for the visit the leader of Afenifere paid him in 2016. Interestingly, I was on that visit.
PT: Do you read any political meaning to the visit?
ODUMAKIN: Every politician has reason for the doing things that he (or she) does. But the discussion at the meeting was not more than a visit.
PT: What is your say about the rift between the minister of finance and SEC DG?
ODUMAKIN: I was alarmed when I read Gwarzos allegation that the minister suspended him because he refused to stop investigation about Oandos problems with shareholders fund. That was a serious indictment.
That a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria could say, dont investigate a company that has been accused of serious infractions or regulations of shareholders fund. Until the minister came out to say that it was blackmail, that she has no hand in his allegation.
Yes, she had a meeting with him and there was no such thing. The meeting she had was about the allegation against him. Look at this, he was promoted as DG and he paid himself a severance package of N104 million. Also, there are nine companies alleged to belong to him and his wife. They used those companies to get contracts in SEC and he was investigated by EFCC for that and that was the reason for his suspension.
We want to state here that the investigation against Oando must continue. So, we are interested in that investigation. We want to see the outcome of the investigation. They must pay back shareholders their money. But the warning signal about this Gwarzo man is that we have seen a continued trend that Nigerians must watch. When the NHIS boss was suspended by the Minister of Health for corruption, then he issued a statement that the minister cannot suspend him, only the president can suspend him.
When Maina, the pension thief case came open, he started releasing statements that corruption was fighting back. A man accused of stealing N185 billion and houses recovered from him which he said were inherited are brand new houses. So, when you take the NHIS boss, when you take Maina and you take Gwarzo man, then it becomes a trend which is the audacity of corruption.
The impunity with which people, when caught, subjected to investigation, begin to look at points of blackmail without addressing the allegation against them is very dangerous.
President Muhammadu Buhari has described the death of former Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) Gidado Idris, as a big loss to the nation.
The former SGF died on Friday night in Abuja at the age of 82 after a brief illness.
Mr. Idris, who hailed from Zaria in Kaduna State, was appointed SGF in 1993 and retired in 1999 after a civil service career that started before Nigerias independence.
The president, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Saturday, expressed sadness at the passing on of Mr. Idris.
He said being a highly experienced and quintessential technocrat who traversed the different stages of the political evolution of the country, Gidados wise counsel will surely be missed.
The president added that the deceased, in addition to rising to the pinnacle of his public career as SGF, served several civilian and military administrations meritoriously as federal permanent secretary.
He said Mr. Gidado left inspiring imprints.
He, therefore, enjoined current and upcoming civil and public servants to emulate the cherished values of hard work, discipline, professionalism and integrity which the late distinguished nationalist embodied.
He commiserated with the family and associates of the deceased and prayed that God would comfort them.
Mr. Idris was buried Saturday at Gudu Cemetery in FCT amid tears and prayers from families and the Muslim community.
The burial, which was concluded at around 3 p.m., was attended by the Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha and Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, among others.(NAN)
About 144 tankers loaded with petroleum products meant for supply in Katsina and Kano, but diverted, were recovered by security operatives and the monitoring team from the Nigerian National petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Friday.
About 118 trucks of the products were approved for discharge in filling stations in Kano and environs, while 26 were destined for consumers in Katsina State.
However, the consignments meant to help fill the fuel supply gap in the northern parts of the country were said to have been diverted and stored in a private facility in Kano.
Following a tip off, after reports that consignment of products meant for the state were not delivered at their destinations, the combined team of security operatives and NNPC were said to have traced the tankers to where they were hidden.
NNPC spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, said following the discovery, the recovered trucks have since been sent to discharge their products at their designated locations.
NNPC warns marketers across the country to desist from acts capable of heightening supply gaps noticeable in a few remaining parts of the country, Mr. Ughamadu said.
He said security operatives have been instructed to go on the trail of any marketer who may had diverted and hoarded products.
Scarcity of petroleum products was the order in most parts of the northern region, including Kano, in the last two weeks. It was not clear if the fuel scarcity situation was as a result of the diverted products.
An official, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES, in Kano said the consignment may have been diverted to be smuggled out to neighbouring countries up north.
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.
TWIN FALLS The preliminary hearing for Amanda Jean Dunlap, the Twin Falls woman accused of murdering her baby, has been delayed yet again.
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. She was arrested less than week after the Oct. 14 death of her 20-month-old daughter, Lyryk Jean Altom.
Baby Lyryk was flown to Boise on Oct. 8, after police responded to a call about a baby in distress. Her father, Logan Altom, previously told the Times-News that Lyryks death was caused by a brain injury.
Dunlap was scheduled to come before Magistrate Judge Thomas Kershaw on Friday, but the hearing was continued.
The preliminary hearing will determine whether there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
Over the past 20 years Diageo's share price has increased by 340%1, market capital has grown 440%1 and earnings per share (pre-exceptional items) are 220%2 higher.
The milestone is being celebrated around the world by the company's 30,400 employees. From a time capsule ceremony at Cardhu distillery in Scotland, the home of Johnnie Walker, to employees in Lagos, Nigeria and Sydney, Australia toasting the occasion with a dram of Johnnie Walker Black Label.
In London, to mark the celebration, Diageo's Chief Executive, Ivan Menezes, along with the company's talented team of Scotch Whisky Blenders and fellow members of the senior leadership team opened the market at the London Stock Exchange.
Ivan Menezes, Diageo Chief Executive said:
"I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the past 20 years, which is testament to the commitment of our talented employees past and present. Diageo is a young company created from the incredible entrepreneurial legacy of John Walker, Pierre Smirnoff, Charles Tanqueray, Arthur Guinness and many more and this spirit continues today.
"Our brands are part of celebrations globally every day, as we mark this milestone, it is not only the growth of our brands and business that I will be toasting, but the way we do business. We have made great strides in diversity and inclusion, minimising our environmental impact, our contribution to the communities where we operate and in our aim to reduce the harmful use of alcohol around the world."
Deirdre Mahlan, President, Diageo North America said:
"It's extraordinary to consider how Diageo has grown and matured as a company over the past two decades, both around the globe, and in North America. On this anniversary we raise a glass to the company we have become and our amazing brands, including those we produce right here in the United States and Canada.
"I'm privileged to lead this diverse business and the more than 2500 talented people who work to make this company better, and who bring their best selves to work every day."
1Percentages calculated comparing number from 17 December 1997 and 4 December 2017.
2EPS calculated using numbers from 30 June 1998 and 30 June 2017.
For further information
NA Media relations: Kristen Crofoot 203-229-4223
[email protected]
Key milestones
Diageo plc is created through the merger of Grand Metropolitan and Guinness . The company is listed on the London and New York stock exchanges in December 1997 .
is created through the merger of and . The company is listed on the and stock exchanges in . In 2001, Diageo and Pernod Ricard acquired Canadian alcoholic beverages business Seagram's. The acquisition brought Crown Royal Canadian whiskey and Captain Morgan rum into the Diageo brand family.
Canadian whiskey and rum into the Diageo brand family. Our Water of Life programme was launched in 2007, to provide safe drinking water and sanitation to people across Africa . Since launch, the programme has reached more than 10 million people in 21 countries.
programme was launched in 2007, to provide safe drinking water and sanitation to people across . Since launch, the programme has reached more than 10 million people in 21 countries. The Nolet Family and Diageo formed a new 50/50 company in 2008 to sell, market and distribute Ketel One vodka.
vodka. In 2008, Diageo launched DRINKiQ , an online resource to arm consumers with the tools needed to make informed choices about drinking, including the decision not to drink.
, an online resource to arm consumers with the tools needed to make informed choices about drinking, including the decision not to drink. Diageo launches the Learning for Life skills programme in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2008. The programme now runs in more than 40 countries, and has reached more than 120,000 people.
skills programme in and the in 2008. The programme now runs in more than 40 countries, and has reached more than 120,000 people. In 2011, Diageo became the first global company to own a majority stake in the fast growing Chinese White Spirits category through the acquisition of a controlling share of Shui Jing Fang .
. Diageo also acquired Mey Icki, the leading spirits company in Turkey in 2011.
the leading spirits company in in 2011. Diageo acquired Meta Abo Brewery in Ethiopia and Ypioca Cachaca in Brazil in 2012.
in and in in 2012. In 2013, Diageo began its acquisition of United Spirits Limited in India .
in . Diageo became the first alcohol beverage company to sign up to the UN Women's Empowerment Principles in 2013 .
in 2013 Diageo gained full control of Don Julio tequila in 2015.
tequila in 2015. Diageo was named as one of the top 25 most diverse and inclusive companies in the 2016 Thomson Reuters Diversity and Inclusion index.
in the 2016 Thomson Reuters Diversity and Inclusion index. In 2017, Diageo acquired the fast growing tequila Casamigos.
Diageo announced its investment to bring back two lost distilleries, Port Ellen and Brora in October 2017.
in October 2017. Diageo celebrated training 1 million responsible drinking ambassadors in 2017 and launched its Drink Positive campaign aimed at promoting moderation and tackling misuse.
About Diageo
Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, JB, Buchanan's and Windsor whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness.
Diageo is a global company, and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and the New York Stock Exchange (DEO). For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice.
Celebrating life, every day, everywhere.
SOURCE Diageo plc
Related Links
http://www.diageo.com
ZHUHAI, China, Dec. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Kemin Industries held a ceremony to celebrate reaching the company's global vision and held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new research and development building in Zhuhai, Guangdong.
In 1998, Kemin announced its global vision to improve the quality of life by touching half the world's population every day with its products and services. In August, this number reached 3.8 billion, more than half of the world's population. Kemin is proud to announce achieving this global vision.
"When the vision was put forward in 1998 for the first time, it seemed unachievable," said Dr. Chris Nelson, President and CEO of Kemin. "We insist on efforts by our global workforce to achieve this goal and to become leaders in the field by studying at the molecular level to provide safe, efficient and healthy solutions for humans and animals."
As an important area in China, Kemin invested and set up a manufacturing facility in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province in 2000. Through this investment, Kemin implemented the global vision and a localization strategy to create a group of "special forces" teams that quickly established Kemin as a leader in providing products and solutions for the field of feed additives in China, and then became widely recognized by the market.
"The globalization advantage with Kemin has been achieved in China," said Dr. Zhilin Gan, President of Kemin Animal Nutrition and Health, China. "In the past 10 years, we have been committed to outstanding products and solutions around the world. Locally, the Chinese have more animals and humans benefiting from our products and services."
Kemin also held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its new research and development building in China. The building will be approximately 46,000 square feet and will house general labs, a microbiology lab, a sensory lab, a cell culture lab, a quality control lab, pilot labs, incubator rooms and a test kitchen. The new building is an estimated U.S. $10.2 million investment for the China Kemin office.
Dr. Zhilin Gan said although the current vision has been achieved, "We will continue our efforts to continue to serve our global customers, and look forward to working toward our next vision once it is announced."
Since November, Kemin has held events in the U.S., Belgium, Singapore, South Africa and other parts of the world to celebrate reaching the vision. The China event included more than 350 Kemin team members, family and local government officials to celebrate the vision and groundbreaking.
About Kemin Industries
Kemin (www.kemin.com) has been dedicated to using applied science to improve the quality of life for over half a century. As a global company touching 3.8 billion people every day with its products, Kemin is committed to improving the quality, safety and efficacy of food, feed and health-related products to feed a growing population and be a resource for others in need.
Committed to feed and food safety, Kemin maintains top-of-the-line manufacturing facilities where over 500 specialty ingredients are made for humans and animals in the global feed and food industries, as well as the health, nutrition and beauty markets. The company provides product solutions and options to customers in more than 120 countries.
A privately held, family owned and operated company, Kemin has more than 2,500 global employees and operates in 90 countries including manufacturing facilities in Belgium, Brazil, China, India, Italy, Russia, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.
Media Contact:
Lauren M.G. Burt, Worldwide Communications Manager, [email protected], + 1 (515) 559-5589
SOURCE Kemin Industries
Related Links
http://kemin.com
DALLAS, Feb. 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Urban submarkets have seen a remarkable rise in housing development over the course of the last couple of years, with ever-growing skyscrapers and towers reshaping skylines and reviving downtowns that used to be missing the modern architectural design options in the past. As the cost of living in these areas continues to rise faster than wages and the number of jobs outside of cities increases, many real estate experts, including Western Rim Property Services CEO Marcus Hiles, predict a resurgence of activity in suburban submarkets in 2017.
As individuals seek affordable housing and move farther into the suburbs, The Washington Post reported that, "the percentage of people who drive to work will increase for the first time in a decade." Citing a Jan. 14 Forbes article, Hiles explained that corporations are exiting cities, and young professionals are following the jobs. Outside of Dallas, for example, Toyota and FedEx headquarters are moving to West Plano, State Farm has established a massive presence in Richardson, and large employment sectors already exist in Irving, Plano and North Dallas.
The locations in which apartments are being constructed have coincided with this trend. Although Dallas' Uptown and Downtown submarkets experienced an urban revival and an abundance of properties opened, 82 percent of the construction continues to be in areas outside of the city-center. Marcus Hiles noted that as young professionals seek more space than they can afford in a city, empty nesters look to reduce upkeep, and millennials search for their first residence, developers have had to adapt to a shifting market, and as a result, the suburbs have become decidedly more urban.
Marcus Hiles is a Texas real estate investor, developer and philanthropist who founded Western Rim Property Services in 1988 with a unique vision of luxury living. Nearly three decades later, his company owns and manages over 15,000 upmarket residential rental properties. An active member of his community, Hiles supports local, national and global initiatives for education, women and children.
Marcus Hiles - Chairman & CEO of Western Rim Property Services: http://www.MarcusHiles-News.com
MarcusHilestx (Marcus Hiles) - DeviantArt: http://marcushilestx.deviantart.com
Marcus Hiles (@marcus_hiles) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/marcus_hiles
Marcus Hiles - New Luxury Apartments in Frisco, TX - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmsJNbfOh-g
SOURCE Marcus Hiles
Related Links
http://www.marcushiles-news.com
DALLAS, Feb. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Established real estate industry mogul and philanthropist, Marcus Hiles of Western Rim Property Services has built over 15,000 luxury townhomes and apartments across the Lone Star State, with his lavish premises located in close proximity to metro areas. As Hiles calls Texas "the Development Capital of America," ABC News 8 in Dallas-Fort Worth reported that new homes are being constructed at their fastest pace in nearly a decade. Forbes concurs with Hiles as well, pointing out that the rise in Texan manufacturing and tech jobs has lead to an overall population increase.
Dow Jones' website MarketWatch says the upswing is statewide, and can be traced back to Texas welcoming 1,200 new residents every day, with half of the number of arrivals headed directly to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area. By offering beautifully designed and well-crafted home rentals, Hiles presents an alternative to the difficulties many find when trying to purchase a home in a market where the median price of homes has gone up nearly 40 percent since 2010. This surge is similar to the situation Marcus Hiles Dallas based Western Rim faced when it was first established in 1990; at that time, an imbalance in the home buying market propelled Hiles to action. His vision of providing elegant home rentals at reasonable prices improved Houston and Dallas real estate markets, and gave both areas an image makeover with the addition of his spacious and stylish townhome rentals.
Dallas news regular, real estate investor, and developer, Marcus Hiles is the Founder and CEO of Western Rim whose companies manage upscale residential properties within the greater areas of Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, New Braunfels, Austin, and San Antonio. A graduate of Pepperdine and Rice Universities, Hiles is a committed supporter of education and has donated over $2.5 million to public and private K-12 initiatives, after school programs, as well as university career services and job placement initiatives.
Marcus Hiles - Chairman & CEO of Western Rim Property Services: http://www.MarcusHiles-News.com
MarcusHilestx (Marcus Hiles) - DeviantArt: http://marcushilestx.deviantart.com
Marcus Hiles (@marcus_hiles) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/marcus_hiles
Marcus Hiles - New Luxury Apartments in Frisco, TX - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmsJNbfOh-g
SOURCE Marcus Hiles
Related Links
http://www.MarcusHiles-News.com
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Dec. 11 the National Press Club started an online petition -- Change.org/FreeEmilio -- designed to help obtain the release of Mexican Journalist Emilio Gutierrez and his son Oscar who are currently being held in the El Paso Detention Center as their legal team scrambles to block their deportation to Mexico.
The petition was launched Monday afternoon and announced at a news conference at the Press Club. The numbers climbed immediately with more than 2,000 people signing on in the first 24 hours. By Friday the petition had more than 12,000 signatures.
The Club is gathering the signatures to add to a filing in court by Emilio's attorneys. His denial of asylum is based on a challenge to his professional standing as a journalist and on his inability to satisfy the judge that his life is at risk if he is deported to Mexico.
Gutierrez fled Mexico nine years ago, after his newspaper stories about the corruption in the Mexican military raised threats of violence and intimidation against him and others working on the same stories. According to a recent report by the United Nations, Mexico has one of the worst records in the world with respect to violence against journalists. If Gutierrez were deported his life would be at risk.
In October, 2017, the National Press Club, which is the world's leading professional organization for journalists, recognized Gutierrez as the winner of its John Aubuchon Award for Press Freedom. Dozens of other journalism organizations have also spoken out for Mr. Gutierrez and urged that he be set free. In a Dec. 12, 2017 editorial the Washington Post called for Mr. Gutierrez to be granted asylum by the government of the United States.
It is easy to sign the online petition by simply doing a web search for Change.org and then searching for the site for FreeEmilio. Once you see the petition, just follow the prompts to sign.
Your signature will join the thousands of others in an expression to a court filing that may lead to renewed freedom for this award-winning journalist.
Founded in 1908, the National Press Club is the world's leading professional organization for journalists and a tireless advocate for press freedom worldwide. The press freedom activities of the National Press Club are coordinated by the National Press Club Journalism Institute, a 501-c3.
Contact: Bill McCarren, 202-662-7534 or [email protected] for the National Press Club
SOURCE National Press Club
Related Links
http://www.press.org/
NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into RE/MAX Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: RMAX).
On November 2, 2017, the Company revealed an ongoing investigation by a special committee formed by its board of directors for the purpose of conducting an internal investigation into "allegations concerning actions of certain members of the Company's senior management including a previously undisclosed loan of personal funds from David L. Liniger, the Company's Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, to Adam M. Contos, the Company's Co-Chief Executive Officer, and allegations of wrongdoing in employment practices and conduct." Further, as a result of the investigation, the Company would be delaying its Q3 2017 earnings release.
KSF's investigation is focusing on whether RE/MAX's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to RE/MAX's shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.
If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of RE/MAX shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]).
About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.
To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.
Contact:
Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner
[email protected]
1-877-515-1850
206 Covington St.
Madisonville, LA 70447
SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
Related Links
http://www.ksfcounsel.com
ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, American Trucking Associations and ATA's Share the Road Highway Safety Program celebrated the arrival of the Wreaths Across America convoy at Arlington National Cemetery.
"The trucking industry is one of the most patriotic industries in the country, full of veterans, and we are honored to be able to pay our respects to those who sacrificed for this country and our freedom," said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. "The Share the Road Program is grateful for this opportunity to salute the fallen heroes of America and will continue to support Wreaths Across America."
Share the Road professional truck drivers Ralph Garcia, with ABF Freight System Inc., and UPS Freight's Henry Bruster drove the program's Mack truck from the wreath loading dock in Maine to Arlington, Virginia, making many stops on the route to emphasize the importance of Wreaths Across America and were able to teach students the value of our freedoms.
"It is a great honor to be a part of this journey again and honor the great men and women who protected this country with their lives," Garcia said. "Having the opportunity to travel down the East Coast through patriotic towns and communities and being able to see all the support the nation shows to our veterans is an amazing experience for me."
This year, Wreaths Across America delivered more than one million wreaths to veterans' graves throughout the globe. Spear, alongside his family and dozens of ATA employees, distributed a portion of the 3,500 wreaths delivered by the Share the Road tractor-trailer.
The Share the Road drivers chronicled their trip with videos and photos on Share the Road's official Facebook and Twitter pages.
Wreaths Across America Day is nationally recognized this year on December 16 and offers an important time to honor the veterans of this country.
"Wreaths Across America gives us a special chance to reflect on what we stand for as a nation and unite behind our veterans," Bruster said. "Being both a veteran and a truck driver, this trip was very meaningful to me and it was a great honor to represent my fellow military servicemen and servicewomen."
Share the Road is a highway safety outreach program of the American Trucking Associations that educates all drivers about sharing the roads safely with large trucks. An elite team of professional truck drivers with millions of accident-free miles deliver life-saving messages to millions of motorists annually. The safety program is sponsored by Mack Trucks Inc., and supported by TA-Petro, Pre-Pass, Hyundai Translead, OmniTracs, SmartDrive, Mack Leasing, Bendix and Spireon. www.atastr.org. Follow the Share the Road on Twitter and Facebook.
American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation's freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or on Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward.
SOURCE American Trucking Associations
Related Links
http://www.trucking.org
NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against General Electric Company ("General Electric" or the "Company") (NYSE: GE) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the Southern District of New York, and docketed under 17-cv-08473, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired General Electric securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
If you are a shareholder who purchased General Electric securities between July 21, 2017, and October 20, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until January 2, 2018 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.
[Click here to join this class action]
General Electric operates along several segments, including: Capital, Healthcare, Aviation, Power, Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, Energy Collections & Lighting, and Transportation.
The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the Company's various operating segments, including its Power segment, were underperforming Company projections, with order drops, excess inventories and increased costs; (ii) in turn, the Company overstated GE's full year 2017 guidance; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, General Electric's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On October 20, 2017, the Company disclosed quarterly results for the third quarter 2017, disclosing earnings per share ("EPS") of $0.29, falling below earnings estimates of $0.49 per share. The Company also lowered 2017 earnings expectations, lowering EPS to $1.05- $1.10 from $1.60-$1.70.
On that same day, October 20, 2017, the Company held a conference call to discuss its financial results. On the call, Defendant Flannery stated that the Company had been completing a review of its operations and that, "While the company has many areas of strength, it's also clear from our current results that we need to make some major changes with urgency and a depth of purpose. Our results are unacceptable, to say the least."
Following this news, the Company's stock price fell 6.34%, or $1.51 per share, to close at $22.32 on October 23, 2017, on unusually heavy trading volume.
The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com
CONTACT:
Robert S. Willoughby
Pomerantz LLP
[email protected]
SOURCE Pomerantz LLP
Related Links
http://www.pomerantzlaw.com
NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. ("Omega" or the "Company") (NYSE: OHI) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the Southern District of New York, and docketed under 17-cv-09024, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Omega securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
If you are a shareholder who purchased Omega securities between February 8, 2017, and October 31, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until January 16, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and amount of shares purchased.
[Click here to join this class action]
Omega is a self-administered real estate investment trust ("REIT") that invests in income producing healthcare facilities, including long-term care facilities located in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) financial and operating results of certain of the Company's operators were deteriorating; (ii) as a result, certain of the Company's operators were experiencing worsening liquidity issues that were significantly impacting the operators' ability to make timely rent payments; (iii) as a result, certain of the Company's direct financing leases were impaired and certain receivables were uncollectible; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' statements about Omega's business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and/or misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
On July 26, 2017, after the market closed, the Company issued a press release entitled "Omega Announces Second Quarter 2017 Financial Results; Increased Dividend Rate for 20th Consecutive Quarter."
On the next day, July 27, 2017, the Company held a conference call to discuss its second quarter results. On this news, the Company's stock price fell $1.35 per share, or 4%, to close at $32.10 per share on July 27, 2017, on unusually heavy trading volume.
The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com
CONTACT:
Robert S. Willoughby
Pomerantz LLP
[email protected]
SOURCE Pomerantz LLP
Related Links
http://www.pomerantzlaw.com
USS Little Rock completed its acceptance trials in August and was delivered to the U.S. Navy on Sept. 25. She joins four other Freedom-variant ships in the fleet: USS Freedom (LCS 1), USS Fort Worth (LCS 3), USS Milwaukee (LCS 5) and USS Detroit (LCS 7). Collectively, Freedom-variant littoral combat ships have sailed over 250,000 nautical miles and successfully completed two overseas deployments.
"As a company with strong ties to Arkansas and Upstate New York, we are privileged to have delivered USS Little Rock to the Navy and see her commissioned in the state where so many of our employees call home," said Joe DePietro, Lockheed Martin vice president of small surface combatants and ship systems. "We take great pride in knowing that USS Little Rock and her dedicated crews will serve in the defense of our great nation, enabling the U.S. Navy to carry out its missions where and when needed for decades to come."
Named in honor of the patriotic and hardworking citizens of Little Rock, LCS 9 is the second U.S. Navy ship to bear the name of Arkansas' largest city. She will join USS Milwaukee (LCS 5) and USS Detroit (LCS 7) at Naval Station Mayport, her homeport, in a few short weeks.
"These are complex vessels, and it takes a strong team effort to design, build and prepare these warships for the fleet," said Francesco Valente, Fincantieri Marine Group president and CEO. "I am extremely proud of our entire LCS team, including our shipbuilders at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, who transformed raw American steel into the capable warship you see today."
The Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine team is currently in full-rate production of the Freedom-variant of the LCS, and has delivered five ships to the U.S. Navy to date. There are eight ships in various stages of construction at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, with one more in long-lead production.
The Freedom-variant LCS team is comprised of Lockheed Martin, shipbuilder Fincantieri Marinette Marine, naval architect Gibbs & Cox, and more than 800 suppliers in 42 states.
For additional information, visit our website: www.lockheedmartin.com/lcs
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 97,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
About Fincantieri Marinette Marine
Founded in 1942, Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM) is located on the Menominee River flowage into Green Bay. The largest shipyard in the Midwest, FMM has delivered more than 1,300 vessels to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and commercial customers, including the technologically advanced Littoral Combat Ship Freedom variant for the U.S. Navy. In 2008, FMM along with several sister shipyards also based in the Great Lakes region, became part of Fincantieri, one of the world's largest shipbuilding groups and number one by diversification and innovation, with more than 19,400 employees, of whom more than 8,200 in Italy, 20 shipyards in 4 continents. Fincantieri operates in the United States through its subsidiary Fincantieri Marine Group, serving both civilian and government customers. Over the past five years, Fincantieri invested more than $100 million in both capital infrastructure and its resources to support FMM's transformation into what is now one of the best shipyards in the United States. Employing approximately 1,500 employees, today FMM is a state-of-the-art, full service new construction shipyard.
About Gibbs & Cox
Gibbs & Cox, the nation's leading independent maritime solutions firm specializing in naval architecture, marine engineering and design, is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The company, founded in 1929, has provided designs for nearly 80 percent of the current U.S. Navy surface combatant fleet; approaching 7,000 naval and commercial ships have been built to Gibbs & Cox designs.
SOURCE Lockheed Martin
Related Links
http://www.lockheedmartin.com
TWIN FALLS Two men have been taken into custody after police say they broke into an apartment and attempted to strangle a woman last weekend.
Now police are seeking the publics help finding a third man who is thought to have participated in the attack.
On Dec. 9, police were dispatched to a house in the 300 block of Lois Street in Twin Falls, where they found a woman who was scratched and bloodied, according to court documents. Three men had kicked in the door to the apartment, choked her, and threatened to kill her and her daughter if she called the police, the woman said.
She identified the three men as Jose Agustin, Cesar Gonzalez-Ramos, and Gaudencio Sandoval-Carbajal.
Gonzalez-Ramos, 21, of Twin Falls, was stopped by police the next day and taken into custody. He told officers that he, Agustin, and Sandoval-Carbajal went over to the womans house after she messaged Agustin over Facebook asking him to return a Bluetooth speaker that belonged to her.
Gonzalez-Ramos was charged with aggravated assault and aiding and abetting burglary, and is currently in the Twin Falls County Jail.
Agustin was taken into custody on Thursday, and charged with aggravated assault, burglary, and witness intimidation. He is currently in the Jerome County Jail.
The Twin Falls Police Department is asking for the publics help in finding Gaudencio Sandoval-Carbajal. If you know his whereabouts, call 208-735-7200 to speak with Detective Paredez.
The police do not consider Sandoval-Carbajal to be a significant threat to the public because the attack was not random, said Lt. Terry Thueson in a statement.
Readers of the metafictional series Dead in Bed may know the author as Bailey Simms, but, though Simms is the name on the books, she herself is a creation of author Adrian Birchwhich, incidentally, is a pen name. The premise behind the books is that Simms, a teenager, is stuck in bed with a medical condition; to pass the time, she begins writing a series of books about a small town where residents become ravaged by a sexually transmitted psychotropic parasite. The parasite turns victims into zombies with insatiable libidos. Like Birch, Simms publishes the books on Wattpad. In between the chapters of the serial novel, readers learn that Simms is being stalked by one of her overzealous online fans.
Birch describes his work as an experimental genre fiction mashup that draws from sci-fi, thriller, mystery, western, romance, postapocalypse, and horror. Birch, who now lives in Brooklyn, says his upbringing was a huge influence: I grew up in a tiny ranching town thats identical to the small community in Dead in Bedjust, you know, minus the zombie sex plague part. A lot of the plotlines I write tend to be about the secrets kept hidden behind a veneer of middle-American conservative values.
By nature, fiction writing employs some degree of artifice; Birch, however, seems to have taken artifice to the next level. He first conceived of Ashley Youngs characterthe protagonist within the novels Simms is writingin an assignment that required him to write from the point of view of a character who was fundamentally dissimilar from himself. I wrote about a brash, outgoing 20-something woman who stayed in the town I left, Birch says. Simms, he adds, is based on someone he dated in high school; her boyfriend, Kyle, is loosely based on Birchs high school self.
Birch isnt the type to seek out literary fameand, in fact, Simms is often credited as the author by many readers in chat forums. Which is almost fitting: I usually find womens stories far more interesting than mens stories. For the third book, however, he is inserting the character of Adrian Birch into the narrative. He describes him as a semiautobiographical adjunct professor who, unbeknownst to his Ivy League students, is secretly publishing a pulpy, salacious novel on Wattpad called Dead in Bed and posing as teen author Bailey Simms.
Birch acknowledges that some readers may find his multilayered meta aspects off-putting, but his approach is anything but disingenuous. My interior self and my outward selves have always felt like totally different people, he says. [Working in meta layers] is more honest, maybe ironically, than putting my given name on a book.
Birchs path to self-publishing was a bit of an experiment itself. Following his M.F.A. program, he was working on writing literary fiction, but realized that he wasnt engaging readers: I had a really poor intuitive grasp of storytelling basics.... I decided to spend a few weeks writing a very light, fast-paced book that used genre conventions to create a gripping, page-turning story.
He hoped to receive feedback and return to his literary fiction with new insight. I didnt expect the book to become popular on the platform at all, Birch says. Ultimately, the books were so popular that the series was picked up and published as e-books by Full Fathom Five.
Birchs fan base has steadily grown since he published the first installment of Dead in Bed in 2013. As an author [on Wattpad], you can see a global heat map showing that this dialogue is happening between people reading your book in almost every country, he says.
Birch has drawn hordes of readers eager to see how a small town combats a parasitic infection with a highly particular set of symptoms. A visit to online forums shows that readers are equally invested in the narrative arcs of the protagonist and the author, whose own story plays out alongside the one she writes. As one fan commented online: I enjoyed reading about the author Baileys personal journey almost as much as Ashleys! Im rooting for you to find happiness with Kyle!
The many judges of the BookLife Prizebestselling authors, the editorial staff of Publishers Weekly and BookLife, and PWs crack team of reviewerswhittled down this years 700-plus submissions to just seven titles: one from each of the contests genres. The grand-prize winner will be announced on December 18. We caught up with the seven authors who reached the 2017 BookLife Prize finals to talk about the writing life, self-publishing, and everything in between.
Rea Keech: Writing a Love Letter to Iran
Keech, the finalist from the General Fiction category for his first novel, A Hundred Veils, has long been writing for himself, but it wasnt until he retired from his post as professor of English at Anne Arundel Community College that he fulfilled his dream of being a published author. At 74 years old, Keech, based Severna Park, Md., is now a full-time writer.
What is the premise of A Hundred Veils?
Assigned to teach English at the University of Tehran in the time of the shah, Marco naively assumes at first that U.S. aid is wanted and appreciated by the Iranians, but soon he comes to see that some consider him an instrument of the Wests arrogant assertion of control. He befriends pro- and anti-shah Iranians as he tries to understand the culture and fit in. This seems to be working. And then he falls in love.
The novel is set at a time when Iran was still under the control of the shah. Americans tend to see this as the good days before the Islamic revolution. And yet agents of SAVAK, the shahs secret police, were everywhere.
Sounds like youre pretty familiar with the subject at hand. Is there an autobiographical element to this work?
I served in the Peace Corps in Iran from 1967 to 1969. Like Marco in the novel, I was assigned to teach English at the University of Tehran. To some extent, what happens to Marco in the novel happened to me. And the characters are based, at least loosely, on people I knew. But a story needs a structure with a logic of its own. I wanted it to take place in three parts or acts, in which Marco faces a problem, almost despairs of solving it, and finally comes upon a resolution. Life isnt always that neatly organized. I had to rearrange incidents, and I condensed two years into one. Many good stories unrelated to the overall theme had to be left out.
Does A Hundred Veils send a political message about Iran to Western readers?
I wrote this as a tribute to the warmth, humor, and love of the Iranian people I came to know. I hope it can show Americans that the Iranian government is not the Iranian people. As far as religion goes, in my experience it didnt come up any more than it does in everyday American society. I was never asked about my religion and never preached to about it. The story itself leaves that out because it didnt exist. I hope any readers of the novel who consider Iranians our enemies will come away with a different understanding.
You self-published A Hundred Veils via Real Nice Books. How did you make the decision to go that route?
I sent a query for A Hundred Veils to the agent who handled [Mahbod] Serajis Rooftops of Tehran, thinking it might appeal to a similar audience, but she wasnt interested. I also queried Mage, a publisher of books about Iran, but got no response. After watching my brother, also a writer, receive over 100 rejections before his book was published, I decided I didnt want to wait forever to see the novel in print and taught myself Photoshop to do the cover and InDesign to set the text. I liked being in control of the whole project from start to finish. Plus, I could move on to the next novel.
Ian Andrew: A Maelstrom of Action
Andrew, the finalist in the Mystery/Thriller category with the novel Face Value, is an ardent champion of self-publishing, releasing his work exclusively under his own imprint, Book Reality Experience. Face Value is the first book in Andrews Wright & Tran series. Based in the rural South West of Western Australia (yes, he has kangaroos in his backyard), Andrew is also the author of the novel A Time to Every Purpose and an anthology of poems, The Little Book of Silly Rhymes & Odd Verses.
What is the premise of Face Value?
Kara Wright and Tien Tran, former members of an elite intelligence gathering team active in Afghanistan, Iraq, and places still classified, now make their living through Wright & Tran, a private investigation service that tracks errant spouses, identifies dishonest employees, and, just occasionally, takes on more significant cases that allow them to use all their former skills. When siblings Zoe and Michael Sterling insist that their middle-aged parents have gone missing, Kara and Tien are at first skeptical and then quickly intrigued; the father, ex-intelligence analyst Chris Sterling, appears to be involved with an enigmatic Russian thug. Using less-than-orthodox methods and the services of ex-colleagues with highly specialized talents, Wright and Tran take on the case. But the truth they uncover is far from simple.
The book follows two parallel investigations: one with Kara and Tien using their methods and one with the police, using more conventional means. In the end, they converge in a maelstrom of action.
Do you have a background in intelligence?
I grew up in the coastal town of Larne, Northern Ireland, and left to join the Royal Air Force at age 18. I was originally trained as an aircraft technician before being commissioned as an intelligence officer. I served for a total of two decades and within Intelligence I specialized in antisubmarine warfare and later was a qualified targets officer. My last tour was as an instructor at the Defence Intelligence and Security School, now part of the Joint Intelligence Training Group within the Defence College of Intelligence. The Wright & Tran series aims to blend real intel techniques with a generous helping of fiction in a way that blurs the lines and enhances the action and adventure. I am fortunate that I maintain contacts within the intelligence world so I can keep up to date with the latest equipment and ideas.
You self-publish all your books seemingly without hesitation. Why are you such a fan of being an indie author?
I have written extensively about my choice to independently publish my novels, the professionalism of the independent author scene, and subsequently why I made the move into establishing an independent publishing assistance service for other authors. I am passionate about the freedom and flexibility the new publish-on-demand technologies bring to the world of writers, but am equally appalled at the lack of an agreed set of (and, yes, I understand they would have to be self-imposed) regulatory standards across the discipline. If indie authors are finally to lose the mantle of somehow being less than traditional authors, an attitude still sadly widespread in some more snobbish areas of the business, then we must ensure the products we are releasing are comparable to those coming from the Big Five.
Yes, we will still struggle with marketing and distribution models, but our books need to be as professional a product as they can be. Thats why I am a partner member of the Alliance of Independent Authors and was very honored to be asked on to Ingram Sparks advisory panel for indie authors. We should embrace the potential lessening of the power of the traditional publishing gatekeepers, yet we must figure out a way of ensuring this democratization of publishing does not diminish the readers experience.
Kate Jonuska: An Odd Duck in the Indie World
Jonuska, the finalist in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror category with her debut novel, Transference, has the goal of being a hybrid writer, but has come to love the self-publishing short story market, which she finds more appealing than traditional literary journals. Based in Boulder, Colo., Jonuska makes her living as a freelance writer.
Transference is a unique novel. Can you describe it?
Transference tells the story of a disgraced psychiatrist with a telepathic patient in distress. Shes in distress because her telepathy is overwhelming, especially since shes married to a senator and works in politics, around all those politicians, poor woman. Its an odd-couple story about secrets, true honesty, superficiality, and redemptionwith a little bit of current day politics thrown in for extra drama.
BookLife Prize judge Tim Pratt loved how you developed a terrible character. How did you decide on a terrible protagonist?
Dr. Verbenk is indeed a terrible, terrible man, though hes often terribly funny. It was his voice that created the storyline, and it came to me fully formed. I just listened to what he had to say and followed the story. Even the telepathy, the main plot point of the novel, arose because he was a man with lots of secrets and a dirty mind. What better way to torture him than by confronting him with someone who could read it?
Your book is the contender in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror categorya pretty broad mashup. Which of the three genres do you think your book most belongs to?
Good question, because I dont think that category actually suits me very well. Instead, its the only category in which the novel fit at all. Im of the opinion that sci-fi and fantasy are no longer great, umbrella descriptors. I like the term speculative fiction, meaning any story that doesnt follow the rules of reality, and I would put Transference in speculative fiction. Ive also classified it as literary fiction, literary humor, and magical realism, depending on the context.
Honestly, my novel is more unique in the self-pub world because its not strictly genre but has literary elements. That uniqueness presents some significant obstacles for me because there are few writers whove been there, done that to look up to and very few tried-and-true marketing strategies for reaching more literary readers, who still prefer print and brick-and-mortar stores. [Im] a bit of an odd duck in indie publishing. I knew that was a challenge going in, though, so I embrace it. Plus, theres no reason why literary writers should be trapped in the traditional publishing rubric (less control, longer waits to hit shelves, less profit) when indie publishing offers such fantastic opportunities right now.
Why did you self-publish Transference?
I decided on self-publishing for Transference on purpose, without contacting a single agent or publisher. The story just screamed out that self-pub was the way to go because of its length, tone, and the timeliness of the story. The telepath, Janet, and her political work bring in some very now issues, mainly refugee aid, which is her pet issue and becomes entwined deeply into the story. I wanted to get that story out now, to talk about these issues now, rather than wait two years for it to appear on a shelf in the traditional model. That said, I am looking for an agent.
Margaret Locke: Modern Romance with a Historical Twist
Locke, the finalist from the Romance/Erotica category, often daydreams of what it would be like to be in ancient Rome, or medieval Germany, or America during the Civil War. Shes also curious to know what would it be like to be a person from that time and wake up in todays world. This breed of imaginative inquisitiveness helped fuel the writing of A Scandalous Matter, which she dubs a reverse time travel romance.
You had me at reverse time travel, but what is the premise of A Scandalous Matter?
Amara Mattersley, sister to the Duke of Claremont, has lived under the shadow of scandal for seven years, having been discovered in flagrante delicto with a married man when she was only 20. Shed thought there was little recourse for heruntil she learns the truth about her mysterious sister-in-law, Eliza James Mattersley. Eliza had traveled 200 years through time from America to Regency England, seeking love with Amaras brother.
Elizas descriptions of the modern world, particularly the freedoms women of the 21st century enjoy, leads Amara to abandon her own society for modern-day Charlottesville, Va., in search of the education and independence shes always craved. Problem is, for the time-traveling magic to work, Amara has to come forward for love. She has no interest in that, however, given her previous experiencesbut then she meets Matthew Goodson.
Together, Amara and Matthew must decide if past and present can blend together into a mutual future, or if theyll let old wounds and new complications sabotage any chance at a 21st-century happily-ever-after.
If Amara and Matthew had online dating profiles, what would they post?
Amara Mattersley: This seems uncouth, yet a suitor for an afternoon of pleasure, no more, might be amenable. As shes not good with technology, shed likely have a few typos in that sentence, and would have to rely on a friend to take a photo.
Matthew Goodson: I havent got time for stuff like this, so my sister, Taylor, made this profile for me. She sneaked in this photo, too. Arent I hot? (Taylor would include several shots for emphasis.)
Have you been shopping your work around to agents? Or are you committed to self-publishing?
I did query my first book to agents in 2015. I had nibbles, partial and full requests, but no takers. (This was before I hired my amazing editor, Tessa Shapcott, to edit the story; Im positive I would have fared much better in querying had I taken that crucial step first.) I did, however, receive a small press offerat which point I needed to make a decision.
Id been interested in self-publishing, but wanted affirmation my work was decent enough to merit putting out there. The small press offer gave me that, but I soon realized self-publishing felt like the better fit. Not only did I want full control over my stories but I also wanted to maintain flexibility in my schedule and be beholden to nobody elses deadlines but my own. (I might have control issues.) Plus, to be honest, if I failed, if my book bombed, I could slink off into the corner and nobody would have to know. I wouldnt disappoint anyone but myself. Im quite happy with how things are working out and plan to continue on the independent pathbut I never rule anything out, either.
Who in your life do you think is most proud of you and your writing?
This is a tie between my husband and my mom. My husband was the one who without hesitation encouraged me to pursue this dream, even though it meant it might be some time before I was contributing financially to the family, and has steadfastly stood behind me when Ive angsted about money or my abilities or what have you. He reads all of my books (yes, really) and has the confidence in me that I sometimes lack.
And my mom. My dear mom. I write this with tears in my eyes because cancer took her in August. She was always my most vocal supporter, providing me the verbal affirmation I needed to keep going, cheering me on, praising me to friends and family.
Im so grateful for all she gave me. And I can still hear her voice in my head, assuring me: youre doing a good job.
Jennifer Lau: Writing as Therapy
Lau, the finalist in the Memoir/Autobiography category, is presently in Cambodia, visiting family and delivering refurbished laptops to students at the Savong Foundation, where she serves as a board member and donor. This is her first time back to the country she escaped as a child more than 40 years agoa harrowing experience that is described in brilliant, brutal detail in her first book, Beautiful Hero.
Can you give us a brief description of the premise of your memoir?
I am a survivor of the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during, after, and as a partial result of the Vietnam War. It is the story of my family who survived the killing fields and landmines of Cambodia with only half a canteen of water and a baby bottle, of a mother who sacrificed some fundamental part of herself to save her children, of children who both survived and suffered from that sacrifice, of a father ill-equipped to protect his children from this atrocity but whose belief in goodness helped to keep hope alive in his children. It is a story of survival and small triumphs.
There tends to be two kinds of memoirists: those who find writing therapeutic and those who do not. Which type are you?
Im definitely in the therapeutic realm. Prior to embarking on writing Beautiful Hero, I had endless nightmares. To my pleasant surprise, I discovered that the more I wrote, the less intrusive my nightmares had become. Id never once sought counseling for my PTSD, but, with the completion of the book, I feel as though Id gone through one hell of an emotional and psychiatric roller-coaster ride. And, once that ride came to a full stop, I had begun to heal. It was cathartic and liberating.
How might your memoir help change peoples perspectives or bring awareness to humanitarian issues?
Beautiful Hero touches on the bottomless depths of human depravity and the universal call to action by those who stand and challenge such evil deeds with resilience, kindness, and sacrifice.
Although this series of events took place in a little country more than 40 years ago, similar events continue to occur all over the world. On a simpler level, we all take what we have for granted: the homes we live in, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the jobs we have. I hope that when people read this story, they will truly appreciate what they do have.
Who do you think would be most grateful for this book? Who would hug you closest and say thank you to?
This book would not have happened without my mother. Beautiful Hero is an acknowledgment of her sacrifice and my acceptance of her atonement for being hard on her children, especially on me, her third child out of seven children. Our survival wouldnt have been possible without her. How she did it is questionable, but understandable.
Jenna Rose Robbins: Obsession Transcends Genre
Diehard fans are considered extremely lucky if they get to meet their idols, but Robbins, the finalist from the Young Adult category, got to go on tour with hers. In Faithful and Devoted: Confessions of a Music Addict, Robbins describes her wild journey with Depeche Mode during their infamously debauched 1993 tour, when she was just 19 years old.
Faithful and Devoted is a must-read for Depeche Mode fans, but what about people who dont know the band or dont like their music?
I intended it to be a story that any music fan, not just Depeche Mode devotees (as we refer to ourselves), could relate to. And I think Ive succeeded on that point, as Ive had fans of bands as diverse as the Grateful Dead and Justin Bieber tell me that they identified with my character. Obsession transcends all genres.
I also didnt market it as a Depeche Mode book. People have said I should have put the band name in the title, but I didnt want to put off nonDepeche Mode fans. Its about me, and the music; that said, the title is from the tour they were on. They had an album called Songs of Faith and Devotion. The cover was designed by a huge Depeche Mode fan to look like the album cover. So, even though the band name isnt in the title, any fan would instantly make the connection.
One of the aspects that BookLife judge Vic James loved about your book is that its a YA memoir, which she called an all-too-rare subgenre. What are your thoughts on this niche?
I didnt write my book with a genre in mind. My sole goal was to write about a period in my life that had a major impact on me, and that period just happened to be when I was 19. I feel any good story, no matter what the age of the protagonist, is worth tellingand reading. I never really thought of my book as a YA book. I wrote it for music fans. And theyve been the most effusive about liking the book.
This all stemmed from a Facebook takeover, for which you were selected to run the Depeche Mode fan page for a day. How did that lead to your self-publishing a book? And will you stay the indie course?
They choose one fan every day, and I was the first fan chosen. Everyone calls me Day One. The DM fan base is an incredible community. Im in a lot of Facebook groups for the band, and people often share the book there. I even have fans find me on Facebook and FaceTime me to talk about their experiences with the band.
I published independently due to the timing of the band going on tour right when I published it. I was also the first fan out of 365 chosen to do their Facebook takeover, so I rushed the e-book out so I could mention it in my posts. I doubt I would have had that flexibility had I gone the traditional route, and I also like that Ive had complete creative control over the project, which is something I might be hesitant to give up with future projects.
Denise Deegan: Girl Power in a Boys World
Deegan, the BookLife finalist from the Middle Grade category with The Accidental Pirate, writes across genres, with her fiction often focused on ordinary people who become extraordinary in crisis. The Dublin-based author now writes full-time, but has in the past been a nurse, a china restorer, and a pharmaceutical sales rep, to name but a few roles. Her self-published YA novel Through the Barricades won the SCBWI Spark Award in 2017.
Tell us about The Accidental Pirate. Whats the premise? What themes does it tackle?
Hungry and orphaned, Jess dresses as a boy to secure work on a ship docked in her port town. Once the Constance is out of sight of land, however, the Jolly Roger is raised. Jess must escape before the pirates discover her to be a girl and toss her overboard as unlucky. As days pass and dangers escalate, Jess is forced to call upon a gift she fears in order to save a boy she thought she hateda pirate boy.
The Accidental Pirate is the story of a girl hero in a mans world. It is the story of finding friendship and family in the most unlikely of places. And it is the story of buccaneers and buckles and a cook with no tongue.
What message do you want children to take away from the book?
Writing The Accidental Pirate, empowerment (especially the empowerment of girls) was particularly important to me. Jess is a girl trapped in a mans world. I want girls who read it to feel their own power, their own ability. And I want boys who read it to know that girls are equally brave, adventurous, and resourceful, sometimes even more so.
I also hope that this story will encourage children to use and treasure their gifts. Jess has a gift that she fears and yet chooses to use to save an unlikely friend. This gift is magical, as all gifts are. I would also like this story to make children feel that no one is entirely bad or good but a mix of both (as the pirates are) and that family can be found in the strangest of places.
Can you describe your publishing experience?
My first four novels were contemporary family dramas, published in the 2000s by Penguin and Gill and Macmillan. I then wrote a contemporary YA trilogy, the Butterfly Novels, published by Hachette. When the rights to my adult books reverted to me, I decided to try the world of self-publishing. I renamed myself Aimee Alexander (my childrens names combined), edited and modernized the books, gave them new covers, and sent them out into the world. They proved so popular that I was approached by Amazon imprint Lake Union Publishing, who wished to republish my novel The Accidental Life of Greg Millar. This became the books third incarnation.
Such was its success that I was approached by a movie producer and am currently working on a screenplay. I have also published the Butterfly Novels in markets where I retain rights. More recently, I wrote and published Through the Barricades, a historical crossover novel. Then, and this may sound strange, one of the characters from the Butterfly Novels, Rachel, wrote a story through me, a fairy tale retelling called The Prince and the Pea. It was too long for a picture book and too short for middle grade. It was however, just right for Amazon Publishing, who have recently published it as a Kindle single.
What publishing path would you prefer for The Accidental Pirate?
I believe that childrens publishing is still very traditional, so I will definitely try that route first. I will continue to self-publish my adult fiction, because I love the freedom that indie publishing offers.
Though author-illustrator Andrea Tsurumi views the creation of her debut picture book, Accident! (HMH, Oct.), as somewhat, well, accidental, the book is the product of years of picture book appreciation. Ive basically always been drawing and writing. Ive loved combining words and images since I learned to read, she says.
Tsurumi backed up her early passion with strong credentials, graduating from Harvard in 2007 with a degree in English. She then returned to her native New York City, where she earned an M.F.A. in illustration from the School of Visual Arts. During that time, she immersed herself in the publishing world, working as an assistant to literary agent Liza Voges and in Penguins mass market art department. Meanwhile, she was working on several picture books, but, she says, I had no idea which would be appealing or find an audience.
Soon after graduation, Tsurumi met agent Stephen Barr of Writers House through a mutual friend, and the connection was immediate. Stephen is so insightful about books and images and stories, she says. I work alone a lot, so its very meaningful to meet people who understand me and my work. The two agreed to develop an idea together before formalizing their partnership.
The idea crystallized in 2015, when Tsurumi and a group of fellow SVA alumni gathered at Books of Wonder in Manhattan for an illustration jam. During these get-togethers, each person would write down a word inspired by the surrounding books and pass it to a neighbor as the impetus for a drawing. At this particular jam, illustrator Nina Frenkel gave Tsurumi the suggestion, accident. Tsurumis immediate reaction was, Oh my God, thats perfect! Hilarious!and then she put pen to paper. Barr later encouraged her to develop her sketch into a picture book for submission.
Over the course of the next six months, the single drawing grew into the story of Lola, an accident-prone armadillo who sets off a chain of mishaps in her town, beginning with a spilled pitcher of juice and escalating to outlandish heights. According to Tsurumi, the book combines utter bonkers chaos and jokes with that cringey feeling of panic and worry I totally had as a kid. After landing on the structure, she says, the rest flowed quite organically. I gave myself room to improvise and riff. I composed intuitively based on shape and rhythm.
In winter 2016, the project was acquired, after a six-publisher auction, by Kate OSullivan, executive editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Tsurumi says of working with her editor, She embraced the humor of it, and she also understood the sincere point behind it. She helped me in balancing the two different energies.
Tsurumi is thankful for the support of her agent and the team at HMH, saying, Im not sure its possible to overemphasize how terrifying it is when youre starting out. Fear gave way to delight when Tsurumi saw her book make its way into the hands of readers. Its so cool to see kids reading it; of course, that was the hope all along.
At the same time that she was working on her solo childrens debut, Tsurumi was illustrating Girls Who Code (Viking), Reshma Saujanis nonfiction coding book for girls. She also contributed work for the Toon comics anthology Little Nemos Big New Dreams in 2015. (Her Little Nemo in Slumbraland places Winsor McCays iconic character in a lingerie shop.)
Tsurumi is currently illustrating two books due in 2019: a picture book titled Not Your Nest by Gideon Sterer, for Dial, and an untitled chapter book by David Goodner, about two friends and a group of strange creatures on an island, for Disney-Hyperion. She remains open to ideas from all directions, saying, Accident! took me by surprise. It was a happy accident to make that book.
Its tempting to focus on the similarities between author Celia C. Perez and Maria Luisa ONeill-Morales, the 12-year-old protagonist of the writers debut novel, The First Rule of Punk (Viking, Aug.). Both are bicultural, both are fans of punk music and making zines, and neither cares for cilantro. But Perez is just as aware of their differences. I wasnt into punk music [at that age] or as self-confident as she is, she says of Maluas her character prefers to be called. And whereas Perez is the child of Mexican and Cuban immigrants, Malu is a third-generation American.
If anything, Perez sees herself as a blend of some of her novels key female characters: Malu, her mother (dubbed SuperMexican by her daughter, since she is always trying to school me on stuff about Mexico and Mexican-American people), and Mrs. Hidalgo, a hip cafe owner who embodies Mexican-American and punk cultures in a way that thrills Malu. One of the reasons I wrote the book is because I wanted to explore how being Latino is such a different experience for different people, depending on where they are generationally or geographically, Perez says. I have often felt that Im not Mexican or Cuban or Latino enough, depending on where I am.
Perez describes identity, family, and community as the heart of the book, but another aspect of the middle grade novel is Malus adjustment to life in Chicago. Raised in Miami, Perez also relocated to the Windy City, moving there in 2001 with her husband after taking a job as a college librarian.
The now-defunct Sassy magazine was Perezs introduction to the world of underground zines in the late 1980s, and she decided to try making her own after becoming aware of the punk scene in Gainesville while attending the University of Florida. I didnt play an instrument, but I liked being able to create something that was similar to what these bands were doing, she says. I always loved to write, and it felt like the perfect format for me at the time. I was able to write about what I wanted to write about, and the editing could be as gruelingor notas I wanted it to be, since it would only be read by me and a couple of my friends.
College was also where Perez began to realize how absent Latino writers and characters had been from her upbringing. I didnt really didnt think about it until I read a book and thought, This character mirrors my experiences. The book was Jose Antonio Villareals Pocho, which she read in an ethnic literature class. Because where else would you read Latino writers? she deadpans. That was the first time I thought, Why dont I see more of these characters in books? Where are those stories?
Perez doesnt remember reading picture books as a child but says she was a strong reader. Third grade is when I first started thinking of myself as a reader, she says; she has a particular fondness for Witchs Sister by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. It was the first book that I owned, and I still own it, Perez says. In my house, we couldnt really afford to buy books. It wasnt something that we did.
Perez didnt think of writing her own childrens fiction until she became a parent, reading classics shed never read before, by the likes of Robert McCloskey and Virginia Lee Burton, and seeking out books by and about Latinos. Around 2012, Perez wrote a version of The First Rule of Punk with a younger main character. After later rewriting it with Malu as a 12-year-old, she sent the manuscript to agent Stefanie Von Borstel at Full Circle Literary, whom she had met during an ALA conference.
Perez signed with Von Borstel in 2015, worked with her to polish the manuscript, and sold The First Rule of Punk, at auction, to Joanna Cardenas at Viking in a two-book deal. There were parts of the story and characters that needed more developing, and Joanna was just fantastic about asking the questions that were going to lead me down the right path, she says.
Perez is currently working on her second book, also middle grade, which she isnt ready to say much about other than that its set in her hometown of Miami. I never thought I would write about my hometown, she admits. She describes the response to The First Rule of Punk as cool and overwhelming, and loves that the book is helping introduce children to zine and punk culture, as well as finding its way to older readers. Ive had adults read it and to say to me that its the first time they have seen themselves in a book, Perez says. Which is a little sad, but I know that feeling, too.
At the age of 12, Marley Dias is already a social activist to be reckoned with. When she saw that her West Orange, N.J., elementary school was lacking in diverse booksparticularly those featuring black girlsshe found a way to address the problem, and her #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign was born. Her efforts have drawn accolades from around the world and major media attention. Dias has now written a book, Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You! (Scholastic Press, spring 2018), in which she offers advice to readers who want to follow her example.
For the opening session at the ALA Midwinter Meeting on February 9, Dias will be interviewing Patrisse Cullors, cofounder of the Black Lives Matter movement. We asked Dias to reflect on her activism and publishing journey so far, and to share some of her future goals.
What inspired you to create the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign? How did you put it together?
Realizing that the access that I had to diversity was not a reality for most students was the biggest thing that personally inspired me to create this campaign. My elementary school did not provide enough diverse resources for students. I started by sharing my desire to see things change, then I came up with a name for the project. Then with the help of my mothers foundation, the GrassRoots Community Foundation, we shared it with the world through social media. I came up with a question to pose to people. I asked them to find books where black girls were the main characters and then send a copy to me. When I got the books, we posted them again on social media, specifically on Instagram and Twitter. My mother, father, and close friends also shared it through their social media accounts.
Can you give us an update on the campaign? How many books have been collected and donated?
I have collected more than 10,000 books. And we have donated to lots of communities across the globe. My next big step is the development of the Black Girl Book Club and an app where we can link authors and readers to these books.
What are your goals for the #1000BlackGirlBooks initiative? And what are some of your personal goals for the future?
My goal for the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign is to create systemic change across all school systems. I want there to be diverse books that reflect the lives of every person, regardless of whether or not they are in the majority. Some of my personal goals are to have my resource guide actually help young authors of black girl books share their stories, and to generally uplift the community of authors who write diverse books.
Do you remember the first book starring a black girl that you fell in love with? What have you been reading lately?
The first black girl book I fell in love with was most likely Please, Puppy, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lee. I have recently been reading P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han.
You have become a very visible social activist, appearing on television and speaking at numerous conferences and events. Do you have a favorite appearance or speaking engagement so far?
One of my favorite speaking engagements so far was my NEA national convention 2017 talk. I cowrote and performed a piece of poetry in front of a very big audience. It was a really big deal because I had overcome my huge fear of being very raw on stage.
How do you balance your busy activism with your schoolwork?
My health and schoolwork come first. I work hard to get lots of sleep, but I probably work just as hard to spend time with friends. Now that the book is finished I have plenty more time to enjoy reading and playing with my friends and dad. My mom and team share things with me little by little so I dont get overwhelmed with all the things that have to happen.
What has been the reaction of your friends and your hometown community to your growing fame?
I have some friends who love to perform and wish they were getting the attention I am getting. But that doesnt stop them from supporting me. In general, my friends have been very supportive. They cheer for me and many of them come to events to support me.
Have you recruited any of them to join your cause?
I have not directly recruited anyone. A lot of my friends I have met through the GrassRoots Community Foundations SuperCamp, where they have had to do their own social action projects. GCF has a community of girls in New Jersey and some in Philadelphia who are working to change the world. We all pitch in to help each other. We brainstorm and plan together.
What has it been like writing your book? What do you hope young readers take away from it?
The process of writing a book is fun and hard work. I was writing while traveling. I wrote on the Amtrak, in nail salons, on my living room floor, at the kitchen table, and in my bedroom. I think the book is amazing. Readers can expect a guide on how to blend their passions and frustrations to make the world a better place.
If you write more books, any idea what you want them to be about?
Yes, I think my next book would most likely be about unsung local heroestheir real lives and real impact.
Can you give us a hint about what the audience might hear when you interview Patrisse Cullors at the ALA Midwinter Meeting?
The audience can expect to hear from Patrisse about the development of Black Lives Matter and the goals of their political movement, as well as the role of reading in shaping their ideas.
Return to the main feature.
Checking in with school librarians and educators as they prepare strategies and tools for the coming school year.
Spreading the Word About Diverse Books: 'PW' Talks with Marley Dias
We spoke with activist Dias and asked her to reflect on her activism and publishing journey so far, and to share some of her future goals.
Library Makeover
Two high school librarians share how they reinvented their libraries.
Celebrating the Youth Media Awards
How school librarians and teachers commemorate the prize announcements with their students.
As a trade publication covering the book business, we at Publishers Weekly are typically focused on reporting stories that show how the industry ticksbook deals, personnel moves, acquisitions, financial results, hot books, and new technology developments are all under our purview. But the past few months have been different.
We wrote about new instances of sexual harassment in the publishing industry in our October 23 issue, shortly following the news of Hollywood executive Harvey Weinsteins many alleged transgressions. When we were writing that article (The Women of Publishing Say #MeToo), we imagined that it would strike a chord. We did not expect, though, that it would generate the reaction it did.
Since the story appeared, we have heard from numerous victims of harassment and sexual abuse. We have wanted to share their stories but, maddeningly, the onus in reporting these situations usually falls on the victims. Too often, these stories cannot move forward unless the victims involved take huge risksprofessional and personalto go on the record.
The difficult nature of covering the subject hit home on December 5, when we ran a story announcing the resignation of Giuseppe Castellano, executive art director of Penguin Workshop, following claims of sexual harassment by actress and comedian Charlyne Yi. The article we published was intended to be a balanced account based on verifiable facts. Not everyone agreed that it was. Some readers expressed frustration that we put too much emphasis on Castellanos account over Yis.
Could we have done some things differently? Yes. Certainly the views expressed by readers havent gone unheard. PW is committed to running well-reported, fair stories that respect the victims of sexual harassment and abuse.
Things are moving rapidly around the harassment issue. Just as we were reporting on Castellanos resignation, media reports surfaced that two Audible executiveschief content officer Andrew Gaies and chief revenue officer Will Lopeshad resigned amid an investigation of workplace harassment; Audible had no comment on whether the resignations were a result of the investigation.
Then came the news, in a story appearing in the New York Times, of Lorin Steins resignation as editor of the Paris Review. He stepped aside after admitting to a number of sexual transgressions. In the Times story, reporters noted that Stein went to the Paris Review board after learning that his name was on a list of men in mediaa list generated by an online community of womenwho are alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct. We have seen that list. It is largely a list of authors, editors, journalists, and publishing executives. The fact the list even exists is an indication of the depth of the problemand the under-reporting of it.
What is clear is that sexual harassment is not new in publishing. In 1992, PW published a story titled Publishings Best Kept Secret that documented womens experiences with harassment in that year, as well as in decades before. What is striking in comparing that article with our October story is that, though some women were deeply troubled by unwanted advances, others were ambivalent, chalking it up to being part of the job.
Twenty-five years later, there is a consensus in society and in the industry that conduct that was dismissed years ago will, quite appropriately, no longer be tolerated. And though the recent focus on sexual harassment suggests that some progress has been made in highlighting the problem, we know there are more victims out there.
We want to hear from those people and report their stories. We are committed to helping to make publishing a profession where all members are given the respect they deserve.
Stanley Kubrick's iconic black comedy Dr. Strangelove remains one of the most insightful works on deterrence. The film revolves around the Doomsday Machine, which will automatically destroy all life on earth if the United States ever launches a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. After a rogue American general does precisely that, the Soviet ambassador reveals the machine's existence and explains what is about to happen. American General Buck Turgidson is skeptical, claiming the machine is an obvious commie trick, Mr. President! The titular Dr. Strangelove subsequently delivers the film's biting satirical punch line: Thewhole point of the Doomsday Machineis lostif you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world, eh?
Hidden within Kubrick's dark humor is a very real problem: the challenge of clandestine military capabilities. Modern military operations increasingly turn upon elements of military power that depend almost entirely on secrecy for their battlefield effectiveness. But the very secrecy that drives their battlefield impact can interfere with the political objectives military power is meant to serve, like deterrence. The fictional Doomsday Machine was militarily effectiveit ensured retaliation after an attackbut it was politically ineffective because it was kept secret. Yet unlike modern clandestine capabilities, the machine's secrecy was not integral to its military function.
The remainder of this commentary is available at warontherocks.com
Brendan Rittenhouse Green is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati. Austin Long is a senior political scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation. Their research on this topic was funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Program on Advanced Systems and Capabilities for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction.
This commentary originally appeared on War on the Rocks on December 15, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
The dream of a liberation is now a reality, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi proclaimed last week, when his forces drove ISIS from a few final strongholds. Abadi's declaration of victory did not seem unwarranted. After three years, Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, backed by an 80-country U.S.-led coalition, have reclaimed all of the territory ISIS once controlled in Iraq and the key cities it held in Syria. The Islamic State no longer has much of a claim to calling itself a state at all.
But the victory is incompleteand not just when it comes to the challenges of ISIS-inspired lone-wolf attacks, foreign fighters returning home from Iraq and Syria, and the persistence of ISIS franchises elsewhere. While such concerns are real, a more dangerous scenario also deserves some attention: ISIS could resurrect its caliphate where it was born, in Iraq and Syria. It has been planning for such a resurrection since at least 2016, and quietly preparing since well before losing Raqqa in October.
Most ominously, ISIS has a tried-and-true playbook for bringing itself back from near death. Just a few years ago, it managed to resurrect itself after apparent defeat. And the history of that resurrection should serve as a warning of what may be coming now.
After the Surge
What is ISIS today was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2003. (It has gone by several different names over the years.) Its organization has been changing according to need ever since: from nascent underground jihadist movement to guerrilla insurgency to proto-state to state-like caliphate whose territorial expansion sprawled across much of Iraq and Syria. But this change has not been linear. ISIS has expanded and contracted as circumstances dictated while pursuing an end-state goal of restoring a Muslim caliphate as glorified in its theological texts. After losing its twin capitals, Mosul and Raqqa, ISIS is contracting once again. But its strategic aims have not changed.
In recent statements, ISIS leaders have drawn an explicit analogy between its situation today and its similarly dire plight in 2008, when it resorted to guerrilla insurgency and terrorism and thereby set the stage for its dramatic takeover of much of Syria and Iraq a little more than five years later. Captured internal memos and administrative documents show that, after the U.S.-led surge and the Sons of Iraq local security-force program displaced the group from central and western Iraq, remaining ISIS members fled and went into hiding in and around Mosul. Although forced underground, they used the Mosul area as a base for organizing, recruiting, and financing cells across Iraq. ISIS leaders, meanwhile, deployed the group's Emni security service to assassinate Sunni political opponentsespecially local forces, including the Sons of Iraq and police, that threatened ISIS's operational security and hold on the politics of Sunni Arabs. They also worked to co-opt Sunni Arab politicians in the Mosul area and in Baghdad, promising diminished violence against important economic sectors in exchange for political and monetary support.
All of these elements worked toward a basic goal: to stoke Sunni-Shiite conflict and thereby make a large swath of Iraqi Sunnis see ISIS as their only hope. Emni terrorized local rivals and businesses into helping rebuild ISIS's capacity and incited the paranoid Shiite-dominated Iraqi government to overreact to the specter of a Sunni terrorist threatand thereby reignited the sectarian conflict that helped give rise to the group in the first place, following the 2003 U.S. invasion. While a 2010 U.S.-Iraqi raid wiped out a cohort of top figures from the group, a new leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, carried this strategy forward, while working underground to eliminate competition and to rebuild ISIS manpower by breaking fighters out of prison. And when the Arab Spring came and civil unrest grew in 2011 and 2012, ISIS was quick to send agents into Syria to establish a new base of operations. The stage was thus set for ISIS's rapid 2014 takeover of territorial holdings as large as Great Britain.
The Revival Next Time
Now that the U.S.-led campaign has achieved its main objective, ISIS faces severe challenges in Iraq and Syria. It lacks meaningful conventional military capacity and manpower. Its military units have been largely destroyed or have simply fallen apart due to infighting and waves of surrenders.
ISIS is working to provoke the Iraqi government to crack down on Sunni Arabsits core demographic group for recruiting and its base for political legitimacy.
But ISIS overcame eerily similar challenges in the late 2000s. Despite having lost nearly all of its territory, it still has a highly committed cadre at its core, including elements of the Emni, as well as experienced administrative officials, the glue of the ISIS organization from top to bottom. And it has wasted no time implementing a shift from a territorial caliphate to terrorism and insurgency. This new campaign has already begun to bear fruit. ISIS has mounted successful attacks in areas the U.S.-led coalition previously declared liberated, such as Fallujah and Ramadi, as well as other areas that ISIS did not control even at its peak, such as Baghdad and Diyala Province. As it did in 2010, ISIS is working to provoke the Iraqi government to crack down on Sunni Arabsthe group's core demographic group for recruiting and its base for political legitimacy.
When it declared its caliphate in 2014, ISIS stated that its strategy was to remain and expand. Its new strategy is closer to one of recuperation. While some fighters will continue to flee Iraq and Syriaeither to join ISIS franchises elsewhere in Asia or Africa or to return homeothers will remain, with the objective of exploiting favorable conditions for terrorism and insurgency. And it is in this territory where ISIS's local knowledge and intelligence networks give it a good chance to re-infiltrate key areas and to operate clandestinely.
ISIS's prospects for successful resurrection in Iraq and Syria hinge on three main factors: the quality of governance and legitimate Sunni Arab political leadership in Sunni areas; the continuation of sectarian politics dominated by Shia groups; and the capacity of institutions to begin reconstruction of Sunni-dominated areas destroyed in the war against ISIS. In Iraq, the proximate cause of ISIS's last resurgence was a combination of local political corruption and malign neglect and discrimination by the Shiite-dominated national government. In Syria, meanwhile, the security challenges will likely die down for the time being, since many ISIS fighters there have fled to remote safe havens in the desert. But if a security vacuum reemergesa real possibility given the complex array of forces in Syria's civil warand the Kurdish anti-ISIS coalition begins to break apart, many of those fighters could quickly return.
Whether or not ISIS can be defeated for good depends most of all on Iraqis and Syrians.
Whether or not ISIS can be defeated for good depends most of all on Iraqis and Syrians. Yet outside actors have a role to play. While large-scale military operations from here forward will yield little, the United States and its coalition partners can help Iraq to build the law-enforcement and intelligence capabilities necessary to end insurgencies and terrorist groups. They can also help disrupt ISIS's international command and control by identifying and interdicting couriers and monitoring electronic communications in Iraq. And a lasting U.S. presence in Iraq would allow them to sustain a more targeted intelligence-led campaign against ISIS leaders who have gone underground in Iraq and Syria. It would also counterbalance Iranian influence in Iraqi security affairs, which could help head off another wave of anti-Sunni sectarianism in Baghdad. Ultimately, the development of a stable, non-sectarian Iraqi state would do more than anything else to ensure that the playbook ISIS used last time does not help it rise again.
Benjamin Bahney is an adjunct analyst and Patrick B. Johnston is a senior political scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.
This commentary originally appeared on Foreign Affairs on December 15, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
TWIN FALLS Members of the Twin Falls Police Department and Fire Department will go head-to-head today to settle a score a year in the making.
The second annual Kettle Bell Ring-Off will pit the two departments against one another to see which can raise the most money for the Salvation Army. It takes place outside the Twin Falls Walmart from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The event brought in more than $5,000 last year, with the police claiming victory.
We lost by a little bit last year, so thats been weighing on our minds for the last 11 months, said fire department battalion chief Mitchell Brooks. We plan on not only raising the most money, but winning by a landslide.
Lt. Terry Thueson said the police department has no plans to relinquish its crown.
For one day a year, let us be the good guys as opposed to the fire department, he joked.
Regardless of whose kettle they ultimately contribute to, Thueson encouraged Twin Falls residents to come out to support the cause.
Whether its the police department or the fire department, the real winner is our community, Thueson said.
Monrovia set for semistate battle with Lawrenceburg. Here's what to know.
Here's all the information you need to know before Friday's IHSAA semi-state football showdown between Monrovia and Lawrenceburg.
Afghan officials say that at least 10 homeless drug addicts have died overnight in the capital, Kabul, due to subzero temperatures.
The Afghan Health Ministry said on December 16 that the 10 addicts had died in different parts of the city.
Another ministry source told RFE/RL that there were reports of dozens of addicts having died in the freezing weather, which was about minus 3 degrees Celsius.
The Health and Counternarcotics ministries announced on December 16 that they had begun a campaign to gather drug addicts in Kabul and provide treatment for them in an effort that would also keep them out of the inclement winter weather.
The Afghan capital is plagued with homeless drug addicts, largely a consequence of the widespread opium production in the country.
Radovan Karadzic, the convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal, is said to be in deep mourning over the sudden death of fellow inmate Slobodan Praljak, the Bosnian Croat war criminal who took his life in front of TV cameras in The Hague courtroom on November 28.
"Radovan is very shaken and sad," his brother reported to the local media after talking to Karadzic over the phone. "I've met [Praljak] twice in The Hague and I could see how close he was to Radovan. They were like brothers."
Not much is known about the social life of the inmates at the Scheveningen prison. The thick walls of the Dutch prison guard many secrets. Over the past two decades morsels of information would emerge, usually through lawyers of the accused or those who had been released upon serving their sentence.
Prisoners are allowed to wear their own clothing. According to the testimony of a Macedonian tried at The Hague, Ljubo Boskovski, Croatian General Ante Gotovina -- who was arrested in the Canary Islands -- arrived at the prison in a short-sleeved T-shirt. Seeing that, former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic gifted him a sweater. They may have been ideologically at odds, and may have held that Croatian and Serbian are separate languages -- but they clearly had no trouble communicating.
Gotovina was one of the key military commanders in charge of Operation Storm that in the summer of 1995 liberated parts of Croatia still under Serbian occupation. While in Croatia the victory is celebrated as a national holiday, in Serbia it is lamented as the cause of the mass exodus of ethnic Serbs from areas where they had lived for centuries. One cannot help but wonder whether Gotovina and Milosevic shed tears together over the exiled Serbs, and then celebrated the liberation of Croatia?
Milosevic's generosity was legendary among the inmates. Apart from Gotovina's sweater, which the Croatian general is said to have worn often -- and not only on that day when he abruptly swapped Spanish sunshine for the overcast skies of the Netherlands -- Milosevic gave presents of blazers and ties to some of the other inmates so they would look presentable when they had to face the judges in the courtroom. It was all so very civilized. As much of the Croatian media gushed over former General Praljak, man of culture, a Zagreb-based analyst, Dejan Jovic wrote on Twitter, tongue in cheek: "A wonderful human being...too bad he's a war criminal."
In the wake of the official commemorations and laudatory editorials in the Croatian press that followed Praljak's suicide, the Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje sarcastically proposed the formation of a "war criminals association" -- membership in which would be open to all regardless of ethnic or religious background, just as in Scheveningen prison. Perhaps it could eventually morph into an international organization. After all, the Oslobodjenje article continued, "great ideas often emerge from unlikely places." The legacy of The Hague could thus be the nurturing of the "brotherhood and unity" born in the Dutch prison.
Solidarity Behind Bars
"Brotherhood and unity" was, of course, the slogan that supposedly described the nature of relations between different peoples and ethnic groups in Tito's Yugoslavia. The wars of the 1990s were in fact fought against that very idea, and the aim of both Serbian and Croatian nationalist politicians and military leaders was the creation of contiguous, ethnically "clean" territories -- something that could only be achieved by force in a historically mixed region. More than 100,000 were killed in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo. Countless crimes against humanity and acts of genocide were committed, and 2 million people were displaced by the fighting, in many cases permanently.
Following this bloody divorce, those most responsible for the crimes on either side were reunited in The Hague detention unit. One might have expected sparks to fly between the ideologues of mutually exclusive nationalist and expansionist projects. And yet the contrary turned out to be the case. The Croatian and Serbian inmates played chess, exchanged books, and helped one another with their written appeals to the court.
One notorious example of the solidarity between The Hague inmates from former Yugoslavia was their collective reaction to Milosevic's sudden death in his prison cell in 2006, before the conclusion of his trial. The fond "last farewell" to a fallen brother -- published in the Belgrade daily Politika -- was signed by virtually all the inmates of Scheveningen prison. While this was hardly a surprise from Vojislav Seselj, the radical Serbian nationalist, it was jarring to many that Gotovina and other Croatian and Bosnian inmates also expressed their condolences.
The prison psychologist Zikica Simic told Radio B92 at the time: "This obituary only shows that we were all just pawns in a game played by a small group of individuals in positions of power, each with his psychological flaws. The rest of us paid the price, often with our lives. While Mladen Naletilic Tuta, Ante Gotovina, Slobodan Milosevic, and Vojislav Seselj played their games, countless people wasted their lives for nothing."
In July 2011, the warden of Scheveningen prison at the time, Timothy McFadden, said in an interview that prior to his death, Milosevic's next-door neighbor was a Bosnian Muslim general, and that the two men apparently became friends, playing chess together regularly.
Asked about this camaraderie behind the walls of The Hague prison, Zagreb based psychiatrist Dragan Pavelic found it unsurprising.
As he explained in a telephone interview with RFE/RL: "The extremes are within touching distance of one another. In the event, they [the Serbian and Croatian inmates at The Hague] happened to be on opposing sides, but they have plenty in common. For instance, they resemble one another in their pathological narcissism -- they all see themselves as grand historical figures. This narcissism combined with exhibitionism can take very malignant forms. They wanted to 'save' us all even though we never asked for it or needed saving. On the contrary, many people suffered and died as a result of being 'saved' by these men. This similar psychological profile explains the affinity they felt for each other which seems so strange to us."
Pavelic visited the tribunal and sat in the public gallery during one session of Milosevic's trial at The Hague.
"Milosevic's sense of his own grandeur was unmistakable. His mannerisms and speech suggested that he saw himself as a semi-divine being. He even magnanimously pronounced some words that sounded like sympathy for the victims. But above all he was a man on a mission. Milosevic, like the others detained at The Hague, was not someone who required psychiatric treatment. They may all be described as normal narcissists," Pavelic said.
It is this shared sense of being misunderstood, of being unjustly prosecuted for fulfilling the providential destiny of their respective peoples that no doubt explains the sense of brotherhood between the mainly Serbian and Croatians politicians and generals on trial for war crimes at The Hague. In retrospect, even in the midst of conflict, they had needed one another as antagonists, to feed their competing narratives of victimhood -- but they also understood one another, and their respective goals, quite perfectly. The warmth between Milosevic, Gotovina and the rest of the inmates at Scheveningen prison only underlined that obvious though profoundly unsettling fact.
The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL
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.
Rapoport's untimely death triggered much speculation because he had voiced support for ardent Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny before leaving Russia and, while living in Kyiv in recent years, had been a vocal supporter of Ukraine and an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Washington metropolitan police found Rapoport's 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. He told RFE/RL in an interview in Washington in June that business had been tough due to the countrys high political risk and war with Russia.
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 under Putin and expressed support for Navalny, who was jailed last year on what Western governments say were trumped-up charges.
It has really become unbearable to live in Russia, Rapoport told media outlet FinParty in June of that year. We are all now dependent on one ruler. If this person decides that you will give birth to his child, then you will give birth, and if he decide to put you in prison, then you will serve time.
He told FinParty that he would give up his American citizenship and return to Russia if Navalny became president, saying the opposition leader was sincere in his desire to fight corruption.
He is a real hero of our time and deserves respect, Rapoport said of Navalny.
Rapoports frustration with Russia and his decision to leave may have been triggered by pressure on his businesses, friends and family have said.
Under Putin, the raiding of profitable businesses by -- or with the help of -- the nations security services has flourished. Rapoport allegedly lost his stake in Soho Rooms when his partners teamed up with security officials.
"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.
When Rapoport moved to Washington, where he said his parents lived, he set up a company called Rapoport Capital to advise and assist technology startups as well as venture capital funds on fundraising options.
In 2016, four years after leaving Russia, Rapoport set up an office in Kyiv and opened a private equity fund. It was tough going. Ukraines economy struggled amid an ongoing war with Russia-backed separatists in two eastern regions and the slow implementation of Western-backed reforms.
In social-media posts over the ensuing years, he was a vocal supporter of Ukraine and an outspoken critic of Putin.
Rapoport gained a degree of publicity in January 2017 after The New York Times reported that the daughter and son-in-law of newly elected 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.
In 2018, the open-source investigative organization Bellingcat reported that Rapoport, who was Jewish, 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
Welcome back to the China In Eurasia briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter tracking Chinas resurgent influence from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. Im RFE/RL correspondent Reid Standish.
Before we get started, a few announcements: The newsletter is now biweekly, rather than going out only on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. To subscribe, click here.
And I will also be launching Talking China In Eurasia, a new podcast. Im joined by the Royal United Services Institutes Raffaello Pantucci to talk about Xi and Putin. Listen to the first episode here or below.
Xi Gets Pragmatic About Russia At The G20
It was light on optimism, but U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping injected a healthy dose of pragmatism back into the U.S.-China relationship with their meeting in Bali at a time when global anxiety is rising over Russias war against Ukraine.
Finding Perspective: The meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit was far from a breakthrough, but it did repair some damage from the recent backslide in relations between both countries and send some signals that the world isnt necessarily destined for Cold War 2.0.
The more than three-hour talks saw some blunt exchanges over contentious issues like Taiwan and North Korea, but the two leaders also pledged more frequent communications and decided that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing for follow-up talks in 2023.
Of particular note, Biden raised Russias invasion of Ukraine and threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons. Both leaders reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war should never be fought, according to a White House readout.
While far from a sea change for Chinese policy, thats notable. The credibility of Beijings claims to be neutral on the Ukraine war continue to come under scrutiny, and China has shown discomfort of late with the Kremlins nuclear saber-rattling.
Xi made similar comments after a November 4 summit with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and during another G20 meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the French readout.
Why It Matters: Xi is not abandoning Putin, but this marks the latest shift for Beijings balancing act over Russias invasion of Ukraine.
Four Chinese officials briefed on the February 4 meeting between Xi and Putin, where they declared a no-limits partnership, told the Financial Times that Putin didnt tell Xi the truth about the invasion and that Beijing was caught off guard by it.
What Xi knew about Putins war plans has been a topic of debate, and there is evidence to support both the idea that Xi was aware and that he was caught off guard.
Many analysts are of the opinion that Xi knew about Putin's decision to invade but expected a quick victory, which perhaps was what Putin believed at the time.
Others point to a steady stream of dismissals from Chinese officials and experts about the likelihood of an invasion in February and the fact that Beijing did not evacuate its citizens from Ukraine like Western nations did as evidence that China was not expecting a war.
China certainly has its own interests in keeping a distance from Moscows war and using that space to do some upkeep with the West. But perhaps the most important point here is that even if Putin did blindside Xi, China has stuck with Russia despite its battlefield failures, political isolation, and the atrocities its troops are accused of committing.
Again, this is pragmatism more than anything else. As Chinese experts often say, even if Russia is looking unattractive these days, why would Beijing abandon its main anti-Western partner as China continues to be in the crosshairs of rising American pressure?
Read More
Want to hear more about Russia and Chinas complex relationship amid the Ukraine war? Then tune in to the debut of Talking China In Eurasia today at 2 p.m. CET/ 8 a.m. EST. You can listen live here and find the episode on RFE/RLs website and wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Condemning Russias invasion of Ukraine and its global fallout is shaping up to be the key theme of the G20, with the Financial Times reporting that a joint communique from the summit takes aim at Moscow.
Expert Corner: The Future Of The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
Readers asked: Did Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifs recent trip to Beijing breathe new life into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)? How do Islamabad and Beijing really feel about the project after all these years?
To find out more, I asked Filippo Boni, an expert on China-Pakistan relations at the Open University in Britain:
Shehbaz Sharif's visit to China was high on symbolism and relatively low on substance. While the two sides were keen to reaffirm and emphasize the strength of their strategic partnership, no significant new commitment was made. Apart from a few memorandums of understanding and attempts from the Pakistanis in the run-up to the trip to address some of CPECs issues including payments to Chinese independent power producers nothing major came from the visit. This is despite Sharif's attempts at revitalizing CPEC since April and the very close ties he enjoys with the Chinese leadership.
The outcome of this visit is not entirely surprising, especially if interpreted against the backdrop of Pakistan's current domestic predicaments. The security situation for Chinese nationals has deteriorated, the economy is struggling, and political instability is at one of its highest points in recent years. All these dynamics, coupled with the global scaling down of Belt and Road Initiative financing, have likely impacted Beijing's lack of commitment to new projects.
After almost 10 years and $25 billion worth of projects, there seems to be a general consensus on both sides that the first phase of CPEC the one focused primarily on energy projects was largely successful. The same cannot be said for the second phase, including the slow progress on the development of Special Economic Zones, and for the port of Gwadar, where little progress has been made for the ports full commercial functioning.
Do you have a question about Chinas growing footprint in Eurasia? Send it to me at StandishR@rferl.org or reply directly to this e-mail and Ill get it answered by leading experts and policymakers.
Three More Stories From Eurasia
1. 'Sweep It Under The Rug'
Recent allegations of China operating 54 overseas police stations have fueled controversy around the world and sparked investigations, but in Hungary and Serbia the new findings are being met with swift denials by authorities, despite growing evidence.
The Details: My colleagues Akos Keller-Alant from RFE/RLs Hungarian Service, Mila Durdevic from RFE/RLs Balkan Service, and I reported on the fallout from these revelations and the slew of probes launched in many European countries recently.
The stations are overseas operations of the public security bureaus from two Chinese provinces and are used to persuade citizens to return to China, including through pressure on family members at home. While most of those involved appear to be suspected of crimes such as telecommunications fraud or corruption, dissidents have also reported that the stations have been used to monitor and threaten them.
Fourteen governments have already launched investigations into the overseas police stations, and the Dutch and Irish governments have ordered China to shut down the facilities in their countries.
But in Hungary and Serbia two countries where Beijing is said to operate such facilities and whose governments prize their warming political and economic ties with China officials appear to be trying to sweep it under the rug, as one analyst characterized it, despite growing scrutiny from opposition lawmakers in each country.
2. Global Ripples Hit Central Asia
Political and economic shocks from Moscows war in Ukraine, coupled with added strains from tensions between Beijing and Washington, are taking their toll around the world, especially in Central Asia, where countries in the region are closely tied to both China and Russia.
What It Means: As RFE/RLs Uzbek Service reported, Vladimir Norov, the countrys foreign minister, warned about geopolitical tensions affecting stability in the region and beyond while addressing his counterparts at an Organization of Turkic States meeting in Samarkand.
The breakdown in global cooperation is felt particularly strong in Central Asia. While some economies have been able to benefit by becoming a new home for businesses and capital relocated from Russia, others are seeing investment dry up and their economies coming under strain.
World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia Anna Bjerde recently warned that Uzbekistan needs to continue with its market reforms in order to withstand the global economic shocks that are to come.
RFE/RLs Kyrgyz Service also reported that the countrys government is trying to court more investment but that questions remain from investors about Kyrgyzstans stability and investment climate. According to official statistics from January to June of this year, China is the leading source of foreign investment, with $129 million during that span.
3. The Tech In Moscows Iranian Drones
A new investigation by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, looked into electronic components underpinning Tehran's production of the Mohajer-6 drone, which Russia has used in its war in Ukraine, and found that theyre far from homegrown.
What You Need To Know: The Mohajer-6 drones contain components produced by companies from the United States and the European Union, both of which have sanctions restricting the export to Iran of technology that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
The investigation also found drone components produced in China, including a real-time mini-camera made by a Hong Kong firm.
The drone also contains a microchip bearing the logo of a California technology company and a thermal-imaging camera that Ukrainian intelligence says may have been produced by a firm based in Oregon or China.
The international tech in the drone not only highlights the complex ecosystem that allows firms and buyers to circumvent sanctions slapped on both Iran and Russia, but also the close networks between Chinese and Western tech companies that still exist, despite a recent push to break some of those linkages.
Across The Supercontinent
On The Mainland: The watchdog group Freedom House recently launched a new project called the China Dissent Monitor, which tracks protests and other forms of dissent inside China. Read it here.
Censored: Chinese authorities behind a major trade expo in Shanghai pulled an opening ceremony address by European Council President Charles Michel that was set to criticize Russia's illegal war in Ukraine and call for reduced European dependency on China, Reuters reported.
Backtracking: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has softened his countrys stance toward China, moving away from his predecessor Liz Trusss decision to label it a threat.
One Thing To Watch
How long will Chinas stringent COVID policies stay in place?
New infections are rising as a winter wave hits and popular frustration continues to boil over inside the country as investor confidence stays dented over the measures. New footage also showed crowds of residents in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou escaping a compulsory lockdown and clashing with police.
Thats all from me for now. Dont forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you might have.
Until next time,
Reid Standish
If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your in-box on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.
Iraqi media reports say two mass graves containing 90 bodies have been discovered near the northern town of Sinjar.
Iraqi news portal Shafaq News reported that the bodies of men, women, and children were found near Sinjar, which was seized by the Islamic State (IS) militant group in 2014.
IS militants are believed to have executed hundreds of Yazidi men and boys and enslaved thousands of women and their children.
An unknown number of women and children were moved to the Syrian city of Raqqa, which served as IS's de facto capital until October, when it was seized by Syrian Kurdish and Arab forces.
Sinjar was retaken from IS in late 2015 and over 30 mass graves of Yazidis have since been found there.
The Yazidi faith has elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islam. The IS group considers them "devil worshippers."
Most of the Yazidi population, numbering around half a million, remains displaced in camps inside the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
Based on reporting by dpa, Shafaq News, and Alghad Press
This appeared in Thursdays Washington Post.
Special counsel Robert Mueller III began his investigation of Russian election interference to bipartisan praise. Both Democrats and Republicans lauded the former FBI director as the ideal candidate to conduct a politically tricky investigation with rigor and honesty. Yet as Muellers probe has continued, allies of President Donald Trump have turned to attacking a man whose integrity and credibility they had previously considered unimpeachable. There is no basis for their criticisms.
Republicans charge that Muellers team is hopelessly biased against Trump. Top Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, they note, attended Hillary Clintons election-night party in November 2016. He also wrote to former acting attorney general Sally Yates after Trump dismissed her, lauding her decision not to defend the first iteration of Trumps travel ban.
Then there is Peter Strzok, an FBI agent removed from Muellers probe after the Justice Departments Office of the Inspector General discovered that Strzok had sent text messages critical of Trump while investigating Clintons use of a private email server. The messages exchanged by Strzok and Lisa Page, a fellow FBI employee, express crude opinions of Trump and other political figures. Strzok certainly exercised poor judgment. But the material that has so far been made public shows no sign that Strzoks work on the investigation was influenced by political bias.
Neither Weissmanns nor Strzoks activities should cast doubt on Muellers investigation. Federal agents and prosecutors are not forbidden from holding political beliefs or giving campaign donations. The measure of their integrity is whether those beliefs infect their work, and there is no evidence that happened in either Strzoks or Weissmanns case.
Muellers decision to remove Strzok from his team after learning of the text messages should be heartening to those concerned for the investigations fairness. And Strzoks conduct is already the subject of an ongoing internal probe into the Justice Departments handling of the Clinton email investigation. When its work is complete, the Office of the Inspector General should release as much of its report as possible to give the public a full accounting of any misconduct. The inspector general and the Justice Department should also clarify the circumstances behind the departments unusual public release of Strzoks messages in the midst of an ongoing investigation.
Some supporters of Trump have returned to their calls to appoint a second special counsel to investigate Clinton or the Justice Department itself. But none have pointed to any factual basis for such an investigation, which would require a showing of a possible crime.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave a vote of confidence to the special counsels work before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, affirming Muellers integrity and clarifying that he has seen no reason to remove him from office. We are glad to see Rosenstein stand firm in support of the special counsel he appointed despite the onslaught of partisan attacks. In doing so, he is upholding no less than the rule of law.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is questioning whether recent close encounters between Russian and U.S. warplanes over Syria were mistaken or the result of what he called "dangerous" maneuvers by some Russian fighter-jet pilots.
"Right now, I cannot tell you if it's sloppy airmanship, rambunctious pilots, or people who are trying to do something that is very unwise," Mattis said in remarks to Pentagon reporters on December 15.
A day earlier, the Pentagon said that two Russian Su-25 fighter jets flew through an unofficial line separating Russian and U.S. air forces in eastern Syria on December 13 and came dangerously close to U.S. warplanes.
During the incident, the Pentagon said U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter jets launched warning flares and deployed chaff -- used to distract potential incoming missiles.
The U.S. pilots also radioed the Russian pilots multiple times on an emergency channel demanding that they leave the U.S. portion of the air space over a Syrian safe zone that had been negotiated in an agreement between Russian and U.S. forces, the Pentagon said.
The Russian Defense Ministry on December 14 denied that its pilots were at fault, saying Russia's jets did not cross the unofficial boundary line, and claiming the U.S. jets eventually left the region after another Russian jet, a Su-35C, arrived.
The Pentagon on December 15 said other close calls have occurred when Russian jets flew over the same dividing line, which runs along with Euphrates River, into the area east of the river designated as U.S. airspace without notifying U.S.-led coalition forces ahead of time.
Lieutenant Colonel Damien Pickart, an air force spokesman in the Middle East, said in an e-mail to AFP that on November 15, two U.S. A-10 Warthog ground-attack planes nearly collided head-on with a Russian Su-24 Fencer that passed within only 90 meters of the U.S. planes.
One A-10 pilot had to "aggressively execute a defensive maneuver to avoid a midair collision," Pickart told AFP.
Then on November 17, he said two F-22s intercepted an armed Russian Su-24 that flew over coalition and partner forces three times and failed to respond to radio calls.
"The F-22s intercepted this pilot and were in a position to fire," Pickart told AFP.
"Luckily our pilots showed restraint, but given the actions of the Su-24 aircraft could have reasonably been interpreted as threatening to U.S. forces, our pilots would have been well within our rights to engage," he said.
"The coalition's greatest concern is that we could shoot down a Russian aircraft because its actions are seen as a threat to our air or ground forces," Pickart told AFP.
"We are not here to fight the Russians and Syrians -- our focus remains on defeating [the Islamic State extremist group]. That said, if anyone threatens coalition or friendly partner forces in the air or on the ground, we will defend them."
Mattis said it was not clear if the incidents were accidental and due to the inexperience of the young pilots, or deliberate and the product of those pilots "dangerously feeling their oats."
"I don't expect perfection, but I don't expect dangerous maneuvers either, and so we'll sort this out," he said at the Pentagon.
Mattis said that the United States and Russia were still using a hot line to try to avoid such close calls as each country's warplanes operate in often close proximity in Syrian airspace.
With reporting by AP and AFP
Tens of thousands of Romanians joined European royals on December 16 to attend a grand state funeral and pay their respects to late King Michael, who died in Switzerland at the age of 96 on December 5. The crowd cheered and shouted "King Michael!" as the coffin, led by Orthodox priests and a guard of honor, was transported by an army jeep towards the cathedral where Michael was later laid to rest. (AP)
Ramil Mukhamedyarov looks out at the placid waters of the Techa River in Russia's Ural Mountains.
He says for kids in Novoye Muslyumovo, a mostly ethnic Tatar village, it serves as the local swimming hole. Cattle often lap at its waters and graze near its banks.
It sounds idyllic, but there's a problem. For decades, radioactive waste has been dumped or seeped into the Techa.
Nearby is the Mayak nuclear installation, one of the largest nuclear complexes in the world, now run by Russian state nuclear regulator and operator Rosatom to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. In 1957, a nuclear accident at Mayak contaminated 20,000 square kilometers and affected an estimated 270,000 people.
It was one of history's worst obscure nuclear tragedies. Since Mayak was a "secret site" and nearby Chelyabinsk a "closed town," Soviet authorities didn't flinch. They initially released no details of what would become known as the Kyshtym disaster, named after the nearest town actually listed on maps.
It was only in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that the scale of the disaster emerged. And only in 2009, more than a half-century after the incident, were residents of Muslyumovo -- the village worst-hit by the spillage at Mayak -- relocated.
Mukhamedyarov and his neighbors were given a choice: a new home or a 1 million-ruble (about $30,000 at the time) payout. Announced in the wake of a visit to the area by then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the program was riddled with corruption, however. Many of those who opted for the cash never saw most of it, and those who picked alternative housing were relocated just 2 kilometers down the road in what would become Noveye, or New, Muslyumovo, still well within the contamination zone.
Nice On The Surface...
Compared to other Russian villages of similar size, Noveye Muslyumovo has its appeal. The roads are smooth and paved. The rows of nearly identical, red-roofed, clapboard houses are tidy and clean. There's a new school and other facilities. A poultry-processing facility, despite the smell wafting from it, provides locals with jobs.
Plus, living in an irradiated zone means residents receive some additional benefits from the federal government. Villagers get 500 rubles a month ($8.50) a month for living there, plus another 400 rubles ($6.80) for medicines.
Predictably, few are overwhelmed by the state's generosity. "I spend at least 2,000 or 3,000 rubles a month on medicines alone. That money [from the government] is woefully inadequate," says Mukhamedyarov, sitting in his living room lined with books, many of them medical. A blood-pressure monitor stands on a nearby table.
Despite the paltry payouts, Mukhamedyarov is satisfied with the home he received. "The houses are good. It's good that they listened to us. Although, if there hadn't been Chernobyl, then maybe there wouldn't have been anything," he says in reference to the better-known Soviet nuclear catastrophe in 1986.
In fact, the Kyshtym disaster was first officially acknowledged by Soviet authorities in an official report about Chernobyl to the United Nations in the months following that incident.
Now, villagers in Novoye Muslyumovo talk about radiation, but many, in public at least, seem unconcerned.
According to the antinuclear group Bellona, those living near the Techa River suffer cancer rates 3.6 times higher than the national average and birth defects 25 times more frequently than in other parts of the country.
Buried Accident
Eventually details of the accident in the Ural Mountains seeped out. In the early hours of September 29, 1957, a tank containing nuclear-weapons waste exploded on the grounds of the Mayak Chemical Combine, Russia's primary spent-nuclear-fuel-reprocessing center.
The fallout affected more than 200 towns and villages and exposed more than 240,000 people, a small portion of whom were quietly evacuated over the subsequent two years, to radiation.
Rashida Fattahova, 83, lived in Muslyumovo at the time. "It was horrible. [Ethnic] Russians were resettled right away after the catastrophe, but not the Tatars," she says of those early Soviet attempts to cope with the accident.
In 2009, Rosatom was given a leading role in relocating villagers from Muslyumovo. Heavy earth-moving equipment was used by Rosatom to raze the village, literally leaving no trace behind. Deep pits were dug. Homes and other articles were demolished and dumped into them before being covered with earth.
"All the things around the house were buried. It was horrible, [the pit] was so deep. I left many things there that were buried," Fattahova says.
A field of fir trees was planted in its place, but never took root and died.
Not all villagers were given a choice. Lacking documents, some still live in what remains of "Old" Muslyumovo, as the largely empty tract of land is now called.
"There's one family, for example -- when the resettlement was taking place, they didn't have documents for their home. There's another family there as well. Their house stands on [what was] Pushkin Street," Mukhamedyarov says.
"On the riverbank, where the factory was, my friend Gelani lives. The highest radiation background is there. People used to swim there all the time. I swam there as well," he says.
Many of those who chose to take the million rubles to finance a home elsewhere ended up in dingy, cheap apartments, many in Chelyabinsk. They were arguably the lucky ones. Others were swindled by scammers dubbed "black-real-estate agents" and received nothing.
The fate of Fattahova's son was even worse, she explains.
In 2009, her son was also offered a home or money. He took the cash and headed to Chelyabinsk. There, on the outskirts of the city, in an industrial area, he bought a cheap apartment from what turned out to be "black realtors." After the transaction, he was killed and the rest of his money stolen. Criminals even tried to claim his apartment as well, but his children were able to rightly claim the property, Fattahova says.
For those "lucky" enough to be resettled in Noveye Muslyumovo, life is constantly impacted by Mayak.
Radioactive wastewater is still dumped into ponds around and connected to the Techa River.
Enduring Legacy Of Pollution, Death
Mayak was the suspected source of a mysterious spike in radioactivity in September in the air over the Ural Mountains, although plant officials denied any role.
Greenpeace said it found highly elevated strontium-90 levels in all nearby villages its activists visited.
Rosatom no longer acknowledges spewing radioactive waste into the Techa or its tributaries. It says waste is deposited in "special industrial ponds" or "objects of nuclear energy use." Whether that waste is seeping into the Techa is something Rosatom doesn't address.
A visit to Noveye Muslyumovo by correspondents from RFE/RL's Idel.Reality stirs the interest of local police, who ask why they are photographing before requesting their documents.
After the encounter with police, one woman, Nailya, pursues the reporters to tell them her story.
Unlike some who may be wary of making such remarks for fear of reprisals from local officials, she speaks openly about allegedly elevated risks of cancer. "People here die, several die a week. Most from tumors. Cancer. Edik was 42. Salavat 52. Just on this street, so many young people have died," Nailya says.
"I'm 57, and I don't know whether I'll live to 60."
Written by Tony Wesolowsky in Prague based on reporting by RFE/RL's Idel.Reality correspondent Regina Hisamova
U.S. President Donald Trump says he has sought Russia's help in resolving the crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program but is not satisfied with Russia's efforts.
Shortly after Trump made his remarks to reporters at the White House on December 15, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Russia and China to do more to pressure North Korea, and charged that Moscow continued to employ North Korean workers in "slave-like conditions."
Trump said that he had a "great" phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin late on December 14 in which they discussed the North Korean crisis.
While the two discussed other issues, "the primary point was to talk about North Korea, because we would love to have his help on North Korea," said Trump, who the Kremlin said initiated the phone call.
"We're going to see what happens with North Korea. We have a lot of support. There are a lot of nations that agree with us -- almost everybody," Trump said. "China is helping. Russia is not helping. We'd like to have Russia's help -- very important."
Tillerson later in remarks to the United Nations Security Council in New York said the United States was calling on Russia and China to go beyond sanctions already imposed by the council and cut off all oil shipments as well as end guest-worker programs for thousands of North Korean workers.
UN studies have said most of Pyongyang's workers toil in China and Russia under a system that forces them to send most of their earnings back to the government in North Korea, which the United States maintains uses the cash to help fund the country's nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.
Tillerson said about 35,000 of the workers are in Russia right now.
"Continuing to allow North Korean laborers to toil in slave-like conditions inside Russia in exchange for wages used to fund nuclear-weapons programs calls into question Russia's dedication as a partner for peace," Tillerson told the UN council.
Russia Replies
Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya shot back, saying North Korean workers were in Russia as part of a bilateral agreement "which guarantees their rights," and they were not subject to slave-like conditions.
Nebenzya also returned fire over the U.S. accusation that Russia is not doing enough to resolve the standoff, repeating Moscow's accusation that joint military exercises conducted by the United States and South Korea have contributed to the tensions and should be stopped temporarily while North Korea stops weapons testing to show that both sides are ready to discuss peace.
"We very much hope that the U.S. will be able to help resolve the crisis on the Korean Peninsula," Nebenzya said, directly addressing Tillerson.
Nebenzya said North Korea wouldn't halt its nuclear and missile programs "while it feels a direct threat to its security," and that is why Russia and China had urged both sides to take steps to de-escalate the situation.
Instead, the United States and North Korea have escalated their exchange of "military rhetoric," Nebenzya said, which, "accompanied by a test of strength by the participants, has led to a situation where around the world people have begun to wonder whether there will be war or not."
"All of these steps force us to wonder about the sincerity of statements that suggest that there is a preference for a peaceful approach to resolving the crisis" in the United States, Nebenzya said.
Tillerson's remarks before the UN council appeared to backtrack some on overtures he made to North Korea earlier this week to open peace talks.
While saying earlier that he was ready to meet with North Korea "without preconditions" requiring North Korea to essentially renounce its nuclear weapons development before negotiations, on December 15 he declared, "We will never accept a nuclear North Korea."
"North Korea must earn its way back to the table," Tillerson told the UN council. "The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved. We will in the meantime keep our channels of communication open."
North Korean Ambassador Ja Song Nam did not back off his country's tough rhetoric in a rare appearance before the UN council on December 15 in which he called the country's nuclear-weapons program "an inevitable self-defensive measure," given what he called "the U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail."
He said the United States was "terrified" that Pyongyang tested missiles this year that it claims are capable of delivering nuclear weapons anywhere in the United States.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis disputed that claim on December 15, however, saying that North Korea "has not yet shown to be a capable threat against us" despite the technological advances demonstrated by its recent intercontinental-ballistic-missile tests.
North Korea has conducted more than 20 ballistic-missile tests during 2017 and its most powerful nuclear explosion to date.
With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
The editor in chief of Christianity Today did not have to wait for the votes to be counted to publish his essay Tuesday bemoaning what the Alabama Senate race had wrought.
Whoever wins, there is already one loser: Christian faith, wrote Mark Galli, whose publication, the flagship of American evangelicalism, was founded 61 years ago by the Rev. Billy Graham. No one will believe a word we say, perhaps for a generation. Christianitys integrity is severely tarnished.
The sight of white evangelical voters in Alabama giving their overwhelming support to Roy Moore, the Republican candidate, despite accusations of racial and religious bigotry, misogyny and assaults on teenage girls, has deeply troubled many conservative Christians, who fear that association with the likes of Moore is giving their faith a bad name. The angst has grown so deep, Galli said, that he knows of many card-carrying evangelicals who are ready to disavow the label.
The evangelical brand is definitely tarnished by politicization from whatever side, Galli said last week. No question about it.
He said that his readers seemed to agree with the thrust of his essay. The main criticism he received, he said, was one he agreed with: that he should have made it clearer that he was referring not to all Christians, but to evangelicals in particular.
The bloc that has marched under the banner of the Moral Majority and values voters has now been tagged as the most reliable base of support for both Moore and President Trump, two politicians who are known for fanning racial and religious prejudices and who stand accused of sexual harassment by numerous women accusations that each man denies. White evangelicals across the country delivered 81 percent of their votes to Trump last year, according to exit poll data, and backed Moore in Alabama by the same percentage Tuesday.
It grieves me, said Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, a prominent evangelical school in Illinois. I dont want evangelical to mean people who supported candidates with significant and credible accusations against them. If evangelical means that, it has serious ramifications for the work of Christians and churches.
That notion is bewildering to evangelical leaders who see Trump as their champion. They say that Trump has given them more access than any president in recent memory, and has done more to advance their agenda, by appointing judges who are likely to rule against abortion and gay rights; by channeling government funds to private religious schools; by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel; and by calling for the elimination of the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches and charitable groups from endorsing political candidates.
I believe that God answered our prayers in a way we didnt expect, for a person we didnt even necessarily like, said Stephen Strang, author of God and Donald Trump, and founder of Charisma Media, a Christian publishing house.
Christians believe in redemption and forgiveness, so theyre willing to give Donald Trump a chance, said Strang, a member of the presidents informal council of evangelical advisers. If he turns out to be a lecher like Bill Clinton, or dishonest in some kind of way, in a way thats proven, youll see the support fade as quick as it came.
Strang said that those who talk about Trump tarnishing the evangelical brand are not really believers theyre not with us, anyway.
Evangelicals, often known as born-again Christians, belong to many denominations of churches, but they share some basic tenets: Believers must accept Jesus as a personal savior, spread the Gospel, and regard the Bible as the ultimate authority and the sacrifice of Jesus as necessary for the salvation of humanity.
When it comes to politics, however, the evangelical bloc is not rock solid, and the past year and a half has brought the cracks to the surface. There are evangelicals who took to Trump early on, evangelicals who were gradually won over, and evangelicals who were and proudly remain #NeverTrump, as some proclaim online.
There are young evangelicals who are disavowing their elders. There are Latino, Asian, black and American Indian evangelicals who are outraged at white believers for allying with a president they regard as racist and hostile to immigrants. Black hip-hop artist LeCrae made waves when he recently gave an interview announcing that he had divorced himself from white evangelicalism.
Jemar Tisby, president of The Witness, a black Christian collective, a faith-based media company that provides commentary on race, religion and culture, said that while Trump was running, we were saying, this man is promoting bigotry, white supremacists find an ally in him and this is going to be bad for us.
And not only did they vote for him, Tisby continued, they voted for him in slightly higher numbers than they did for Mitt Romney. It was a sense of betrayal.
Tisby, who co-hosts the podcast Pass the Mic, said that many blacks who hold evangelical beliefs have been reluctant to identify themselves as evangelicals, and that reluctance was growing.
Its counterproductive to identify as evangelical, he said. Whats happened with evangelicalism is, it has become so conflated with Republican politics, that you cant tell where Christianity ends and partisanship begins.
There are signs that evangelicals have begun to drift away from their solid support for Trump. A poll conducted from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4 by the Pew Research Center found that the presidents job approval among white evangelical Protestants had fallen to 61 percent, from 78 percent in February.
The association with Moore troubled some female evangelicals who found his accusers to be credible. Two women said he had sexually molested them when they were teenagers, and others said that he had taken them out on dates or hounded them at work, accusations that Moore denies.
Some female evangelicals said on social media that they stayed home rather than vote for either Moore or his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, whose views on issues like abortion are distant from their own.
Many women have expressed the broader concern that overlooking accusations of sexual misconduct against favored politicians sends a dangerous message that women who come forward can be dismissed in the service of a political agenda.
Weve let evil overtake the entire reputation of Evangelicalism, one prominent evangelical author, Beth Moore, wrote on Twitter the day before the election. The lust for power is nauseating. Racism, appalling. The arrogance, terrifying. The misogyny so far from Christlikeness, it cant be Christianity.
People have had the impulse to jettison the evangelical label before, according to Stetzer of Wheaton College. It came up after the televangelist scandals involving Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart in the 1980s. But the idea received new attention and momentum soon after Trump was elected.
Galli, the magazine editor, said he had recently brainstormed a list of 50 to 100 words, looking for a suitable substitute term. Among them: neo-evangelical, Gospel Christian, Followers of Jesus.
Purple-cow Christianity, he said. It doesnt really matter. Its the reality underneath that we affirm.
Laurie Goodstein is a New York Times writer.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire and dozens more wounded along with an Israeli officer in clashes across the West Bank and near Gazas border on Friday as the fallout continued over President Trumps announcement last week recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital.
Protests in response to Trumps announcement, which departed from decades of U.S. policy that the fate of Jerusalem should be decided through negotiations, have yet to relent across various Arab and Muslim countries.
Following Friday prayers, Palestinians in the West Bank and along the Gaza border set fire to tires and threw rocks at Israeli troops who responded with tear gas and live fire.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said two Palestinians were killed from gunshots to the head. He identified one of the men as Ibrahim Abu Thraya, 29, a disabled man who had both legs amputated. He had taken part in several border skirmishes recently, images on social media show him carrying a Palestinian flag.
Another 82 Palestinians were injured in clashes in several locations along Gazas border with Israel, at least five of whom were seriously wounded, he said.
Another Palestinian died later from wounds sustained in clashes near Jerusalem, the health ministry said.
Fridays deaths put to eight the number of Palestinians killed since Trumps declaration on Dec. 6.
The Israeli military said thousands of Palestinian rioters rolled burning tires and hurled firebombs and rocks at security forces, who responded with tear gas and also fired selectively toward main instigators.
The Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza has called for a new armed uprising against Israel in response to Trumps declaration.
East Jerusalem is home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites and the fate of the territory is an emotionally charged issue at the heart of the conflict. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war from Jordan, as the capital of their hoped-for state. Israel says the entire city, including east Jerusalem, is its eternal capital.
Palestinians were infuriated by Trumps announcement because they saw it as siding with Israel on the most sensitive issue in the conflict. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said Trumps move disqualified the U.S. from continuing in its role as the traditional mediator of peace talks.
Trump said his decision merely recognizes the reality that Jerusalem already serves as Israels capital and is not meant to prejudge the final borders of the city.
Vice President Mike Pence was forced to delay a trip to the Middle East amid the outcry over Trumps decision. Aides to Abbas said that the Palestinian president would not meet with Pence, who is now scheduled to arrive in Israel from Egypt on Wednesday.
Fares Akram is an Associated Press writer.
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Historical Context
In science classes, we learn all about chain reactions: one thing happens, which causes another thing to happen, which causes another thing to happen, and so on.
And that's great for science.
But when it comes to historical events, they tend to be less chain reaction and more a confluence of multiple factors.
In other words, history typically doesn't happen because one thing happened, and then another, and then another. Usually it's more like there were several different, largely unrelated things going on, and they all came together and resulted in something else happening.
In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was the something else that happened.
We could spend weeks talking about all of the things going on around the world that resulted in the Louisiana Purchasebut we won't. Instead, we'll focus on the goings-on within the borders of three of the biggest movers and shakers on the Louisiana Purchase scene: the United States, France, andHaiti.
That's right, Haiti.
The Louisiana story is a fascinating one, so pull up a bean bag chair and get comfyyou're not going to want to walk away from this tale without getting all of the deets.
America Looks Beyond Its Starter Home
Thomas Jefferson was the president of a small, young country. In his day, the Great American West was just the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
The United States, which in 1800 was about 865,000 square miles and had a population just a hair over 5 million, was having some growing pains. The country was starting to feel like that cute little condo that was perfect until we adopted all those dogs, or like the strained peas that sustained us when we were babies but aren't enough now that we've grown some chompers.
We've got analogies all day, but the point is this: America was outgrowing its britches.
Eyes kept straying beyond the nation's western border, which at that time was the mighty Mississippi River. Beyond those banks, thought many Americans, lay the future of the United States. There were rumors of lush farmland, plenty of room for home sites, and all kinds of fun and exciting natural resources. "We gotta get to the other side of that river," Americans said to themselves.
The problem, though, was that all of that land belonged to someone else.
Native Americans? Gosh, no, their needs weren't really a huge concern to the settlers looking for cheap and fertile land.
We're talking about France. Or was it Spain? The territory was changing hands around the turn of that century. But whoever was in charge, the United States knew it wasn't them.
Even though America really wanted to know what lay beyond the Mississippi, the country's primary concerns were (a) making sure they could use that river to transport goods and people and whatnot and (b) making sure that, whoever owned the land, they weren't going to make any trouble for the United States by shutting down commerce on the river or in the port of New Orleans at the mouth of the river.
They'd had enough trouble. They'd only been an independent nation for 24 years, and they'd already since had a few dust-ups with their colonizing neighbors.
President Jefferson was a smart guy, and he knew that the chances of France (or was it Spain?) handing over the Louisiana Territory all peaceful and cheap-like were slim to none, and he didn't think the United States needed all that land anyway. But he knew that something had to be done to secure American rights to the Mississippi River and New Orleans.
He also knew that the long-term success of the teenage United States had a lot to do with its neighbors, and, as we all know, some neighbors are a lot cooler than others.
Spain, he reasoned, would be a pretty good neighbor. Their empire-building had slowed down quite a bit in recent years, and at that point, they weren't exactly the warmongering type. In fact, they'd been Louisiana's landlords for a while, and for the most part, it had been a pretty decent and mutually advantageous arrangement.
Unfortunately, Spain was no longer the rightful owner of Louisiana, thanks to a secret deal they'd made with France (which everyone found out about), ceding the territory back to Napoleon in exchange for some ownership rights in the area we now know as Tuscany.
Great Britain was another possibility, though kind of a distant one. They already had a huge swath of land to the north, a place we refer to today as Canada, and it hadn't been so long ago that they'd been the owners of what was now the United States itself.
Having Britain as a neighbor to the north and to the west was a thought that didn't settle too well with most Americans. They'd fought hard for their independence from England, and to be suddenly surrounded by them again...well, it kind of seemed like a step backwards.
So that left France.
France, the land of couture, fancy food, and expensive wine. France, the biggest empire on the planetand arguably one of the most violentwho was going through its own crazy revolution and was currently being ruled by a guy who was fast earning a reputation as the most ruthless and determined empire-builder yet: Napoleon Bonaparte.
France as a neighbor? The thought sent chills down Jefferson's spine. He didn't think for one second that France would be content to just sit there in Louisiana like Spain had done, and like pre-revolutionary France had done before that. Nope, he was pretty sure the United States would constantly be threatened by the presence of such a hangry neighbor, and America didn't have the resources to fight them off.
Worse, if France did move in and set up shop in Louisiana, Jefferson feared it would force the United States into an alliance with Great Britain, who actually had the money, troops, and equipment to shut the French down.
But America didn't want to ally with its old ruler. Been there, done that, didn't even get a lousy T-shirt.
This Louisiana thing was turning into quite the pickle. Across the Atlantic, the French Republic was dealing with a few pickles of its own.
Cornichonthe French Word for "Pickle"
France under Napoleon was a lot like the Yankees under Joe Torre or the Lakers under Phil Jackson: pretty much unstoppable.
For a little while, anyway.
But before we get to the end of Napoleon's own version of the three-peat, let's wind our way back to the beginning.
The nation of France was unofficially formed in the 5th century, following the fall of the Roman Empire
Okay, that's too far back. Let's fast-forward to a more relevant point in time, like, say1778.
In 1778, France was smarting over its loss to Great Britain in the Seven Years' War, which had caused the country to lose a bunch of its colonies, its military superiority, and a little bit of pride, too. And so, in an attempt to keep the Brits from causing any more trouble, France signed an alliance treaty with the brand-new United Statesthe cleverly named Treaty of Alliance.
This did not go over well with Britain. Four days after the treaty was signed, Great Britain declared war on France, and all heck broke loose once again. Now France was officially involved in the American Revolutionary War (remember Lafayette?), and it wasn't long before Spain joined the fray as well.
Spoiler alert: we won.
But back to France.
The Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War really put a dent in France's wallet. The country was already experiencing some inner turmoil as the masses started to think maybe they'd had enough of being ruled by a rich monarch while they all worked their fingers to the bone and often went hungry. The strain on the nation's finances made the whole situation even more volatile.
In 1789, King Louis XVI convened a bunch of people to try and fix France's problems. This convention was called the Estates-General, and it totally did not go the way Louis XVI had hoped. Instead, it's largely seen as the French Revolution's kick-off party.
Some historians have spent their entire careers detailing the nuances of the French Revolution, and justifiably so. There's a lot more to this revolution than beheadings, tricolor hats, and rumors of a queen saying that peasants who couldn't afford bread should maybe eat cake instead.
But for the purposes of our discussion here today, we're going to boil this monumental period in history down to one catchall paragraph. Here it comes:
From 1789 to 1799, France had four distinct governments: the National Assembly, the Legislative Assembly, the First Republic, and the Directory. All of these had major flaws, and one of themwe're looking at you, First Republicwas incredibly bloodthirsty and kind of terrifying. Needless to say, having all of these governments and all of this civil unrest and confusion really put France through the wringer. And not only was France exhausted and in a total state of chaos, none of its allies really knew what to think, either. Friend or foe? Republic or dictatorship? Nobody knew, and it seemed to change with the weather.
The Little Corporal
Enter Napoleon Bonaparte.
In 1799, after proving his military worth and impressing the right people, Napoleon decided he'd had enough of France's hot mess of a government, and he took it over.
Yep, he just took it over.
He overthrew the Directory, called himself the Grand Poobah (actually, he called himself First Consul, which maybe does sound a wee bit less pretentious than Grand Poobah), and effectively ended the French Revolution.
But he didn't end the warring.
Instead of internal wars, though, Napoleon set his sights beyond France's borders. For the next 16 years, Napoleon led his country through a series of battles that came to be known as, surprise, surprise, the Napoleonic Wars. These wars took place all around the world, from Egypt to Austria and from Russia to the Cape of Good Hope.
Now if there's anything we know for sure about wars, it's that they're always expensive.
Always. Expensive.
And the Napoleonic Wars were no different. Since France's finances had already been, um, "stretched," and since Napoleon's heart was set on creating the biggest and baddest empire the world had ever known, money was becoming an increasingly big problem.
And then there was Louisiana, like an annoying little gnat right next to Napoleon's ear.
On the one hand, he thought Louisiana would be an awesome place to establish a French empire in the Americas. In 1800, he had sweet talked the Spanish into ceding the territory back to France with visions of empire dancing in his head. New Orleansthe Mississippi Riverall those sweet little islands right there in the Caribbeanwhat's not to love, right?
On the other hand, though, there was the prohibitive cost of all of those wars he was undertaking. He was finding out, as Spain had before him, that it was actually more expensive to maintain the Louisiana Territory than he'd thought; the whole area was becoming kind of a drainand kind of a drag.
But Napoleon was a determined man, and he wasn't ready to give up on Louisiana just yet. He figured that once he got Europe and the rest of the Old World sorted out, he'd turn his attention back to Louisiana and his New World interests, which included a massively lucrative sugar cane business in the Caribbean.
But then something happened that he hadn't been counting on, something that totally changed his mind about that whole French empire in the Americas thing and set the stage for the United States to become the nation we recognize today.
And that something was...Haiti.
Haiti Sets France Straight-i
Haiti is about 10,700 square miles in total, making it just a little bit smaller than Maryland. That's pretty tiny, comparatively speaking.
So why are we talking about a tiny country in the Caribbean when we're supposed to be focusing on the sale of Louisiana by the French to the United States?
Because if it wasn't for Haiti, the Louisiana Purchase might never have happened.
But Haiti wasn't called Haiti back when this all went down. It was called Saint-Domingue, and it was a colony of France.
And before it was Saint-Domingue, it was part of a Spanish-colonized island called Hispaniola, thanks to Christopher Columbus and his catchy sailing of the ocean blue back in 1492. He named it La Isla Espanola ("the Spanish Island"; the name was later Latinized to Hispaniola), despite the fact that the people who lived there already had a name for their home: Ayiti.
The natives weren't overly stoked about having all these Spanish people setting up camp all over the place, and as a result, those camps had a habit of burning to the ground or being otherwise destroyed while their inhabitants were out and about.
Then, French pirates started wreaking havoc on Spanish settlements (and the rest of the island) in the 1540s. Between European antics, being introduced to fun New World diseases, and being turned into a slave labor force for the new settlers, the native population of the island decreased substantially.
Like, it was dang near wiped out completely.
In 1625, a few French buccaneers and some of their buddies pretty much just took over the whole western third of the island and claimed it for France, never mind what Spain said. This led to even more violence and destruction, and it also led to Spain finally giving up and ceding the area to France in 1697.
Hispaniola was then officially divided into two colonies. The Spanish colonists retained the eastern two-thirds of the island and called it Santo Domingo; the French colonists took the western third and named it Saint-Domingue.
And then they turned Saint-Domingue into a moneymaking machine. Plantations sprouted up all over the colony. Sugar and coffee were the major industries, along with indigo; at one point, the small French territory was responsible for exporting 40 percent of the world's sugar and over 60 percent of the world's coffee.
Pretty impressive for an area smaller than Maryland.
Slaves Revolt
Inconveniently, there weren't enough indigenous people in Saint-Domingue to enslave to provide the labor required for this massive agricultural enterprise, so the French started bringing in extra forced labor reinforcements from Africa. It's estimated that somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 African slaves were shipped to Saint-Domingue and put to work during this French farming frenzy.
But just like elsewhere in the world, the whole slavery thing didn't really sit too well with the people actually doing the work. Sure, the French landowners were getting rich, and Saint-Domingue was by far the wealthiest colony in the Caribbean, but almost none of that wealth and prosperity found its way into the hands of the indentured. And aside from the money thing, the slaves of Saint-Domingue had other issues to deal with. Beatings and other awful corporal punishments were the norm, housing was cramped and dirty and structurally iffy, and opportunities to get an education and/or move up the agricultural corporate ladder were pretty much nonexistent.
Tensions were growing.
And then, in 1790, this big ol' pot of issues started coming to a serious boil.
The year before, France's National Assembly had passed something called the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. This doc is still in use today (though it's been modified here and there over the years) and was inspired in part by the American Declaration of Independence. It basically asserts that all men are equal, that laws should only exist to protect the nation, and that individual freedoms and property rights are paramount. The document didn't specifically address slavery, but for the indentured population of Saint-Domingue, it didn't have to.
They were inspired.
They were so inspired that they tried to rebel, their efforts headed up by a wealthy land-owning Saint-Domingue resident named Vincent Oge. This brave dude went to the United States, got a bunch of weapons, and brought them back to the island. Once he'd armed his rebel fighters, they marched to Grand Riviere, where they were totally outnumbered and swiftly shut down by the local colonists.
Oge and his posse were eventually captured and executed, but that didn't deter the slaves of Saint-Domingue from continuing to fight.
In August 1791, 50,000 slaves and sympathizers, armed with machetes and scythes and boatloads of anger, swept across the northern part of Saint-Domingue, setting fire to every plantation they came across and torturing and murdering the families who owned them. There were a few plantation owners who managed to escape, but the damage was done: the stage for continued violence had been set.
Louverture's Overture
The French fought back once they regrouped, and the next few years on the island were brutal and bloody.
In the midst of the chaos, a Saint-Domingue man named Francois-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (just "Louverture" to his friends) stepped up to the plate. He organized and trained a guerilla army and initiated a prolonged series of attacks that led to several French villages surrendering to his cause.
By 1795, Louverture was in a position where he could begin to repair the intense damage the rebellion had done to his island. Now the lieutenant governor of Saint-Domingue and self-appointed general of the rebel army, he had the authority to start implementing some reforms.
In 1801, after his fancy governor-general status was confirmed by France's new leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, Louverture convened a constitutional convention and set about writing the Constitution of Saint-Domingue. This document abolished slavery, established Catholicism as the colony's official religion, and confirmed Saint-Domingue's status as a French colony.
It wasn't perfect, but Louverture and the rebels of Saint-Domingue felt like their little piece of paradise was heading in the right direction.
Not So Fast
Then, Napoleon started getting some other ideas.
For one, he was beginning to think that the only way Saint-Domingue would return to its former moneymaking glory was if slavery was reintroduced.
For two, he was eyeballing a little piece of land in America called the Louisiana Territory, which France had regained control of thanks to a secret treaty with Spain in 1800. To him, Louisiana was the perfect place to set up a French empire in the Americas, and he was all about French empires. Anyway, Saint-Domingue was a lot closer to America than France, and Napoleon was thinking it'd be the perfect place to stash troops and guns and stuff while he put his world domination plans into effect. Lousiana would be a perfect place to supply the goods and food needed to support the island's booming sugar production business.
And so, in December 1801, he sent 43,000 troops to Saint-Domingue, led by his bro-in-law, Charles Leclerc. Their mission: make sure that Saint-Domingue didn't get any funny ideas about independence from Franceand then move on to New Orleans and spread the same message there.
Boy, did that plan backfire.
David vs. GoliathAgain
Between the long journey there, the battles with Saint-Domingue's army, and yellow fever, all but a few thousand of those troops died, including Leclerc. And on January 1st, 1804, the colony of Saint-Domingue threw off its colonial coat and officially became the independent nation of Haiti.
What Napoleon thought would be a quick and decisive victory had turned into an embarrassing and painful defeat.
Furthermore, with most of his 43,000 soldiers dead and his other battalions stuck in an ice storm in the Netherlands, Napoleon realized he wasn't going to be able to set up shop in New Orleans like he'd originally planned.
The ice storm and the situation in Saint-Domingue didn't really last all that long, but they lasted long enough for Napoleon to start running out of money thanks to his other world domination adventures, therefore causing him to reconsider his takeover position on Louisiana. With Haiti lost, there was no longer any reason to hold on to Lousiana.
And so, because of a rebellious island population and disease-carrying mosquitoes, New Orleans was able to avoid falling victim to Napoleon's nefarious plans. And because of that, the United States was able to buy the Louisiana Territory from him at a very reasonable price.
Thanks, Haiti.
Not So Fast, Part II
Once news of the treaty got back to the United States, not everyone in Congress was in a ratifying mood. First of all, where in the Constitution did it say that the president could authorize the purchase of a ginormous amount of land without the consent of all the states? Nowhere, that's where, and Jefferson knew it. For a strict anti-federalist like T.J., this was a major abandonment of his Democratic-Republican Party's principles.
Should they really have to grant citizenship to a bunch of foreigners, especially those who didn't speak or look English? The New England states were so freaked out by the possible influence of all those new westerners that some of them even considered joining up with Canada and seceding from the Union (source).
Not to mention that some of the states carved out of the Louisiana Territory might cause conflict with the North. Making lots of new slave states out of the territory could swing the political balance of the Senate in a pro-slavery direction permanently. It might even lead to serious national divisions. That prediction came true big time.
It wasn't only the Northern free states that were worried; the Southern slave owners had paid close attention to that successful slave revolt in Haiti and didn't want to see their own slaves getting any ideas about revolution.
And anyway, $15 million was a huge chunk of change from the new nation's budget, no matter how sweet the deal.
The deal was ultimately ratified, of course; otherwise, why would you be reading a learning guide about it? Jefferson ignored the Constitutional questions and rammed the deal through, citing "practicable" concerns that trumped Constitutional purity (source).
Maybe he was just too excited about Mardi Gras and pain au chocolat.
Mishawaka youth give needy families reason to be thankful
Their effort was more challenging but also more important this year because of inflation.
Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin photographed this iconic photo, a view of his footprint in the lunar soil, as part of an experiment to study the nature of lunar dust and the effects of pressure on the surface during the historic first manned moon landing in July 1969.
The historic launch of the Apollo 11 mission carried three astronauts toward the moon. Two of them would set foot on the lunar surface for the first time in human history as millions of people around the world followed their steps on television.
The astronauts
The crew of Apollo 11 were all experienced astronauts who had been to space before.
Cmdr. Neil Armstrong had piloted Gemini 8; that mission was the first time two vehicles docked in space. Born Aug. 5, 1930, in Ohio, Armstrong was 38 when he became the first civilian to command two American space missions.
Col. Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, 39, was the first astronaut with a doctorate to fly in space. Born Jan. 20, 1930, in New Jersey, Aldrin piloted Gemini 12 in November 1966, and performed a 140-minute walk in space to demonstrate that an astronaut could work efficiently outside the vehicle. For Apollo 11, he served as the lunar module pilot.
The command module pilot, Lt. Col. Michael Collins, 38, was born in Italy on Oct. 31, 1930. Collins piloted Gemini 10 in July 1966, and spent almost 1.5 hours outside the craft on a spacewalk.
Apollo 11 crew: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. (Image credit: NASA)
From Earth to the moon
Mission planners at NASA studied the lunar surface for two years, searching for the best place to make the historic landing. They examined the best high-resolution photographs available at the time, from the Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor programs, and considered the number of craters and boulders, cliffs and hills at each prospective landing site, and how easy it would be for the astronauts to land given their fuel and time requirements. This helped the planners narrow down the initial 30 site candidates to three.
Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:32 a.m. Eastern time on July 16, 1969. While in flight, the crew made two televised broadcasts from the interior of the ship, and a third transmission as they drew closer to the moon, revealing the lunar surface and the intended approach path. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin entered the lunar module, nicknamed the "Eagle" and separated from the Command Service Module the "Columbia" and headed toward the lunar surface.
The lunar module touched down on the moon's Sea of Tranquility, a large basaltic region, at 4:17 p.m. Eastern time. Armstrong notified Houston with the historic words, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."
For the first 2 hours on the moon, Armstrong and Aldrin remained in the module and checked all of the systems, configured the craft for its stay on the moon and had a bite to eat. In consultation with NASA, they decided to skip their scheduled 4-hour rest and opted to go outside and explore the moon's surface instead.
A video camera installed in a panel inside the Eagle provided live coverage as Armstrong descended a ladder at 11:56 p.m. on July 20, 1969, and uttered the words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Aldrin followed 20 minutes later, with Armstrong taking images of his descent. Armstrong had the responsibility to document the landing, so most of the images taken from the Apollo 11 mission were of Aldrin. [NASA's Historic Apollo 11 Moon Landing in Pictures]
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin poses with the American flag on the surface of the moon in July 1969. (Image credit: NASA)
While on the surface, the astronauts set up several experiments, collected samples of lunar soil and rock to bring home, erected a United States flag and took core samples from the crust. They spoke with U.S. President Richard Nixon, whose voice was transmitted from the White House, and placed a plaque on the ground that stated:
HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH
FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969, A.D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND
The astronauts also laid down memorial medallions with the names of several astronauts and cosmonauts who had perished in flight and in training (including the Apollo 11 crew and the first person in space, Yuri Gagarin). They also left a 1.5-inch silicon disk with goodwill messages from 73 countries, and the names of congressional and NASA leaders.
Armstrong spent a little over 2.5 hours outside the Eagle. The astronauts traveled a total distance of about 3,300 feet (1 kilometer) as they walked around, traveling as far as 200 feet (60 meters) from the module to visit a large crater. They collected 47.51 lbs. (21.55 kilograms) of samples from the moon, and reported that mobility on the moon was easier than anticipated.
Neil Armstrong on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. (Image credit: NASA)
NASA's historic Apollo 11 moon mission landed the first astronauts on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. See how the mission worked in this Space.com infographic (Image credit: Karl Tate/SPACE.com )
At 1:54 p.m., having spent a total of 21.5 hours on the moon, the lunar module blasted back to where Collins waited in the Columbia. The two vehicles docked, and the crew and samples transferred to the Columbia before the Eagle was jettisoned into space. The astronauts then headed back home.
The team splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:50 p.m. Eastern time on July 24, only a few miles from the recovery ship, the U.S.S. Hornet. After donning biological isolation garments (on the off-chance that the astronauts carried back any harmful microbes from the moon), the crew left the Columbia and climbed into a rubber boat, where they were rubbed down with iodine in an effort to minimize potential contamination. They then traveled by helicopter to a Mobile Quarantine Facility aboard the ship before being taken to Houston where they remained in quarantine until Aug. 10. The men had completed the national goal set by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, to perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth.
Apollo 11's legacy
The Apollo 11 mission remains widely celebrated as it approaches its 50th anniversary in 2019. The U.S. Mint prepared special coins for the celebration.
The Smithsonian Institution is remodeling its moon gallery at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C., for a 2021 opening. Meanwhile, the newly restored Columbia spacecraft is on tour with stops in Houston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Seattle. It's the first time Columbia has been outside the Smithsonian since 1971.
In July 2009, the National Air and Space Museum hosted a gala for Apollo 11's 40th anniversary, which included speeches by the three crewmembers of Apollo 11. At an afternoon session in which Collins, Aldrin and Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean offered to sign autographs, the line of space enthusiasts and admirers quickly stretched across the length of the museum's floor. Collins and Aldrin still regularly make appearances for Apollo-related activities, despite both being in their late 80s.
Armstrong, 82, died on Aug. 25, 2012, from complications following cardiovascular procedures. A public memorial service was held Sept. 13 at Washington National Cathedral, and Armstrong was buried at sea the next day. In 2015, NASA announced that Armstrong's widow,Carol Armstrong, had found a bag full of lunar artifacts among Armstrong's belongings, which she donated to the museum.
Apollo 11 astronauts, still in their quarantine van, are greeted by their wives upon arrival at Ellington Air Force Base on July 27, 1969. (Image credit: NASA)
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the Apollo 11 landing site from space in 2012 and spotted the astronauts' tracks, some of the experiments, a discarded camera and the descent stage of the Eagle lunar module. A 3D view of the site based on the images from the orbiter was generated in 2014.
A lunar sample bag from Apollo 11 generated a legal dispute after it was accidentally sold at a Texas auction in 2015, held on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service. An Illinois woman, Nancy Carlson, bought the bag for $995. The U.S. government petitioned the courts to return the lunar sample bag to NASA and undo the sale, but Carlson was ruled the legal owner in 2016. Originally, the bag was confiscated from Max Ary, a former curator convicted in 2006 of stealing and selling space artifacts that belonged to the Cosmosphere space museum in Hutchinson, Kansas.
In anticipation of Apollo 11's 50th anniversary in July 2019, Universal Pictures released "First Man," a movie based on Armstrong's training journey to become the first man on the moon. And a new documentary about Apollo 11, directed by Todd Douglas Miller, premiered in March 2019. Additionally, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., has a number of special events and exhibits planned to celebrate Apollo 11's anniversary .
Additional resources:
This article was updated on May 9, 2019 by Space.com contributor Elizabeth Howell.
"Avatar" Director/Producer James Cameron floats weightless in Zero-G along with X PRIZE Trustees in a flight to raise funds for the X PRIZE Foundation. Left to right: Rob McEwen (Chairman, US Gold), James Cameron, Peter H. Diamandis (Chairman/CEO, X PRIZE), Elon Musk (Chairman/CEO, SpaceX), Jim Gianopulos (Chairman/CEO, Fox Filmed Entertainment). Full story.
The sensation of weightlessness, or zero gravity, happens when the effects of gravity are not felt. Technically speaking, gravity does exist everywhere in the universe because it is defined as the force that attracts two bodies to each other. But astronauts in space usually do not feel its effects.
The International Space Station, for example, is in perpetual freefall above the Earth. Its forward motion, however, just about equals the speed of its "fall" toward the planet. This means that the astronauts inside are not pulled in any particular direction. So they float.
Not having to bear weight on your feet sounds relaxing, but in the long term there are many health problems associated with it. Bones and muscles weaken, and other changes also take place within the body. One of the functions of the ISS is to study how astronaut health is affected by long periods in weightlessness.
Experiencing weightlessness
You don't have to leave Earth to (briefly) escape the bonds of gravity. Anyone who crested the top of the hill in a fast roller coaster, or who sat in a small plane pushed down suddenly by the wind, briefly experienced weightlessness.
More sustained periods are possible in planes that fly a parabola. NASA's reduced gravity flight program, for example, flies planes in a series of about 30 to 40 parabolas for researchers to conduct experiments on board. Each climb produces a force about twice the force of gravity for 30 seconds. Then, when the plane, also called the "Vomit Comet" because it makes some passengers nauseous, reaches the top of the parabola and descends, passengers feel microgravity for about 25 seconds. (If you want to experience this yourself, companies such as Zero G Corp. provide weightless joyrides in aircraft, for a price of course.)
The film crew and actors on the movie "Apollo 13" spent hours aboard a plane that flew parabolic flights over and over again. This allowed the actors to really "float" during their time in the movie spacecraft rather than relying on cumbersome wires.
Astronauts, however, experience weightlessness for much longer periods. The longest sustained time spent in space took place in 1994-95, when Valeri Polyakov spent almost 438 days in space.
Even a few days in space can present temporary health problems, as Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper discovered after spending two weeks in space during STS-115 in 2006. During a press conference after the landing, Piper collapsed, as she was not quite readjusted to gravity.
Temporary health effects
Weightlessness causes several key systems of the body to relax, as it is no longer fighting the pull of gravity. Astronauts' sense of up and down gets confused, NASA said, because the vestibular system no longer can figure out where the ground and the ceiling are. Spacecraft designers take this into account; the ISS, for example, has all of its writing on the walls pointing in the same direction.
Crewmembers also experience a disruption in their proprioceptive system, which tells where arms, legs and other parts of the body are oriented relative to each other. "The first night in space when I was drifting off to sleep," one Apollo astronaut said in a NASA interview, "I suddenly realized that I had lost track of ... my arms and legs. For all my mind could tell, my limbs were not there."
This disorientation can cause astronauts to become queasy for a few days. One famous example took place during Apollo 9 in 1969. Rusty Schweickart had to change a planned spacewalk because he was feeling ill. The concern was that if he vomited while in his spacesuit, the fluid could spread through his helmet (making it hard to see) or interfere with the breathing apparatus and cause him to potentially choke to death.
Spacecraft also must be designed to take microgravity into account. During spacewalks, for example, astronauts require extra handholds and footholds on the exterior of their spacecraft so that they can anchor themselves and not float away. (Astronauts also attach to them in tethers in case they lose their grip.)
Long-term health effects
Astronauts in space for weeks to months can run into trouble. Calcium in bones secretes out through urine. As the bones weaken, astronauts are more susceptible to breaking them if they slip and fall, just like people with osteoporosis. Muscles also lose mass.
But time on the International Space Station has helped NASA run studies on how astronaut health is affected by time in weightlessness. Already the agency has made changes. For example, it replaced the interim Resistive Exercise Device (iRED) with the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device in 2008, allowing astronauts to do weight-lifting without "maxing out" their top weight. ARED is linked to better outcomes in bone density and muscle strength, although all conclusions in space are hard to draw (in the general since) since the astronaut population is fit already and extremely small.
Astronauts typically have an allocated exercise period of two hours a day in space to counteract these effects; this time not only includes cardiovascular exercise and weight-lifting, but also time to change clothes and set up or take down equipment. Despite exercise, it still takes months of rehabilitation to adjust on Earth after a typical six-month space mission. More recently, doctors have discovered eye pressure changes in orbit. NASA has tracked vision changes in astronauts that were on the space station, but nothing so serious as to cause concern. Its cause is still under investigation, although one possible culprit includes spinal fluid that stays constant in microgravity instead of the normal shifting that takes place on Earth as you lie down or stand up. In addition to spinal fluid, a 2017 study tracked changes in both short-flight and long-flight astronauts. Some studies also point out that astronauts experience a slightly elevated level of carbon dioxide on the station because of the filtration system; that gas may also contribute to eye problems.
Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly participated in a rare, one-year mission to the International Space Station in 2015-16. His twin brother and former NASA astronaut Mark (who retired before Scott) agreed to participate, along with Scott, in several "twin experiments" to compare Scott's health in space with that of Mark's on the ground.
Preliminary results from one study released in October 2017 showed that different genes turn on or off in space. Other studies discussed earlier that year revealed subtle changes as well. For example, telomeres (which slow down chromosome deterioration) in Scott temporarily got longer in space. Scott also had a slight deterioration in cognitive ability (thinking speed and accuracy) and bone formation, although not enough to be concerning.
Scientists who work with microgravity health experiments note that often the changes seen in orbit mimic what happens as people naturally age, although often the processes are different. A group of Canadian researchers some of whom have expertise in space medicine have access to a long-term health facility for seniors at the University of Waterloo. There, researchers can measure seniors in their residences rather than bringing them into a lab, where the conditions are artificial and can mask or exaggerate certain health conditions.
NASA recently released this view from up above Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon. The image was taken by the Cassini spacecraft on May 2, 2017.
Rhea, an icy cratered moon that provided the first direct evidence of an oxygen atmosphere in the Saturn system, shines in its final image by the Cassini spacecraft.
The Cassini spacecraft explored Saturn and its many moons for 13 years before plunging into the ringed planet on Sept. 15 of this year. It was a cooperative mission conducted by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency.
The narrow-angle camera on the probe captured this bird's-eye view of Rhea's northern hemisphere on May 2, 2017. Cassini was "high above the plane of Saturn's rings" when it made its final observation of Rhea at a distance of about 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) from the moon, NASA officials said in a statement.
Rhea has a reflective surface because the moon is mostly made of ice, maintained by frigid temperatures: Sunlit areas are about minus 174 degrees Celsius (minus 281 degrees Fahrenheit), and regions in the dark can reach minus 220 degrees C (minus degrees 364 F), NASA officials said in the statement.
Rhea is the second largest moon in orbit around Saturn, at about 949 miles (1,527 kilometers) across, and was one of the four moons spotted in 1672 by astronomer Giovanni Cassini. Initially named "Saturn V," the moon was later renamed in 1847 to Rhea, the goddess wife of Cronos in Greek mythology. Cronos, in Roman mythology, was known as Saturn.
Rhea has an oxygen atmosphere that is about 5 trillion times less dense than Earth's atmosphere. Some scientists propose that the oxygen atmosphere is caused by the icy surface getting exposure to radiation from Saturn's magnetosphere, according to the statement.
Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us@Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Han Solo and Chewbacca punch the hyperdrive in "Star Wars" to go light speed. Why don't we have a real one yet?
With "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" opening today (Dec. 15), more than likely you're going to see at least one ship using hyperspace drive to travel faster than the speed of light. It's a staple of the "Star Wars" universe, dating back to the first movie in 1977, when Han Solo and his trusty band of renegades zipped between stars using the Millennium Falcon.
But is this hyperspace drive really a thing? Can you go faster than the speed of light? Like anything else in physics, the answer is complicated. The bottom line is maybe but only if we can figure out how to get around some technological obstacles. ["Star Wars" Spaceships: Vehicles from a Galaxy Far, Far Away]
The speed limit
The first problem with a hyperspace drive is anything with mass a starship, people, Wookiees cannot go faster than the speed of light without fancy physics (which we'll get into in a moment.) That's a rule from Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. Simply put, the problem is your Millennium Falcon would acquire an infinite mass when it approaches lightspeed. That would mean you'd need an infinite amount of energy to move it even more than the amount of energy used to blow up Alderaan. So that's a no-go.
But there's nothing in Einstein's equations that ban you from bending space to go faster than the speed of light. As you probably know, in our ordinary world we live in three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. (Some physicists call this space-time.) The sphere of space itself can and has traveled faster than the speed of light. For example, shortly after the Big Bang that formed our universe, space-time itself expanded (or inflated) faster than the speed of light.
The Alcubierre drive is a concept that takes advantage of bending space to make a ship go superfast even faster than light. There still are a lot of problems with the concept, so it only exists as a mathematical idea. In theory, the drive would cause space-time to contract in front of the starship, and space-time would expand behind it.
In separate interviews with Space.com, physicists Eric Davis (at EarthTech International) and Gerald Cleaver (with Baylor University) independently compared the phenomenon to a surfer on a wave. Imagine that the surfboard is a starship; the surfer is the crew. The surfer is standing (relatively) still on their surfboard while the wave moves toward the shore. In the same way, a starship would stay still in space-time while space-time warps around it. [Warp Speed? The Hype of Hyperspace]
Alcubierre drive limitations
But there are a lot of problems that physicists need to figure out before we can use the Millennium Falcon to escape Kylo Ren. Cleaver has looked into some of these problems in collaboration with Richard Obousy (who was then his graduate student and now works with Icarus Interstellar) and Jeff Lee (who is also at Baylor.)
The problem begins with putting the Falcon into ignition. "The amount of energy to start the process would have to be on part with the total mass-energy of the planet Jupiter," Cleaver said in an interview. "There have been proposals for alternatives, however, and if you can get that process going that is a technological issue." (Davis said the mass requirements range from the mass of the galaxy to the mass of the sun, but the principle still holds it's a lot of energy.)
But say you can overcome that and start your space-warping. The next problem is keeping the energy going. As the Alcubierre drive approaches the speed of light, photons from the cosmic microwave background that's the leftover radiation from the start of our universe will be absorbed into the starship. That's bad news for both the spaceship and the occupants on board.
"Those [photons] will get radically blueshifted in the direction of motion towards the destination star," Davis said in an interview, meaning that the ship will travel so fast that the photons will be compressed and their frequency will increase. "Then they will become super-intense radiation and kill everyone aboard the starship."
Meanwhile, the ship itself will start to stall due to a problem with space-time.
"There will be a continual energy loss due to the energy converted into the blueshift of photons," Cleaver said. "There has to be an energy source on board the ship to balance things, so that whatever energy is used for blueshifting has to be provided towards the front." So under that model, you'd need an extraordinary amount of energy to continue an amount that Cleaver doesn't think is technically feasible to produce.
A new hope?
Davis and Cleaver are collaborators, and Davis recently gave a presentation that dealt with variations of the Alcubierre drive while visiting Baylor. He mentioned some recent reading of his looking at a 2002 paper from C.B. Hart et al on the prepublishing site Arxiv, which often publishes papers during or before peer review. It's called "On the Problems of Hazardous Matter and Radiation at Faster than Light Speeds in the Warp Drive Space-Time." (Cleaver was not aware of the paper until recently and could not comment on it for this story.) [40 Surprising "Star Wars" Facts You Should Know]
Hart uses work from his own team, and summarizes several other physicists, to point out other problems with Alcubierre drives. One is the deadly potential for a ship even the Millennium Falcon if it smashes into an asteroid or some other object at near light-speed. Without some sort of shield, careening around space escaping the dark side of the Force would be a bad idea.
Also, the radiation surrounding the Alcubierre drive wouldn't allow the spaceship to communicate to anyone outside the bubble so forget telling your family that you'll be back on-planet for dinner. Worse, the physics of the situation doesn't even allow you to steer space-time to control where you're going.
But there are ways to modify the equations to get around some of these issues, according to Hart and some of the other authors cited in Hart's paper.
Hart cites physicist Chris Van Den Broeck (with the National Institute for Subatomic Physics in the Netherlands), who did a modification of Alcubierre's warp drive. In an interview, Davis said the math is too complicated to explain to a non-mathematician. But essentially, Van Den Broeck multiples a mathematical function by a part of the space-time metric that creates the warp drive. Result? It lowers the amount of energy required to make Alcubierre work. (In the case Van Den Broeck used, it lowered the energy from the mass of the galaxy to the mass of the sun. Still a big barrier, but certainly an improvement!)
Hart's group then did some more mathematical work and essentially made an Alcubierre warp drive with a bubble surrounding the bubble, according to Davis. Or in other words, a sort of a shield for the occupants inside.
"The effect of the interior warp bubble is to cure the problems of the exterior warp bubble. You don't have the dangerous radiation, or the problem with the starship not being able to communicate with the outside universe," he said. "It also drastically reduces the amount of negative energy to produce the warp drive."
Davis cited several variations of how the bubble's shielding would work, but the end result is usually the same as long as you can get the Alcubierre drive working, the shield might be able to protect it. Although, of course, more research is needed.
Tesseracting and EmDrive
If Alcubierre doesn't work, there are at least a couple of other ways you might be able to get the Millennium Falcon moving through space quickly and effectively.
The first is a wormhole, which is a theoretical connection between two points in space. (Some researchers say this could happen through a black hole, but nobody has observed this yet.) A classic example of how a wormhole works is explained in the Madeleine L'Engle book "A Wrinkle in Time" (1962), which will be retold in film in 2018.
In the book, the girl Meg learns about a concept called a "tesseract," which the book also refers to as a "wrinkle in time." Meg is asked to picture an ant marching along a sheet of paper. The sheet of paper represents time. You can shorten the ant's path simply by folding the paper folding space-time itself.
"If we have humans doing this, it's difficult to wrap our minds around how this works. We have intuition for a 3-D world and can't imagine a 4-D," acknowledged Patrick Johnson, a physics researcher at Georgetown University and author of the 2017 book "The Physics of Star Wars."
The problem is, he added, that a wormhole bends space-time, which generates a lot of energy. In the movie "Interstellar" (2014), the ship entered a wormhole near Saturn. "If a wormhole was that close to Saturn, that would tear Saturn to shreds," Johnson said, adding that the amount of energy required is "monstrously huge."
Another option is the EmDrive, a concept tested by NASA researchers and others that could make traveling through space much faster. We won't go too deep into the physics on this drive, but it essentially bounces microwaves around in a chamber and appears (somehow) to create thrust. Many researchers say this violates the laws of physics, although EmDrive has been tested by several groups and is the subject of at least one peer-reviewed paper. NASA EmDrive researcher Harold "Sonny" White's schedule did not allow for an interview before the deadline for this story had passed.
But whether or not hyperspace is possible in real life, it certainly is a lot of fun to play with in science fiction. "Star Wars," of course, is not alone in imagining traveling faster than the speed of light. Variants of warp speed are a staple of franchises such as "Star Wars," "Battlestar Galactica," "Farscape" and, of course, "Doctor Who," with its famous TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space).
Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
P olice are hunting a suspect after gay men were punched and told you are not welcome in east London.
One of the victims was punched to the ground and left with a black eye after he was attacked in Walthamstow late on evening.
Another victim was grappled with and told you are not welcome as he walked along the high street with his husband after a night out.
Police have released two e-fits based on detailed descriptions from both victims and are investigating the possibility that the attacks were carried out by the same man.
In the first attack on Sunday, October 8, the first victim, a 47-year-old man, was walking along Walthamstow High Street with his husband after a night out in Walthamstow Village.
They were approached by a man who asked them if he could take a picture of them and then asked if they were gay.
Police said the two men walked away but the suspect then grabbed hold of the victim and said "you are not welcome" and grappled with him.
The victim was then pulled away by his husband before they walked away and called police. He was not injured.
In the second attack on Saturday, November 4, the victim, a 31-year-old man, was walking along Hoe Street with two friends.
They were approached by three men who they did not know. One of them allegedly punched the victim in the face and shouted homophobic abuse at him. The attacker fled, police said.
The victim suffered a black eye and cuts and bruises but he did not need to go to hospital.
Scotland Yard said the victims, who were both left extremely shaken after the incidents, provided detailed descriptions of the attacker from which the two e-fits were produced.
A spokesman said: Based on these descriptions and the locations where the assaults happened, officers have not ruled out the possibility that the attacks may well have been carried out by the same man.
Any witnesses or anyone with any information is asked to call Waltham Forest police on 101 or contact via Twitter @MetCC or to give information anonymously contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org.
T wo knife thugs have been found guilty after a 15-year-old boy was left with horrific injuries when he was slashed with a deadly Zombie Killer blade during the worst violence at Notting Hill Carnival in a generation.
Jordan Clarke, 20, and Eddie Mobele, 24, attacked and stabbed three young men with a 12-inch Zombie Killer knife at the August Bank Holiday carnival in 2016.
A 15-year-old boy was stabbed in the abdomen, buttocks and arm on Wornington Road at about 4.15pm and almost died from his injuries.
He had emergency surgery and was in hospital for two weeks after the attack. Police said he only made a good recovery thanks to the skill of the surgeons who operated on him.
Notting Hill Carnival 2017 - day two 1 /28 Notting Hill Carnival 2017 - day two Two women wave for the cameras at the start of day two of Notting Hill Carnival REUTERS Carnival performers parade in the sunshine on the main Parade day of the Notting Hill Carnival AFP/Getty Images Hot stuff: Carnival-goers bask in what was predicted to be record levels of heat PA A woman dances in the sunshine at Carnival Rex Features A carnival performer poses for photos AFP/Getty Images A woman blows kisses to the camera as parades get underway on the second day of carnival AFP/Getty Images Carnival performers parade in the sunshine AFP/Getty Images A woman dances in the parade on day two of the 2017 Carnival REUTERS A woman gives a cheeky wiggle for photographers REUTERS Performers make their way to the start of the parade on the second and final day of the Notting Hill Carnival PA Dancers head to Carnival on the Tube Rex Features A dancer bares (almost) all ahead of the second day of Carnival PA There will be further commemorations for the Grenfell Tower victims later today PA Police officers pass performers ahead of the second day of Carnival PA Dancers from the Paraiso School of Samba observe their own minute's silence in memory of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire PA Performers prepare to take part in the parade PA Two women make their way to the start of the parade PA Juliana Campos and her nine-year-old daughter practice their moves before the start of the celebrations PA Four women in burlesque outfits get ready to wow the crowds at carnival PA Samba dancers prepare for their big day in the sun Rex Features Four dancers get ready to take part in the Carnival parade Rex Features
A 16-year-old boy was then knifed in the stomach and a second 15-year-old boy was stabbed in the leg at about 5.10pm in Ladbroke Grove.
The second 15-year-old victim needed stitches.
The attacks were three of at least seven separate stabbing incidents which blighted the annual parades 50th anniversary and led to fresh calls from residents and community leaders to consider moving the event into a park where crowds can be more easily controlled.
Sadiq Khan refuses to move Notting Hill Carnival
More than 400 arrests were made across the two-day Bank Holiday street party in 2016. More than 300 arrests were made at the carnival in 2017 following a mass operation by police ahead of the festival.
One of the victims identified Mobele and Clarke from images posted on Instagram, while another described Clarke because of the distinctive scar over his left eye.
Two weeks after the attack, officers executed search warrants at their addresses and arrested the man and seized the Rambo knife which had been used in all three stabbings.
Clarke, of Adair Road, west London, was found guilty of three counts of causing grievous bodily harm and possession of a zombie knife following a trial at the Old Bailey on Friday.
Mombele, of Talbot Road, also west London, was found guilty of three counts of causing grevious bodily harm and possession of a flick knife.
They will be sentenced on Thursday, December 21.
Detective Inspector Driss Hayoukane, of the Mets Notting Hill post-investigation team, said: I would like to pay tribute to the bravery of all three victims of these horrendous assaults. They all stood up and gave evidence in court against their attackers.
Sunday at Notting Hill Carnival is traditionally Childrens Day a happy event to be enjoyed by thousands of children and their families however, these two men came to Carnival armed with a zombie knife and a flick knife, intent on seriously injuring innocent Carnival goers.
During the trial, Clarke did not give evidence and Mombele gave evidence denying the offences and blaming Clarke for the assaults. One of the victims spent two weeks in hospital and it is only due to the skill of the surgeons that he has made a good recovery.
The judge commended the investigation and in particular the officer in the case, PC Sam Hart, for her efforts in bringing Mombele and Clarke to justice.
A man who was abandoned in a box on Oxford Street as a baby 74 years ago has finally traced his birth family.
Robin King, 74, was also reunited with the man who found him when he was left outside a department store in the middle of the Blitz on October 20 in 1943.
He only discovered he was adopted at the age of four when he was 13.
The story was first reported by BBC Points West.
After years of searching, Mr King, who worked as a town planner and later an architect, has discovered who his biological parents were but he will never know why they abandoned him as they have died.
He also gained three siblings and met Trevor Hill who is now 91 and found him on the street in central London all those years ago. Mr Hill was an engineer at the department store at the time and found the baby wrapped in a blanket in a box near to the front entrance.
Mr King, who grew up in Woolwich, initially ran away from home with a friend and slept rough in Southend after finding his adoption papers at the house he lived in with his adoptive parents Fred and Elsie King.
He was eventually picked up by the police and travelled back to London on the train.
Mr King, who married in his 20s and had two daughters after moving to Peterborough, applied for a passport and discovered he had been left at the Peter Robinson department store and named after it. His first name being Robin and middle name Peter.
Over 20 years from 1996 and with the help of his two daughters Michaela and Lorraine, he managed to trace his brother Grant who was in Canada.
"I would never have got to where I did today without my family. I really love my two girls, they were the only people with a biological connection to me," he told the BBC.
He told Mr King his parents were Canadian airman Douglas Jones and his wife Agnes, who had met in Glasgow, Scotland, before settling in their fathers native Canada. His parents were already married when they abandoned him.
Mr King also discovered he had two sisters, Karen, who was born 14 years after him and Peggy.
He also found out that he had been celebrating his birthday on the wrong day and that he had been born on October 10 and not October 6.
Mr King told the BBC: It's astounding to see what Lorraine did through trial and error. But there are certain things I will never know about my past.
D avid Cameron is to take on a role leading a billion dollar investment initiative between the UK and China.
The former prime minister played a key role in leading efforts to boost trade links with Beijing while he was in Downing Street and Chancellor Philip Hammond welcomed his new role during an official visit to China.
Mr Cameron will take charge of the 750 million fund to improve ports, roads and rail networks between China and its trading partners, the BBC reported.
The private fund is supported by the British Government but will not involve any taxpayers' money.
Its launch was announced as part of a series of deals hailed by Chancellor Philip Hammond during a trade visit to China.
A spokesman for Mr Cameron said the former prime minister's role had been discussed with the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which considers roles taken up by ex-ministers.
"David Cameron remains very proud of his work as prime minister launching the 'Golden Era' between the UK and China with President Xi, and strengthening the UK/China trade and investment relationship," the spokesman said.
"In an effort to build on that work out of office, he wishes to play a role in a new UK-China bilateral investment fund that will invest in innovative and sustainable growth opportunities in both the UK and China to create jobs and further boost trade links.
"Having now received official advice from Acoba, work is continuing on establishing the fund - including holding discussions with a number of financial institutions in the UK and China. There is still a lot of work to do."
Around 1.4 billion worth of commercial deals were announced at the UK-China economic and financial dialogue in Beijing attended by Mr Hammond.
The measures included accelerating the final preparations for the London-Shanghai "stock connect" initiatives which will mean investors in each country will be able to trade shares listed on the other's stock exchange.
Mr Hammond said: "These successful talks are an example of global Britain at its best, demonstrating that we can work with our friends and partners across the world to support jobs, businesses and prosperity.
"This is testament to our strong and dynamic economy, and the world class talent and expertise we have to offer.
"These talks show the UK is truly open for business and we look forward to continuing the golden era of UK-China relations."
Additional reporting by Press Association.
T heresa Mays Government could back a measure which would give ministers the power to change the Brexit departure date.
In a bid to avoid a repeat of her humiliating Commons defeat on Wednesday, the PM is said to have agreed a compromise deal within the ranks of her own party over calls to write the EU leaving date in law.
Another in-party revolt had been brewing over the Governments plan to enshrine the Brexit deadline of March 29, 2019 into British legislation, a move which many rebel MPs believe could remove the option to extend talks.
But Mrs May might be able to see off a second revolt with the behind-the-scenes compromise.
Theresa May with Jean-Claude Juncker on December 8, after agreeing first stage talks had resulted in a deal. / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The concession would still write the date into law but with the option to postpone it if negotiations with Brussels look set to take longer than expected. Parliament would have to agree to allow ministers to change the date.
The Government is understood to be "looking closely" at the amendment, tabled by MPs including Remain supporter Sir Oliver Letwin and Brexiteer Bernard Jenkin.
The suggestion has been supported by some of the rebels who voted against the Government earlier this week.
On Wednesday the PM suffered her first major Commons defeat over the EU Withdrawal Bill after Parliament voted for an amendment which would give MPs a meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal.
Brexit secretary David Davis had promised Parliament a take it or leave it vote over the agreement but Conservative backbenchers were not satisfied and wanted the vote guaranteed in law.
A packed House of Commons voted on the EU Withdrawal Bill amendment on Wednesday. / AFP/Getty Images
Former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan, one of the rebels who helped inflict Mrs May's first Commons defeat on Wednesday, gave her support to the compromise over the Brexit date.
She said the new amendment "demonstrates how all Conservative MPs can work together" to deliver the best possible Brexit and reflects the flexibility within the Article 50 withdrawal process.
The amendment also emphasises that "Parliament will be fully involved in Brexit", she said.
Rebel with a cause: MP for Beaconsfield Dominic Grieve who was behind Wednesday's revolt. / Matt Writtle
But a senior Leave-supporting Tory said the rebels had now accepted that Government ministers are in control of setting the Brexit date.
"It is very reasonable for the Bill to mirror Article 50 more closely, but they have had to give up scrapping the date altogether and to accept that the Government remains in control of the date," the MP said.
In an apparent indication of the efforts to find a compromise, Tory Chief Whip Julian Smith sent a cryptic tweet of an image of a telephone with a reference to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding and the message "great news and great example - agreeing the date shouldn't be hard".
It comes hours after Mrs May received a boost in Brussels as the 27 other EU countries formally agreed to allow negotiations to proceed to their second phase.
Her target was described as "realistic" but "dramatically difficult" to achieve by the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker had already warned the hardest part of the talks are still to come.
Boris Johnson: Commons defeat will not stop Brexit
The EU27 confirmed Brussels' position that a final trade deal cannot be signed until the UK has formally left.
The four-page document also sets out the process for agreeing the terms of a transition period expected to last two years after the date of Brexit.
On Saturday, Tory Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg warned the prime minister not to accept the two year transition deal which would leave the UK as a "colony of Brussels.
"We cannot be a colony of the European Union for two years from 2019 to 2021, accepting new laws that are made without any say-so of the British people, Parliament or Government," he told BBC's Newsnight.
"That is not leaving the European Union, that is being a vassal state of the European Union, and I would be very surprised if that were Government policy."
M ore than half of all UK pets will receive Christmas presents this year, new data shows.
Pet owners will spend an average of 13 on their pampered pets with one in ten claiming that their pets are more appreciative of gifts than family members.
The independent survey commissioned by Amazon found that people in the north east of England are the most indulgent of their pets with 72 per cent of owners giving their furry friends between one to three gifts.
Over 74 per cent of people will be buying gifts for their dogs with the top presents including dog bow ties and reindeer Christmas collars.
In the UK, more than 74 per cent of presents are for dogs / Jeff Moore
In London, cats are the most spoiled, with 90 per cent of owners purchasing Christmas gifts for their feline friends.
Amazon teamed up with Battersea Dogs & Cats Home to deliver a Christmas donation delivering gifts to all of the charitys residents.
Gemma Smith, Batterseas Canine Behaviourist and Training Advisor said: Its no surprise to hear the nations pets will be waking up to a magical Christmas this year, with lots of presents waiting for them under their Christmas tree. Unfortunately, this isnt the case for the dogs and cats in our care and the best present we could give them this year is a loving new home,
She continued: Were grateful to Amazon for kindly donating presents to help bring some festive cheer to our homeless dogs and cats looking for a family this Christmas.
A girl thought to be abducted by her schizophrenic mother in breach of a judge's order might be in the London area, her grandfather says.
Elliana Shand, who has been at the centre of private family court litigation, and her mother Jessica Richards, 26, vanished during the summer after social services staff at Barking and Dagenham Council intervened.
Her grandfather, estate agent Sean Doyle, 51, says Elliana and her mother, who were living in the Barking area of east London, may still be in or around the capital.
Mr Doyle, a Liverpool fan who campaigns for victims of the Hillsborough disaster, has urged anyone with information to call police.
"Please think if you have seen them," said Mr Doyle, whose son Craig, 29, of Southend, Essex, is Elliana's father.
"They both need to be found as a matter of urgency."
A judge overseeing Elliana's case at hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London appealed for help finding the youngster and her mother in November.
Mr Justice Hayden said he was "very concerned indeed" for Elliana's safety.
On Friday he gave Mr Doyle permission to make more media appeals for help and to release a photograph of Elliana's mother.
"Good news at last," added Mr Doyle, who comes Liverpool but now lives with wife Eileen, 52, in the Wembley area of London, in a Facebook post.
"The judge has decided that Jessica's picture can now be released to the press and that we can also talk to (journalists)."
"The judge was brilliant and is defo a fella not to be messed with."
He added: "This is ... about Jessica getting the help she needs and Elliana getting a stable home while her mum gets better."
A ustrias new coalition government of conservatives and far-right nationalists has pledged to tighten up the countrys immigration rules - but added the country will not have its own Brexit.
The countrys government will be sworn in on Monday after the two parties agreed a deal late on Friday night.
Sebastian Kurz, head of the Austrian People's Party, will become chancellor, which will make him Europe's youngest leader at the age of 31.
Entering into coalition with him will be the far-right anti-immigration Freedom Party, whose leader Heinz-Christian Strache will become vice chancellor. His party colleagues will run the defence, health and social security ministries.
"This can be the basis for real change in Austria," Mr Kurz told reporters, introducing the government agreement which was released on Saturday.
The new chancellor Sebastian Kurz and vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache. / REUTERS
The new government will maintain a firm commitment to the European Union, forbidding any referendums similar to Brexit despite the Freedom Party being euro-sceptic.
"Only in a strong Europe can there also be a strong Austria, in which we are able to take advantage of the opportunities of the 21st century," the document reads.
The People's Party-Freedom Party partnership is expected to move the country to the right. Both campaigned on the need for tougher immigration controls, quick deportations of asylum-seekers whose requests are denied and a crackdown on radical Islam.
Future Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz will be the youngest European leader. / AFP/Getty Images
The coalition agreement calls for bolstering the country's police forces with another 2,100 officers, as well as immigration policies that "can be sustained by the population." It also says asylum should only be offered to people "for the duration of their persecution, who really need Austria's help"
The conservative Peoples Party finished first in the country's October 15 election, winning 32 per cent of the vote and securing 62 of the 183 national council seats.
Its leader Mr Kurz then embarked on coalition talks with the right-wing Freedom Party, which came in third after the center-left Social Democrats.
Mr Kurz is the foreign minister in the outgoing government under Chancellor Christian Kern, a Social Democrat. He has stressed the importance of a pro-European direction and is expected to continue to take the lead on European issues.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said after he was presented with the coalition agreement and minister choices earlier Saturday that he saw no issues preventing the new government from being sworn in.
Following meetings with Mr Kurz and Mr Strache, Mr Van der Bellen said he'd been assured a "pro-European" focus was central to that of the new government.
"In these talks, among other things, we agreed it is in the national interest of Austria to remain at the centre of a strong European Union and to actively participate in the future development of the European Union," he said.
T he Trump administration has banned a US health agency from using science-based words" including transgender and foetus in any official documents being prepared for the budget.
Centres for Disease Control officials informed policy analysts of the list of the forbidden words and phrases at the CDC on Thursday in a 90 minute meeting, the Washington Post reported.
Words included on the list are vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender and foetus.
The administration has reportedly prohibited analysts from using the phrases on official documents in the 2019 budget which is expected to be released in February.
Instead of using the words science-based or evidence-based, analysts were informed that they could use the phrase CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes.
An analyst attending the meeting at the CDC in Atlanta told the Post that that it is likely that other branches of President Trumps health department are adhering to the same list of banned words.
He said that the ban was met with shock by other analysts.
It was very much, Are you serious? Are you kidding? he said.
In my experience, weve never had any pushback from an ideological standpoint, he continued.
The Post reported that news of the ban on certain words has not been broadcast to the broader group of scientists at the CDC, but the analyst anticipated that it would provoke a backlash.
Our subject matter experts will not lay down quietly this hasnt trickled down to them yet.
Mr Trump has previously been criticised for rejecting evidence-based science, particularly in regards to its stance on climate change.
In June 2017, he announced plans to pull the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
T housands of Romanians lined the streets of Bucharest for the funeral of the countrys former King Michael, one of the last surviving World War Two European heads of state.
Born in 1921, Michael ruled Romania twice and switched its alliance away from Nazi Germany to the Allied side during the war.
He was subsequently forced into exile by a Communist takeover in 1947.
The former monarch died in Switzerland on December 5 at the age of 96, having retired from public life due to severe illness in 2016.
Britain's Prince Charles, left, wipes his face as former Spanish Queen Sofia, right, looks on / PA
On Saturday, Bucharest churches rang their bells and mourners, many in tears, threw white flowers at the funeral procession, chanting "King Michael" and: "Down with communism".
European royalty attended including Spain's former king, Juan Carlos, Britains Prince Charles, King Carl Gustaf of Sweden and his wife Queen Silvia.
Even though the restoration of the monarchy is not an issue in the EU state, Michael commanded great respect from Romanians who saw him in sharp opposition to a political class which they link to poverty and corruption.
His death comes at a time of deep divisions in Romanian society. Massive street protests against attempts by the ruling Social Democrats to weaken the fight against corruption and the rule of law have taken place throughout 2017.
From left, Belgium's Prince Lorenz, Princess Astrid, Princess Muna al-Hussein of Jordan, Greece's Queen Anne Marie, Britain's Prince Charles, former Spanish royals, Queen Sofia, King Juan Carlos I, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, Sweden's Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf. / AP
Earlier this month, the party used their solid majority to approve a judicial overhaul in the lower house that threatens to put the justice system under political control.
On Monday, lawmakers begin debating changes to the criminal code that critics say will derail law and order.
A descendant of the German Hohenzollern dynasty and a cousin of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, Michael was in his early twenties when he participated in a 1944 coup that overthrew fascist leader Marshal Ion Antonescu.
Romania then broke with Nazi Germany and switched to the Allied side.
Historians have said his actions might have shortened the war and saved thousands of lives.
After communism collapsed, politicians fearing Michael's influence blocked his first few attempted visits after decades of exile in Switzerland, Britain and the United States. He finally returned to Romania in 1992 and regained citizenship in 1997.
Additional reporting by Press Association
A 24-hour walk-out by Irish Ryanair plans has thrown thousands of Brit's Christmas plans into turmoil.
Many passengers have accused the airline of keeping them in the dark over whether an upcoming strike would affect their flights.
The Irish Air Line Pilots' Association announced on Tuesday that 79 Ryanair pilots will strike for one day on Wednesday December 20 - with just five days to go before Christmas.
Despite a wave of complaints and queries, customers accused the budget airline of failing to make clear exactly how the strike could impact those expecting to fly between the UK and Ireland on Wednesday.
A standard Ryanair Boeing 737-800 plane can ferry 189 passengers at a time, with the day's eight round-trips penned in between Dublin and Stansted due to ferry more than 3,000 travellers alone.
Ms Carvalho plans to take her 10-month-old son home for Christmas / Belinda Carvalho
Belinda Carvalho, 31, booked flights for her and her husband Adrian to Cork in February, hoping to spend her newborn son Xavier's first Christmas with her extended family.
When Ms Carvalho, a librarian who lives in Walthamstow, heard news of the upcoming strike, she, like hundreds of others online, contacted Ryanair to ask if she should rearrange her travel plans.
The new mum says the company failed to clarify whether or not her specific flight would be affected - saying they would deal with disruptions "if or when they arise" - and added that she was told it would cost 400 to re-book.
She has since booked new flights with a different airline.
She told the Standard: "It's really weird. I just wanted them to be straight with me about what was going on instead of just leaving me hanging.
Hundreds of customers asked Ryanair for clarification / Twitter
"Obviously I've really been looking forward to spending Christmas time with my family, and there's an engagement party we're due at on the 21st...We just couldn't take the risk."
Chloe Markham, an online merchandising manager based in London, said she was frustrated with Ryanair's apparent inaction.
She said: "I've got a flight from London Stansted to Shannon on Wednesday. If flights are going to be cancelled I need to know as soon as possible so I can make other arrangements.
"Surely I'll be reimbursed if so? I don't want another automated response - I need an answer."
When the Standard contacted Ryanair for further details, a spokesman said: "We have nothing further to add to our statement."
The firm's original statement reads: "Ryanair will deal with any disruptions (at Dublin on December 20) if and when they arise.
"We apologise sincerely to our customers for any worry this threatened action by less than 28 per cent of our Dublin pilots may cause."
The airline released a fresh statement on Thursday promising to publish a "contingency plan".
It read: "Ryanair will publish contingency plans to minimise...disruptions for our customers on Monday December 18 on our website.
"We apologise sincerely to our customers for any worry or concern that this threatened action...may cause them.
"Rest assured we will do everything we can to minimise disruption for our customers."
T he United Nations Security Council is considering whether to declare Donald Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital city as null and void.
The UN Security Council which works to maintain international peace circulated a draft resolution to its 15 members on Saturday, Reuters news agency reported.
Despite not specifically mentioning President Trumps recent decision, the document states that any actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of Jerusalem have no legal effect and must be withdrawn.
Earlier this month the US President flouted warnings from around the globe and promised to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as he declared the holy city Israels capital.
Palestinians hang an effigy bearing a poster of US President Donald Trump in Gaza City this week. / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Despite urgent appeals from Arab and European leaders, Mr Trump said it was time for a new approach to the Middle-Eastern crisis.
It sparked mass protests among Palestinians who claim the US decision shatters hopes for peace in the war-torn region.
Mr Trump holds up a proclamation that the US government will formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. / Getty Images
According to Reuters, the UN Security Council members are considering the one-page Egyptian-drafted text. Diplomats believe support for the motion is broad but Washington will likely veto it.
A Security Council resolution needs nine votes to be passed and no veto from any of the five permanent members, which includes China, France, the UK, Russia and the US.
Protests erupt after Trump's Jerusalem decision 1 /62 Protests erupt after Trump's Jerusalem decision Palestinian protestors clash with Israeli forces near an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank city of Ramallah AFP/Getty Images Israeli forces take position during clashes with Palestinian protestors near an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank city of Ramallah AFP/Getty Images Palestinian protesters burn an effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump AP AFP/Getty Images Palestinians burn posters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump, during a protest against the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, in Gaza City AP Israeli forces disperse Palestinian protestors outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City AFP/Getty Images Palestinian youths take part in a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Pakistanis burn a representation of the U.S. flag during a protest rally in Hyderabad, Pakistan AP Palestinian protestors set fire to a picture of US president Donald J. Trump during a protest in the West Bank City of Nablus EPA Smoke billows from burning tyres as Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops AFP/Getty Images Palestinian youths take part in a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Jordanian police stand guard near the American Embassy in Amman, Jordan REUTERS Palestinian demonstrators clash with Israeli troops during protests in the West Bank city of Ramallah AFP/Getty Images Palestinians paint an 'X' over the face of a picture of US president Donald J. Trump on the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem, West Bank EPA Supporters of a Pakistani religious party rally against the United States and Israel, in Lahore, Pakistan AP A supporter of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) an Islamic organization burns US flags Reuters A view from Armon Hanaziv promenade on the old city of Jerusalem, EPA Palestinian protesters chant angry slogans as one burns a representation of the American flag AP Palestinian protestors shout slogans against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Nablus AFP/Getty Images Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim leader Moqtada al-Sadr gestures as he delivers a speech over U.S.President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Baghdad, Iraq Reuters Children stand on U.S. and Israeli flags during a protest following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, in Islamabad, Pakistan Reuters Protests erupt in Middle East after Donald Trump declares Jerusalem capital of Israel AP Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh gestures as he delivers a speech over U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City Reuters Protesters chant anti-American slogans in Gaza city AP Young Palestinians wave flags in protest at Mr Trump's decision in Gaza EPA People gather in protest to wave flags and chant in Gaza EPA Protesters pray in the street outside the US Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey Getty Images The Christmas tree in front of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity had its lights turned off in protest EPA Protesters burn posters of Donald Trump in Manger Square, Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images A demonstration against the US and Israel at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul AFP/Getty Images Protesters wave Palestinian and Turkish flags during a demonstration in Istanbul AFP/Getty Images Protesters burn the Israeli flag in Cairo, Egypt EPA Pro-Palestinian protesters in Berlin, Germany EPA Palestinians burn Israeli and US flags and posters of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during protest against the US intention to move its embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip EPA Protesters wave flags and shout slogans outside the U.S. Consulate on December 6, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey Getty Images The Hamas organization's top leader Sheikh Ismaeil Haneiya (C) attends a protest against the US decision to recognize the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City, Gaza Strip EPA US President Donald J. Trump signs his proclamation about his controversial decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and his plan to relocate the US embassy to that city, in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington, DC EPA The US and Israeli flags hang at the entrance of Jerusalem Municipality building following US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise the city as the capital of Israel AFP/Getty Images Christian worshipers carry a wooden cross through an alley of Jerusalem's old city EPA Israeli policemen scuffle with a Palestinian man during a protest following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses an international conference on digital diplomacy at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem AFP/Getty Images Palestinians shout slogans during a protest following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters Protesters chant slogans and wave Palestinian flags during a demonstration against the US and Israel in front of the US consulate in Istanbul AFP/Getty Images Palestinians take part in a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images A wounded Palestinian protester is evacuated during clashes with Israeli troops at a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, near the border with Israel in the southern Gaza Strip Reuters Israel policemen stand guard at the Damascus gate of Jerusalem's old city EPA Palestinian youths take part in a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images
The council is expected to vote on the resolution early next week.
The draft document affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council."
Donald Trump: It's time to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital
Jerusalem is important as it has significance for three of the worlds major religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Israel sees the whole of Jerusalem as its indivisible capital. After the modern state of Israel was set up in 1948, its government was based in the west of the city.
But in 1967, Israelis captured and annexed the eastern part of the city, including the Old City. Its annexation of East Jerusalem is not internationally recognised and leaders have agreed that the final status of the city should be resolved through negotiations.
Israel wants to be recognised as the full sovereign of Jerusalem. But Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.
Officials from the G5 Sahel (the semi-desert area between the Sahara and the jungle) Joint Force countries (Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad) met in France with their five primary sponsors (France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia and the UAE) to discuss financing and other forms of support. The G5 force consists of 5,000 troops from Sahel member nations with the sponsors providing equipment, trainers and about half a billion dollars to pay for maintenance, supplies, base upgrades and so on. The Americans are contributing $60 million (so far) and the rest is expected to come from European nations. The G5 Force has already carried out some operations by the end of 2017 but wants to be a lot more active in 2018.
What was unusual about this meeting is the presence of Saudi Arabia and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) who rarely support counter-terrorism operations as partners with Western nations and going after Sunni Islamic extremists. Not only did the two Arab states pledge over $150 million to the G5 force but their media, particularly Saudi media, are now condemning Sunni Islamic terrorist attacks on non-Moslems in the G5 Sahel countries.
The G5 Force is seen as a necessary response to the spread of Islamic terrorist activity in the Sahel. In Mali the Islamic terrorism is spreading from the north to central Mali, mainly because Islamic terrorist smuggling routes but also because of the endemic friction between the Fulani tribes of central Mali and just about every other group they come into contact with. Like the Tuareg up north, the Fulani are a minority (about 14 percent of the population) and seen as outsiders by many other Mali tribes. There are some twenty million Fulani living in the Sahel and some of those in northern Nigeria have become involved in Islamic terrorism via the local Boko Haram. News of that spread to other Fulani in the region and created a response. There are over two million Fulani in Mali and the name of a recently formed Islamic terror group in the central Mali (FLM for Macina Liberation Front) openly identifies with the Fulani (Macina are the local branch of the Fulani).
FLM became active in early 2015 and claimed responsibility for a growing number of attacks since. It started out with calls for Fulani people to live according to strict Islamic rules. That in turn led to violence against tribal and village leaders who opposed this. That escalated to attacks on businesses and government facilities. FLM is composed mostly of young Fulani men and is associated with the older al Qaeda affiliate Ansar Dine. Although most Malians are Moslem, few want anything to do with Islamic terrorism and Boko Haram was seen as a major mistake and not welcome at all in Mali. Not so for the Fulani, whose violence in Nigeria was mostly against farmers, who were largely Christian. In Mali the Fulani clashed with farmers who were largely Moslem. Land and cattle were always important but Islamic terrorism, especially when it dominates a lucrative business (smuggling drugs, weapons and people) and welcomes recruits who know how to move around.
The Fulani have always seen themselves as a people apart, an attitude common with the nomadic peoples of the Sahel. The Fulani believe they originally migrated from North Africa and the Middle East. Fulani have lighter skin, thinner lips and straighter hair than other black Africans in sub-Saharan Africa and are also Moslem. Most sub-Saharan Africans are Christian or follow ancient local religions but in Mali nearly everyone is Moslem. Fulani have also been involved with smuggling for a long time, in large part because many are still nomadic and the Fulani dont really believe in borders. Al Qaeda continues to thrive in central and north Africa because the Islamic terrorists have taken over a lot of the smuggling operations and been attracting many Fulani recruits.
Fulani in general were the biggest supporters of the new JNIM (Jamaah Nusrah al Islam wal Muslimin, or Group for the support of Islam and Moslems) that was formed in early 2017. In part this was a reaction to the growing threat from ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) which is hostile to everyone who is not ISIL and will attack or recruit from the JNIM members AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), Ansar Dine, FLM and al Mourabitoun (an al Qaeda splinter group). Another reason for merger was to make it easier to pool resources (including information and advice) and coordinate with other Islamic terror groups in the area. This reduces friction and needless feuding. Making a coalition like this work is always difficult, especially considering the importance of ethnic differences. The FLM is Fulani while the other groups are largely Tuareg, Arab and some are largely foreigners. Note that JNIM did not absorb all of AQIM or al Mourabitoun, just local groups that had long been identified with al Qaeda. Al Mourabitoun is believed to have largely rejoined al Qaeda. Internal politics for Islamic terror groups is a lot messier than these religious zealots like to admit. Thats mainly because each group believes they are uniquely qualified to be the supreme leader of all Islam. Coping with this aspect of Islamic radicalism has proved burdensome and ultimately becomes a major reason for Islamic terror movements to fail and fade away (via desertion and other forms of self-destruction). The new JNIM is more heavily influenced by its Fulani component and that is another reason for more attacks in central Mali, which has long been the scene of conflict with Fulanis.
The Danger Zone
The UN is eager to get additional support for counter-terrorism and peacekeeping in the Sahel. Mali is a special case because it has become the most dangerous peacekeeping operation in Africa. Since 2013 nearly a hundred peacekeepers have died in Mali. Most of these deaths occurred in the north, where there has been l0ts of violence since (and before) the peacekeepers arrived in early 2013. The peacekeepers are mainly African and the action in Mali creates a casualty rate more than double the rate for peacekeepers worldwide. The main reason for all this violence is money. Most AQIM Smuggling routes move through Mali and while locals can usually be bribed to look the other way the foreign peacekeepers and counter-terror units tend to refuse or resist bribes and that causes friction. Meanwhile all those foreign troops make it easier (or at least safer) for foreign aid donors to monitor where their aid is going and that makes it more difficult for local officials to plunder the foreign aid. Such widespread corruption has always been a source of general discontent among all Malians. All this has turned landlocked Mali into something of a hotspot.
December 10, 2017: In the north (outside Timbuktu) AQIM gunmen clashed with a local Tuareg militia, leaving six of the Tuareg dead. While some Tuareg are willing to take the bribe to allow AQIM smugglers to pass, many do not and AQIM does not always take the hint that an alternate route should be used.
December 8, 2017: In central Mali five men installing fiber optic cable for a Chinese telecom company were kidnapped and later murdered. Four of the dead were from Mali while the other was from Togo.
The UN agreed to let its 13,000 strong Mali peacekeeping force cooperate with the new G5 Sahel Force. The UN needs all the help it can get and found working with the 4,000 French Sahel counter-terror operation useful, especially since nearly all those troops were French and had access to more air support and air transport.
November 29, 2017: In the far north, on the Algerian border, Algerian troops finding another batch of weapons and ammunition hidden by smugglers before movement into Mali or further north into populated areas of Algeria. This year the flow has been increasingly into Mali and this is the second such batch of weapons found near the border this month. The smugglers have to be more careful because of increased Algerian patrols along its southern borders and increased surveillance by French led counter-terror forces in northern Mali and similar areas to the east and west.
November 28, 2017: In the southwest, on the border with Guinea, local gold miners from both countries fought for two days over control of newly discovered gold deposits that extend across the border. The fighting lasted two days and left 17 dead (most of them from Mali). A similar border skirmish occurred in 2015 when three Mali miners were killed.
November 24, 2017: In the east (Menaka on the Niger border) Islamic terrorists ambushed a patrol and killed three peacekeepers from Niger and a Mali soldier. Three of the attackers were killed before the rest fled. Later in the day Islamic terrorists attacked a peacekeeper convoy in central Mali (Mopti) with a roadside bomb and RPG rockets, killing one of the peacekeepers (from Burkina Faso) guarding the convoy and wounding several others.
Lebanese interior minister Nohad Machnouk on Friday set up a long-delayed parliamentary election to be held under new rules for May 6 next year.
Parliament had extended its own mandate three times since its current members were elected in 2009 for what was meant to be a four-year term.
A new law creates a proportional representation system for parliament and alters the number of districts from which MPs are elected.
The election will also be the first where the large number of Lebanese citizens abroad can vote. When registration closed in late November 92,810 had registered to cast their ballot, the foreign minister said at the time.
Mr Machnouk said Lebanese abroad would be able to vote on April 22 and 28.
Lets face it: Your website is central to your e-commerce business. Theres no way around that. Upgrading your website is one of the most important things you can do to bring in new customers and sell more products.
Sometimes, though, its difficult to know exactly how to improve your site. To help you out with that dilemma, here are three ways to refresh your website and boost your business without breaking the bank.
1. Reconsider the Design
The overall design of an e-commerce website has a big impact on customers and on sales so regularly rethinking and tweaking your sites design is vital.
Good Web design for an e-commerce site is something that would be a number of things done well, said Miklos Philips, principal lead for user experience at Toptal.
This would include a clear brand identity, the use of clear visual hierarchy, easy product search and browsing via clearly laid-out navigation and omnipresent search, he told the E-Commerce Times.
An e-commerce business relies on its site not just to sell products, but to communicate a brands identity and create an enjoyable shopping experience for customers.
Good design is important because it needs to instill in would-be customers trustworthiness and store credibility, said Philips. If the site appears poorly constructed and confusing, customers lose confidence in the stores ability to deliver on its promise.
Its not like you cant make sales with a poorly designed website, but incorporating effective, shopper-friendly design elements will offer long-term gains.
Good website design communicates your brand identity, builds trust in your company, creates a cohesive and pleasant shopping experience, and naturally guides shoppers towards purchase, said Alison Garrison, director of services for Volusion.
You can make revenue with not-so-good design, but you will make a lot more with thoughtful design that puts the shopper first and is based in solid conversion principles, she told the E-Commerce Times.
2. Make a Great First Impression
First impressions matter, since it doesnt take long for a customer to decide whether to stay or go.
It takes about 50 milliseconds or only 0.05 seconds for people to form an opinion about a website that is, whether or not they like it, whether theyll stay or leave, and ultimately, whether or not theyll purchase, explained Garrison.
The homepage is the first thing customers see when visiting your site, so its important to pay particular attention to it, and to upgrade and improve its functionality as necessary. When rethinking your homepage, start at the top of the site and work down, looking at it as a customer would.
Consider the header and navigation, said Garrison. This is prime real estate and should include value propositions, such as free shipping and easy return policy, and trust builders, such as a phone number and trust badges.
On that first page, consider organizing the categories you offer perhaps building them based on your customers requirements, such as gender, age or particular use cases, Garrison recommended.
Creative categorizing will make the homepage at once more appealing and more useful, drawing customers deeper into your site.
3. Add Autofill
Autofill has come a long way, and intelligent autofill technology can both streamline the shopping process and boost conversion rates.
In a word, consumer-friendly autofill depends on accuracy, said Karl Mattson, SVP of Growth for Fillr.
How often does the autofill correctly autofill all of the fields in a shopping check-out experience? The better autofill does this, the less a user has to manually correct or input text fields in a form, he told the E-Commerce Times.
Increasingly, autofill is used in mobile shopping apps, which is another good e-commerce upgrade to consider.
Autofill, long available only as a Web browser feature, is now available as a service that can be white-labeled into mobile shopping apps, explained Mattson.
This is an important, critical step forward for mobile app shopping conversions, he said.
Before, mobile app conversions were dependent solely on how well an app designer could create an easy-to-use checkout experience. Now that apps have the option of offering their own autofill as part of their conversion experience, autofill becomes an avenue whereby users can side-step the most frustrating part of mobile shopping manually completing a complicated mobile e-commerce check-out, Mattson pointed out.
New advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning have made autofill better than ever, which makes it a smart upgrade.
Hand-in-hand with machine learning, autofill is evolving from a relatively straightforward text-based service to a technology that will become available across platforms particularly voice-assistive platforms like Cortana and Seri, said Mattson.
As it expands to new platforms and uses, thanks to machine learning, autofill also continues to become smarter, he added. It is now more accurate, more contextually relevant and faster.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday that his country has the highest economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, despite the sanctions imposed against it. | Read More
Rupert Murdoch. Photo: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
Between scandals surrounding Roger Ailes, Bill OReilly, and Eric Bolling, Fox News is no stranger to allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace. So when media mogul Rupert Murdoch went on Sky News to discuss the $52 billion deal between Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox, and he dismissed the networks sexual-harassment problem, former and current women of Fox were furious.
According to a report in the Huffington Post, Sky News host Ian King asked Murdoch if the ongoing sexual-misconduct allegations had damaged Fox News Channel, to which Murdoch responded, All nonsense.
There was a problem with our chief executive [Ailes], sort of, over the years, isolated incidents, he continued. As soon as we investigated it he was out of the place in hours, well, three or four days. And theres been nothing else since then.
This is a blatant lie, according to the ten former and current Fox News staffers to whom HuffPost spoke. All women, who have chosen to remain anonymous, said they have faced sexual misconduct by current and former Fox News employees. One woman said she was hungry for justice, while another threatened to go public with the truth.
I have had to put up with a hostile work environment for years, and now Im told that it doesnt exist by a man who doesnt have to walk these halls every day? Im hungry for justice, said one woman who is part of the networks on-air talent.
Hey Rupert stop with the lies or well go public with the truth. All of it. Including about the talent and executives you still employ who have harassed us and dont give a damn about workplace respect only money, said a woman who was previously a member of Fox News on-air talent. How much will it take before you actually start caring about your female employees? Is your 52 billion enough? Are we really going to clean house now?
Following the publication of the Huff Post report, a 21st Century Fox spokeswoman responded, saying Murdochs comment was mischaracterized.
Rupert never characterized the sexual harassment matters at Fox News as nonsense, she told the Huffington Post. Rather, he responded negatively to the suggestion that sexual harassment issues were an obstacle to the companys bid for the rest of Sky Rupert values all of the hard-working colleagues at Fox News, and will continue to address these matters to ensure Fox News maintains its commitment to having a work environment based on the values of trust and respect.
Between July 2016 and May 2017, Fox News reportedly spent $45 million related to settlements of pending and potential litigations. Given this number does not include the $40 million in severance pay that Ailes reportedly received, it seems like the only ones who are respected are the accused.
Absolutely Grisly Mauling, Police Say of Virginia Woman Killed by Her Dogs
A 22-year-old woman found dead in the woods off Manakin Road, Goochland, Virginia, on Thursday night, Dec.14, was mauled to death by her own dogs, Goochland County Sheriff James Agnew told WTVR reporters.
Bethany Lynn Stephens body was reportedly discovered by her father who went out looking for her in a wooded area where he knew she often walked her dogs.
The womans father called 911 shortly after 8 p.m. on Thursday, after discovering his daughters body in the woods. He told the sheriff the dogs appeared to be guarding her body.
The incident occurred in the 2200 block of Manakin Road, with officials dispatched to the scene to investigate overnight.
It reportedly took the deputies over an hour to catch the canines, said to be pit bulls.
Stephens body was taken to the Medical Examiners Office, Agnew told reporters, and said that the evidence points to a mauling by the dogs as the cause of death.
The sheriff described the woman as petite, while the dogs were said to weigh over 100 pounds.
It appeared the attack was a violent attack initiated by the victims dogs while the victim was out for a walk with the dogs, Sheriff Agnew said of the preliminary findings from the Medical Examiners Office.
The victim had defensive wounds on her hands and arms trying to keep the dogs away from her, which would be consistent with being attacked while she was still alive.
It is reported that the first traumatic injury the woman sustained was to the head area.
It appears she was taken to the ground, lost consciousness, and the dogs then mauled her to death, Agnew said according to a WTVR report.
Agnew indicated that the investigation has yet to be concluded, but has ruled out foul play as the cause of Stephens death.
The dogs have reportedly been remanded to animal control authorities, and will likely be put down, Agnew told reporters.
It was an absolutely grisly mauling, Agnew said. In my 40 years of law enforcement Ive never seen anything quite like it. I hope I never see anything like it again.
The Goochland Sheriff says young woman found in the woods suffered severe trauma. When they found her body, she was being guarded by her two dogs. Calls scene grisly. Kristin Smith (@kristin8news) December 15, 2017
An outpouring of sympathy is being expressed on social media for the tragically deceased woman.
According to Kristin Smith of WRIC news, tranquilizer guns had to be deployed to control the canines.
They had to use tranquilizer guns to catch the dogs. The medical examiner says victims dogs mauled her to death. Not a homicide. Kristin Smith (@kristin8news) December 15, 2017
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Delegates chant slogans as they arrive for the 54th National Conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa Dec. 16, 2017. (Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko)
ANC Prepares to Choose New Leader
JOHANNESBURGThe African National Congress (ANC), South Africas only ruler since the end of apartheid, votes this weekend in a race too close to call to replace Jacob Zuma as party leader with the winner also likely to become the next president.
The election is perhaps the most pivotal moment for the ANC in its 23 years of power. Scandal and corruption allegations have tainted Zumas presidency and the party that launched black majority rule under Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nelson Mandela is now deeply divided, its image tarnished at home and abroad.
The ANC will announce Zumas successor on Sunday, concluding a bruising leadership battle that threatens to splinter the 105-year-old liberation movement.
The race has been dominated by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, 65, generally favored by financial markets, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, 68, an ex-cabinet minister, chairwoman of the African Union Commission and Zumas ex-wife.
Zuma, whose term as head of state expires in 2019, has endorsed Dlamini-Zuma to succeed him.
South Africas rand firmed more than 2 percent after courts ruled senior officials in provinces seen as supporting Dlamini-Zuma had been illegally elected and could not attend the conference.
Ramaphosa won a majority of the nominations to become leader of the party, but delegates at the Dec. 16-20 conference in Johannesburg are not bound to vote for the candidate their ANC branch nominated, meaning it is unclear if he will actually win.
The ANCs National Executive Committee, a decision-making group of senior leaders, met before the conference began and decided that barred delegates could not vote at the conference.
We dont want to contaminate the conference They will not vote on any matter, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe told reporters.
ANC Youth League leader Collen Maine, who backs Dlamini-Zuma, said 122 delegates would be prevented from voting at the conference following the ruling by the courts. That is not significant, Maine told Reuters.
Asked if barring the delegates gave Ramaphosa a boost, a senior official of Cosatu, South Africas largest union federation that is also an ANC ally, said: Definitely. But we are not banking only on that. We have trust that ANC delegates know what the country needs at the moment.
Delegates in T-shirts in the gold and green colors of the ANC sang party songs and danced, with many waving party flags while women rent the air with ululations.
Zumas conference speech was expected to start much later than the ANC had previously said. The delay was caused by the NEC meeting and slow registration of about 6,000 delegates.
Tight Contest
To his supporters, Ramaphosas business success makes him well-suited to the task of turning around an economy grappling with 28 percent unemployment and credit rating downgrades.
Early signs of a win for Cyril Ramaphosa, the more investor-friendly option, have provided support for the rand, John Ashbourne, Africa economist at Capital Economics, said.
But while Mr. Ramaphosa is popular among party members, the result will be decided by political insiders, who may opt for his leftist opponent, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Ramaphosa has recently stepped up criticism of Zumas scandal-plagued government, while Dlamini-Zuma has said her priority is to improve prospects for the black majority.
He is expected to be backed by ANC veterans, labor unions and civil society organizations. In contrast, Dlamini-Zuma is seen as a fierce campaigner against racial inequality whose hostility to big business has rattled investors in South Africa.
She has not made corruption the only pillar of her campaign, because the most critical issue in South Africa is this huge inequality, said Carl Niehaus, a key member of Dlamini-Zumas campaign.
Growth in Africas most industrialized economy has been lackluster for the last six years, and the jobless rate is near record levels. Analysts say the ANC leadership battle has made it hard to reform the economy and improve social services.
Colin Coleman, managing director of Goldman Sachs in South Africa, said the positions of the two candidates on the economy were quite divergent and the choice between Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma was binary.
This is a pivotal moment. It is a choice between refreshing the ANC and putting South Africa on a course of a modern economy, or the party outlook may move deeper down a patronage path which would lead to a low-growth and high-unemployment outcome for the people of South Africa.
Zuma Scandals
In a move likely to please the ANC rank and file, Zuma announced hours before the conference kicked off that South Africa would raise subsidies to universities to 1 percent of GDP over the next five years from nearly 0.7 percent at present.
Speaking at a breakfast of businessmen and politicians at the venue of the ANC conference, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said South Africas government would take necessary tough decisions to stabilize public debt and grow the economy.
On Friday evening, Zuma cracked jokes at an ANC dinner and said that leading the party had been a worthwhile experience, while adding he looked forward to stepping down.
The 75-year-old has denied numerous corruption accusations since taking office in 2009 and has survived several no-confidence votes in parliament.
People cant wait to see his back, political analyst Prince Mashele said in a newspaper opinion piece.
Chinese soldiers ride in tanks as they pass in front of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City during a military parade in Beijing. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Australian Research Boosting Chinas Military Needs Investigating
The Australian Defense Department has been urged to investigate allegations that local universities have illegally shared military technology with China as the country mulls over concerns of Beijings interference in its domestic affairs.
Speaking to ABC, former senior defense official Peter Jennings said it is likely that Australian universities were flouting stringent export controls on technology that can be used for military purposes.
Jennings, now the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told the national broadcaster that the countrys Defense Department needs to immediately conduct a thorough investigation.
The department should now be looking to audit the performance of universities because we are talking about the mass migration over to Chinese interests and thats not in Australias commercial, or indeed national, security interests, Jennings said.
The Defence Department has been accused of turning a blind eye to Australian universities illegally sharing military technology with China. https://t.co/ZCGF9Q0X2z | @abcnews pic.twitter.com/LOCZQGixdL ABC Australia (@ABCaustralia) December 14, 2017
Australias renowned universities carry out world-leading research in several areas that could be used for military purposes.
There are stringent rules prohibiting the sharing of research that could be used for military purposes by the countrys possible adversaries, including the Peoples Republic of China, ABC reported.
In July, local media published reports detailing cases where Australian universities had been doing that.
Beneath the radar, Australian universities are helping give China the technological leadership in advanced military and industrial technology it craves, said Clive Hamilton, professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, reported The Australian on June 9.
But the Defense Department said it depended on self-assessment from the universities themselves to police their academic interactions with overseas representatives.
It is ultimately the responsibility of each institution to ensure they comply with the law, the department told the ABC.
Chinese PLA scientists working in Aust'n universities on war technology research. Article by me & @alexjoske in SMH https://t.co/RxnitzgfnW Clive Hamilton (@CliveCHamilton) October 27, 2017
In his investigations, Hamilton uncovered hundreds of research projects involving Australian scientists with senior Chinese military figures.
He told ABC many of those partnerships could mean Australian technology could be used against the country in a war situation.
There is no doubt some of the technology they are working on is being applied to improve the battle readiness of the PLA, Hamilton said.
He said the issue could damage relations with the U.S, who remains as Australias biggest strategic ally.
I know that our research is being carefully read in Washington and hard questions are being asked of the Australian government, he said.
Beijings Interference in Australia
Concern over the links between Australian universities and the PLA comes amidst media reports of Beijings interference in Australian domestic affairs, which have resulted in the federal government recently introducing tougher foreign interference laws.
Among the headlines the issue has generated include how Australian Labor Party senator Sam Dastyari resigned this week over his alleged links with political donor Huang Xiangmo, a wealthy Chinese property developer with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The past 10 days of Australian politics show us what the next 10 years may look like, in terms of how Australia shapes up to its biggest strategic challenge: protecting our interests from an aggressive, nationalistic China intent on dominating the Asia-Pacific, Jennings wrote in The Weekend Australian.
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A salesman dressed as Santa Claus waits for customers at the entrance of a shop in Beijing on December 25, 2014. (Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images)
Bah, Humbug! Chinese University Bans Celebrating Christmas
Add Santa Claus to the list of things the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) doesnt like.
With Christmas around the corner, the Party is wary of Western influence that it believes could corrupt the minds of young Chinese.
At Shenyang Pharmaceutical University in northeastern Chinas Liaoning Province, the schools Communist Youth League, a Party organization for young people aged 14 to 28 to learn about Party ideology, issued an online statement, forbidding student unions, clubs, and youth league branches from organizing any activities based on Western religious holidays, such as Christmas, according to a Dec. 14 report by Chinas nationalistic, state-run newspaper Global Times.
The ban would help the younger generation build cultural confidence, since recently, some have been blindly excited about Western holidays, the notice read. The Youth Leagues move would help young people resist corrosion from Western religious culture.
Some netizens on Weibo, Chinas popular microblogging website similar to Twitter, have expressed displeasure with the ban.
One netizen from Chaoyang District in Beijing wrote, Many foreigners around the world have participated in activities to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year. And we report on these activities in a positive angle. If foreign governments forbid their citizens from celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year, we would not be happydifferent holidays in different countries are for people to build up friendship and understanding with each other. Why is there the need to be against [Christmas]?
Another citizen from Chinas coastal Jiangsu Province noted sarcastically, Marxism and the Communist Party have all been passed on to us from the West.
The ban at Shenyang Pharmaceutical University is not an isolated incident. In December 2014, the Modern College of Northwest University in central Chinas Xian City called Christmas kitschy, and banned students from celebrating the holiday. Students were forced to watch a three-hour screening of propaganda films instead, according to MailOnline.
Also in 2014, the education bureau in Wenzhou City in Chinas eastern province of Zhejiang, issued a directive ordering all schools and kindergartens in the region not to hold Christmas events, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).
The Chinese regime does more than banning Christmas to prevent its students from coming under Western influence. In July 2016, millions of Chinese- language textbooks by Wen Lisan, a former editor at a prominent publishing house, were recalled and his name deleted. His fall from favor was the result of his critical remarks against the CCP, and he has since been labeled as a radical Westernized element.
Type 001A, China's second aircraft carrier, is seen during a launch ceremony at Dalian shipyard in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province, on April 26, 2017. China has achieved a critical breakthrough in its electromagnetic aircraft launch system that will allow its future carriers to launch heavier and more powerful aircraft. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
By Snatching Up British Company, China Closes Gap on US Naval Supremacy
Acquisition of restricted technology enables Chinas aircraft carriers to project power on par with US
The Chinese regime has achieved a critical breakthrough in its aircraft carrier program by incorporating key technology from a British company it discretely acquired a decade ago. The acquisition was not hindered by British regulators at the time, although the key semiconductor device in question has been specifically listed as subject to export control by European Union regulations.
At stake is Chinas ability to compete directly with U.S. carrier power by being able to launch heavier and more powerful aircraft. China and the United States have engaged in a relentless race to develop the next generation electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) for over a decade, and up until recently, it was thought that the United States led the race with the upcoming Ford-class aircraft carrier, which has been specifically designed to use electromagnetic-powered catapults.
Recent reports indicate that China may have caught up with U.S. progress, as the Peoples Liberation Army newspaper published a story in October claiming that a successful test launch of navy aircraft has been achieved using an experimental launch system. The French website East Pendulum, which monitors Asian and particularly Chinese military developments, also reported that satellite images and publicly released photos of the test sites corroborate the existence of these tests.
While the development of EMALS in both the United States and China has remained highly classified, it is believed that building such a system requires a critical semiconductor component called an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) chip. The chip can switch the electrical current to the windings of the motor in milliseconds to enable the launching of aircraft from the carrier flight deck.
Acquisition of Distressed Company
Chinas breakthrough in EMALS is due in no small part to the fact that it can now produce its own IGBT chips with the required specifications, according to an article by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. The same article says that China secured the critical IGBT technology it needed by acquiring Dynex Semiconductor, a relatively small British semiconductor company that sold 75 percent of its share to Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric, a Chinese state-owned enterprise.
The acquisition, which took place in 2008 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, was allowed to go through by the Gordon Brown government, which did not see it as a national security threat, an unnamed source within the current UK government told The Epoch Times.
IGBT has been listed under category III of the UK Strategic Export Control Lists since 2009, as part of EU Council Regulation 428/2009. A good listed under this category is determined to have strategic purposes and therefore requires an export license to be sent outside of the United Kingdom.
It is unknown whether the transfer of the controlled IGBT technology occurred before or after the EU regulation came into force. In any case, Chinas official mouthpiece, China Daily, reported that a huge IGBT manufacturing facility in Zhuzhou, Hunan Province, has since 2013 had Dynex engineers working side by side with the Chinese state-owned enterprise employees to develop cutting-edge solutions.
Dynex Semiconductor has declined repeated requests for comment.
At stake is Chinas ability to compete directly with U.S. carrier power by being able to launch heavier and more powerful aircraft.
The role of Dynexs acquisition in helping Chinas EMALS program has been discussed for some time by a number of Chinese sources. Gong Jianghui, an associate professor at the Beijing Normal University and a bestselling writer in China under the pen name Qi Cheng, fictionalized the event in his 2014 novel, Material Empire. In the novel, he portrays the acquisition of Dynex and its critical IGBT production tools as essentially being a premeditated operation by China to grab critical military technology from a small and faltering Western company.
Jayant Baliga, a professor at North Carolina State University who is well-known for being the inventor of the IGBT device in 1979, explains that the bulk of manufacturing of the device has moved outside of the United States to Japan and Europe. This followed the U.S. governments decision in the late 1980s to favor the research of a competing device, which did not become successful.
This decision probably resulted in the IGBT not being classified [under U.S. export control], said Baliga. It is ironic that all the applications envisioned by Department of Defense and the industry are now served by IGBTs.
Tragedy for the United States
Chinas surprise breakthrough in electromagnetic aircraft launch systems represents a tragedy for the United States, said Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.
[The United States] had been planning on achieving early breakthroughs that would help sustain U.S. military superiority. Chinas extensive investments in electromagnetic launch and laser weapon systems may very likely reduce this period of U.S. superiority, said Fisher.
The U.S. Navy currently operates 10 Nimitz class aircraft carriers that rely on the decades-old but powerful steam catapult design to launch aircraft, enabling the Navy to project power around the globe. Chinas Peoples Liberation Army Navy, on the other hand, operates two smaller carriers based on a design from the former Soviet Union that can only launch aircraft from a ski-jump ramp, which is far less efficient and imposes performance constraints on the Chinese carrier aircraft.
Chinas two existing carriers, the Liaoning and Type 001A, both carry Shenyang J-15 fighter jets, which are based on the Russian-designed Sukhoi Su-33. The ski-jump design on both ships reduces the number of aircraft that can be launched simultaneously. Even more importantly, the design imposes a limit on the takeoff weight of J-15 fighters, as every successful takeoff will require some level of tradeoff between armaments or fuel, or both.
The Chinese regime has leapfrogged the current steam catapult technology used by the U.S. Navy by investing heavily in developing the next generation EMALS, which requires less maintenance and space while offering higher efficiency in launching and landing aircraft.
While the outdated design of both the Liaoning and Type 001A carriers means that they are unlikely to be retrofitted with the advanced EMALS, which requires a sophisticated power source, Richard Fisher said that successful development of EMALS would allow China to put it on its future nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and make them potentially as effective as the latest U.S. Ford class, accelerating the PLAs drive toward global power projection.
China is believed to be planning to construct at least two and as many as 10 additional nuclear-powered aircraft carriers by 2049the centenary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, according to an estimate by the defense studies website Global Security. One of them, the Type 002, is already under construction at a shipyard outside Shanghai and has reached 90 percent completion, according to reports in November.
The Chinese regime makes no secret that its ambitious aircraft carrier program is aimed at building the capabilities to deter the U.S. military from intervening in the Asia-Pacific region during a crisis or conflict, according to U.S. Department of Defenses 2017 annual report to Congress. Such crisis or conflict includes the scenario of a Taiwan contingency, an attack or invasion of Taiwan by China, or other military conflict against the United States or U.S. allies in the East or South China seas.
One of two bodies is removed from the home of billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found dead under circumstances that police described as "suspicious" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dec. 15, 2017. (Reuters/Chris Helgren)
Canadian Police Probe Suspicious Deaths of Billionaire Couple
TORONTOCanadian police said they were investigating the mysterious deaths of Barry Sherman, founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc, and his wife, Honey, one of the nations wealthiest couples whose bodies were found in their mansion on Friday.
Police said they learned of the deaths after responding to a midday (5:00 p.m. GMT) medical call at the Shermans home in an affluent section of northeast Toronto. Two bodies covered in blankets were removed from the home and loaded into an unmarked van on Friday evening.
The circumstances of their death appear suspicious and we are treating it that way, said Constable David Hopkinson. Homicide detectives later told reporters gathered outside the home that there were no signs of forced entry.
Their neighbors, business associates and some of Canadas most powerful politicians said they were saddened by the deaths.
Our condolences to their family & friends, and to everyone touched by their vision & spirit, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said in statement he was shocked and heartbroken to learn of the deaths, noting that the couple had made extensive contributions to the city.
Toronto Police are investigating, and I hope that investigation will be able to provide answers for all of us who are mourning this tremendous loss, Tory said.
The Shermans recently listed their home for sale for nearly C$7 million ($5.4 million). A real estate agent discovered the bodies in the basement while preparing for an open house, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported, citing a relative.
Sherman, 75, founded privately held Apotex in 1974, growing it by introducing large numbers of low-cost generic drugs that took market share from branded pharmaceuticals. He stepped down as chief executive in 2012 but remained executive chairman.
Forbes has estimated Shermans fortune at $3.2 billion.
Apotex is the worlds No. 7 generic drugmaker with 11,000 employees and annual sales of more than C$2 billion in more than 45 countries, according to its website.
The couple was known for their philanthropy, giving tens of millions of dollars to hospitals, universities and Jewish organizations, CBC reported.
They were extremely successful in business, but also very, very giving people, former Ontario Premier Bob Rae told CBC. Its going to be a very, very big loss.
The Globe and Mail reported in February that Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd was investigating a complaint about a 2015 political fundraiser that Trudeau had attended.
China Poaches Talent and Research From Abroad to Fuel High Tech Ambitions
US losing talent to recruitment program meant to help make China No. 1 in high tech
As part of an ambitious plan to become the world leader in advanced technology, China is wooing talent from abroadboth ethnic Chinese and foreignersto help the country gain an edge.
The Chinese regime introduced the Thousand Talents Plan in December 2008 to aggressively recruit promising workers in the science and technology fields. Multiple parts of the Chinese regime are involved, including the Central Organization Department, Central United Front Work Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), according to the programs official website.
More than 7,000 top-level Chinese and foreign professionals, experts, and entrepreneurs who studied or lived abroad have returned to China under the program, reported the website in November, with most of them from top colleges and universities, research institutes, and international companies around the world. The program counts six Nobel Prize winners among its participants.
Should top Chinese talents return to China, they receive a one-time package of 1 million yuan ($151,140) and are guaranteed employment with a leadership or professional position at a university, research institute, or state-owned enterprise, to name a few.
Should top Chinese talents return to China, they receive a one-time package of 1 million yuan.
Their spouses are also offered employment, and their children are guaranteed admission to local schools. Young professionals below the age of 40, they would be given a lump sum of 500,000 yuan ($75,560), in addition to a research subsidy ranging from 1 million to 3 million yuan ($154,140 to $453,450).
The program also targets non-Chinese experts, who receive, in addition to their salary, a lump sum of 1 million yuan in research subsidies and an additional 3 million to 5 million yuan ($453,450 to $755,400) granted through employers. They are required to work for more than nine months per year in China for three consecutive years.
The recruitment effort has taken on different names and been headed by different organizations over the years. For example, the Thousand Talents Plan was anticipated in 1994 by the Hundred Talents Plan, started in 1994 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
In the late 2000s, the package it offered was bumped up to 2 million yuan for each of the roughly 100 candidates it recruited each year. According to Chinas biggest search engine Baidu, the CAS program had successfully recruited about 1,200 individuals as of 2009, with 29 of them nominated to be academicians at CAS.
Foreign Stars and Love of the Motherland
The Thousand Talents program has recruited some star academics from abroad. Lee Chang-hee, a South Korean professor who currently heads Chinas Liangjiang International College of Chongqing University of Science and Technology, was the former chief technology officer of fiber optics company Novera Optics Korea and a professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, which is highly ranked for innovation. He is a renowned researcher in optical communications systems and has authored more than 400 academic papers and registered over 130 patents. He was named a fellow of the U.S. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
According to an Aug. 2 report by Chinese news portal Sina, Lee received a one-time payment of 1 million yuan, plus 8 million yuan ($1.2 million) in research subsidies. In addition to his salary, he will receive an allowancean amount not exceeding 60 percent of his salaryfor three straight years, and other preferential benefits in housing, medical care, insurance, taxes, and preferential treatment in clearing customs when traveling.
Many Chinese professors in the United States have returned to China under the Thousand Talents program. For example, Deng Weiwei, an associate professor with a doctorate from Yale University, whose academic career included five years as an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida and two years as an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, returned to China in April. He has since taken up a position as professor in the Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering at Chinas Southern University of Science and Technology, a public school under the administration of the Guangdong provincial government.
While it is not known exactly how much in salary and benefits Deng has received under the program, his desire to work in China was loud and clear. According to the programs recruitment website, Deng said he anxiously followed news on his mainland Chinese friends social media to witness the successful launch of Tiangong-2, a Chinese space lab, on Sept. 15, 2016.
I am afraid that it would be too late if I dont come back [to China] soon. I dont want to be on the sidelines watching my motherlands development, said Deng, according to the recruitment website.
Individual Initiative
The recruitment effort is not limited to the central authorities and state-run institutes. Provinces, cities, and universities all have their own recruitment programs to bring back overseas talent, appealing to nationalistic sentiments to woo them into helping the country get ahead.
According to the Beijing-based English news website Sino-US.com and Zhejiangs provincial government website, Cui Ping, the former head of the Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology held many job fairs overseas to recruit Chinese talent, including two fairs in Silicon Valley in December 2013. Cu successfully recruited more than 200 people to work at the Ningbo institute.
On Oct. 17, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported that Wuhan University, which is administered by Chinas Ministry of Education, sent out a delegation headed by the universitys president to a recruitment event at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley.
Many successful Chinese businessmen who returned to China on their own have since been given the position of special consultant under the Thousand Talents program, so they can help recruit more talent back home. One well-known example is Robin Li, who returned to China at the end of 1999 after a successful career in the United States developing programs for The Wall Street Journal and working as a staff engineer for Infoseek, a search engine company.
In 2000, Li founded Chinas Baidu search engine. He then successfully recruited Xu Wei, who left his position as senior scientist at Facebook to join Baidus Institute of Deep Learning, an artificial intelligence research lab, in 2013, according to Baidu. That same year, Lis recruitment effort also brought in Wu Ren, who left his job at Advanced Micro Devices, an American semiconductor company, as chief software architect of heterogeneous system architecture.
China plans to become the world leader in advanced microchips and AI technology. While China still has a long way to go in developing its semiconductor industry, it currently ranks second behind the United States as the country with the highest number of AI firms.
Drug Queen-Pin Arrested After Police Bust Multimillion-Dollar Pot Operation
California police busted a multimillion-dollar marijuana operation on Wednesday, Dec. 13, seizing 35,000 marijuana plants and detaining a 43-year-old mom believed to be drug queen-pin.
Stephanie Smith from Pacific Palisades allegedly ran an unlicensed operationwith employees, guards, an advanced drip-irrigation system, multiple buildings, and a $67,000 monthly electric bill, according to The Sacremento Bee citing police.
Drugs 'Queenpin' behind multi-million dollar weed 'fortress' is busted 'netting a fortune and using it to fund lavish lifestyle' https://t.co/CaW5lvlODr Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) December 15, 2017
Investigators became aware of the operations after receiving complaints from neighbors of the warehouse. The warehouse was outfitted with a 12-foot metal rolling fence, fortified doors, a large concrete wall around the parking lot, and surveillance cameras. Inside, police found thousands of plant stacked next to one another under heat lamps, reported The Associated Press.
Police believe the marijuana fortress could be the largest indoor marijuana operation ever discovered in San Bernardino, California.
In my 26 years, it was the biggest growth that Ive ever seen, San Bernardino Police Lt. Mike Madden told The Associated Press. There were all different rooms for different processes and hydration, filtration, and ventilation. It was pretty extensive.
Authorities also raided three other properties believed to be owned by Smith and seized 18,000 pounds of marijuana in total. Eight people who were working in the warehouse have also been detained but no charges have been filed, according to the news station.
Smith is believed to be making millions of dollars a month running the operation, CBS News reported citing sources.
Marijuana was legalized in California about a year ago but growers must receive licenses and permits from local governments and states, reported The Associated Press. Smith was not authorized to grow the plant.
Marijuana has been legalized, but there are stringent requirements, Madden told The Associated Press. Its not that you just get to set up shop where you want to set up.
If police decide to formally arrest and charge Smith, she faces a misdemeanor, jail time and a fine at the state level, reported CBS News.
Recreational marijuana sales only become legal in California on Jan. 1, 2018.
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Extremely Premature Baby Born From Sick Parents Strives for Survival
English parents with diseases affecting fertility had an early birth surprise. Now, little Arthur Brumby fights illnesses to live despite being born after just 23 weeks gestation.
His skin was scaly because he was so premature. But he was wonderful, said Arthurs mother, Laura Hillary, via the Daily Mail.
Hillary gave birth to one of the most premature babies ever born in the United Kingdom. At 30 years old, she was surprised to discover she was pregnant. Doctors told her and her husband pregnancy was highly unlikely given the couples health issues. Arthur weighed just 1 pound 2 ounces at birth and labor took just 34 minutes, according to the Daily Mail.
Born at just 23 weeks, little Arthur Brumby a double miracle baby NRL News Today https://t.co/fQHKnYyBxi Dr Marcia Coppertino (@COPPERTINO_) December 16, 2017
He was clearly fighting to be there. The doctors were trying to put tubes in him and he was fighting them off. It was amazing to see, said Hillary, describing the early moments of Arthurs life outside the womb, via he tDaily Mail.
Hed initially been wrapped in a plastic freezer bag to replicate the womb, but by this point, he was in an incubator. He had wires coming in and out of him and was tiny, Hillary added.
Arthur has so far managed to survive two brain bleeds and an E.coli infection. He will need heart surgery at some point, according to the Daily Mail. Hillary and her husband James Brumby are fundraising to pay hospital bills. Arthur is scheduled for release from the hospital in March.
The family is from Nottingham. Brumby, 31, works as a carpenter. Hillary teaches elementary school. Both have illnesses that make it harder to have children, according to the Daily Mail. Brumby has Crohns disease, and the treatment makes it more difficult to have children. Hillary had endometriosis and abnormal cells on her cervix.
The treatment affected areas of Hillarys body important to fertility. Doctors suggested she seek further treatment, and that if she were going to have a baby, that she should not wait much longer, the Daily Mail reported. The couple found out Arthur was coming from a random pregnancy test.
Marie Claire magazine reported that 15 million babies are born prematurely each year globally. Anytime before 37 weeks is considered premature, and the World Health Organization classifies the most premature babies as those born before 37 weeks. The extremely premature births occur before the baby has had 28 weeks inside the womb. The most premature birth ever recorded was a baby born at 21 weeks and 5 days, in 1978 in Canada, according to Marie Claire.
Abortions in the United Kingdom are legally permitted before 24 weeks, but, Arthur was born one week before that limit, prompting media outlets and pro-life groups to point out that such premature births still produce babies that can grow into healthy children. Brumby and Hillary made no mention of wanting an abortion in the interview published via the Daily Mail.
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Former MP Calls on Canadas New Health Minister to Safeguard Vanessas Law
Terence Young's 17-year fight for improved prescription drug safety is not over yet
After a cabinet shuffle in Ottawa last week, former Conservative MP Terence Young is calling for the new health minister to personally review a drug safety law that he is criticizing Health Canada for watering down.
Young helped spearhead what has been dubbed Vanessas Law, a robust drug safety law passed without dissent in Parliament and the Senate in November 2014.
The bill helps protect Canadians by making it mandatory for health-care institutions to report all adverse drug reactions in patients to health regulators, among other things. These dangerous drugs could then be taken off the market.
But Young, who lost his seat in the 2015 election, says Health Canada is diluting the powers of the bill by not requiring all health-care facilities to report incidents of adverse drug reactions. He is calling for new Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor to take a close look at the issue because Canadian lives are at stake, he says.
The new minister is going to have to direct Health Canada and going to have to intervene, and it has to happen soon because the regulations that Health Canada is proposing would gut the bill and send us back 10 years in drug safety, Young says.
The issue is personal for Young. He lost his 15-year-old daughter Vanessa, who inspired the name of the bill, when she died of a heart attack in 2000 after taking a prescription drug to treat a mild form of an eating disorder.
Now its been two-and-a-half years and Health Canada has done nothing to enforce it. Former MP Terence Young
Since the tragedy, Young has been on a mission to increase drug safety in Canada, and he thought his work was done when the bill was passed. He points to documents released by Health Canada this summer as evidence that Vanessas Law is not being properly implemented.
Now its been two-and-a-half years and Health Canada has done nothing to enforce it. They have two white papers out and a guidance document, which undermine the powers that are given to Health Canada and the Ministry of Health to get risky or unsafe drugs off the market, he says.
Overall, Health Canada has a dismal track record with drug safety, says Young, noting that since 1990, 22 drugs have had to be taken off the market for injuring or killing patients. The drugs were all deemed safe by the federal health regulator and pharmaceutical companies.
He says adverse drug reactions are a leading cause of death in Canada, claiming between 10,000 and 20,000 lives annually. Given that that figure comes from a 19-year-old study led by the University of Toronto, its expected the number of deaths could be even higher.
A 2011 Health Council of Canada study suggests that an estimated 150,000 patients experience serious reactions from prescription drugs each year, which demonstrates why Young wants more done from the top levels of government to enforce Vanessas Law and increase safety for patients.
The prime minister promised in the last election that the government would be transparent, but this is the opposite of transparency, he says. This is allowing the pharmaceutical companies to hide the data critical to protecting Canadians.
When contacted for comment, Health Canada issued a statement saying it is committed to implementing Vanessas Law.
Health Canada sees the Protecting Canadians from Unsafe Drugs Act (Vanessas Law) as an essential safety measure to protect Canadians and is fully committed to its implementation. This legislation is an important tool to strengthen product safety and surveillance and ultimately to protect the health of Canadians, the statement reads.
But Young maintains Health Canada is limiting the amount of data on adverse drug reactions by not including reports from long-term health care facilities, community clinics, and pharmacies. This approach, he said, wont paint a clear enough picture to get dangerous drugs off the market in a timely manner.
With seniors being the group most likely to be affected by adverse drug reactions, it would only make sense to include reports from long-term care facilities as a priority, he says.
Patchwork of inadequate reporting
According to Young, only one percent of all adverse drug reactions in Canada end up getting reported.
What weve had is a patchwork of inadequate reporting of adverse drug effects in this country, and it leads to deaths, and thats not an exaggeration, says NDP Health Critic Don Davies.
Davies also sees reason for alarm with the way Health Canada is enforcing Vanessas Law. He says the documents it released indicate it is going in the direction that would limit the breadth and reach of the bill to a point where hes worried whether it would be effective at all.
To me, the essence of good policy is solid data, and we should be seeking to broaden the database not truncate itparticularly when lives are at stake, he adds.
What weve had is a patchwork of inadequate reporting of adverse drug effects in this country, and it leads to deaths. NDP Health Critic Don Davies
Both Davies and Young say they believe the reason behind the weakening of the bill could be pushback from pharmaceutical companies as well as from bureaucrats due to the increased workload of added administrative requirements.
David Lee, chief regulatory officer at Health Canada, told Global News the administrative burden on hospital staff and the usefulness of the data should both be taken into consideration with implementation of the new regulations.
Were trying to get safety information about drugs, but we also have to remember its a hospital. And so you want the health-care professionals spending their time on care, he said.
But Davies said keeping Canadians safe should be Health Canadas top priority.
I would rather err on the side of administrative burden than on the side of people dying from adverse reactions, he says, adding that he will make the enforcement of Vanessas Law a priority when Parliament resumes in the fall.
As well as making it mandatory for health-care institutions to report adverse drug reactions, Vanessas Law imposes stiffer penalties on unsafe products and enables quicker regulatory action such as a product recall or label change. It also seeks to add transparency by making it mandatory for drug companies to release their clinical trial data collected when a drug is first being tested for independent researchers to use. This would be a fundamental change to Health Canadas longstanding practice of treating clinical trial data as confidential drug company secrets.
What its going to take is for the new minister of health or the prime minister or both to say to the people at Health Canada: We want you to enforce Vanessas Law as its written and quit trying to undermine the bill,' says Young.
We want all serious adverse drug reactions to be reported to Health Canada and be given the data not two years away, but soon. And we want you to release all clinical trial data to independent researchers and people who work in the public interest, just as Vanessas Law says.'
Jared Gnam is a freelance reporter based in Vancouver. He broke into the world of journalism covering the Stanley Cup Riot in 2011.
A hologram of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur performs onstage during day 3 of the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif., on April 15, 2012. (Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Coachella)
Is the LAPD Hiding the Tupac Shakur Murder Weapon?
Was the handgun used to murder hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur deliberately hidden by police? A documentary of the controversial rappers life and death claims so.
The A&E television documentary Who Killed Tupac? claims that the weapon used in the 1996 shooting was later turned in to the Compton, California Police Department by a civilian on May 30, 1998.
Ballistic tests showed it to be the same gun used in the Tupac Shakur killing, the documentary claimsand a detective investigating the 1997 murder or rival rapper Notorious B.I.G. recognized the address where it was found, in 2006.
The firearm was found in the home of a known member of the Crips street gang.
The detective did not announce his discovery. Neither did he send the gun to Las Vegas, where the murder of Tupac Shakur was still an open case.
The documentary alleges that federal prosecutors feared the news would spark a gang war.
To this day the question of who killed Tupac Shakur, and why, remains an open mystery. Among hip-hop fans of that generation, the young rapperhe was only 25 when he diedwas considered to be a visionary and a force for social change, cut down before he could further expose the unfairness of American society.
To others, he was a victim of the East-Coast/West Coast rap feud, a testimony to the eventual outcome of the thug lifestyle he espoused.
In any case documentaries like Who Killed Tupac? find an audience eager for answers, even if they are certain the real truth will never be revealed.
Some people claim that record producer Suge Knight ordered the killing, to profit from the young stars martyrdom.
Others say Tupac faked his death, for whatever reason.
According to another recent documentary, Tupacs murder has not been solved because law enforcement simply didnt care.
Snapped: Notorious Set claims that Shakur knew his assassin, and police could have learned the killers identity, but they simply werent interested in investigating the murder of a controversial rap star.
Tupac and Biggie Smalls: Rap Rivals and Dead Enemies
Tupac Shakur was a driving force in his style of music on the West Coast. His former friend Christopher George Latore Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, was equally powerful on the New York/East Coast scene.
The two artists worked for competing record companies. Tupac signed with Suge Knights West Coasts Death Row records, which was the principal competitor to Biggie Smalls own label, the New York-based Bad Boy records.
The rivalry went way beyond being merely commercial.
Shakur claimed in 1995 that Biggie Smalls had advance knowledge of a robbery attempt which left Shakur with bullet wounds and missing a lot of expensive jewelry.
Three months before his murder, Shakur released a track in which he claimed to have slept with Biggies wife.
Given the violence espoused by both rappers, it would not seem impossible that Biggie Smalls was in some way involvedor that Tupacs own supporters might have been involved in the murder of Smalls, six months later.
The Crips Connection
Another lead which the documentaries claim was never followed was the Crips connection.
In 2002 the Los Angeles Times published Who Killed Tupac Shakur? In the article, writer Chuck Philips reported that the shooting was simple revenge.
According to Philips, Shakur, Suge Knight, and some of their friends, attacked and beat Southside Crips gang member Orlando Anderson on Sept. 7, 1996. The beating was itself revenge, payback for a robbery Anderson and other gang members perpetrated on some Death Row Records employees earlier in the year.
Phillips claims that Biggie Smalls had offered the Crips one million dollars to kill Shakur, and supplied the .40 caliber Glock automatic pistol. Anderson, enraged by the beating and eager for the cash, shot Shakur as Shakur and Suge Knight drove past the MGM Grand Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip shortly after 11 p.m. that night.
Police questioned Anderson afterward, but found no reason the charge him.
The story, while interesting, leaves a few questions. Why would an L.A. gang member need a New York rap artist 3000 miles away to supply a firearm? If Biggie Smalls really offered a million dollars for Shakurs murder, why would any of the Crips wait for an excuse, like a beating? Why not just do the hit for the cash?
In any case, Anderson never received his million dollars, it seems. He died in an unrelated gang shooting in 1998.
No Answers, Just Entertainment
In the end, whether or not the Los Angeles Police Department ever had a firearm linked to the murder of Tupac Shakur is not known.
The makers of Who Killed Tupac? admit that they never got confirmation from the LAPD. Some officers denied ever seeing the gun, others said they simply didnt know.
The same goes for all the other questions the documentary raises. Did Tupac know his killer? Do the police know who killed him? Did the police decline to investigate?
Was the killer Biggie Smalls, Suge Knight, Orlando Anderson, other Crips? Someone hired by Smalls or Knight? Someone who was simply angry because Shakur was flirting with his girlfriend (Shakur was allegedly flirting with a car full of young ladies when he was shot.)
Neither documentary, Who Killed Tupac? nor Snapped: Notorious Set provide answers. No one watching them would probably expect that they would.
Still, the question Who killed Tupac? is still interesting to a lot of peopleand likely so will the documentaries be.
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A policewoman has been sentenced to more than a year in jail for avoiding a random breath testing stop in Sydney. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Jail for Sydney Policewoman Who Avoided Alcohol Test
A policewoman has been sentenced to at least a year in jail for pulling rank over a rookie police officer at a random breath testing stop.
Police sergeant Sarah Louise Johnston, from Sydney, wept as the judge handed down the sentence at the Downing Centre District Court on Friday, news.com.au reported.
I consider the offenders conduct was disgraceful, said Judge Christopher Hoy as he sentenced Johnston to 16 months in jail with a non-parole period of 12 months.
The 50-year-old woman was found guilty of committing an act with the intent to pervert the course of justice.
This is misconduct the community would expect honest and upstanding members of the police force to abhor, resist and report, said the judge.
Johnston has brought shame upon herself and to all honest members of the police force, the judge said.
Johnston served at the North Sydney police station and was pulled over by chance at a random breath test (RBT) in January last year when she was off duty. She had been drinking at two hotels with colleagues celebrating the New Year not far from the station, according to media reports. She was traveling back to her central coast home at the time of being pulled over.
An off-duty police sergeant who used her rank and authority to avoid being randomly breath tested has been jailed. #9News https://t.co/Bwo5tSXtau Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) December 15, 2017
The news.com.au report said that the two junior officers conducting the RBTs immediately recognized her.
One of the officers, Constable Tugcan Sackesen, told the court that Johnston first pulled her vehicle up alongside Constable Cameron Brooks but rolled forward towards him before Brooks could breath test her.
Hi sergeant, youve just been stopped for a random breath test, Sackesen reportedly told her.
According to the report Johnston said: Youre not going to breath test me are you?
Yes sergeant, I am, he said.
Johnston replied: No, because that would be a conflict of interest. Imagine if I blew over, which I wont, because Im not.
Sackesen said the sergeant stated it would put him in an awkward situation.
Just imagine if politicians were held to this high a standard over insider nods & winks? #auspol https://t.co/zYV2dvwVKH Sandra K Eckersley? (@SandraEckersley) December 15, 2017
Johnston later messaged another sergeant about the incident. In that message shed declined the breath test and gave Sackesen a lesson on RBT and in-the-job etiquette, reported news.com.au.
Judge Hoy told the court that the message reflects an obvious if not arrogant appreciation of her own misconduct.
It is a clear corroboration of her sinister intent, he added.
The judge praised the two junior officers for reporting her transgression despite considerable emotional and personal cost.
Johnstonwho previously earned a police medal for 15 years of ethical servicewill be eligible to be released from prison in December 2018.
On social media, opinions about her sentence were mixed but the years jail time did not go unnoticed.
Sentencing is so out of whack. I bet her superiors in early years got away with it, as was done then, said one person on Facebook.
Wow avoid breath test and get 12 months jail but yet become a pedophile you get off. Huh go figure, another person commented.
Another comment said: They really make examples out of these situations.
One person jokingly tweeted: She should have committed armed robberies she would have got community service.
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Californian health officials have released new guidelines on how to limit cell phone radiation, including not carrying your phone in your pocket or sleeping with it in your bed.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued the warning amid growing concerns that cell phone use could be linked to brain cancer, headaches, mental health issues, and infertility.
According to the department, about 95 percent of Americans own a cell phone.
Although the science is still evolving, there are concerns among some public health professionals and members of the public regarding long-term, high use exposure to the energy emitted by cell phones, said CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith in a statement.
While the CDPH admits that the science is still evolving, it has provided comprehensive tips for the public on how to reduce cell phone radiation.
CDPH Issues Guidelines on How to Reduce Exposure to Radiofrequency Energy from Cell Phones: https://t.co/tsbV3ZUn72 pic.twitter.com/0ZLYBPv48C CA Public Health (@CAPublicHealth) December 13, 2017
The statewide notice from the CDPH is likely to be a particular concern to parents who may not be regulating their childrens cell phone use. On average, a child starts using their first phone from the age of 10, according to the CDPH.
Childrens brains develop through the teenage years and may be more affected by cell phone use, said Dr. Smith.
Parents should consider reducing the time their children use cell phones and encourage them to turn the devices off at night.
Other sources of RF energy include cell phone towers, TV and radio transmitters, smart meters, and microwave ovens, according to the CDPH. The signals are a form of electromagnetic radiation, and are also emitted when using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, but at lower levels.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration website has guidance on reducing RF exposure for children and teenagers, and recommends using a hands-free set or speaker mode when using your cell phone.
The statewide notice from California comes less than a week after France banned cell phones from schools, in a move that Education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer described as a public health message to families, according to RTL.
Its good that children are not too often, or even at all, in front of a screen before the age of seven, he said.
Practical tips to reduce cell phone radiation from the CDPH include:
-Keeping the phone away from the body
-Reducing cell phone use when the signal is weak
-Reducing the use of cell phones to stream audio or video, or to download or upload large files
-Keeping the phone away from the bed at night
-Removing headsets when not on a call
-Avoiding products that claim to block radio frequency energy. These products may actually increase your exposure.
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Man Facing Life in Prison for Killing Girlfriends Molester Told Police Hes Not Sorry
A Louisiana man was found guilty on Thursday, Dec. 14, of killing the man convicted of molesting his girlfriend when she was a child.
Jace Crehan did not testify in his defense at a court hearing on Wednesday, but the jury heard a recording of him telling the police that he strangled and stabbed his girlfriends convicted molester Robert Noce Jr. in 2015 saying that the criminal justice system had failed his girlfriend and that he did not want her to suffer any longer.
Thirteen days before being murdered, Noce, 47, was convicted of sexually molesting Brittany Monk and was sentenced to five years of probation, The Advocated reported. Noce was a former boyfriend of Monks mom and raised her for about a decade.
In a tape recording played in the courtroom on Wednesday, Crehan told police officers that he is not sorry for killing Noce.
I feel a lot better. Its not regret, Crehan added. Is it remorse? Im not sorry for what I did.
Crehan initially lied to police about Monks involvement in the murder, but when investigators confronted him by saying his girlfriends DNA was found at the scene, Crehan admitted that Monk was in Noces trailer at the time of the killing.
Monk, who was pregnant at the time of the murder, pleaded guilty to manslaughter earlier this year and is set to be sentenced next month. She faces up to 40 years in prison.
After admitting that Monk was present during the murder, Crehan again misled police, saying that his girlfriend never touched Noce. But Monk testified in court on Tuesday that she punched Noce 10 to 15 times while Crehan had him in a headlock.
I was lying about Brittanys involvement because I dont want anything to happen to her, Crehan said in his interrogation, The Advocate reported.
Crehan told officers that his intention was never to kill Noce, but only to instill fear in him. But Noce passed out while being strangled and upon awaking launched at Monk. Crehan then stabbed Noce to death and disposed of his body by stuffing it into a 55-gallon container.
Since being arrested, Crehan revealed in conversations that he was hoping for a similar court outcome as Gary Plauche, the man who did not receive any prison time after fatally shooting his sons molester in 1984. Plauche received a suspended sentence and five years of probation. He died in 2014.
Plauches son, Jody, now 45, attended Crehans court hearings. Although he does not advocate taking justice into ones own hands, Plauche supports Crehans family and believes both Crehan and Monks should receive light punishment.
My father thought Jeff would get off without a life sentence just as Robert Noce did, Jody Plauche told The Advocated. There was no justice for Brittany Monk.
My dad wasnt in his right mind, and Jace and Brittany werent in their right minds, Plauche said.
Crehan and Monks son Vaan, spent some time in Judge Marabellas courtroom on Wednesday. Marabella was part of Plauches defense team before he became a judge.
From NTD.tv
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Mother Arrested After 6-Year-Old Son Found Severely Malnourished
A mother from Memphis, Tennessee, has been arrested after authorities found evidence of child abuse in the form of neglect.
Thirty-two-year-old mother Andrea Caldwell was arrested on Friday, Dec. 8, after the Department of Children Services (DCS) discovered her 6-year-old son only weighed 13 pounds, NBC affiliate WRCB reported.
The average weight of a 6-year-old should be around 50 pounds, according to BabyCenter, a pregnancy and parenting media company.
Caldwell was charged with aggravated child abuse and neglect. As of writing on Friday, authorities have not yet revealed how long her prison sentence is.
Her son was born with several developmental disabilities and requires a GI/feeding tube in order to get fed.
Officials made the discovery after an employee with the department visited the boy. The unnamed employee told police that DCS had been searching for the boy since May after his mother failed to bring him to 13 scheduled doctor appointments since April, CBS affiliate WREG reported.
The employee tracked down the familys location in a Summer Avenue motel where the boys condition was downright alarming, according to WREG.
The 6-year-old had bruises and bed sores on his body, matted hair and also smelled of urine. To top it off, the mother was feeding him baby formula, after his feeding tube became so dirty that it had become clogged.
Authorities said that the mother was receiving free nutritional materials from social services, but did not use them.
Due to malnutrition, the boys weight was dangerously low when the DCS found him. The boy had lost 30 pounds since he last visited a physician back in March.
But some family members disagree with the charges against the mother.
I just dont understand why this is happening, the boys aunt Angela Caldwell, told WRCB. Shes took very good care of him since he was born.
Caldwells family claims that doctors at the Le Bonheur Childrens Hospital did not properly inform them when the boy started losing weight.
We had him at Le Bonheur in November saying he could not keep his food and stuff and they told us to just keep doing what we were doing, grandmother June Caldwell told WRCB.
The family members also claim that they were unaware that the DCS had been searching for them since May.
According to WREG, both the 6-year-old and his 4-year-old brother are now safe.
Another mother, Stacie Broussard, who had been staying at the same motel, said she was shocked when she heard the news: I dont like that at all, she told WREG.
She said she may have seen the mother with police cars in the parking lot. Broussard, a mother of four, said she could never imagine someone treating a child in that manner.
No, no. Thats crazy! she told WREG, adding, There is no excuse for that.
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Angela Denise Brewer, 46, was found guilty of homicide by child abuse. She gave an opioid drug to her infant grandson, a North Carolina court found on Thursday, Dec. 14. (PCSO/Screenshot via Google Maps)
North Carolina Grandmother Kills Toddler by Putting Opioid in Sippy Cup
A 46-year-old North Carolina woman accused of killing her 14-month old grandson by putting a lethal dose of an opioid narcotic into the toddlers sippy cup was convicted and sentenced on Thursday, Dec. 14, WSPA reported.
Angela Denise Brewer, of Pickens, North Carolina, was found guilty of homicide by child abuse at a trial by jury in Pickens County.
The womans sentencing is the culminating step in a process that began with deputies responding to a call on Oct. 17, 2014, that a child had allegedly stopped breathing.
Deputies found the 14-month-old infant at a home at Swiss Entrance in Pickens. According to WYFF, a family member was trying to revive the child by performing CPR.
Officials told FOX Carolina reporters that the child was transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An investigation was launched by the sheriffs office and the coroners office into the circumstances surrounding the death of the child.
Grandmother kills baby by putting opioid in sippy cup, gets 20 years. Angela Denise Brewer, 46, was convicted of Homicide by Child Abuse on Thursday. Prosecutors said Brewer was the sole caretaker of her 14 month old grandson. https://t.co/gwg8217vRw Amy Wood 7 News (@TVAmy) December 15, 2017
An autopsy was carried out and samples were sent to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division for forensic testing.
Coroner Kandy Kelley subsequently released the cause of deathacute Oxycodone toxicity, WYFF reported.
A warrant in the case revealed the child had 2700 ng/mL of the drug in his system.
Kelley also officially identified the child as Brentley Kolbin Lane Lusk, according to FOX Carolina.
In due course of the inquiry it was determined that Brewer was the sole caretaker of her grandchild at the time of death, WSPA reported.
The grandmother, Angela Denise Brewer, 43, of Pickens, was subsequently arrested as a suspect in the case according to Chief Deputy Creed Hashe, FOX California reported.
She was accused of killing her grandson by putting a deadly dose of Oxycontin in the toddlers sippy cup.
Brewer was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for the crime.
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Report: Man Gets Stranded on Fountain in Florida Lake After Stealing Boat
In the wee hours of Friday, Dec. 15, someone called 911 about a man who had become stranded on a fountain in the middle of an lake in Orlando, Florida.
Police and fire rushed to the area at about 4 a.m., where they saw a man standing on the iconic Linton E. Allen Memorial Fountain in Lake Eola shivering in shorts and a life jacket.
WFTV9 reports that the man apparently stole a swan boat that was in the lake and paddled to the fountain with it. Once on the fountain, the man became stranded after the boat floated away.
The Orlando Police department says someone heard the man yelling for help and called 911.
As rescuers got the man into a motorboat and then loaded him onto a stretcher to be taken to the hospital, he can be seen in WFTV9 footage visibly shaking. He was able to talk, however.
Weather Underground said the temperature in Orlando shortly before 4 a.m. was about 60 degrees with wind about 7 mph.
The mans name and whether he had a medical condition or used substances that may have contributed to his getting marooned have not yet been released.
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Residents gather outside their apartment blocks in Jakarta on early Dec. 16, 2017, following after a strong earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale. (Dessy Sagita/AFP/Getty Images)
Strong Quake Hits Indonesias Java, Kills Three
JAKARTAA powerful magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the island of Java in Indonesia just before midnight on Friday, with authorities reporting three deaths and damage to hundreds of buildings.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake was located at a depth of 92 km (57 miles), about 52 km southwest of Tasikmalaya.
Indonesias national disaster management agency said the quake activated early tsunami warning systems in the south of Java, prompting thousands to evacuate from some coastal areas, but no tsunami was detected.
Tremors were felt in central and west Java.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the disaster agency, said in a press briefing on Saturday three people had been killed, seven injured and hundreds of buildings damaged, including schools, hospitals, and government buildings in West and Central Java.
Dozens of patients had to be helped to safety from a hospital in Banyumas and were given shelter in tents, he said.
He posted on his Twitter page photos of people scouring collapsed buildings.
The quake swayed buildings for several seconds in the capital Jakarta. Some residents of high rise apartment buildings in central Jakarta quickly escaped their apartments, local media reported.
Indonesias meteorology and geophysics agency said a magnitude 5.7 quake early on Saturday also struck south of West Java. It said the quake did not have tsunami potential.
Java, Indonesias most densely populated island, is home to more than half of its 250 million people.
Fresh Corn Season Might Be Over, but You Can Still Have Delicious Cornbread Using Frozen Corn
US Militarys Most Advanced Jet Getting Precision Bombs That Lock on to Moving Targets
The militarys long-delayed, multi-capable, high tech stealth jet, the F-35, will soon carry bombs that can hit moving targets with precision.
The Enhanced Paveway II bomb uses laser and GPS technology to target moving objects from a moving aircraft with precision, Fox News reported. They will increase the capabilities of the F-35, which was designed to replace multiple types of jets as a kind of all-purpose fighter, according to the F-35 Lightning II website.
The F-35s hallmark is its unprecedented stealth. It is extremely hard to for radar systems to detect F-35s. The jet comes in three different configurations meant to satisfy the needs of different branches of the military and different combat situations, according to the F-35 website.
The F-35A takes off and lands like a conventional plane, on a runway, most suitable for Air Force usage. The F-35B can takeoff from shorter distances and land vertically because of an engine that swivels, allowing the jet to hover. The Marine Corps prefers such a jet. The F-35Cs design is most favored by the U.S. Navy, although the Marines also plan to purchase some. This variant is designed for the unique takeoff and landing scenarios of an aircraft carrier.
The highly advanced computers on the F-35 are now able to detect and track multiple targets, though designers in the early years of the program originally envisioned pilots using cluster bombs, The National Interest reported. But the United States and militaries across the world are relying less on cluster bombs since the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) was adopted in 2008.
Cluster munitions are seen as a threat to civilians both during and after conflict since their munitions lack precision and and often remain unexploded, putting civilians at risk, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition. The Paveway II allows much more precise targeting even before the F-35s more advanced moving target systems are implemented.
Breaking: USAF confirms $60 million purchase of 1,200 dual-mode GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway IIs from @Raytheon tto enable Lockheed F-35A Block 3Fs to strike targets moving at speeds above 70 mph. Flight testing starts this month. Initial delivery of 400 units by "end of January" pic.twitter.com/AQIesh2O5d James Drew (@JamesDrewNews) December 1, 2017
The F-35s computer systems will get an upgrade to accommodate a bomb currently in development for hitting moving targets, the Small Diameter Bomb II, according to Fox News. Until that bomb is fully developed, targeting moving objects will be handled by the GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II, which, according to the Air Force, will enable the F-35A to strike moving targets when integrated with the aircrafts Software Block 3F until Laser Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Small Diameter Bomb II munitions are integrated in later software releases.
These could potentially be used in Asia. F-35s are currently deployed at the U.S. Air Forces Kadena Air Force Base in Japan. Fox News reported that the Enhanced Paveway II would be useful in the event of military action against North Korea.
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Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. operates and licenses convenience stores. Its convenience stores sell tobacco products, grocery items, beverages, and fresh food offerings; road transportation fuel; and stationary energy, marine fuel, aviation fuel, and chemicals. The company operates its convenience store and road transportation fuel retailing chain under various banners, including Circle K, Couche-Tard, Holiday, Ingo, Mac's, Re.Store, and Topaz. It is also involved in the sale of lottery tickets, calling cards, gift cards, postage stamps, and bus tickets; issuance of money orders; and provision of automatic teller machines, cashing checks, and car wash services. As at April 30, 2018, it operated and licensed 12,740 convenience stores, which include 9,718 company-operated stores in North America, Ireland, Scandinavia, Poland, the Baltics, and Russia, as well as 2,000 stores, which are operated under the Circle K banner in China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Guam, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. The company was formerly known as Actidev Inc. and changed its name to Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. in December 1994. Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Laval, Canada.
Dril-Quip, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and services engineered drilling and production equipment for use in deepwater, harsh environment, and severe service applications worldwide. The company's principal products include subsea and surface wellheads, subsea and surface production trees, mudline hanger systems, specialty connectors and associated pipes, drilling and production riser systems, liner hangers, wellhead connectors, diverters, and safety valves, as well as downhole tools. It also provides technical advisory services, and rework and reconditioning services, as well as rental and purchase of running tools for use in the installation and retrieval of its products; and downhole tools comprise of liner hangers, production packers, safety valves, and specialty downhole tools that are used to hang-off and seal casing into a previously installed casing string in the well bore. The company's products are used to explore for oil and gas from offshore drilling rigs, such as floating rigs and jack-up rigs; and for drilling and production of oil and gas wells on offshore platforms, tension leg platforms, and Spars, as well as moored vessels, such as floating production, storage, and offloading monohull moored vessels. It sells its products directly through its sales personnel, independent sales agents, and representatives to integrated, independent, and foreign national oil and gas companies, as well as drilling contractors, and engineering and construction companies. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Eagle Materials Inc., through its subsidiaries, produces and supplies heavy construction materials and light building materials in the United States. It operates through Cement, Concrete and Aggregates, Gypsum Wallboard, and Recycled Paperboard segments. The company engages in the mining of limestone for the manufacture, production, distribution, and sale of Portland cement; grinding and sale of slag; and mining of gypsum for the manufacture and sale of gypsum wallboards used to finish the interior walls and ceilings in residential, commercial, and industrial structures. It also manufactures and sells recycled paperboard to gypsum wallboard industry and other paperboard converters, as well as containerboard and lightweight packaging grades. In addition, the company engages in the sale of ready-mix concrete; and mining, extracting, production, and sale of aggregates, including crushed stones, sand, and gravel. Its products are used in commercial and residential construction; public construction projects; and projects to build, expand, and repair roads and highways. The company was formerly known as Centex Construction Products, Inc. and changed its name to Eagle Materials, Inc. in January 2004. Eagle Materials Inc. was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Many investors understand the reasons for having a diversified portfolio. One way to accomplish this is to diversify within an asset class. For equity investors in the United States this can mean investing in both growth and value stocks.
It can also mean investing in international stocks. And when investors want to do this, they need look no further than our neighbor to the north. Canada has a range of stocks for investors to consider. This article will focus on strategies that investors can use when looking to invest in Canadian stocks.
Why Buy Canadian Stocks? There are a few reasons for investors to consider Canadian stocks as part of their diversification strategy: A Large Natural Resources Sector The sheer size of the country and its location lets investors know that it is an area rich in natural resources. This also means that the country has a source of current and future wealth. An Advanced Skills-Based Economy In this regard, Canada is similar to other western nations. The difference is that it is not as common to find these skill-based professions in a country with so many natural resources. Stability Canada is not exempt from any problems that impact the global economy. However, the country is known for stable financial and business policies that have kept the economy relatively stable. This Goldilocks economy has meant that many Canadian stocks havent enjoyed the outsized growth of some U.S. equities. However, it also comes with a bit of protection against downside risk.
How Have Canadian Stocks Performed? According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, there was a time when U.S. stocks and Canadian stocks performed nearly identically. Heres a graph that shows the performance of the S&P 500 Index vs. the TSX Index
Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence You can see that with a couple of exceptions, the two indexes performed remarkably similar. That all changed around 2012 and Canadian stocks became less attractive. Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence This disparity is widely due to one sector, technology. However, Canadian technology stocks have been on the rise. And in 2022, the country is benefiting from renewed interest in materials stocks as well as a spike in commodity prices.
What Are the Best Sectors of Canadian Stocks? For different reasons finance, materials, and energy stocks are among the best performing stocks as of September 2022. Heres a brief overview of each sector and some of the top names for investors to consider. Financial Similar to the United States, Canada has a strong banking industry. Many Canadian banks have a track record of solid performance that can provide long-term value to a portfolio. And several of these stocks pay dividends with attractive yields for investors. This sector makes up the largest percentage of the TSX at roughly 30%. And the Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY)is the top-weighted constituent in the TSX. Beyond the Royal Bank of Canada some of the other top-performing Canadian financial stocks include: National Bank of Canada ( OTCMKTS: NTIOF )
Toronto-Dominion Bank ( NYSE: TD )
Bank of Nova Scotia ( NYSE: BNS )
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ( NYSE: CM )
Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) Materials and Mining Canadian stocks can be an ideal choice for investors looking to diversify into gold and precious metals without owning the physical metal. Canada has a large natural resources sector. So, its not surprising that there are a number of gold mining companies with Canadian origins. This sector also gives investors exposure to other components in the mining and agriculture sectors. This sector makes up approximately 11.5% of the TSX. Some of the top Canadian materials and mining stocks include: B2Gold ( NYSE: BTG )
Nutrien (NYSE: NTR) Energy Canadian stocks offer both traditional fossil fuel-based energy stocks as well as some renewable energy stocks. This sector makes up approximately 18.5% of the TSX. Some of the top Canadian energy stocks include: Suncor Energy ( NYSE: SU )
Enbridge ( NYSE: ENB )
Algonquin Power & Utilities (NYSE: AQN) Technology As mentioned earlier, technology stocks have largely been the domain of the United States. As evidence of this, information technology stocks make up only about 5.5% of the TSX. However, there are a few Canadian companies that have become stars in the new economy being created. Some of the more popular names include: Shopify ( NYSE: SHOP )
Constellation Software ( OTCMKTS: CNSWF )
Lightspeed Commerce ( NYSE: LSPD )
Kinaxis ( NYSE: KXS )
Blackberry (NYSE: BB)
What Are the Risks of Investing in Canadian Stocks? One concern about investing in Canadian stocks is that they can be heavily weighted towards cyclical industries. For example, as of February 2022 financials (33.5%), energy (14.8%) and industrials (11.7%) made up nearly 60% of the index. That may be too much for some investors particularly because those sectors all tend to correlate roughly the same way as the economic cycle. But as a long-term play, Canadian stocks are worth considering with a small part of your portfolio.
How to Buy Canadian Stocks
Buy Individual Stocks on a Stock Exchange
Hundreds of Canadian stocks have dual listings on either the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the NASDAQ. This is the most convenient way to get exposure to Canadian stocks because there are no barriers to stock ownership. These shares can be purchased in U.S. dollars directly from the exchange just like purchasing a U.S. stock.
However, for a full list of the best Canadian stocks, investors should look at the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). The TSX is one of the oldest stock exchanges having been founded in 1852. Its also the third largest stock exchange in North America in terms of market capitalization.
The Toronto Stock Exchange includes approximately 1,500 companies. It allows investors to trade stocks, investment trusts, exchange-traded products, bonds, commodities, futures, options, and other derivative products. All transactions on the TSX are executed in Canadian dollars.
Invest in a Mutual Fund or ETF
There are many mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that supply exposure to Canadian stocks. Some funds supply exposure to both U.S. and Canadian stocks. Other funds hold just Canadian stocks. Some examples of those include:
BMO S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF
Horizons S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF
Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap ETF
As with investing in any asset class, investors need to consider their investment objective, time horizon and risk tolerance before choosing a fund that fits their needs. Investors will also want to pay attention to the funds fee structure to ensure youre making the most efficient use of your capital.
The Final Word on Investing in Canadian Stocks
Investing in Canadian stocks is one way for investors to add diversification to their portfolio. MarketBeat provides a list of the top Canadian stocks that trade on the TSX. This is Canadas version of the NYSE or NASDAQ in the United States and includes many of the same stocks.
Thats one advantage of investing in Canadian stocks is that many have a dual listing which removes many of the obstacles that can come with investing in international stocks.
However, investors should be aware that many of the best Canadian stocks are in highly cyclical industries which can lead to underperformance when those sectors are out of favor. Still, due to their relative stability and in some cases an impressive dividend, Canadian stocks may have a place in an investors portfolio.
How to watch and what to know about Northern Iowa at South Dakota
Gokongwei Brothers Foundation is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a firm commitment to making a lasting impact on education in the Philippines.
From the beginning, I knew education would be the foundations primary advocacy. Why? Because it is my belief that education is the only way to save this country, JG Summit founder and chairman John Gokongwei Jr. said.
GBF was established in 1992 by Gokongwei and his brothers Johnson, Henry and James.
We have to strengthen our hold on our science and engineering courses Thats the only way to help our country industrialize, he said.
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GBFs first major project was establishing in 1999 the GBF Technical Training Center, a P150-million facility envisioned to be a world-class continuing school for engineers.
In 2011, GBF gave significant endowment leading to the establishment of the De La Salle University Gokongwei College of Engineering.
At present, three of seven scholarships administered by GBF support college students pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. More than half of GBFs 484 scholars are undergraduate students enrolled in STEM courses.
More than half of Gokongwei Brothers Foundations 484 scholars are top college students taking science and engineering courses at reputable Philippine universities. Aamong them were Gold Caminian, Rose Ann Carmona and Melvin Rigodon, all licensed chemical engineers now working at JG Summit Petrochemicals Group.
JG Summit president and GBF board secretary Lance Gokongwei sees investment in STEM as having a big impact on the Philippine economy.
Its always been the belief of my father that the Philippines needs to broaden its base beyond just providing services to have real institutionalized capabilities in terms of manufacturing in order for us to have a broader-based economy that can compete more effectively throughout the world. We want to make investing in STEM the main focus of our foundation, he said.
Concurrent with its efforts to hone future scientists and engineers, GBF devotes itself to providing quality technical-vocational education to produce skilled workers.
In 2014, GBF, together with Universal Robina Corp. Branded Consumer Foods Group, established GBF Iskolar ni Juan Tech-Voc program, a fully subsidized one-year scholarship for high school graduates or out-of- school youth.
Boarded at the GBF TTC, scholars take GBFs signature Tesda-registered program in mechatronics and instrumentation servicing, followed by on-the- job training and employment as production operator at URC-BCFG.
As of October 2017, all 93 graduates of the program have been hired by URC-BCFG.
Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng, GBF general manager, believes education gives underprivileged youth the opportunity to succeed.
I feel happy whenever I hear about how youths who had no options suddenly felt that their future was brighter because of this scholarship. Through helping one person, the scholars are able to help their families, and hopefully, their communities as well bigger and bigger circles, she said.
Prior to the DLSU-GCOE endowment, GBF also gave educational support leading to the establishment of the Ateneo John Gokongwei School of Management in 2002.
Endowments to DLSU and Ateneo have funded facility building and improvement, scholarships and student enrichment, and research and faculty development.
As of September 2017, GBF has produced 337 graduates through its college, technical-vocational and high school scholarship programs.
Aside from running scholarship programs and the GBF TTC, the foundation also collaborates with strategic partners inside and outside JG Summit for causes related to education.
In 2011, GBF donated 18 two-classroom preschool buildings in various provincial sites through Aklat, Gabay, Aruga, Tungo sa Pag-Angat at Pag-Asa Foundation.
Lance Gokongwei said his family, thankful for the opportunities education has led to, wants to pay it forward.
We try to level the playing field by giving equality of opportunities for one of the most critical determinants of future success: access to education. Hopefully, we are able to help a few thousand Filipinos achieve a level of education that they may not have had, he said.
John Gokongwei himself was unable to complete his university education. But it was his innate curiosity and love for learning that helped him become a successful entrepreneur.
Despite his success as a self-taught man, Gokongwei put premium on formal education, sent his siblings to the best schools he could afford at that time, and eventually pursued a masters degree for himself.
He saw the difference that education made in his life and that of his siblings, and he wanted to share that opportunity to as many Filipinos as he could, said Lance Gokongwei.
Marking its 25th anniversary, GBF produced a video and magazine commemorating its milestones and stories of impacted lives.
In a letter sent to JG Summit & Affiliates employees, Lance Gokongwei is hoping the stories will be a source of inspiration for you as they are for me in striving to make lives better.
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Stylish and kawaii meet in Fujifilms instax Mini 9 Ginza package, a set inspired by Japans most stylish district.
The P4,499 bundle includes a diamond pouch sling bag, an instax album, a mirror card, stickers, 10 sheets of films, and a Mini 9 camera.
Fujifilm instax Ginza Package
With the instax Mini 9, you can take better selfies by checking your reflection via the small mirror next to the lens. You can also photograph subjects up to 35cm near with its close-up lens attachment. Challenging lighting blues will also be a thing of the past with its brightness adjustment dial.
Fujifilm products are sold at authorized dealers nationwide. For more information, visit www.Instax.ph.
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TOKYO Japan plans a record $46 billion defense budget for the next fiscal year to strengthen its missile defense against the threat posed by North Korea, a report said Saturday.
The government is expected to set aside 5.19 trillion yen for defense in the countrys initial budget proposal for the fiscal year starting April 2018, the Nikkei daily said.
It will mark the sixth straight year of increases in defense outlays, topping the 5.12 trillion-yen budget for the current fiscal year, the business daily said.
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Much of the increase will go on protecting Japan against North Koreas nuclear weapons and missile development, the newspaper said.
The extra funding will cover the cost of preparations for introducing the US militarys Aegis Ashore land-based missile interceptor system, the Nikkei said.
Last week Japans defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, said the country plans to purchase long-range cruise missiles with a range of some 900 kilometers (560 miles) from US firms.
The move is controversial as Japans pacifist constitution bans the use of force as a means of settling international disputes.
Global anxiety about North Korea has steadily risen this year, with Washington calling on other UN members to cut ties with Pyongyang to squeeze the secretive regime.
The call, however, has fallen short of persuading key North Korean backers China and Russia to take steps to isolate the regime.
At the United Nations, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday North Korea must earn its way back to the negotiating table, backing away from an earlier offer of unconditional talks to end the stand-off with Pyongyang.
Tillerson told the UN Security Council that a sustained cessation of North Koreas threatening behavior must occur before talks can begin, apparently after coming under pressure from President Donald Trumps White House to toughen his stance.
Earlier this week at a policy forum in Washington, Tillerson had underlined that the United States was seeking a diplomatic opening for negotiations with North Korea on ending its nuclear program and, for the first time, offered talks with no preconditions.
The White House had responded to Tillersons remarks by insisting there had been no change in US policy, triggering a new round of reports of a rift between Trump and his chief diplomat.
At the United Nations, Tillerson took a tough line.
North Korea must earn its way back to the table, he said. The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved.
We will, in the meantime, keep our channels of communication open.
Tillerson repeated that we do not seek, nor do we want, war with North Korea.
The United States will use all necessary measures to defend itself against North Korean aggression, but our hope remains that diplomacy will produce a resolution, he said.
According to a prepared version of his remarks, Tillerson had planned to repeat his offer of talks without preconditions, but the line was dropped from his speech.
Asked about the change, Tillerson told reporters afterwards that the United States would not make any concessions of its own to secure talks, but that lines of communication would remain open if North Korea wanted to come forward.
The North Koreans know where the door is. They know where to walk through that door when they want to talk, he said.
North Koreas UN ambassador Ja Song-Nam made a rare appearance at the council meeting chaired by Japan, which announced new targeted sanctions on Chinese entities, among others.
Ja took a swipe at the United States which he said was terrified by the incredible might of our republic and reaffirmed Pyongyangs view that nuclear weapons were needed for self-defense.
North Korea is a responsible nuclear power and a peace-loving state that will strive to safeguard world peace, he said, making no mention of the US call for a pause in missile and nuclear tests.
Singling out China, Pyongyangs sole ally, and Russia, Tillerson urged Beijing and Moscow to go beyond the current tough UN sanctions resolutions and impose unilateral measures.
Continuing to allow North Korean laborers to toil in slave-like conditions inside Russia in exchange for wages used to fund nuclear weapons programs calls into question Russias dedication as a partner for peace, he said.
Tillerson also dismissed concerns that UN sanctions are having an impact on North Koreas humanitarian crisis, saying Pyongyang hypocritically spends billions on military programs while its own people suffer great poverty.
The United States has called on China to cut off oil supplies to North Korea, a move that would deal a crippling blow to its economy.
In Washington, Trump criticized Russia for doing too little to pressure Pyongyang.
China is helping. Russia is not helping. We would like to have Russias help, said Trump, who discussed the crisis by phone with President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
Russias Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia shot back, saying North Korean workers were in Russia as part of a bilateral agreement which guarantees their rights and not subjected to slave-like conditions.
Addressing Tillerson directly, the Russian ambassador said: We very much hope that the US will be able to help resolve the crisis on the Korean peninsula.
Chinas envoy expressed concern about a hardening of positions, saying the current crisis hardly makes one optimistic.
The hope for peace is not totally obliterated, said Chinese Deputy Ambassador Wu Haitao. There is a possibility for negotiation and the option of use of force is unacceptable.
Pyongyang has carried out its sixth nuclear test and conducted a series of missile launches including its first tests of two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) this year.
Addressing the council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged diplomatic engagement to avoid a level of danger that would be unpredictable in its trajectory and catastrophic in its consequences.
The UNs political affairs chief, Jeffrey Feltman, returned at the weekend from talks in Pyongyang the first visit to the North by a high-ranking UN official since 2011.
While Feltman received no firm commitment on talks from North Korea, he said the visit was just the beginning of his push for talks about talks.
Since late 2016, the Security Council has slapped three rounds of sanctions aimed at choking off revenue to Pyongyangs weapons program, which the United Nations has described as the most dangerous security issue in the world today.
China and Russia argue that sanctions alone will not compel North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to change course and want to step up diplomatic efforts to achieve a solution.
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THE ASEAN Foundation and SAP SE recently announced the continuation of their strategic collaboration into 2018, following a successful collaboration in its first year to bring about social impact in ASEAN.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding between the ASEAN Foundation and SAP, both organizations will jointly roll out initiatives under two strategic pillars next year, namely Education and Entrepreneurship.
The initiatives are aimed at equipping ASEAN youths with the skills they need to tackle societys problems and thrive in the digital economy; build the capacity of innovative social enterprises that put young people on the path to successful careers and build a skilled workforce for the IT sector with training and workforce development programmes.
Shown in photo are (from left) Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee, Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN for Socio-Cultural Community; Claus Andresen, President and Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia; Elaine Tan, Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation and Eugene Ho, Head of Corporate Affairs, SAP Southeast Asia.
The inaugural year of this collaboration yielded positive outcomes under the following pillars:
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Education
The ASEAN Data Science Explorers competition attracted 804 participants from 112 institutions across the 10 ASEAN member states. In the lead-up to the competition, students were trained in SAPs Analytics Cloud software through a series of webinars and in-country seminars, with more than 600 students accessing the platform.
The competition solicited data-driven insights and ideas on the most pressing social issues in the region. Some highlights include the submission by Team Omotesando from Indonesia that aims to accelerate financial inclusion as a solution to poverty eradication through branchless banking, and the submission by Team Tonkar Data from Laos which proposes the adoption of smart and vertical farming in ASEAN to improve productivity in agriculture.
Volunteerism
The Youth Volunteering Innovation Challenge, under the theme Impact ASEAN, supported young volunteers throughout the ASEAN region in their journey to catalyze youth-led innovation for social impact and sustainable development by providing access to mentors and capital they need to start or scale up their projects.
Some 29 young volunteer innovators from ten teams across ASEAN participated in the YVIC 2017 as part of a collaborative effort by the United Nations Volunteers, United Nations Development Programme, the International Labour Organisation, the ASEAN Foundation, the ASEAN Secretariat, SAP and with the close support of the Government of Germany.
Entrepreneurship
Under the collaboration, SAP supported 9 of out the Top 50 ASEAN social enterprises through two programmes namely the SAP Social Sabbatical and NUS Crossing the Chasm Challenge. SAP employees provided mentorship and consulting to help the enterprises run better.
Through this synergetic collaboration, we have been able to leverage resources from both organizations to inspire ASEAN youths to actively participate in efforts towards driving a sustainable future for ASEAN. With digitization being the pivotal force in todays ASEAN economies, both the public and the private sector need to work together to impart digital skills to the young. SAP has been a strong supporter in making consistent effort to move the needle in this respect; we hope to continue to collaborate with them to prepare ASEANs workforce for the future, said Elaine Tan, the Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation.
The MoU was first signed on May 9, 2017 at the ASEAN Foundation headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia. Since then, the ASEAN Foundation and SAP have been executing on all the programmes under the three pillars.
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SAN FRANCISCOFor years, Uber secretly spied on key executives, drivers and employees at rival ride-hailing companies as part of a larger intelligence-gathering operation that spanned multiple countries, according to a letter made public in a federal court on Friday.
The 37-page letter, written by Richard Jacobs, a former Uber security employee, detailed what he described as the formation of separate internal teams designed expressly for the purpose of acquiring trade secrets from major ride-sharing competitors around the world.
Those teams then worked to infiltrate chat rooms and scraped websites for data on competitors, according to the letter. Uber security employees occasionally impersonated drivers to gain access to chat groups, illegally recorded phone calls, and secretly wiretapped and tailed executives at rival companies over the course of 2016, the letter said.
Read more:
Uber lawyer says ex-managers claim ex-CIA agents were used for spying could be fantastical
Uber comes clean about coverup of year-old data hack that affected 57 million riders and drivers
Uber apologizes after charging Toronto customer more than $18K for 21-minute ride
Uber has engaged, and continues to engage, in illegal intelligence gathering on a global scale, Jacobs wrote.
His letter underscores the lengths that Uber went to to get ahead of rivals under its former chief executive, Travis Kalanick, when it prized aggressiveness and the growth of its ride-hailing business above all else. The company is now trying to shift away from that image and stabilize after a year filled with scandals, executive departures and internal battles. Kalanick stepped down in June, and his successor, Dara Khosrowshahi, has been on an apology tour for Ubers past behaviour.
Jacobs letter is part of a trade secrets case that Uber is fighting against Waymo, the self-driving-automobile business that operates under Googles parent company. Waymo has said Uber stole information about driverless-car technology from it. Uber has denied Waymos allegations, and the case is scheduled to go to trial next month.
Jacobs letter surfaced last month when the U.S. attorneys office in Northern California alerted the federal judge in the Uber-Waymo case to its existence. The letter was submitted into evidence because it also detailed allegations that Uber employees potentially conspired to steal trade secrets from Waymo. The judge, William Alsup of U.S. District Court in San Francisco, then delayed a trial in the case so Waymos lawyers could gather more information on the claims.
At the time, Jacobs appeared in court about his letter. In his testimony, he walked back some of its claims, including those pertaining to Ubers alleged theft of Waymos trade secrets. Uber had privately settled a lawsuit by Jacobs for millions of dollars this year.
The document nonetheless paints a picture of Ubers other competitive tactics, which Jacobs said had been carried out by Ubers security team with Kalanicks knowledge. At the time, the team was led by Joe Sullivan, the companys chief security officer.
Jacobs letter said that after the Uber teams followed rival executives to hotels or private meeting spaces, they relayed their actions to Kalanick. In one instance, Uber security officials passed along the reactions of executives from a competing company when they received the news that Uber was to receive a venture capital investment of more than $3 billion (U.S.) from Saudi Arabian investors.
While we havent substantiated all the claims in this letter and, importantly, any related to Waymo our new leadership has made clear that going forward we will compete honestly and fairly, on the strength of our ideas and technology, Matt Kallman, a spokesperson for Uber, said in a statement after the letters release.
Uber is facing at least five separate federal investigations, including at least one over a software tool called Greyball, which the company created to evade law enforcement in cities around the world. It is also facing an investigation into whether the company broke the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for bribery overseas, a claim Jacobs made in his letter.
Two of Ubers top security officials including Sullivan and Craig Clark, a lawyer on Sullivans team were let go this month, after the company disclosed that it had covered up a 2016 hacking that affected the accounts of more than 50 million drivers and riders.
On Friday, Sullivan and others on the security team disputed Jacobs letter, saying it was nothing more than character assassination for cash, according to a statement from Matthew Umhofer, an attorney for four Uber security employees. Jacobs took the good work my clients did and twisted it into something it wasnt, Umhofer said.
In his own statement, Sullivan said, From where I sat, my team acted ethically, with integrity and in the best interests of our drivers and riders.
Through a spokesperson, Kalanick declined to comment.
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Alexa ... will I meet my retirement goal?
You are not on track to meet your retirement goal, replies Amazon.com Inc.s voice-activated digital assistant, with not a bit of sugar-coating. Then she suggests turning over $76 a month to Fidelity Investments and its advisers.
This wont actually happen if you try it on your Amazon Alexa device at home. Its a demonstration put on by EMoney Advisor LLC, a company owned by Fidelity, in its offices in Radnor, Pa.
Amazon provides software for third-party developers to experiment with new functions. Fidelity is trying to find ways to apply artificial intelligence, computer algorithms, and voice-recognition software to the hidebound world of money management and investing.
Theres some urgency to the task. These days, investing firms figure theyll either master the digital world or become yet another of Silicon Valleys victims.
Each year, Fidelity gathers scores of technologists and executives to confront threats to the 71-year-old business, which manages $2.4 trillion (U.S.) and is one of the worlds biggest mutual-fund companies and retirement plan administrators. Like generals and soldiers in a war game, they sketch out what they would do in all kinds of scenarios, such as a market crash or a merger that created a super rival.
Just as ominous, perhaps, they ask: What if Amazon distributed financial products or offered its own financial advice? What if Google bought its own money manager?
Those tech companies could then do to the investment industry what theyve done to businesses from publishing to electronics, squeezing already-shrinking profit margins and driving out established players. Even now, the soaring popularity of market-tracking index funds is pushing investment management fees ever closer to nil.
Were working to innovate so we dont get caught flat-footed, says Bill Doyle, head of research for Fidelity Labs, which oversees the companys experiments in financial technology.
For now, theres one big thing keeping the tech predators at bay: Getting into finance would pull Amazon and its ilk into closely regulated businesses. But Fidelity and others see no guarantees this will deter tech companies forever.
And beyond U.S. borders, where many financial companies look for growth, tech is breaking through already. In 2013, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. started selling a money-market fund. It now is the worlds largest, with 1.56 trillion renminbi ($235.6 billion).
Customers in the U.S., too, are ready to trust tech companies with their savings. More than half of investors with assets of at least $1 million would consider using one of the top tech companies to manage their wealth, according to a survey by consulting firm Capgemini SE. Three-quarters of millennials would take a flyer on an offering from Google, Amazon, Apple, or payments companies PayPal and Square over one from their own banks, according to a study by media company Viacom Inc.
If Google comes out tomorrow and asks if I want to invest, I probably would, says Marcus Storr, who heads hedge fund investing at Germany-based Feri Family Trust. The search engine giant, a unit of Alphabet Inc., has data on billions of its users and millions of dollars to splurge on the best coders from around the world, who could automate the search for lucrative trades.
U.S. technology firms have entered finance already. Apple customers pay with their phones. Amazon lets customers use its system to buy products on other sites. It offers loans to merchants.
Alexa and Siri could one day become your financial assistant, cutting even deeper into commissions for advisers, says Lex Sokolin, who directs financial technology strategy at consultancy Autonomous Research.
Amazon, Apple and Google big players in digital assistants had no comment.
To head off the threat, investment companies are forming partnerships with technology firms. Earlier this year, Boston-based Acadian Asset Management LLC struck a deal so its portfolio managers could use Microsoft Corp.s Bing Predicts, which makes forecasts using search and social media data, to help pick stocks; that agreement later ended.
Barry Benjamin, a PricewaterhouseCoopers partner who oversees money-management consulting, says tech companies may prefer joint ventures to avoid the legal risks of investing. Otherwise, they really have to bite the bullet and subject themselves to the scrutiny of financial regulation, Benjamin says.
He expects U.S. tech firms might be more likely to focus on Asia and other developing markets.
Money managers are also developing and acquiring technology to keep the loyalty of investment advisers trying to compete in an increasingly automated world.
BlackRock, led by chief executive officer Larry Fink, in recent years has been buying stakes in other companies, particularly technology firms. Through these purchases, the company is pushing into new lines of business.
In 2013, BlackRock helped seed a startup called Personal Capital Corp., which sells financial software that lets customers budget and track investments. Two years later, BlackRock bought FutureAdvisor Inc., which creates automated investment software.
Rob Kapito, president of BlackRock, said that while his firm views the big tech giants as a potential threat, it is unlikely those companies will offer funds because their reputation would take a hit when they lose money.
If they have superior technology, we may want to utilize it and bring it into our ecosystem, says Kapito.
Fidelity bought EMoney in 2015. It sells software to investment advisers thats designed to make it easier to interact with their customers on budgeting for weddings, college, or retirement. It employs 600 people in an office that looks more like a Silicon Valley startup than a unit of a fund company, with the standard-issue beanbag chairs, huddle rooms, and Segway scooter.
All of us in this industry need to be sort of eyes wide-open around disruption, EMoney CEO Ed OBrien says.
For now, Alexa, as an adviser, isnt quite ready to disrupt. For one thing, she still has trouble recognizing you and thats a big flaw, because you arent just asking her to turn on the lights or the radio. What if a guest in your house accidentally triggers the intimate details of your net worth and retirement plans?
Fidelity Labs is working on voice authentication, but it remains a work in progress. So it may be a while before the financial world updates the old 1970s ad slogan: When Alexa talks, people listen.
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When Tina Brown arrived in New York City, she was twenty-nine years old and brimming with fear and insecurity. An enfant terrible of Londons Fleet St. scene, the plucky Oxford ingenue had become editor of the society glossy Tatler at twenty-five, swiftly making the flagging title a must-read for the smart set, and catching the attention of the Conde Nast brass across the pond. In the early eighties, its venerable celebrity bible had just been revived after a half-century hiatus and was tanking. Browns new outing, The Vanity Fair Diaries 1983-1992, is the story of its astonishing turnaround under her reign, which the supercharged Brit chronicled daily in stacks of blue notebooks.
A wild romp through the drawing rooms of Manhattans elite, the memoir pulls back the curtain on a world of glamour and excess. In her quest to make the magazine central to the zeitgeist, Brown takes a madcap tour of duty through Park Ave. co-ops, glitzy fundraisers and intimate literary dinners, plus power lunches with publishing heavyweights, seductive cocktail tete-a-tetes with Hollywoods most charismatic leading men, and epic encounters with pop stars and royals. Throughout, she provides deliciously witty commentary, forever playing the role of skeptical social observer.
Brown is, of course, a fabulously entertaining writer. Shes also a pioneer. What she accomplished as a young upstart in the treacherous media boys club is truly remarkable, and we have much to learn from her vision and unshakable confidence. And good God stamina.
Add to that, this book offers endless anecdote porn for journalism junkies. Not the least of which: contributors were then paid $10,000 an article, and wined and dined at the finest restaurants.
But what emerges is not just a glimpse into a bygone era of arts and letters, or the story of smashed glass ceilings, or the jet-set lives of the one per cent, but a portrait of a pivotal time in history. The eighties in New York City was a period of out-of-control opulence, and one that set the stage for the staggering income inequality and Trump presidency to come. (Theres loads of juicy Trump sightings in these pages, almost none of them complimentary.)
As such, theres a missed opportunity with The Vanity Fair Diaries. Brown does little to analyze the extremes of American culture, beyond skewering clueless trophy wives and paranoid Master of the Universe-types. Please dont expect ruminations on the sociological fallout of trickle-down economics, she warns in the books introduction. Still, having had a front-row seat at the sinking of the Titanic, Brown surely has some insight into how America wound up in the mess its in. Its a shame she didnt share it here.
Tara Henley is a writer and radio producer.
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A Black Liberal MP took to Facebook this week to share details of the discrimination she says she confronts on Parliament Hill.
Celina Caesar-Chavannes, who represents Whitby, posted that she faces micro-aggressions, a term used to describe more subtle forms of racism.
Each experience drain(s) my energy, sucking a little bit of life out of me, like death by a thousand cuts, Caesar-Chavannes wrote in a Facebook post Thursday night.
Her office declined to comment further when reached by the Star on Friday.
But in her posting, Caesar-Chavannes said that on the day she was doing her makeup for a photo shoot in the washroom of Wellington Building, which houses her office across the street from Parliament, a woman walked in and placed her wallet on the ledge by the door.
As she placed her wallet down and our eyes met in the reflection of the mirror, she said, Dont steal my wallet ok? My smile, joy and excitement vanished. She noticed, because she quickly responded with an, I was just joking with a little sprinkle of like duh?? on the side, wrote Caesar-Chavannes.
That same day, the security at her office building didnt open the door for her to enter, though shes worked there for a year and been an MP for two, she said.
Later, they told her shed need a pass to get back into the building or shed have to wait in line, she added.
To say these micro-aggressions do not bother me, would be a lie. They do, she wrote.
In a statement, House of Commons Speaker Geoff Regan, who has spoken directly with Caesar-Chavannes, said hes deeply disappointed that she has experienced humiliating and demeaning encounters on the Hill.
As Speaker, it is of course my priority that all Members are treated respectfully, he said, adding that hes instructed both the Parliamentary Protective Service and the House of Commons Administration to ensure that all MPs and visitors are treated with dignity and respect.
There are both subtle and non-subtle forms of racism but they are all damaging, said Usha George, the director of the Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement, whose work focuses on diverse communities.
It affects your psyche, it affects your self-esteem, she said.
While racism remains a widespread issue in Canada, George said it was deeply disturbing to see it at this level of government.
We have to work at it, we have to spread the message around, how important it is for us to value each other, respect each other and not to stereotype, she s aid.
Efforts at inclusion or equity must go beyond numbers, she added. Employers must examine the structures in place and whether they offer equal opportunities to all people.
Caesar-Chavannes wrote on Facebook that shes committed to bringing change.
I stand for my daughters. I will accept every micro-aggression and racist insult that is hurled at me for them, she wrote.
I will stand for future generations of women, in order to ensure that they never have to feel the humiliation and pain, hidden behind this smile. I stand because we need more women in positions like these to change the status quo. Glass ceilings do not get broken by sitting on the sidelines and watching. They break when you stand up.
Correction December 19, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Usha George is the dean of the faculty of community services at Ryerson University. In fact, that is her former role.
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In a plea deal, Grayson Delong has admitted in Ontario Superior Court that disguised as a construction worker he shot Toronto criminal lawyer Randall Barrs outside his Annex office last year.
Delong pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated assault, disguise with intent, discharge a firearm with intent and possess a loaded firearm, reduced from the 15 charges he originally faced including attempted murder.
The Crown and defence lawyers agreed 12 years in prison two years less than the maximum is an appropriate sentence, but disagree on how much credit he should receive for pretrial custody.
Superior Court Justice John McMahon will impose sentence Tuesday after hearing submissions Friday about the high-profile and bizarre case. Immediately after shooting Barrs and while trying to escape, Delong was himself shot twice by Halton Regional Police undercover officers, who had him under surveillance.
Crown attorney David Boulet read into the record an agreed statement of facts that shed no new light on what was behind the Sept. 20, 2016 carefully planned and deliberate shooting that targeted a member of the justice system.
Barrs was placing items in the trunk of his car outside his Bedford Rd. office around 3:15 p.m. when he was confronted by Delong, carrying a handgun and wearing a safety vest, yellow construction helmet and a wig, Boulet said. Delong fired three shots, striking Barrs twice in the left leg. Delong ran back to his vehicle and as he pulled out of a parking spot, the gun discharged twice from inside the car, shattering the drivers side window. Thats when an Halton officer opened fire, striking Delong in his neck and back.
The shooting was at very close range, no warning or words were exchanged, Boulet said. The two men were complete strangers and theres no known motive for this shooting, the Crown attorney added.
At the time, Delong, who has a lengthy criminal record, was on bail for a break and enter and was on three separate firearms prohibition orders.
The psychological harm to Barrs and his family is significant, Boulet said.
Its not unreasonable for Mr. Barrs and his family to strongly believe that this was or may have been an attempt on his life and they cannot know if and when another attempt might be made.
Barrs was not in court Friday. He declined to submit a victim impact statement, Boulet said.
Reached by the Star on Friday, Barrs said he would reserve comment until after sentencing next week. Barrs, who has said he does not know Delong, has been critical of Toronto police investigators for failing to uncover a motive and possible co-conspirators.
Hes also knocked the Special Investigations Unit investigation that cleared the Halton officer who shot Delong.
Delong, 52, declined to say anything to the court Friday, other than to say yes when asked if he agreed that he had not been coerced to plead guilty and that the statement of facts was true.
Defence lawyer James Miglin told the judge his client has a positive and healthy relationship with his adult daughter, who sat in the body of the nearly empty court, and his grandchildren. He has held several blue collar jobs and has worked as a welder.
Delongs guilty plea to the reduced charge of aggravated assault acknowledges there was an intention to fire the shots but no specific intention to kill Barrs, Miglin stated.
And while Delong admitted to shooting three rounds, the first two striking Barrs lower left leg, he is not admitting he fired twice from within the vehicle, the lawyer said.
After a seven day preliminary inquiry, a judge discharged Delong on the attempted murder charge. Before the plea, the Crown filed an application to challenge that decision and resurrect the attempt murder charge.
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After a long and difficult trial two men, both previously convicted of murder, have been found guilty of killing a 23-year-old Toronto woman.
Justice, said Crown prosecutor Jill Cameron, was served.
Several members of the jury, which had begun deliberations on Tuesday, cried as the verdict was read Saturday afternoon convicting both Dellen Millard and Mark Smich of first-degree murder for the death of Laura Babcock, who was last seen alive in early July 2012.
For Babcocks parents though, the verdict brought little joy.
The loss of Laura is no less painful today then when it was realized five years ago, said Clayton Babcock, Lauras father. Like any parent that loses a child we can only move forward with the thoughts of what might have been.
You all know what a wonderful woman she was, as well as all the pains and struggles that she faced, Babcock said of his daughter, who had wrestled with extreme anxiety, depression and was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder before her death.
You also know about the evil beings that took her life and if societys lucky we will not see them again in the streets, he said, struggling to hold back tears as he spoke to media outside the Toronto courthouse Saturday with Linda Babcock, Lauras mother, at his side, a hand resting on his shoulder.
Crown prosecutors have said Millard, 32, and Smich, 30, spent months planning Babcocks murder and attempted to cover it up by burning her body in an animal incinerator. Babcock, prosecutors alleged, was killed because she was involved in a love triangle with Millard, 32, and his then-girlfriend, Christine Noudga.
Millard tried to pass off a text exchange with Noudga, in which he said he was going to hurt Babcock, make her leave and remove her from our lives, as an effort to calm a jealous girlfriend.
Last year, both men were also convicted of killing 32-year-old Tim Bosma, from Ancaster, Ont., and burning his body in Millards incinerator.
Millard also stands accused of a killing his father and faces a third murder trial in March.
Read more:
His letters to a girlfriend were the undoing of Dellen Millard
Dellen Millards mistrial request dismissed as jury deliberates verdict in Laura Babcock murder case
Rosie DiManno: Guns, drugs and murder: What the Laura Babcock jury wasnt told
Both Millard and Smich, who pleaded not guilty to Babcocks murder, were sentenced to life imprisonment without a chance of parole for 25 years.
While it will be up to Justice Michael Code to decide whether the two men will serve concurrent or consecutive sentences for the Bosma and Babcock murders, all 12 jurors recommended a consecutive sentence for Millard. Five recommended the same for Smich, while seven had no recommendation.
As the jury deliberated those recommendations on Saturday, Shawn Lerner, Babcocks ex-boyfriend, walked in wearing a dark grey pullover sweater. Linda Babcock, Lauras mother, stood and gave him a hug.
More hugs between family and friends followed as the court adjourned bringing an end to a long and taxing trial, which Code said was one of the most difficult cases hes faced.
Outside the courthouse, Cameron, the Crown prosecutor, spoke of the difficulties she and her team faced as well.
This took a toll on us, this took a toll on our families, she said. You dont really look at it until its over and Im sure well look back with a great deal of emotion.
We just really feel so strongly that justice was done, were so thankful for the families support and we just feel so badly that they had to go through this and that Laura had to suffer at the hands of these two, she added.
Clayton Babcock offered his thanks as well to all those who supported the family through the trial and fought for justice for his daughter: the Crown prosecutors, the jury, family and friends, and his daughters ex-boyfriend.
I doubt theres another person who cares more for his friends than Shawn (Lerner). We can only wish him the best in all he does in the future. If we can ever be of assistance please dont hesitate to call, Babcock said.
In the months before Babcock disappeared, the court heard, she was using drugs and struggling with mental health issues. In June, days before she went missing, Lerner paid for her to stay in a hotel for two nights and lent her his iPad to look for an apartment.
Later, he pushed police to take Babcocks disappearance seriously and undertook his own investigation, accessing her phone records and learning that the last calls his ex-girlfriend made were to Millard.
Phone records show Babcock met Millard and went with him to his house in Waterloo Region in early July; it was the day after he purchased a .32-calibre gun and the day before he sent Smich a photo of what the Crown said was Babcocks body wrapped in a blue tarp.
Later that month that the two men incinerated her body, the Crown said.
Millard and Smichs lawyers both argued unsuccessfully that the Crown failed to prove Babcock was dead. Smichs lawyer took his defence further, arguing that any motive was Millards alone, that Smich wasnt involved in the love triangle.
With files from Emma McIntosh, Rosie DiManno and The Canadian Press
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Saudi Arabia has lifted a 35-year ban on cinemas in one of the surprising social modernization decisions taken by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The decision is part of Vision 2030 spearheaded by the young Prince with a view to open up the country, diversify the economy and make the Kingdom a global destination for business and tourism.
Cinema firms are already starting to prospect market opportunities with IMAX planning to open up to 20 theatres in the conservative country within three years.
Saudi disposable income is set to lure in cinema giants to the Kingdom, presenting ideal opportunities for more premium cinema experiences.
The Saudi Government says the opening of movie theatres will contribute more than 90bn riyals to the economy and create more than 30,000 jobs by 2030.
Homicide detectives are investigating after a man, 52, was shot dead inside an apartment building near the Esplanade overnight on Saturday.
Police were first called to 25 Henry Lane Terrace, a Toronto Community Housing building in the St. Lawrence area, for reports of four gunshots at about 12:30 a.m. Toronto police Const. David Hopkinson said the 911 operator heard screaming and yelling in the background of the call.
Det. Sgt Mike Carbone from the Toronto police homicide squad said that when officers arrived, they found the lifeless body on the fourth floor while searching the building. Carbone said he appeared to have gunshot wounds.
Officers attempted to revive the victim, but he had succumbed to his injuries at the scene. According to police, he lived alone.
Investigations often take time to unfold, explained Carbone. We have some surveillance video which we are currently reviewing, we are expecting to receive some more video shortly.
Police have yet to identify the deceased, as they are still in the midst of notifying next of kin.
The death is Torontos 61st homicide of the year so far.
Resident Abdullahi Hassan, 35, said he awoke to police asking if he heard anything and cruisers parked outside his buildings door. He says he was asleep and didnt hear any gunshots, but the shooting is the latest incident of many at the complex.
Theres a lot of drug activity that happens here, he said.
Another shooting happened in the same complex on Sept. 19. The male victim in that case had life-threatening gunshot wounds, but survived.
This is a cycle, Hassan said. It just keeps happening over and over again at this complex.
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Its day four for Justin Jewell in an isolation room at The Hospital for Sick Children a diminutive cell, webbed with tangled wires that staff have to navigate to get around the 17-year-olds bed.
His parents, Jim and Lorraine, move about the cramped room as well as they can. Justins guitar leans against the wall, and theres a crystal salt lamp by the window. Medical equipment hangs on cold metal posts. There isnt enough air filtration in the unit outside. With a severely compromised immune system, Justin cant leave the room under any circumstances.
And theres no washroom inside, either.
He cant shower until hes out of isolation, which could take a month, Lorraine told the Star. When he does have to use the bathroom he has to use a urinal or a commode, and then leave it out in the hall.
Sick Kids bone marrow transplant unit where Justin will spend Christmas this year is responsible for over half of all bone marrow transplants in Canada. But like so many other units at Sick Kids, its critically out of date.
Sick Kids is edging on 70 years old. One of the main buildings was designed in the 1940s. When Dr. Mike Apkon the hospitals CEO walked the Star through the building earlier this week, he pointed out equipment cluttering hallways along the way. There just isnt space for everything.
The tour was meant to give context to the $1.3 billion fundraising campaign the hospital launched in October, to rebuild Sick Kids into a hospital for the future. But the tour also displayed the glaring reality of patients today. This will be their reality for the next decade, as the project is underway.
The neonatal intensive care unit is one of the first stops. The room is filled with beeping machines and tiny babies, whose fluttering heartbeats are the undivided focus of huddled parents. Some of these families started at other hospitals, where they had individual rooms.
In one of the units, five-month-old Xavier and his mom adjust after months of privacy in a single room.
He was there pre-surgery, which repaired a connection between his wind pipe and esophagus. But since then, hes been battling post-operative recovery, and this weekend developed a bout of pneumonia in his lungs.
A tuft of ink-black hair, long dark lashes and strong, tiny fists are overshadowed by tubes clear, orange and blue going into his body. Orange tape keeps tubes in his nostrils; one in his arm delivers morphine.
Hes one of several babies in the darkly-lit room. Each has family members huddled over them, wearily watching from chairs.
Dr. Estelle Gaudas voice was soft as she explained the ward-style room, where red lines denote specific zones for each patient. Current North American code requires a separation in a multi-bed room at eight feet between both beds, Apkon pointed out.
Theres zero in this case.
Not only do the close quarters make it difficult to control sound, light and the spread of infections, but they expose young patients and their families to the trauma of other cases. If another parents baby starts to decompensate, and medical staff have to call a code, all the other parents have to leave.
But theyre certainly well aware of it happening and what happened after, Apkon said. Because they (can) come back to a bed space thats empty.
Theres a reason why 50 per cent of kids that have a serious, life-threatening condition end up with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Kids are sometimes woken in the middle of the night to other families grieving beside them. And that grief is a public process, too, without private rooms. You can imagine the experience of having to do that, and address that, in this kind of environment, Apkon added, shaking his head.
Every time a baby has to be moved out of the unit for a procedure, Gauda explained that their risk for infection increases. The newly designed hospital unit will bring procedures right to the childs bedside.
In the meantime, hospital staff are trying their best to make-do with the confined quarters. Privacy screens are set up in the unit to allow parents crucial skin-to-skin contact with their baby. And in the waiting room, there are more family members still refusing to leave, but without their own space to stay. One morning this week, two clutch bright knit blankets close, lie on the waiting chairs and try to get some sleep.
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The City of Mississauga has declared war on the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
Mississauga city councillors voted on Wednesday to cease negotiations with the operator of Toronto Pearson International Airport on plans to build a multibillion dollar transit hub near the airport until a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two sides has been approved. The proposed hub, referred to as Union Station West, would serve as a regional transit terminal for the western end of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, connecting trains, light rail vehicles and buses.
No one should meet with them until our staff tells us there is a real negotiation underway, said Councillor Carolyn Parrish, arguing the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) has been operating outside of the citys rules and regulations since its inception.
Read more:
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Its like the Vatican in the middle of Italy, she said. They are completely unto themselves and until this point when they wanted something they have been so unco-operative as to be embarrassing.
Echoing the sentiments of former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion, who had a lengthy and colourful history sparring with the GTAA during her reign, Parrish is demanding they start playing by the rules.
The Ward 5 councillor put forward a motion at the Dec. 13 council meeting listing a number of issues that she wants addressed before the GTAA proceeds with future land acquisitions and transit expansion plans in the city. These include payment of development charges on non-airport lands, payments-in-lieu-of taxes (PILTs), stormwater fees and the GTAAs alleged non-compliance with municipal development processes.
The city contends the GTAA has failed to pay development charges that were promised for a hotel, warehouse, car dealership and Tim Hortons restaurant in operation near the airport.
Mississauga has also filed a lawsuit against the GTAA for refusing to pay nearly $5 million in stormwater fees.
Since Pearson airport sits on federally-owned property, the GTAA is not required to pay property taxes. Rather, it is billed PILTs determined by a per passenger rate count which city staff say is grossly inadequate compared to other airports across Canada.
The per passenger rate for Pearson travellers is 94 cents, which has been in place since 2001. Down the road in London, that figure is almost double, at $1.67 per passenger. If Mississaugas rate were equal to that of London, the city would receive $42.5 million in PILTs per year from the GTAA, instead of the $23 million it currently collects.
Theyre literally bleeding us dry, said Parrish, stressing the need for the two sides to hammer out an MOU before the GTAA moves ahead with plans to build the $11.2-billion transit hub.
The GTAA has refuted the citys claims, arguing they submitted $33 million in PILTs last year and that tenants leasing their lands handed over $21 million in municipal taxes to the city in 2016. The GTAA also contends they should not be on the hook for paying the illegal stormwater tax because they have invested $120 million in state-of-the-art stormwater management at the airport.
Pearson airport is the largest economic driver in Mississauga, generating 44,000 jobs across the region and attracting hundreds of international businesses a point the GTAA consistently falls back on in matters pertaining to the city.
We are surprised and disappointed with this resolution given the significance of transit, not only for Mississauga (but) for the entire region, said GTAA spokesperson Beverly MacDonald. Knowing that transit is one of the biggest priorities for residents, we will continue to push ahead with other municipalities and levels of government to move the transit agenda forward.
The GTAA has been lobbying the federal government to build support for the Union Station West project, which would be served by GO Transit, LRT lines along Eglinton and Finch, UP Airport Express and Mississauga Bus Rapid Transit.
Ottawa is reviewing the ownership structure of the airport, which could include selling off parts of Pearson to the private sector to help fund the transit hub.
In addition to funding, the GTAA will require land for the regional transit centre.
The concern I have is that they (GTAA) are continuing to buy lands and properties all along Airport Road, Parrish noted. If those properties fall under federal jurisdiction and become Crown lands, the city will lose millions in property taxes.
The GTAA would not confirm what properties they have purchased, but said the lands have not been transferred to the federal Crown and as a result they continue to fall within the citys jurisdiction for planning purposes and taxation.
In its 20-year master plan, the GTAA predicts 85 million passengers will travel in and out of Pearson airport annually by 2037 double the number of people it serves today.
They (GTAA) keep talking about their growth . . . but we dont seem to get a share of it, said Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie.
In August, the GTAA announced McCallion as a member of the board of directors. City council is hopeful the former mayor will ensure Mississaugas interests are well represented while the GTAA plans for further expansion.
This is a significant Canadian asset our largest airport and its future success is tied to our future success, Crombie said.
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Toronto police are investigating the possibility that the deaths of billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife were a murder-suicide a theory the family is rejecting as irresponsible rumors.
The bodies of Sherman, 75, and his wife, Honey, were found in their North York mansion just before noon Friday.
Officially, Toronto police have released little information about the deaths, beyond that they were deemed suspicious. But police sources confirm to the Star that police are now probing the possibility that they were a murder-suicide.
Late Saturday afternoon, the family of Barry and Honey Sherman released a statement saying they dont believe theory. The couple have four children.
Our parents shared an enthusiasm for life and commitment to their family and community totally inconsistent with the rumours regrettably circulated in the media as to the circumstances surrounding their deaths, the statement said.
We are shocked and think its irresponsible that police sources have reportedly advised the media of a theory which neither their family, their friends nor their colleagues believe to be true.
We urge the Toronto Police Service to conduct a thorough, intensive and objective criminal investigation, and urge the media to refrain from further reporting as to the cause of these tragic deaths until the investigation is completed.
The bodies were discovered by the couples real estate agent, who had been helping to sell the multimillion-dollar home. The agent entered the house after not being able to contact the couple.
The bodies were located together by the Shermans indoor pool, according to a police source.
The Toronto police homicide squad is being consulted on the investigation, but the squad has not taken over as lead investigators. As of Saturday afternoon, the case was being handled by detectives with Toronto polices 33 Division.
A post-mortem on both bodies was being conducted Saturday.
Sherman, the founder of generic drug giant Apotex, was one of the richest men in the country, with an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion. He built Apotex from a two-employee company in Toronto into a global pharmaceutical organization that employs more than 11,000 people around the world.
Police said circumstances of the deaths appear to be suspicious, but noted they are not looking for any suspects and that there were no signs of forced entry.
After building their residence, the Shermans moved into the house in January 1991.
Friends and colleagues of the couple were heartbroken to hear of the deaths on Friday.
All of us at Apotex are deeply shocked and saddened by this news and our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time, Apotex wrote in a news release.
On Saturday, the home page of the Apotex website memorialized Barry Sherman and the legacy he built.
Dr. Sherman gave his life to the singular purpose of our organization innovating for patient affordability, the commemoration read. Patients around the world live healthier and more fulfilled lives thanks to his lifes work, and his significant impact on healthcare and healthcare sustainability will have an enduring impact for many years to come.
As employees, we are proud of his tremendous accomplishments, honoured to have known him, and vow to carry on with the Apotex purpose in his honour.
The couple had donated millions across the city, from the United Jewish Appeal to the United Way. A charitable arm of Apotex has shipped millions of dollars worth of medicine to disaster zones.
In addition to donating to charities mainly in the Toronto area, Barry Sherman was a prominent backer of the Liberal party led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
This year, Karen Shepherd, the federal lobbying commissioner, said she was investigating the propriety of Sherman hosting a Liberal party fundraiser in 2015 that featured Trudeau before he was elected prime minister.
Because Sherman was registered as a lobbyist at the time, some political opponents and a political ethics group charged that the event violated federal lobbying rules. Apotex had asked a court to end the investigation, calling it an unanchored fishing expedition.
Trudeau was among many prominent Canadians who expressed sorrow over the Shermans deaths.
Sophie (Gregoire Trudeau) and I are saddened by news of the sudden passing of Barry and Honey Sherman, Trudeau wrote on Twitter. Our condolences to their family & friends, and to everyone touched by their vision & spirit.
Mayor John Tory also released a statement Friday.
On behalf of all Toronto residents, I want to express my deepest condolences to the Sherman family.
With files from Victoria Gibson, Brennan Doherty, Jaren Kerr, Alex McKeen, The Canadian Press
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While Christmas is a time to be with family, many foreign caregivers can only watch other Canadians celebrate the holiday, with their minds set on their own families oceans away.
For many of the caregivers, some waiting for as long as seven years for the permanent residency to reunite with their families, Christmas is the hardest and loneliest moment of the year.
All they can do is look at the family photos they brought with them from the last time they were together back home often when the children were still very young.
This year, caregivers stuck in the immigration backlog have launched a letter-writing campaign, encouraging Canadians to write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen asking them for the mercy of clearing the backlog and reuniting their families.
At a recent town hall meeting, Hussen said he sympathized with the caregivers situation and boasted that the backlog has come down to the current 23,000 applications from the peak of 62,000 in 2014. The government hopes to clear 80 per cent of the backlog by the end of 2018.
Four caregivers, in Toronto and elsewhere, are sharing their personal letters to Trudeau and Hussen, explaining why even waiting one more year is too long.
Here are the edited excerpts of their letters.
Roselie Dael, Toronto, mother of three, waiting for 85 months:
The long years of waiting are a painful process. I got blamed for all the instability in the family. I am running out of excuses. Immigration cant provide me a clear explanation what is causing the delay. All Ive been told is that theyve been doing background checks for my dependants.
The medical results of my family members have expired, again. Theyve already been asked to undergo medical exams twice. Each time, I spent almost $2,500, including their airfare cost to fly from our hometown to Manila or Cebu City.
Long-distance mothering is very challenging. I can communicate with my family through Viber and Skype, but I want to hug and kiss my kids. The love and care that I couldnt give to them because of our physical distance are transferred to the children of my employer. I became emotionally attached to them. I dont want my family to fall apart. I hope you will understand my situation and grant me status now.
Lourdes Tiu Caguioa, La Ronge, Sask., mother of four, waiting for 68 months:
Christmas Day is the hardest time of the year for caregivers like me who have been away from my family for such a long period of time. I have not spent Christmas with my family since 2010.
All these years, there is always a strong feeling of guilt about leaving my children behind. I wished to see my father when he was in and out of hospital in 2016. I couldnt immediately visit him because I needed to accumulate vacation days and save money for my airfare. By the time I made it home, it was too late. He had already died.
Charina Bravo, Richmond, mother of two, in the queue for 85 months:
All I want for Christmas is to reunite with my children and husband as quickly as possible. My children and I have become strangers to each other. Theyre hesitant to approach me. This makes me feel regretful about my decision of leaving them behind. Missing the growing years of my children is my greatest regret. I missed all their birthdays and graduation ceremonies.
I try to catch up with my family through Facebook video calling. Because of the time difference, finding common time becomes a barrier for us to communicate regularly. Sometimes I feel like Im giving up. I feel sorry for myself. Loneliness strikes when I come home from work. I cry and cry a lot.
I pray to God every day to give me strength. Dont make us wait another year.
Perlita Hamoy, Calgary, mother of two, in the queue for 60 months:
My last Christmas with my family was in 2011. Surviving loneliness is a skill that I learned all these years. Ive learned to accept that as part of my reality as a migrant mother.
I came here to provide a more secure future for my kids. I dream for a better life for them. I keep on asking myself if that was a good decision. I always get the same question from my husband and children if I would still want them to come to Canada.
The last time I was with my daughter on her birthday was when she was 4-year-old. Shes now 13.
I have learned to cope with the pain. Ive got two jobs and Ive been working long hours to keep myself busy. I have visited my family only three times since I came in 2010. My daughter is aloof to me. Its painful to see her act that way. How can I explain to her that I never wanted to leave them in the first place? It was the poverty and unemployment that forced me to do so. I know someday she will understand.
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A week before she died, Teresa Michelle Gratton wrote her husband a panicked letter.
Scrawling in frantic capital letters, she begged him to get her out of the maximum security jail where she was being held indefinitely as an immigration detainee.
PLEASE GET ME OUT OF HERE I DONT BELONG HERE!! HELP ME! HELP ME! PLEASE!!!!!! I dont see how they can continue to keep me locked up like a criminal. I have no charges. I had already paid my time for my crime. Ill leave Canada if thats what it comes to, but let me out until thats whats desided (sic) if it comes to that.
Gratton, a grandmother who celebrated her 50th birthday behind bars, never made it out of jail. She died this past Oct. 30, a few days after her husband received the letter.
She was found in medical distress inside the maximum security Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, according to a brief news release from the Canada Border Services Agency, which did not disclose Grattons name, the cause of her death or any other information. She was immediately taken to hospital and died shortly after, the agency said. They did not say whether she died at hospital or en route.
She had been in immigration detention for a month.
Herb Gratton, Teresas partner of 32 years, cant talk about his wife for long before he succumbs to heaving sobs, often excusing himself and retreating to his bedroom, where he can be heard weeping from behind the closed door.
She was as much me as I am, he says. They took away everything I have. Thirty-two years of being with that woman and they took that from me.
Herb, 58, grew up in West Lorne, Ont. His parents separated when he was 13 and he moved with his mother to Nashville, Tenn. Thats where he met Teresa, whom he called Michelle, in 1985.
I looked at her and I fell in love, he says. It took her a little bit longer but I knew right away.
After dating for five or six months they moved in together and started a family, raising three sons now 24, 27 and 30 years old and working together at a chain restaurant.
Their eldest sons, Matthew and Stan, have children of their own now and Jacobs fiancee is expecting in the spring. All are Canadian citizens.
As any couple, me and her had our ups and downs, but we worked through it, Herb says. We were great together. She was my soulmate and I was hers. We knew we would spend the rest of our lives together. Or at least we thought we would.
The weeks since his wife died have been the worst of his life, Herb says. Compounding the sadness and confusion is that he still doesnt know what happened. Im just at an impasse, he said. I cant really grieve my wife.
The provincial coroners office is investigating the death, but it has not determined if there will be an inquest.
Teresa Grattons lawyer, meanwhile, is unequivocal in his condemnation of the system that incarcerated her.
I think her death was entirely avoidable, said Joo Eun Kim, an immigration lawyer with Legal Aid Ontario who was assigned to Grattons case after she had already been detained by the Canada Border Services Agency for nearly two weeks.
She should not have been detained in the first place and she should not have been detained in a maximum security jail, he said. I feel like we as a society let her down.
A U.S. citizen and permanent resident of Canada since 2011, Gratton was not serving a criminal sentence. She was detained by border services after she served 24 days in jail for trying to steal food and clothing from a Walmart near her home in London, Ont.
But border services was trying to deport her for convictions from 2013, when she pleaded guilty to multiple counts of fraud under $5,000 and was sentenced to nine months of house arrest. Permanent residents can be deported for serious criminality if they are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of more than six months or convicted of an offence with a maximum sentence of 10 years or more. In such cases, they have no right to appeal.
Border services interpreted Grattons house arrest as a term of imprisonment and was hoping to quickly deport her.
Incidentally, 19 days after Gratton was detained, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled it was unreasonable for immigration officials to equate conditional sentences, such as house arrest, with jail sentences. Grattons admissibility hearing was scheduled for Nov. 8, when, even if she had still been ordered deported, she likely would have been released pending an appeal.
So why was Gratton, who suffered from chronic pain and was addicted to prescription opioids, detained in the first place? And why was she detained in a maximum security jail?
The Canada Border Services Agency has the power to jail non-citizens, for an indefinite length of time, if they are deemed a danger to the public, if they are deemed a flight risk meaning the government fears they will not show up for deportation or if their identity is in doubt.
Gratton was considered a flight risk because border services said she missed a meeting with immigration officials and because she had a conviction for failing to appear in court. Herb Gratton says they were never informed of the immigration meeting and points to his wifes compliance with her house arrest and probation to counter the claim that she was unreliable.
Kim said Gratton would have every reason to appear for her hearing. Thats her chance to stay in Canada.
The Star requested interviews with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, whose ministry oversees the Canada Border Services Agency, with border services president John Ossowski and with Immigration and Refugee Board chair Mario Dion. All declined our requests.
The agencies sent written statements, but did not address most of the specific questions about Grattons incarceration and death, citing privacy laws.
Gratton is at least the 16th person to die in immigration detention since 2000, and the fourth in the past two years. Her death raises many questions about how Canada treats the people it wants to deport, particularly people like Gratton, who are poor and suffer from chronic health problems.
As a country, we should not be OK with this, said Kim, who believes Gratton would be alive today had she not been detained in a maximum security jail. There is a significant problem with our immigration detention system and it seriously needs an overhaul urgently.
An ongoing Star investigation, as well as several high-profile court challenges from earlier this year, has revealed persistent problems with Canadas immigration detention system, which has been criticized by human rights organizations and described as Kafkaesque by a Superior Court judge.
According to the Canada Border Services Agencys own policies, Gratton, who had never been charged with or convicted of a violent offence and was not considered a danger to the public, should have been eligible to be detained at the Toronto Immigration Holding Centre, a far less restrictive facility dedicated to immigration detainees.
Instead, she was sent to a maximum security jail, where frequent lockdowns and regular strip searches are routine, and treated as harshly as sentenced criminals and those awaiting trial.
Grattons detention was twice reviewed by the quasi-judicial Immigration and Refugee Board after her first 48 hours in detention and again after her first week. As is often the case for immigration detainees, she did not have a lawyer at either hearing.
Detention review hearings which have been widely criticized for being procedurally unfair and stacked against detainees do not review the conditions or location of detention. The decision to send Gratton to a maximum security jail was made by a border services officer and not subject to any oversight.
Border services did not explain why Gratton was ineligible for the immigration holding centre.
The Star has previously reported that immigration detainees who have any criminal record, even for minor property offences, have been barred from the immigration holding centre due to stipulations in an insurance contract held by a private company that provides services at the facility.
The Public Safety Ministry says it wants to sharply reduce the use of criminal jails for immigration detainees and is upgrading the immigration holding centre so that it can hold higher-risk detainees by next summer.
Its unclear why border services considered Gratton to be higher risk.
She posed no risk to anyone, Kim said.
Its also unclear why Gratton was transferred from the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre in London, where her family lives and where she served her short criminal sentence, to the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, 150 kilometres away.
The likeliest explanation is that it was more convenient for immigration officials, who already travel to the Milton jail for detention review hearings.
Herb Gratton first heard of his wifes transfer two days after it happened when she called him from Milton on a social workers phone.
Gratton doesnt own a car and travelling to Milton posed a significant expense. His only income comes from a monthly cheque from the Ontario Disability Support Program. He suffered a serious back injury in 2004 and hasnt been able to work since.
Teresa Gratton suffered from chronic pain due to fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis. She was dependent on prescription painkillers the opioid hydromorphone but she was not an illicit drug user, according to her husband. She was also diagnosed with anxiety and depression, he said.
Her family doesnt believe she received appropriate medical or mental health care in jail, particularly after she was transferred to Vanier. They say her pain medication was initially withheld and then her dosage dramatically reduced, which led to incredibly painful withdrawal symptoms. She described the agony of withdrawal in each of her near-daily letters home. Kim says she also told him that jail staff was threatening to cut off her pain medication.
It was never made clear to me why they were threatening to do that, he said. But the last time I spoke to her, she told me they told her they were indeed going to take her medications away.
Grattons family believes she died as a direct result of her withdrawal symptoms, but opioid addiction experts say that is unlikely.
But the discomfort of opiate withdrawal is so great that people will do almost anything to get rid of it, said Dr. David Juurlink, the head of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at Sunnybrook Hospital. It really is hell.
The symptoms include intense abdominal and muscle pains, severe diarrhea, vomiting, insomnia, depression and suicidal ideation.
Juurlink and Dr. Meldon Kahan, an addictions specialist at Womens College Hospital, said they could not comment on Grattons case directly. But after hearing about her circumstances they said the likeliest causes of death for someone in her position would be a fatal overdose, potentially from illicit opiates inside the prison, which could have been laced with fentanyl; or suicide, if her withdrawal symptoms became intolerable.
Even if it turns out she died of suicide or of an overdose from taking illicit opiates, it was still inappropriate medical management, Kahan said.
A spokesperson for Ontarios Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services said it would be inappropriate for the ministry to publicly address any individual case, but the ministry follows an evidence-based approach to treating substance abuse and addiction in its jails.
During admission to provincial custody, inmates who have been identified with substance use disorder, including opioid addiction, are assessed for withdrawal, the statement reads.
All inmates have access to a variety of health-care supports, including opioid substitution therapy, such as methadone or suboxone, the ministry said.
Before she was detained, Gratton took 38 milligrams of hydromorphone each day, according to a doctors prescription provided by her husband.
In her letters from jail, she wrote that she was receiving only two doses of six milligrams per day.
Such a dramatic reduction, doctors said, would lead to severe withdrawal symptoms. If the jail doctor felt Gratton should have been on a lower dose, they said, her dose should have been reduced much more gradually.
Canadian guidelines recommend tapering opioids by 5 to 10 per cent every two to four weeks, Kahan said, adding that even this can be too quick.
I think theres a common assumption in jails well, in fact, everywhere that opiate withdrawal is uncomfortable but its not dangerous, he said. That is actually untrue. Its dangerous precisely because people will lose their tolerance and theyll relapse to an opiate which will kill them. Or theyll attempt suicide.
Although they had already been together for 18 years and had three kids, Herb and Teresa decided to throw themselves a wedding in Nashville in 2003.
She wanted to make it official, Herb says.
Not long after the wedding, they started to talk about moving to Canada. Herb is a member of the Caldwell First Nation, based in Leamington, and the band was in the process of reaching a land claim settlement and setting up a reserve. There was also a spate of gun violence near their home in Nashville, which had unsettled the family.
I wanted my children to know their other side, that they had options with their citizenship, Herb explained. Teresa loved the idea.
They moved first to Blenheim, near Chatham-Kent, and then later to London, which was more convenient for doctors appointments.
Herb said they tried for years to get his wife citizenship, but it always seemed to be delayed.
The familys financial situation started to deteriorate after his back injury. Teresa had occasional work cleaning houses, but they fell into credit card debt and were barely making ends meet.
The 2013 fraud convictions relate mainly to allegations that Teresa forged cheques for amounts ranging from $100 to $250 for a man whose house she was cleaning.
Herb said his wife didnt believe she was guilty in court, her lawyer said that while she forged the signature, she believed he owed her the money but they didnt have the financial means to fight the charges. He says their legal aid lawyer told them pleading guilty to a nine-month conditional sentence avoiding jail time would not jeopardize her immigration status.
She figured the easiest way out was to take a plea on part of it, Herb says. At the time, they told us there was nothing that could get her kicked out.
Immigration lawyer Kim said its common for people in Teresas position to get incorrect advice on the effect a criminal conviction would have on their immigration status. Im not surprised if that happened in her case, he said.
A series of personal crises led to more trouble with the law. Teresas father died in March 2016, then her mothers house was destroyed in a fire. This past January, she and Herb were evicted.
Forced out of their apartment, they moved in with their son and his fiancees family in Sarnia for a few months. The relocation precipitated another criminal conviction when Teresa asked her doctor for an early release of her hydromorphone to take to Sarnia. Her doctor refused, so Teresa forged her signature and later pleaded guilty to the offence.
Several things contributed to her making rash decisions, doing things completely out of character, Herb said. At 40-something years old you dont just decide youre going to start stealing. She definitely needed help.
Throughout her recent struggles, Teresa was still the glue that kept the family together, according to her husband and sons.
She was the person we all ran to, said Stan Gratton, her middle son. If you ever needed something, any kind of advice or just love, youd go to her.
She wrote Herb almost daily, filling single-spaced pages with a schoolteachers tidy cursive (I was always jealous of her handwriting, he says). In her letters she describes the torture of withdrawal and the daily anguish of life behind bars, but she also gushes lovingly, encourages Herb to say his prayers and concludes each one the same way. Love you always forever & a day.
The letters broke Herbs heart.
That was my wife and I could not help her, he said, choking back tears.
Herb says hell never forget the phone call the day she died. He says the news was delivered curtly, bordering on callous.
No compassion, no anything, he said. It was the worst moment Ive ever had in my life. I lost my best friend, my wife of 32 years, the greatest person Ive ever known and there was no condolences. Just, Your wife died.
Since then, everything has been bewildering. He still doesnt understand why Teresa was detained in the first place or what hes supposed to do now.
But he wants someone to answer for what happened.
They have to be accountable somehow, he said. Somebodys going to have to say, Im sorry or something. I hope I can get that much at least.
Brendan Kennedy can be reached at bkennedy@thestar.ca or 416-869-4192.
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Teresa Michelle Gratton, a U.S. citizen who died in a maximum-security jail in Milton on Oct. 30 while she was in immigration detention, wrote her husband, Herb Gratton, nearly every day she was behind bars. With her letters and publicly available documents related to her case, we can piece together a timeline of her final days.
Sept. 7: Grattons arrest
Gratton is arrested at the Walmart in White Oaks Mall in London, Ont., about a half-hour bus ride from her home, after trying to steal food and clothes. The following day she is interviewed by Canada Border Services Agency officer Mark Webb while awaiting her bail hearing. Gratton didnt seek bail for her shoplifting charge because of border services hold on her, her lawyer said. Webb asked Gratton basic biographical questions and questions related to her immigration status, according to a short transcript he declared to a fellow border services officer. At the end of the interview Gratton asked, So I wont be able to go home today?
Sept. 14: Day 8 of pre-trial custody
In a letter to her husband, Gratton, who suffers from chronic pain and is addicted to prescription opioids, writes that jail staff its unclear who only started giving her her medications two days ago, five days after she was taken into custody. They also dramatically reduced her prescribed dosage. Im going crazy in here, she writes. . . . Baby Im so sorry again for everything.
Read more:
Held in maximum security without charge, she begged her husband to get her out. A week later, Teresa Gratton was dead
Sept. 17: Day 11 of pre-trial custody
I love you & miss you so much sweetheart, Gratton opens her letter. She writes that her stomach is swollen and bruised from police throwing me down on it & putting their knees in my back & pushing down on it very hard. She also laments that staff continues to keep her on a lower dosage of painkillers. She said she was only receiving 6 mg of hydromorphone twice a day when she was used to taking 19 mg twice a day. That number is corroborated by prescription slips provided to the Star by her husband. Im never out of pain. Im still going through withdrawals. Im so depressed every day. I dont know what to do, she writes.
Sept. 21: Day 15 of pre-trial custody
Cant sleep, going through real bad withdrawals. Throwing up and the works. . . . I miss all of yall so so much. Yall are all I have in this world and I love the Heaven out of all of you, Gratton writes. Im going crazy, can never sleep, dont eat much either. Stay depressed but most days I just feel like I wish I was dead. But yall are my heartbeat so I just keep going through the bullsh-- hoping Ill be home soon.
Sept. 28: Day 22 of pre-trial custody
Gratton writes Herb to tell him to install a landline phone so she can call from jail. The jail doesnt allow outgoing calls to cellphones.
Dont forget to say your prayers and have sweet, good dreams if you have any. I dreamed I was crying on Nannys shoulder nite before last. I could see her plain as day. It seemed so real. And she told me everything was going to be okay. Ive never had a dream like that one before. I think she actually came and held me in my sleep and comforted me because of how emotional I am right now. I know it sounds crazy and maybe I am. I just know I cried on her shoulders and she held me in her arms and told me everything was going to be okay.
Sept. 29: Day 23 of pre-trial custody
Gratton pleads guilty in a London courthouse to five criminal charges: theft under $5,000 for the shoplifting at Walmart; resisting the arresting officer; forging her doctors signature in January to get an early release of her prescription for hydromorphone, an opioid painkiller; and two counts of possessing hydromorphone. Gratton had a valid prescription but she had asked her doctor to extend her supply because she and Herb had just been evicted and were moving in with their sons fiancees family in Sarnia. I had no car, I was having major insomnia, and being addicted, you know, after being on it for 17 years, I did not want to go through the withdrawal and all the pain, Gratton told Justice Bentley after pleading guilty. So I was wrong for doing what I did and I admit that. But I also didnt know what else to do. And I am sorry for that. Gratton is sentenced to the 23 days she had already served plus one more day.
Oct. 1: Transfer to immigration detention
At the conclusion of her sentence, Gratton is automatically placed on immigration hold and is technically in the custody of the Canada Border Services Agency, although she is still in a provincial jail. On Oct. 1 or 2, she is transferred from Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre near her home in London to the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton. Neither Gratton nor her family was informed that the transfer would take place, according to Herb Gratton. He said he did not know where his wife was until she called him from the new jail.
Oct. 3: Day 3 of immigration detention
Oh baby how I miss you so, so much, Gratton writes. They have totally f---ed us up. They moved me almost to Toronto to a place called Vanier Centre for Women. Im in maximum security for some damn reason. Im not sure even why they moved me here, but I didnt get all of my meds last night Im hurting all over and Im sick as hell this morning. This f---ing pain is unbearable.
Gratton is scheduled to have her first detention review hearing with the Immigration and Refugee Board the next day but she writes that she doesnt know when her hearing will be. She asks Herb to figure out if she needs a lawyer at the hearing. I dont know I just know I need you and your help as much as possible. You should call ODSP and ask if they pay for you to take a Voyageur bus to places you have to go, like this, to court.
Oct. 4: Day 4 of immigration detention
The Immigration and Refugee Board conducts its 48-hour detention review hearing for Gratton inside the Vanier Centre for Women. Gratton does not have a lawyer or any family present. Her husband said they only knew of the hearing after it happened.
The Canada Border Services Agency representative, who acts as a kind of prosecutor for the quasi-judicial tribunal, recounts Grattons criminal convictions and immigration history and says they are seeking her continued detention on the grounds that she is a flight risk.
Gratton tries to explain the extenuating circumstances of her convictions.
I may be addicted to the pain pills, and being on them for so long I did not want to go to Sarnia and not have my meds, she said, crying.
Ron Stratigopoulos, the presiding board member who acts as the judge of the hearing, asks Gratton if she realizes that her 2013 convictions for which she was sentenced to nine months house arrest will likely lead to her deportation.
I have three kids here who are grown and two grandchildren, she says. . . . My kids are all Canadian citizens born to a Canadian citizen outside of Canada. I have nothing in Tennessee or in the States, all my family is here.
Stratigopoulos reiterates that Gratton will likely be ordered deported and he is concerned she would not show up for the deportation.
Well if Im told to leave Canada then I would have to do that, but that is not something that I want to do, she said. So I am going to retain a lawyer and try and fight it, but if I was made to leave I would have to go.
Stratigopoulos sides with border services and orders Grattons continued detention. In his decision, he said her addiction to opioids does not speak well to your ability to follow lawful orders as they are imposed against you. So I do not think that I can simply release you on your own signature today.
Statistically it will now become increasingly difficult for Gratton to secure her release, since adjudicators at her subsequent detention reviews must find clear and compelling reasons to depart from a previous members finding.
Oct. 4: Day 4 of immigration detention
I know Im giving up on life in here. Im lost and I just want to come home. I did my time for my crime. So I forgot to apply for citizenship . . . I havent seen the psychiatrist yet. I know I need to badly. Im tripping out . . . Ive done my time for my crime, now Im being held in a maximum security cell block on a f---ing hold because I failed to apply for citizenship last year when my whole f---ing life was turned upside down. My Dad died, Moms house burned down, our car blew up, got kicked onto the streets in f---ing Jan 2017. Lost everything we owned and had to live with f---ing in-laws til we could find a place. Like how the hell do they expect people to live life and remember everything. . . . Im angry, Im scared, Im alone & Im tired & I dont know what to do. Im so lost without you.
Oct. 7: Day 7 of immigration detention
I cant stop thinking about Wednesday the 11th, coming home finally is going to be so nice, Gratton wrote to her husband, referring to the date of her second detention review hearing, when she hoped to be released. Gratton complains again of the severe opioid withdrawal symptoms and the fact that doctors were giving her less than one-third of her usual dosage. They wont let me even talk to the psychiatrist, she writes. Because they know he will put me back on my medications.
Oct. 9: Day 9 of immigration detention
Im so nervous & sick & scared that somethings going to go wrong & I wont be able to get out of here. It makes me sick at my stomach, but Im trying to stay strong and be positive and believe that God is going to get me out of here. So many people are telling me so many different things that Im scared to death. I just want to go home. . . . I dont know what Im going to do if I dont get out of here soon . . . Ill die in here. I cant do this sh--, Im too old.
Oct. 11: Day 11 of immigration detention
Grattons second detention review hearing is held at Vanier. She still doesnt have a lawyer. But this time her husband, Herb Gratton, and her daughter-in-law, Joan Howe, have come as prospective bondspeople. Because of the limited facilities at the jail, they are interviewed by the presiding board member and the border services representative in the lobby, without Gratton present. Joo Eun Kim, an immigration lawyer for Legal Aid Ontario who was eventually assigned to Grattons case, said this amounts to a huge procedural fairness breach.
Herb Gratton says he is prepared to post a $5,000 performance bond as he had done once before in criminal court but he doesnt have the means to make a cash deposit. The border services representative asked if he had assets that amount to $15,000, or three times the proposed performance bond. Ive got furniture, Gratton says, adding that he had probably $30 in savings.
When they resume the hearing with Gratton in the jail, Singh says the proposed bondspeople dont qualify because of their limited resources and the government is seeking Grattons continued detention. Given a chance to make a submission herself, Gratton says she is not a flight risk. I like my family. I want to be with them. That is where I want to go. And if it should happen that I have to leave Canada, Im prepared to do that. Im prepared to do whatever needs to be done. I just want to go home, she said, crying.
In her decision, presiding board member Karen Greenwood twice makes reference to Grattons substance abuse issues impacting her reliability.
Oct. 11: Day 11 of immigration detention
After the hearing Gratton wrote another letter to her husband, in which she thanked them for coming down to the hearing to try to get her out and complained that the doctors had again reduced the dosage of her opioids. I really dont want to be deported, but I want out of here at almost any cost. Im just in so much pain and my body literally hurts so, so bad. Id rather be dead than to keep going through this pain.
Oct. 23: Day 23 of immigration detention
Gratton writes that she had just been thrown into suicide watch because she wrote in her last letter that she wanted to kill herself. While she was removed from her cell, all of her personal effects makeup, snack food, pencil crayons, her Bible were stolen by other inmates. I really dont know how much more I can take baby. I cant wait to get out of here. Im going crazy. I thought Canada was a good country. I never dreamed theyd lock me up and throw away the key when I have no charges at all on me. I do not deserve this at all.
Oct. 26: Day 26 of immigration detention
Im in so much f---ing pain its not even funny, a lot more than usual. . . . I have to get out of here real soon or Im going to start having panic attacks & anxiety attacks. I already feel like I cant breathe.
Oct. 27: Day 27 of immigration detention
I miss you so much my love. I cant wait till Nov. 8 to get out of here, Gratton wrote, referring to the date of her next detention review hearing. I cant wait to see you, well, all yall really. Most of all I cant wait to get out of here and come home. Im going to close this letter out now. I hope you rest good tonight & say your prayers. Pray for me. Nite my love. Love you always forever & a day. Your wife, Michelle Gratton xoxo.
Oct. 30: Day 30 of immigration detention
Gratton was found in medical distress by jail guards and immediately taken to hospital. She died shortly thereafter, according to the Canada Border Services Agency, which has not released her cause of death. Ontarios chief coroner is investigating.
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While Canada holds meetings and talks about it, the EU has officially ended corporate secrecy.
The anonymous and numbered companies that facilitate tax evasion and money laundering in Europe will soon have their ownership published in public, online registries for all to see.
Eighteen months after the U.K. established the worlds first public beneficial ownership registry, the EU declared on Friday that it will follow suit, citing the Panama Papers leak as having prompted the move.
The EU has made a major breakthrough tonight in the fight against money laundering by getting the beneficial owners of companies out of the shadows, said Laure Brillaud, the anti-money laundering policy officer at Transparency International EU.
EU member states will have to put the names of those who own companies registered in their countries into a public, searchable, online database and they have 18 months to do it.
The new European public registers of company beneficial ownership will set the new global benchmark against which to assess every other country around the world, Brillaud said.
Read more: Canadas 102 biggest corporations avoid billions in taxes each year, paying far less than the official rate
Contacted for comment, the federal finance ministry said it takes note of the EU registry.
We will monitor the EU agreement closely as it will inform the ongoing work of the federal, provincial and territorial working group on beneficial ownership, wrote spokesperson Chloe Luciani-Girouard.
What the EU is doing is a very significant step. This practice has to come to North America, said Richard Leblanc, a professor of corporate governance at York and Harvard universities. One should not be able to hide behind a web of numbered companies without disclosing true ownership.
In last springs federal budget, Canada announced that it would put in place a national strategy to strengthen the transparency of corporate ownership.
After meeting last weekend, federal and provincial finance ministers committed to requiring companies to collect and keep corporate ownership information on hand, but did not say they would establish an ownership registry, let alone make it public.
Thats a first step, but its wholly inadequate so far as transparency is concerned, Leblanc said. What good is compelling disclosure if you cant access it?
In Canada, secrecy around corporate ownership makes it possible to register a corporation, open a bank account, and send and receive money overseas all without disclosing ones name the same kind of secrecy offered by traditional tax havens.
A Star/CBC investigation earlier this year showed how this has led some foreigners to use Canada to snow wash money that has either been obtained illicitly, or not declared to tax authorities.
Earlier this month, the EU also released a blacklist of non-cooperative tax havens, including Barbados, one of the most popular tax havens used by Canadian companies.
This diplomatic effort to exert pressure on tax havens to disclose the owners of offshore companies is an international component of the domestic ownership registry, Leblanc said.
Canada will be increasingly anomalous if it doesnt follow suit, he said. We want it to be a race to the top. Canada prides itself on transparency and good governance. Were slipping behind. We need to catch up.
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WASHINGTONAmericas top diplomat stepped back Friday from his offer of unconditional talks with North Korea, telling world powers the nuclear-armed nation must earn the right to negotiate with the United States.
Secretary of State Rex Tillersons declaration before the UN Security Council marked a stunning reversal after he proposed discussions with Pyongyang without preconditions earlier this week. That overture was almost immediately rebutted by White House officials.
Still, Tillerson had planned to reiterate his call at a special UN ministerial meeting on North Korea at the council Friday morning. His prepared remarks suggested only that North Korea would have to undertake a sustained halt in its threatening behaviour before talks could begin. But Tillerson changed the script.
North Korea must earn its way back to the table, Tillerson told the foreign ministers. The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved. We will in the meantime keep our channels of communication open.
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The debate over offering North Korea unconditional talks reflects the differences within the Trump administration as it runs out of time to prevent North Korea from perfecting a nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the U.S. mainland. President Donald Trump has vowed to prevent such capability, with military action if necessary.
So far, U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea and diplomatic isolation havent compelled Kim Jong Uns government to stop its nuclear and missile tests, or to seek negotiations.
Asked Friday if he supported unconditional talks, Trump did not answer directly.
Well, were going to see what happens with North Korea. We have a lot of support. There are a lot of nations that agree with us almost everybody, Trump told reporters. He credited China which accounts for about 90 per cent of North Koreas external trade with helping on pressuring North Korea, while Russia was not.
Wed like to have Russias help very important, Trump said. He raised it in a Thursday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At the UN, Tillerson called on China and Russia to go beyond UN-mandated economic sanctions. He said North Korean labourers were toiling in slave-like conditions in Russia for wages used to fund nuclear weapons, while China was still allowing crude oil to flow into North Korean refineries.
North Korea has conducted more than 20 ballistic missile tests during 2017 and its most powerful nuclear explosion to date. Its more recent missile test in late November fired a projectile that experts say could carry a nuclear warhead to the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.
Tillerson said the Norths growing capabilities were a direct threat to our security and the security of the entire world. We do not regard this claim as an empty threat.
He said the U.S. does not want war, but will use all necessary measures to defend itself against North Korean aggression. He said, our hope remains that diplomacy will produce a resolution.
Tillersons tone was significantly different from the tone he struck three days earlier.
On Tuesday, Tillerson said at the Atlantic Council think-tank in Washington that we are ready to have the first meeting without preconditions. He had also called it unrealistic to expect North Korea to enter talks ready to relinquish a weapons of mass destruction program it invested so much in developing, although that remained the ultimate goal.
The White House quickly distanced itself from Tillersons remarks. On Wednesday, a National Security Council spokesperson said that North Korea must not only first refrain from provocations, but take sincere and meaningful actions toward denuclearization for talks to happen. The spokesperson, who was not authorized to be quoted by name and requested anonymity, said that given North Koreas most recent missile test, now was not the time for talks.
Tillerson and Trump have appeared to clash before on North Korea, amid questions about the former ExxonMobil executives future as top diplomat. In October, Trump said Tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with the North. Trumps tweet followed Tillersons talk about Washington maintaining back-channel communications with Pyongyang.
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SAN FRANCISCOTwo unusual sea lion attacks in a San Francisco Bay cove led authorities to close the popular area to swimmers Friday as officials try to determine the reason for the aggressive behaviour.
A sea lion bit a man in the groin area Friday as he swam in the waters off San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, park spokesperson Lynn Cullivan said. It was a very serious bite, and the man was taken to a hospital, he said.
The cove hosts swimming and rowing clubs and is a favourite spot for dedicated swimmers. Its usually a transit area for sea lions heading to Pier 39, where they congregate, Cullivan said.
The area just off Ghirardelli Square, a popular square with shops and restaurants, will be closed to swimmers until Monday, he said.
Another swimmer was seriously injured Thursday after a sea lion bit him on the arm. Officers applied a tourniquet and he was transported to a hospital, where he had a least two surgeries.
Christian Einfeldt believes the animal trailed him as he swam from the beach to the mouth of the cove. When he turned to swim back, the massive sea lion was right there, he told San Francisco television station KGO.
I did feel threatened. I did have warning. But I was a quarter-mile from shore. There was nothing I could do, Einfeldt said between surgeries.
When the sea lion got near Einfeldt, he splashed water on it, but the animal did not go away, said Matthew Reiter with the San Francisco Police Departments Marine Unit.
When it didnt work, he yelled at it and then the sea lion came up and bit him on the arm, Reiter said.
He started steadily bleeding. Knowing he could not swim back, Einfeldt said he flagged down a sailboat.
I was relatively calm because I wasnt dead, he told the TV station.
A man on the sailboat pulled him aboard and called police.
The aggressive behaviour is so unusual for sea lions that officials think the same animal attacked both swimmers, Cullivan said.
It could just be a sea lion being territorial, or it could be an injured or sick mammal, he said.
Cullivan said the swimmers were closer to the bay than to the shore when they were attacked.
People think the bay is their backyard, but it really is the beginning of the wilderness, he said. There is wilderness out there.
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The United States, Britain and France have asked Russia to provide more information on its request to the United Nations Security Council to supply light arms and ammunition to the war-torn struggling armed forces of the Central African nation.
Russias request came after CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for the military assistance during talks at the Black Sea resort of Sochi in October.
The request, if granted would be an exception to the arms embargo imposed on the Central African Republic.
In December 2013, the UN Security Council adopted unanimously a resolution in response to the breakdown of law and order, which saw increasing violence and widespread human rights abuses in the landlocked country.
The resolution imposed several measures including a yearlong embargo on the supply of arms, military equipment and related assistance to non-state actors in the CAR.
In its request, President Putins administration is proposing to provide two battalions totalling 1,300 men with automatic rifles, pistols and ammunition. The weapons on the proposed list are 900 pistols, 5,200 assault rifles, 140 sniper rifles, 840 Kalashnikov machine guns, 270 RPGs and 20 anti-aircraft guns.
Moscow is also considering providing millions of pieces of ammunition including armour-piercing cartridges, hand grenades and mortars.
HARARE, ZIMBABWEThree weeks after the 37-year rule of Robert Mugabe came to an end, Zimbabwes new military-backed leaders made moves Friday to improve economic relations with the West, as they continued to consolidate power ahead of elections next year.
We call for the unconditional lifting of the political and economic sanctions, which have crippled our national development, said the new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who led the annual congress of the governing party, ZANU-PF, this week.
Mugabe long whipped up domestic support by blaming sanctions imposed by Western governments for Zimbabwes economic collapse, though most economists point instead to mismanagement of the resource-rich economy.
Read more:
Zimbabwes new president has small window to meet expectations of change after Mugabes downfall: opposition
Zimbabwe forces say country back to normality following Mugabe resignation
Zimbabwes Emmerson Mnangagwa sworn in as new leader, vows to return prosperity to country
Mnangagwa, 75, who is serving the remainder of Mugabes term which was scheduled to end next August promised credible, free and fair elections. Western officials have indicated that Zimbabwe would be considered for loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other creditors only after holding free elections as well as showing improvement in human rights and other areas.
Opposition parties and human rights groups say that despite Mnangagwas promises of a new Zimbabwe, he has hewed to his predecessors strategies.
His new Cabinet is composed of loyalists, many of whom served Mugabe. He plucked two from the armed forces, including his foreign minister, Sibusiso Moyo, the general who announced the military takeover of Mugabes government.
The presence of the army, which has been used in the past to tilt elections in the governing partys favour, is still felt across the country. Soldiers remain deployed at checkpoints on roads and in towns and the countryside often performing duties that they are not legally allowed to assume in peace time, critics say.
This is a military government, said Elias Mudzuri, a vice president of the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party. And when you have a military government and it wants to stay in power, it could do anything.
Two human rights organizations, Heal Zimbabwe Trust and Zimbabwe Peace Project, released statements this week describing growing cases of abuses committed by soldiers, ranging from beatings to the firing of live ammunition.
The army placed Mugabe under house arrest Nov. 15 and eased the way for Mnangagwa to assume power.
Why has Mnangagwa not quickly returned the soldiers back to the barracks? asked Okay Machisa, vice chairman of the Peace Project. If people are being beaten by soldiers and the head of state does not say a word, you start to wonder why. We want a country that is not militarized.
The continued military presence is particularly worrisome because of the upcoming elections, which are likely to be held in August. In the past, Mnangagwa, who was Mugabes right-hand man for decades, is believed to have orchestrated the rigging of elections. Soldiers played a key role in coercing voters to support the governing party, especially in rural areas.
The intimidating presence of soldiers in rural areas, where voter registration is taking place, was an inauspicious start to the election season, said Andrew Makoni, chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network.
Makoni said the new government should appoint an independent leader for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, and invite credible international election monitors. All of this depends on the political will of the new establishment, he said.
At ZANU-PFs congress, Mnangagwas staunchest allies showed little willingness to accommodate outsiders. Last year, Mugabes wife, Grace, dominated the congress, which was split between her supporters and those of Mnangagwa. While Grace Mugabe and some of her top allies have been purged from the party, other former rivals have now united behind Mnangagwa.
ZANU-PF is stronger than before, the Rev. Morris Brown Gwedegwe, a party member who founded a church in 2014, said, adding that opposition parties were a necessary evil.
Party leaders strongly supported Mnangagwas call for the unconditional lifting of sanctions. In the past two decades, the U.S. and European governments have imposed sanctions after the Zimbabwean governments violation of human rights, including the violent seizure of white-owned farms. Zimbabwe, which became ineligible for multilateral loans after defaulting in the late 1990s, must clear $1.8 billion it owes to the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank before it can be considered for fresh loans.
At a U.S. Senate hearing on Zimbabwe this week, a State Department official on African affairs, Stephanie Sullivan, said the United States expected economic and political reform in Zimbabwe a call that immediately caused an angry backlash among Mnangagwas allies.
I hate the idea that USA wants to be a prefect of all nations, said Victor Matemadanda, a war veterans leaders and ZANU-PFs political commissar. Let them fix all the wrong things with Trump and get to us later.
Harry Thomas Jr., the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, said he welcomed Mnangagwas pledge to hold free, fair and nonviolent elections. Thomas said he hoped international observers, including from the United States, would be allowed to monitor next years polls.
Weve been promised that the days of name-calling and blaming are over, Thomas said in an interview. We hope thats true because that wont help people.
Kembo Mohadi, the defence minister, repeated the presidents statement that sanctions must be removed without conditions.
What have we done wrong as a new government? Mohadi said.
Asked why soldiers had yet to return to their barracks, he said the army was still carrying out its mission of righting the governing party, which had been led astray by a cabal led by Grace Mugabe. The military has called its ousting of the old government under Robert Mugabe as Operation Restore Legacy.
Until that legacy is restored, the defence minister said, our presence will be seen.
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WASHINGTONRepublicans working to execute their first major legislative achievement of Donald Trumps presidency appear to have secured the votes to pass a massive tax overhaul that Trump hoped to present to the American people for Christmas.
This is happening. Tax reform under Republican control of Washington is happening, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin told rank-and-file members in a conference call Friday. Most critics out there didnt think it could happen. ... And now were on the doorstep of something truly historic.
Its the widest-ranging reshaping of the tax code in three decades and is expected to add to the nations $20 trillion debt. The tax cuts are projected to add $1.46 trillion over a decade. The GOP plans to muscle it through Congress next week before its year-end break.
Read more:
With Rubio, Corker on board, Trumps sweeping tax bill heads for passage
House Speaker Paul Ryan may step down after 2018 midterm elections, reports say
House, Senate Republican leaders reach deal on Trumps tax reform package
Under the bill, todays 35 per cent rate on corporations would fall to 21 per cent, the crown jewel of the measure for many Republicans. Trump and GOP leaders had set 20 per cent as their goal but added a point to free money for other tax cuts that won over wavering lawmakers in final talks.
The legislation would lower taxes on the richest Americans. Benefits for most other taxpayers would be smaller.
The bill would repeal an important part of President Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act the requirement that all Americans have health insurance or face a penalty as the GOP looks to unravel a law it failed to repeal and replace this past summer.
Only on Friday did Republicans cement the needed support for the overhaul, securing endorsements from wavering senators.
Marco Rubio of Florida relented in his high-profile opposition after negotiators expanded the tax credit that parents can claim for their children. He said he would vote for the measure next week.
Rubio had been holding out for a bigger child credit for low-income families. After he got it, he tweeted that the change was a solid step toward broader reforms which are both Pro-Growth and Pro-Worker.
Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the only Republican to vote against the Senate version earlier this month, made the surprise announcement that he would back the legislation. Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has repeatedly warned that the nations growing debt is the most serious threat to national security.
I realize this is a bet on our countrys enterprising spirit, and that is a bet I am willing to make, Corker said.
The White House said Trump looks forward to fulfilling the promise he made to the American people to give them a tax cut by the end of the year.
The bill embodies a long-standing Republican philosophy that a substantial tax break for businesses will trigger economic growth and job creation for Americans in a trickle-down economy.
Skeptical Democrats are likely to oppose the legislation unanimously.
Under this bill, the working class, middle class and upper middle class get skewered while the rich and wealthy corporations make out like bandits, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. It is just the opposite of what America needs, and Republicans will rue the day they pass this.
The bill would drop todays 39.6 per cent top rate on individuals to 37 per cent. The standard deduction used by around two-thirds of households would be nearly doubled, to $24,000 for married couples.
The $1,000-per-child tax deduction would grow to $2,000, with up to $1,400 available in IRS refunds for families who owe little or no taxes. Parents would have to provide childrens Social Security numbers to receive the child tax credit, a measure intended to deny the credit to people who are in the U.S. illegally.
Those who itemize would lose some deductions. The deduction that millions use in connection with state and local income, property and sales taxes would be capped at $10,000. Thats especially important to residents of high-tax states such as New York, New Jersey and California. Deductions for medical expenses that lawmakers once considered eliminating would be retained.
The bill would allow homeowners to deduct interest only on the first $750,000 of a new mortgage, down from the current limit of $1 million.
People who inherit fortunes would get a big break. The bill would double the exemption, meaning the estate tax would apply only to the portion of an estate over $22 million for married couples.
Members of a House-Senate conference committee signed the final version of the legislation Friday, sending it to the two chambers for final passage next week. They have been working to blend the different versions passed by the two houses.
Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate, and two ailing GOP senators missed votes this past week.
John McCain of Arizona, who is 81, is at a Washington-area military hospital being treated for the side effects of brain cancer treatment, and 80-year-old Thad Cochran of Mississippi had a non-melanoma lesion removed from his nose earlier this week. GOP leaders are hopeful they will be available next week.
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Every political year brings its share of new players, emerging trends and surprises. 2017 in Canada was no exception. Here are five of the more meaningful ones for the shape of things to come.
1. Montreal mayor Valerie Plante scored the biggest electoral upset of the past political year in Canada. Her victory against Denis Coderre one of the countrys most combative and most seasoned politicians resonated from coast to coast to coast.
She landed on Googles 2017 list of the top 10 trending political personalities in Canada. It is more customary for municipal politicians to make that list for the wrong reasons. On that score, think of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford.
A month before the Montreal November vote, few believed Plante could win. Coderre who ran what can only be described as a non-campaign was apparently among that majority. Her victory was yet another reminder that in the digital age, campaigns matter more than they ever did and that sunny ways continue to trump the alternative.
Plantes campaign played on the same hopeful themes that allowed late NDP leader Jack Layton to sweep Quebec in 2011 and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to vault from third to first place in the last election.
One of the more corrosive contributions of the social media to the political conversation has been a near-constant flow of negativism. Could it be that voters are reacting to this saturation by increasingly turning off campaigns that are not designed to appeal to their better instincts?
2. The Green party had a coming-of-age year of sorts in 2017. In British Columbias spring election, Green leader Andrew Weaver ended up with the balance of power in a legislative assembly led by a minority NDP government.
The duo whose combined forces ended a 16-year Liberal reign on Canadas Pacific coast could yet make history in another way. Subject to the result of a provincial plebiscite next fall, B.C. could yet lead Canada by example by adopting a more proportional voting system.
The B.C. election was not the only Green party breakthrough. In a byelection this fall in P.E.I., Green candidate Hannah Bell took a riding from the ruling Liberals and beat provincial NDP leader Mike Redmond on the way to claiming a second seat for her party in the legislature.
3. Generation X entered the major political leadership leagues this year. The federal Conservatives and the New Democrats both effected generational change and picked leaders who are not yet 40.
Come 2019, Trudeau will be the oldest on the three main leaders and baby boomers will, for the first time in their voting lifetimes, not make up Canadas largest voting cohort. And if you think that is a small detail in the larger scheme of politics, consider that in Quebec the younger cohorts rising electoral weight combined with its comparatively low appetite for referendum politics has gone a long way to force the sovereignty issue off the radar.
4. Provincial conservative leaders had a busy year in Alberta and Quebec.
Jason Kenney, Stephen Harpers former go-to minister, won the leadership of Albertas Progressive Conservative party in the spring; beat his former federal colleague Brian Jean for the top job of a reunified provincial Conservative party in the fall and, in December, secured a seat and the job of leader of the official opposition in the legislature with a crushing byelection victory.
Francois Legault, the leader of the Coalition Avenir Quebec, enters Quebecs election year with the wind in his back. On the heels of a headline-catching byelection win in a formerly impregnable Liberal Quebec City riding in the fall, next Octobers election has become his to lose.
Who says history does not repeat itself? It was then-premier Lucien Bouchard who recruited Legault to the Parti Quebecois as a star candidate 20 years ago. Now, as the head of a party he founded, Legault could be about to deal to the PQ as lethal an electoral blow as his mentor Bouchard once inflicted on Brian Mulroneys federal Tory party.
5. Quebec came back in force on the federal scene in 2017. At years end, the prime minister, the governor-general and the incoming chief justice of the Supreme Court all hail from that province.
If Trudeaus Liberals are re-elected in two years that rare trifecta will be in place for a long haul. As rocky as the last part of the first half of the mandate was, Trudeau still is ending it in a sweeter spot in voting intentions than any of his recent predecessors at the same juncture. Quebec is turning out to be a bigger factor in his success than many had anticipated on the night of his election victory.
Chantal Hebert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
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WINDSOR, ENGLAND - MAY 21: Guests attend a reception and dinner to mark the 25th anniversary of Tusk Trust at Windsor Castle on May 21, 2015 in Windsor, England. The reception and dinner took place in the presence of the Royal Patron of Tusk Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. Tusk is a conservation charity which aims to address the greatest challenges faced by Africa's wildlife and people. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images for Tusk Trust)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle meet well-wishers as they arrive at the Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham, to attend a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair on their first official engagement together
US actress Meghan Markle visits Nottingham for her first official public engagement with fiancee Prince Harry on December 1, 2017 in Nottingham, England
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
Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall carries her bouquet as she leaves a blessing at St Georges Chapel in Windsor Castle after her civil wedding Prince Charles 09 April 2005. (Photo credit should read TOBY MELVILLE/AFP/Getty Images)
Britain's Prince Charles and his bride Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall greet wellwishers following their marriage blessing at St George's Chapel in Windsor, 09 April 2005. Prince Charles and his longtime sweetheart Camilla Parker Bowles married today after two months of muddled preparations and a lifetime of waiting. (Photo credit should read ALASTAIR GRANT/AFP/Getty Images)
WINDSOR, ENGLAND - APRIL 30: The place settings for a State Luncheon for The President of the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in the Waterloo Chamber of Windsor Castle on April 30, 2013 in Windsor, England. The President of the United Arab Emirates is paying a two-day State Visit to the United Kingdom, staying in Windsor Castle as the guest of Her Majesty The Queen from April 30, 2013 to May 1, 2013. Sheikh Khalifa will meet the British Prime Minister David Cameron tomorrow at his Downing Street residence. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II hosts a a State Luncheon on the first day of the state visit of Emirati President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan in the Waterloo Chamber in Windsor Castle, Berkshire, west of London on April 30, 2013. Sheikh Khalifa officially began a State visit to Britain with a cermonial welcome in Windsor hosted by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. AFP PHOTO / POOL / OLI SCARFF (Photo credit should read OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images)
WINDSOR, ENGLAND - MAY 21: Singer Katherine Jenkins performs to guests at a dinner to mark the 25th anniversary of Tusk Trust at Windsor Castle on May 21, 2015 in Windsor, England. The reception and dinner took place in the presence of the Royal Patron of Tusk Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. Tusk is a conservation charity which aims to address the greatest challenges faced by Africa's wildlife and people. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images for Tusk Trust)
While we'll have to wait until FA Cup Final day to see Harry and Meghan officially tie the knot (Saturday 19th May, get it in the diary), the bride and groom-to-be have been getting a bit more of an insight into how their big day will look, with a sneaky glimpse inside their wedding venue, as it would be filled with guests.
When bride-to-be and British royal-in-waiting Meghan Markle made a surprise visit to the Queen's annual Christmas party during the week, not only was she there to charm the 900 guests with her friendly manner and impressive room-working skills, but she may also have been double-jobbing by doing a little re-con on how her wedding day will look (sure how many of us are guilty of doing a bit of wedding planning during work hours?!)
Expand Close NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 01: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been converted to black and white.) Meghan Markle attends RELAIS & CHATEAUX 60th Anniversary Guest Chef Dinner Launch at Consulate General of France on October 1, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Relais & Chateaux) / Facebook
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Whatsapp NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 01: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been converted to black and white.) Meghan Markle attends RELAIS & CHATEAUX 60th Anniversary Guest Chef Dinner Launch at Consulate General of France on October 1, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Relais & Chateaux)
The U.S actress will marry her royal beau in a ceremony at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle and, according to People, the reception will be held in the same setting the Queen's Christmas bash at Windsor.
The Queen's annual staffer festivities were held in a set of rooms in the world's oldest and largest inhabited castle, including the Waterloo Chamber, St. George's Hall and the Grand Reception Room.
Expand Close WINDSOR, UNITED KINGDOM: Flowers are arranged in St George's Hall in Windsor Castle 08 April, 2005, for the reception after the royal wedding on Saturday between the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles. EMBARGOED: Not for publication before 0001 Saturday 09 April, 2005. AFP PHOTO / Kirsty Wigglesworth / WPA Rota / PA (Photo credit should read KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/AFP/Getty Images) / Facebook
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Whatsapp WINDSOR, UNITED KINGDOM: Flowers are arranged in St George's Hall in Windsor Castle 08 April, 2005, for the reception after the royal wedding on Saturday between the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles. EMBARGOED: Not for publication before 0001 Saturday 09 April, 2005. AFP PHOTO / Kirsty Wigglesworth / WPA Rota / PA (Photo credit should read KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/AFP/Getty Images)
The Christmas party is always held there," an unnamed former staffer told PEOPLE. "Theyll hold the wedding reception there, too. It is a well-proven system and arrangement.
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The couple's ceremony will be held at the 15th century gothic St. George's Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle, the same chapel Harry was christened in when he was just three months old.
The chapel can accommodate up to 800 guests (and is therefore seen as being more 'intimate' than Prince William and Kate's venue of choice Westminster Abbey, which can hold up to 2000 people), with knights, residents of Windsor Castle, and residents of the College of St George only permitted to tie the knot. The couple sought permission from the Queen to marry there.
Expand Close WINDSOR, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 23: Employees pose with a 20ft Nordmann Fir tree from Windsor Great Park in St George's Hall which has been decorated for the Christmas period on November 23, 2017 in Windsor Castle, England. The Windsor Castle State Apartments are used by members of the Royal Family for hosting and events. Queen Elizabeth II resides at Windsor Castle most weekends and over the easter period and it is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images) / Facebook
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Whatsapp WINDSOR, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 23: Employees pose with a 20ft Nordmann Fir tree from Windsor Great Park in St George's Hall which has been decorated for the Christmas period on November 23, 2017 in Windsor Castle, England. The Windsor Castle State Apartments are used by members of the Royal Family for hosting and events. Queen Elizabeth II resides at Windsor Castle most weekends and over the easter period and it is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
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The couple's wedding reception is, according to reports, most likely to take place in the opulant, 180ft-long George's Hall, a venue which has played host to many state visits and celebrations in the past, including Prince Charles and Camilla's wedding celebrations in 2005.
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The lavish hall was damaged in the Windsor Castle fire of 1992, but was returned to its former glory five years later in a multi million pound restoration project. The new roof is the largest green-oak structure built since the Middle Ages and is decorated with striking brightly coloured shields.
The resplendent space, located in the castle's upper ward, was recently decorated with a huge 20ft Nordmann Fir tree for the Christmas period, and forms part of a set of 'apartments' used by members of the family for hosting events.
Expand Close Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall walk up the aisle during their wedding blessing at Windsor Castle's St George's Chapel in Windsor, 09 April 2005. The couple were married earlier in a civil service at Windsor's Guildhall. (Photo credit should read CHRIS YOUNG/AFP/Getty Images) / Facebook
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Whatsapp Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall walk up the aisle during their wedding blessing at Windsor Castle's St George's Chapel in Windsor, 09 April 2005. The couple were married earlier in a civil service at Windsor's Guildhall. (Photo credit should read CHRIS YOUNG/AFP/Getty Images)
World's Oldest Castle
Twenty three miles west of London, Windsor Castle receives a million visitors each year. It has been home to 39 different monarchs, who decorated the building in their own style during their reign.
It has seen its share of royal weddings in recent years, with Prince Peter Phillips and his Canadian wife Autumn Kelly tying the knot on the grounds in 2008, and Prince Charles and his wife Camilla celebrating their wedding in 2005.
Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close WINDSOR, ENGLAND - JANUARY 28: A member of the Royal Collection staff poses besides a portrait of the Duke of Wellington in the Waterloo Chamber during a press preview for Waterloo at Windsor: 1815-2015 Exhibition at Windsor Castle on January 28, 2015 in Windsor, England. Paintings in the chamber will be on display with objects presented to George IV from the battle of Waterloo, which celebrates it's bicentennial this year. The exhibition opens at Windsor Castle from January 31, to January 13, 2016 as part of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo celebrations. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) WINDSOR, ENGLAND - MAY 21: Singer Katherine Jenkins performs to guests at a dinner to mark the 25th anniversary of Tusk Trust at Windsor Castle on May 21, 2015 in Windsor, England. The reception and dinner took place in the presence of the Royal Patron of Tusk Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. Tusk is a conservation charity which aims to address the greatest challenges faced by Africa's wildlife and people. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images for Tusk Trust) Britain's Queen Elizabeth II hosts a a State Luncheon on the first day of the state visit of Emirati President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan in the Waterloo Chamber in Windsor Castle, Berkshire, west of London on April 30, 2013. Sheikh Khalifa officially began a State visit to Britain with a cermonial welcome in Windsor hosted by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. AFP PHOTO / POOL / OLI SCARFF (Photo credit should read OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images) WINDSOR, ENGLAND - APRIL 30: The place settings for a State Luncheon for The President of the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in the Waterloo Chamber of Windsor Castle on April 30, 2013 in Windsor, England. The President of the United Arab Emirates is paying a two-day State Visit to the United Kingdom, staying in Windsor Castle as the guest of Her Majesty The Queen from April 30, 2013 to May 1, 2013. Sheikh Khalifa will meet the British Prime Minister David Cameron tomorrow at his Downing Street residence. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images) Britain's Prince Charles and his bride Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall greet wellwishers following their marriage blessing at St George's Chapel in Windsor, 09 April 2005. Prince Charles and his longtime sweetheart Camilla Parker Bowles married today after two months of muddled preparations and a lifetime of waiting. (Photo credit should read ALASTAIR GRANT/AFP/Getty Images) Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall carries her bouquet as she leaves a blessing at St Georges Chapel in Windsor Castle after her civil wedding Prince Charles 09 April 2005. (Photo credit should read TOBY MELVILLE/AFP/Getty Images) Meghan Markle attends the Terrance Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair at Nottingham Contemporary on December 1, 2017 in Nottingham, England Meghan Markle attends the Terrance Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair at Nottingham Contemporary on December 1, 2017 in Nottingham, England 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 US actress Meghan Markle visits Nottingham for her first official public engagement with fiancee Prince Harry on December 1, 2017 in Nottingham, England Meghan Markle attends the Terrance Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair at Nottingham Contemporary on December 1, 2017 in Nottingham, England Prince Harry and Meghan Markle meet well-wishers as they arrive at the Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham, to attend a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair on their first official engagement together / Facebook
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Whatsapp WINDSOR, ENGLAND - JANUARY 28: A member of the Royal Collection staff poses besides a portrait of the Duke of Wellington in the Waterloo Chamber during a press preview for Waterloo at Windsor: 1815-2015 Exhibition at Windsor Castle on January 28, 2015 in Windsor, England. Paintings in the chamber will be on display with objects presented to George IV from the battle of Waterloo, which celebrates it's bicentennial this year. The exhibition opens at Windsor Castle from January 31, to January 13, 2016 as part of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo celebrations. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Charles and Camilla's civil ceremony was originally set to take place in Windsor Castle on the 8th April 2005, however the venue was changed to Windsor's Guildhall - just outside the castle's walls - after it was discovered that a civil ceremony at the castle could only take place after it had been open to other prospective couples for three years.
The wedding was then postponed for 24 hours so the Prince could attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II, who died on 2nd April.
While Prince Charles' mother, Supreme Governer of the Church of England, Queen Elizabeth II did not attend the ceremony, she held a reception for the couple and their guests in St. George's Hall at Windsor Castle afterwards.
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Harry and Meghan traditional-breaking wedding day of Saturday 19th May 2018 creates two anomalies - the first being that royal weddings usually take place on a weekday, and that the wedding day will also take place of the same day as the FA Cup Final, which Prince William normally attends as FA president.
Top 100 Most Diverse and Inclusive Organizations Globally, 2019, 2020
Thomson Reuters has been ranked 49th among 9,000 global companies in Refinitivs Diversity and Inclusion Top 100 2020 , which identifies top publicly traded companies across diversity, inclusion, people development, news and controversies.
Greater Torontos Top Employers, 2008 2022
For the fourteenth year in a row, Thomson Reuters Canada Limited has been recognized as one of Greater Torontos Top Employers by The Globe and Mail.
Best Workplaces in India 3000+ Employees, 2020 & Best Workplaces for Women, 2020
Great Place to Work Institute India has recognized Thomson Reuters India as one of the Best Workplaces in India 2020 & Best Workplace for Women 2020.
Tekne Award Tech Talent, Corporate Initiative LeadHerShip1
Thomson Reuters was awarded the Tech Talent, Corporate Initiative Award for LeadHerShip1. Through its decade-long partnership with Leadhership1, Thomson Reuters has increased retention and advancement of its highly talented mid-career women technologists. The online, virtual curriculum of Leadhership1 created a network of almost 1,000 mid-career women technologists worldwide who support each others career advancement through peer mentoring. By preparing more mid-career women for senior leadership positions, younger female technologists have more role models. The initiative is a win-win for gender diversity and tech talent at Thomson Reuters.
Best Places to Work, Winner of Extra-Large Companies in North Texas, 2020
Thomson Reuters was announced as the 2020 best Place to Work in North Texas (Extra Large Company). The list of winners was whittled down from several hundred nominees and were chosen to take part in the program that highlights workplaces that are embraced by their employees. At the 18th annual Best Places to Work Awards, the winners were honored for being places that value their employees like family, and companies that embrace their core culture and have learned a whole new way of doing business during a pandemic
The Career Directory, 2020, 2021
For the second year in a row, Thomson Reuters Canada Limited has been selected for The Career Directory 2021, Canadas Best Employers for Recent Graduates by the Globe and Mail.
Best Companies for Women, 2016-2020
Thomson Reuters has been listed again as a Best Companies for Women by Fairygodboss for 2020, the fifth year in a row. Results were compiled by anonymously surveying female employees and scoring companies on a scale of 0 to 100.
Top 100 Internship Programs, 2020, 2018
Thomson Reuters has been selected as one of 2020s Top 100 Internship Programs by National Intern Day and WayUp. These 100 companies were voted as having the best internship programs in the U.S. by a panel of industry expert judges and thousands of public votes.
Best in State Employer, Michigan & Minnesota, 2020
For 2020, Thomson Reuters made the list as one of Americas Best Employers By State for Michigan and Minnesota by Forbes. Based on a survey of 80,000 Americans, working for organizations with at least 500 employees, the list highlights organizations liked best by employees.
Best CEOs for Women, 2020
Steve Hasker was named by Comparably as one of the Best CEOS for Women 2020 for large companies in the USA. The 2020 Best CEOS for Women list is comprised of the Top 50 highest rated CEOs, based on anonymous feedback by female employees in the last 12 months directly on Comparably.com.
Top Work Places The Washington Post, 2019, 2020
For the second year in a row, The Washington Post has named Thomson Reuters Special Services a 2020 Top Washington-Area Workplace in the Washington, D.C. area.
Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers, 2017, 2019/2020
Thomson Reuters was listed as number 3 on the 2019/2020 The Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers. The list recognizes UK based organisations that promote inclusion across all protected characteristics, throughout each level of employment within their organization.
HSBC Company of the Year, 2019
We are proud to be named the HSBC Company of the Year at the European Diversity Awards. This award recognizes companies that demonstrate a holistic and long-term commitment to equality and have delivered significant progress in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.
Americas Best Employers For Women, 2018, 2019
For 2019, Thomson Reuters again made the list as one of Americas Best Employers For Women by Forbes. Based on a survey of 60,000 Americans, including 40,000 women, working for businesses with at least 1,000 employees, the list ranks the 300 employers that both received the most recommendations and boast the most gender diverse boards and executive ranks.
The Global 2000, The Worlds Largest Public Companies, 2019
Thomson Reuters was listed as one of the Global 2000, The Worlds Largest Public Companies by Forbes. Forbes 17th annual ranking of the worlds largest public companies is a reflection of the state of the global economy today: whos on top, whos growing, and whos seen better days.
Best Employer for Diversity, 2019 2022
Thomson Reuters was listed as one of The Best Employers for Diversity in 2022 by Forbes. The list was compiled by surveying 50,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 1,000 employees.
Hong Kong LGBT+ Inclusion Awards Winners, 2019
Rob Head, the Head of Proposition, Core Law at Thomson Reuters was recognized as the LGBT+ Inclusion Champion of the Year by Community Business in Hong Kong. The LGBT+ Inclusion Champion Award, sponsored by Eversheds Sutherland, recognizes an LGBT+ person who has taken proactive and effective steps to promote an LGBT+ inclusive culture in the workplace and beyond in Hong Kong.
Rob Head was also named on the the OUTstanding 50 LGBT+ Future Leader Role Model 2019 List. Each person on the list was scored on their impact on LGBT+ inclusion inside and outside the workplace, their business achievements, and the seniority and influence of their role.
Gold Standard Award, 5th place ranking for Top Employers for LGBT+ Inclusion in Hong Kong, 2019
The 2019 Hong Kong LGBT+ Inclusion Index awarded Thomson Reuters with a Gold Standard Award and a 5th place ranking for the Top Employers for LGBT+ Inclusion in Hong Kong.
Rob Head recognized as the LGBT+ Inclusion Champion of the Year by Community Business In Hong Kong, 2019
Rob Head, the Head of Proposition, Core Law at Thomson Reuters was recognized as the LGBT+ Inclusion Champion of the Year by Community Business in Hong Kong. The LGBT+ Inclusion Champion Award, sponsored by Eversheds Sutherland recognizes an LGBT+ person who has taken proactive and effective steps to promote an LGBT+ inclusive culture in the workplace and beyond in Hong Kong.
Best CEO for Gender Diversity, 2019, 2018
Thomson Reuters has been listed as one of the fifteen best companies where CEOs support gender diversity by Fairygodboss for 2019. Results were compiled by anonymously surveying employees and scoring companies on a scale of 0 to 100.
Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion, 2022, 2019, 2018
Thomson Reuters has been ranked for the third time as one of the Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion by Disability:IN in its annual Disability Equality Index, recognizing companies that truly prioritize the inclusion of people with disabilities. We are also proud to receive a 100% score on the 2022 Disability Equality Index.
100 Best Companies for Women in India, 2018
Working Mother & AVTAR named Thomson Reuters as one of the 100 Best Companies for Women in India for 2018. Working Mother & AVTAR have assisted discerning organizations in making their workplaces more welcoming for women for over a decade.
Best Companies for Work-Life Balance, 2018
Thomson Reuters was named by Comparably as one of the Best Companies for Work-Life Balance for large companies, having received some of the highest ratings by employees who provided anonymous feedback about their work-life balance to Comparably.com.
Diversity Best Practices Inclusion Index, 2018
Working Mother magazine named Thomson Reuters to their 2018 Diversity Best Practices Inclusion Index as one of the best workplaces where people are free to be themselves. The list recognizes organizations exemplifying what companies should be doing to help recruit, train, and retain a diverse workforce.
Top 10 Global Professional Services Employers, 2018
Thomson Reuters has been listed as a Top 10 Global Professional Services Employers by eFinancialCareers. This list identifies the companies that finance professionals most want to work for, covering employers in banking, professional services, private equity, hedge funds, asset management, and technology.
UK National Equality Standard (NES), 2018, 2015
Thomson Reuters has achieved reaccreditation to Ernst & Young's (EY) National Equality Standard (NES). This positions Thomson Reuters as the first organization to achieve reaccreditation across the UK.
Top Employers UK, 2018
The Top Employers Institute has certified Thomson Reuters a Top Employer in UK for 2018, an award that recognizes organisations that have demonstrated they provide the highest standard of employee offerings.
The Global Diversity List, 2015-2017
For 2017, Thomson Reuters again was ranked in the Top 10 LGBT Employee Networks for our Pride At Work group. The list recognizes the achievements of employee network groups established to work on lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender diversity within organisations.
Thomson Reuters also received a ranking in the 2017 Top 10 Disability Networks for our Disability Employee Network. The list recognizes the achievements of employee network groups established to work on disability diversity within organisations.
World's Most Admired Companies, 2009-2017
For ninth consecutive years, FORTUNE has named Thomson Reuters to its list of the Worlds Most Admired Companies, a leading report card on corporate reputations.
Top Companies for Women Technologists, 2016-2017
The Anita Borg Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on the advancement of women in computing, has again named Thomson Reuters as one of its Top Companies for Women Technologists for 2017. The national benchmark program recognizes leaders in recruiting, retaining and advancing women in technical roles.
Interbrand's 100 Best Global Brands, 2008-2017
Thomson Reuters retains its status as one of the 100 Best Global Brands in the 2017 Interbrand rankings. The annual study ranks brands by considering three key components: the financial performance of the branded products or services, the role of the brand in purchase decisions and the brand's competitive strength.
Top Employers Accreditation, 2016-2017
The Top Employer Institute recognized Thomson Reuters as a leading employer in the UK. Accreditation was granted for exceptional employee benefits and talent development across the organization.
Stonewall Top 100 Employers, 2015-2017
Stonewall showcased Thomson Reuters as a best UK employer for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) staff. Our Pride at Work UK & Ireland chapter also received Highly Commended Network Group recognition.
Best Organization in Human Resources and Benefits, 2011-2017
For the seventh consecutive year, Thomson Reuters Thailand was named Best Organization in Human Resources and Benefits by the Thailand Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. The award recognizes employers in Thailand who continuously demonstrate exceptional employee relations, employee benefits and who exceed the guidelines stipulated by the Thai government.
Worlds Most Ethical Companies, 2009-2015
For the seventh consecutive year, the Ethisphere Institute has named Thomson Reuters as one of its 2015 World's Most Ethical (WME) Companies honorees . The WME designation recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business ethically and translate those words into action.
The Best Companies for Work-Life Balance, 2015
Thomson Reuters was named among the top 25 companies striving to promote a work-life balance as a part of company culture. Published by Forbes , the rankings were determined by employee reviews on job search engine Indeed.com.
LinkedIn 100 Most InDemand Employers, 2015
Thomson Reuters was recognized as one of the organizations most sought after to work for in North America. The InDemand rankings measure talent brand strength and are based on billions of interactions between employers and LinkedIns 380M+ members.
The 50 Most Influential High Tech Brands on LinkedIn, 2015
Thomson Reuters was recognized as a global influencer based on audience engagement with company and employee updates and influencer posts on the LinkedIn platform.
CareerBliss 50 Happiest Companies in America, 2014-2015
CareerBliss placed Thomson Reuters in the top 50 Happiest Companies in America. Analyzing thousands of employee reviews from visitors of CareerBliss.com, the job search site reveals the companies with the highest happiness ratings annually.
Best Workplaces in Canada for Women, 2015
Carswell , a Thomson Reuters business, has again been recognized as one of the 50 Best Workplaces in Canada for Women in The Globe and Mail.
Steve Hasker has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Reuters since March 2020. Prior to joining Thomson Reuters in February 2020, he was Senior Adviser to TPG Capital, a private equity firm, from August 2019 to February 2020. Prior to that, he was Chief Executive Officer of CAA Global, a TPG Capital portfolio company, from January 2018 to August 2019. Steve served as Global President and Chief Operating Officer of Nielsen Holdings PLC from December 2015 to December 2017 and prior to that served as Nielsens President, Global Products from November 2009 to January 2014.
Steve spent more than a decade with McKinsey & Company as a partner in the Global Media, Entertainment and Information practice from 1998 to 2009. Before joining McKinsey, Steve spent five years in several financial roles in the United States and other countries. Steve has an undergraduate economics degree from the University of Melbourne and received an MBA and masters in international affairs from Columbia University.
Steve is also a non-executive director of Appen Limited and a member of the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.
The United States on Thursday, said it is suspending food and fuel aid for most of Somalias armed forces over corruption concerns.
The US government suspension came after the Somali military repeatedly failed to account for food and fuel aid.
During recent discussions between the United States and the Federal Government of Somalia, both sides agreed that the Somali National Army had failed to meet the standards for accountability for US assistance, a State Department official told Reuters.
Somali army members who are actively fighting al-Shabab are receiving some form of mentorship from either the US or a third party.
The US suspension comes at a sensitive time when the African Union force with troops from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda is scheduled to leave by 2020.
AU troops landed in Mogadishu a decade ago to fight the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab group and Somali forces are supposed to eventually take over their duties.
But the US, which also funds the 22,000-strong AU peacekeeping force, has grown frustrated that successive governments have failed to build a viable national army.
The US has been carrying drone strikes in Somalia since 2007. The strikes have reportedly killed 677, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
In March, Trump gave the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US military broader powers to execute strikes and raid operations in Somalia.
NEW YORK/LONDON Thomson Reuters has released into production system enhancements to its Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) to support FX derivatives trading in compliance with MiFID II regulations. Thomson Reuters FXall and Forwards Matching users can now access robust liquidity on the MTF which meets multiple MiFID II requirements relating to execution workflow, trading controls, post-trade transparency and reporting. MiFID II takes effect on January 3, 2018.
We are extremely pleased to have reached the milestone of releasing the system enhancements into production to facilitate MiFID II compliance. In parallel, Thomson Reuters continues to work very closely with our customers and regulators to ensure a smooth transition into the new regulatory environment, said Neill Penney, Global Head of Trading, Thomson Reuters. As the implementation date approaches, we remain committed to continuing our approach of being a valued partner and advisor to our customers.
Thomson Reuters FXall is a dealer-to-client FX marketplace used by over 2,300 institutional clients and 180 market makers. Thomson Reuters Matching is an anonymous electronic trade matching system for FX used by thousands of market participants in every region of the world to access and trade on deep liquidity in over 80 currency pairs. Collectively, Thomson Reuters FX platforms support average daily trading of over $350bn.
Thomson Reuters is committed to providing its clients with solutions to meet a wide range of MiFID II regulations. Announced initiatives to help its clients achieve MiFID II compliance include: a partnership with VisibleAlpha and enhancements to Eikon to assist in compliance for research unbundling; the introduction of an APA connectivity solution for trade reporting requirements; enhancements to its reference-data capabilities, available on its integrated data and analytics delivery platform, DataScope; a legal entity identifier (LEI) solution; and enhancements to its Tick History feed.
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the worlds leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.
CONTACT
Brian Bertsch
+1-646-223-5985
brian.bertsch@thomsonreuters.com
The artificial intelligence revolution has unleashed a seemingly endless stream of ethics questions. How, for example, does an autonomous vehicle choose between hitting an oncoming vehicle or swerving into a pedestrian on a sidewalk? Should social networks allow posts from automated political bots? What if the software were using is racist?
In fact, weve been so focused on specific examples and use cases where misdirected AI can create ethical and moral dilemmas for our society, that weve largely ignored a major foundational shortcoming in the technologys development. The algorithms that power the AI were using to detect fraud, optimize logistics, and streamline research are being programmed by human technologists. And, right now, human technologists (at least in the United States) are predominantly white men.
A 2014 study conducted by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that the U.S. high-tech workforce is made up primarily of white males. Specifically, the population is 68.5% white, compared with 63.5% across the entire private sector. African Americans account for 7.4%, Hispanics represent 8%, and Asian Americans hold roughly 14% of all tech jobs in the United States. Men account for 64.3% of the tech workforce, versus 51.8% in the private sector as a whole.
Why is this such a big deal? The beauty of AI is that it is technology that understands nuance and learns as more inputs are collected. Thats what makes the technology smart. But its also what makes it dangerous because that ability to discern is governed by algorithms that are being built by humans.
For example, researchers at Stanford University published a study outlining an algorithm they had built that can determine an individuals sexual orientation through facial recognition. In a word, the researchers built an AI-powered gaydar.
In another recent example, the AI-powered blink detection software inside a digital camera committed an unwitting lapse in racial sensitivity by suggesting that an Asian woman in a photo was blinking when she clearly was not.
These examples illustrate a much larger point that cannot be ignored. What happens when these kinds of biases are programmed into AI software designed to treat cancer or predict diabetes risk? How will the facial recognition technology currently being used by the Department of Justice and the National Institute of Corrections to conduct criminal risk assessments treat a photo of a young white man and one of a young black man when all other information is equal?
The issue is called machine bias, and unless we take a hard look at the preconceived notions and entrenched perspectives that are being loaded into our AI algorithms and weigh them against a multitude of different perspectives, we run the risk of creating a tech-enhanced version of the same old dogma.
Over the next year, well see an awakening to the fact that we need AI programming (and programmers) that cuts across age, race, socioeconomics, and gender to truly capture all of the inputs that go into making smarter, more rational, and unbiased decisions.
Lets not forget, AI is being created in our image. Its time we started programming some diversity into our algorithms.
That list is decidedly smaller, but the real-world applications of this technology that are being developed, tested, and in some cases rolled out to the marketplace will play a critical role in shaping the future of blockchain development and determining just how quickly the technology goes mainstream.
To help demystify some of this rapid-fire new technology development, which received about $1.4 billion in new investment last year alone, this report will outline some of the key blockchain projects that are currently in the works, share insights on real-world application of the technology across different industries, and weigh in on some of the most promising use cases that will be first to move beyond the hype cycle and into our everyday workflows.
But before any of that will really make sense, some baseline background on blockchain is required. In its simplest possible form, blockchain is a digital platform for recording and verifying transactions. It traces its roots to bitcoin, the digital cryptocurrency created in a 2009 white paper written by an unknown author(s) using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
The paper outlines the process of creating a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that can be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. The key to maintaining the integrity of that system is a digital ledger that time-stamps transactions by logging them into an ongoing chain of record, providing proof of all transactions on the network.
This unbreakable, un-hackable, crowd-sourced chain of record is the blockchain.
Step 3: Mobilize your secret agents
In the mid-1980s, at the height of his reign as the biggest drug dealer in the world, Pablo Escobar was losing $2 billion in cash each year due to spoilage, the result of having to store his profits in rundown warehouses and buried in the jungles and farmlands of Colombia. Today, Escobars money would have likely been diffused throughout a complex network of shell companies and stored safely on the electronic ledgers of the global banking industry.
Despite the dramatic shift in the methods criminal enterprises and terrorist groups use to hide their tracks and the far-reaching impact of these changes on financial institutions the process of policing this activity is still rooted very much in 30-year-old best practices. That needs to change. Those who are in the best position to lead that change are the compliance officers of todays global financial institutions and corporations. But they are going to need help in the form of new technology and a culture shift that puts compliance at the center of global anti-crime efforts.
At first blush, it may sound a little strange to picture a multinational corporations finance and compliance professionals as the tip of the sword in the fight against modern slavery. Few of these departments would be mistaken as central casting for the next James Bond movie. Beneath that understated appearance, however, lies the only group of people in the world who have the complete purview into the financial system that 21st century criminals currently leverage to finance their enterprises.
The chief compliance officer of a financial institution, for example, has eyes and ears everywhere, from new client on-boarding to ongoing transaction monitoring. It is a prime perch for spotting crime. Likewise, legal, tax, and finance departments are in a unique position to spot the kinds of trends and anomalies that are often the first red flags for foul play.
Under industry standard practices, however, this visibility is limited by both time and budget constraints. Even with the most stringent policies in place, it is physically impossible for a corporation to spot and investigate every potential red flag using the linear, manual approach to risk management. Empowered with the right technology, and a clear mandate to call out the types of irregularities that are consistent with patterns of crime, however, the vast resources of todays multinationals can be leveraged in the fight against modern slavery.
The following companies are subsidiares of TransDigm Group: 17111 Waterview Pkwy LLC, ARA Deutschland GmbH, ARA Holding GmbH, Acme Aerospace, Acme Aerospace Inc., Adams Rite Aerospace GmbH, Adams Rite Aerospace Inc., Advanced Inflatable Products Limited, Aero-Instruments, AeroControlex Group Inc., Aerosonic, Aerosonic LLC, Air-Sea Survival Equipment Trustee Limited, Airborne Acquisition Inc., Airborne Global Inc., Airborne Holdings Inc., Airborne Systems, Airborne Systems Canada Ltd., Airborne Systems Group Limited, Airborne Systems Holdings Limited, Airborne Systems Limited, Airborne Systems NA Inc., Airborne Systems North America Inc., Airborne Systems North America of CA Inc., Airborne Systems North America of NJ Inc., Airborne Systems Pension Trust Limited, Airborne UK Acquisition Limited, Airborne UK Parent Limited, Aircraft Materials Limited, AmSafe, AmSafe Aviation (Chongqing) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Private) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport Ltd., AmSafe Global Holdings Inc., AmSafe Global Services (Private) Limited, AmSafe Inc., Angus Electronics Co., Arkwin Industries, Arkwin Industries Inc., Armtec Countermeasures Co., Armtec Countermeasures TNO Co., Armtec Defense Products Co., Auxitrol SAS, Auxitrol Weston Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Auxitrol Weston Services China Ltd., Auxitrol Weston Singapore Pte. Ltd., Auxitrol Weston USA Inc., Aviation Technologies, Aviation Technologies Inc., Avionic Instruments LLC, Avionics Instruments, Avionics Specialties Inc., AvtechTyee Inc., Beta Transformer Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Beta Transformer Technology Corporation, Beta Transformer Technology LLC, Breeze-Eastern Corporation, Breeze-Eastern LLC, Bridport Erie Aviation Inc., Bridport Holdings Inc., Bridport Ltd., Bridport-Air Carrier Inc., Bruce Aerospace Inc., Bruce Industries, CDA InterCorp LLC, CEF Industries LLC, CMC Electronics Aurora LLC, CMC Electronics Inc., CMC Electronics ME Inc., Champion Aerospace LLC, Chelton Avionics Holdings Inc., Chelton Avionics Inc., Chelton Limited, Cobham Aero Connectivity, Cobham CTS Limited, Cobham Defence Communications Limited, Cobham Defense Products Inc., DART Aerospace, DDC Electronics K.K., DDC Electronics Ltd., DDC Electronics Private Limited, DDC Electronique S.A.R.L., DDC Elektronik GmbH, Darchem Engineering Limited, Darchem Holdings Limited, Data Device Corp., Data Device Corporation, Dukes Aerospace Inc., EST Defence Company UK Limited, Edlaw Limited, Electromech Technologies LLC, Elektro-Metall Export GmbH, Elektro-Metall Paks KFT, Esterline, Esterline Acquisition Ltd, Esterline Europe Company LLC, Esterline Foreign Sales Corporation, Esterline International Company, Esterline Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Esterline Technologies Corporation, Esterline Technologies Corporation, Esterline Technologies Europe Limited, Esterline Technologies France Holding SAS, Esterline Technologies French Acquisition Limited, Esterline Technologies Global Limited, Esterline Technologies Holdings Limited, Esterline Technologies SGIP LLC, Esterline Technologies Unlimited, Esterline do Brasil Assessoria e Intermediacao Ltda, European Antennas Limited, Extant Components Group Holdings Inc., Extant Components Group Intermediate Inc., GQ Parachutes Limited, Guizhou Leach-Tianyi Aviation Electrical Company Ltd, Harco, HarcoSemco LLC, Hartwell Corporation, Hytek Finishes Co., ILC Holdings Inc., IRVIN AEROSPACE LIMITED, IrvinGQ France SAS, IrvinGQ Limited, Janco Corporation, Johnson Liverpool LLC, Kirkhill Elastomers, Kirkhill Inc., Korry Electronics Co., Kunshan Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., Leach Holding Corporation, Leach International Asia-Pacific Ltd, Leach International Corporation, Leach International Europe S.A.S., Leach International Germany GmbH, Leach International Mexico S. de R. L. de C. V., Leach International UK Ltd, Leach Mexico Holding LLC, Leach Technology Group Inc., MarathonNorco Aerospace Inc., Mason Electric Co., Mastsystem Int'l Oy, McKechnie Aerospace, McKechnie Aerospace (Europe) Ltd., McKechnie Aerospace DE Inc., McKechnie Aerospace DE LP, McKechnie Aerospace Holdings Inc., McKechnie Aerospace US LLC, Mecanismos de Matamoros S. de R.L. de C.V., NAT Seattle Inc., NMC Group Inc., Norco, Nordisk Asia Pacific Limited, Nordisk Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Nordisk Aviation Products (Kunshan) Ltd., Nordisk Aviation Products AS, Nordisk Aviation Products LLC, North Hills Signal Processing Corp., North Hills Signal Processing Overseas LLC, Norwich Aero Products Inc., Palomar Products Inc., Pexco Aerospace, Pexco Aerospace Inc., PneuDraulics, PneuDraulics Inc., Pressure Systems International Ltd, Schneller, Schneller Asia Pte. Ltd., Schneller LLC, Schneller S.A.R.L., Schroth Safety Products, Semco Instruments, Semco Instruments Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., Signal Processing Matamoros S.A. de C.V., Skandia, Skandia Inc., Skurka Aerospace, Skurka Aerospace Inc., Symetrics Industries, Symetrics Industries LLC, Symetrics Technology Group LLC, TA Aerospace Co., TA Mfg Limited, TDG Bavaria GmbH, TDG ESL Holdings Inc., TDG France Ultimate Parent SAS, TDG Germany GmbH, TEAC Aerospace Holdings Inc., TEAC Aerospace Technologies Inc., Tactair Fluid Controls Inc., Takata Protection Systems, Telair International, Telair International GmbH, Telair International Services PTE Ltd, Telair US LLC, TransDigm (Barbados) SRL, TransDigm Canada ULC, TransDigm European Holdings Limited, TransDigm Ireland Ltd., TransDigm Receivables LLC, TransDigm Technologies India Private Limited, TransDigm UK Holdings plc, Transicoil (Malaysia) Sendirian Berhad, Transicoil LLC, Wallop Defence UK Limited, Weston Aerospace Ltd, Whippany Actuation Systems, Whippany Actuation Systems LLC, XCEL Power Systems Ltd., Young & Franklin, Young & Franklin Inc., and exas Rotronics Inc..
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WestRock Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides fiber-based paper and packaging solutions in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It operates through two segments, Corrugated Packaging and Consumer Packaging. The Corrugated Packaging segment produces containerboards, corrugated sheets, corrugated packaging, and preprinted linerboards to consumer and industrial products manufacturers, and corrugated box manufacturers. It also provides structural and graphic design, engineering services and custom, and proprietary and standard automated packaging machines, as well as turn-key installation, automation, line integration, and packaging solutions; distributes corrugated packaging materials and other specialty packaging products, including stretch films, void fills, carton sealing tapes, and other specialty tapes; operates recycling facilities that collect, sort, grade, and bale recovered paper; and provides lithographic laminated packaging products, as well as contract packing services. The Consumer Packaging segment manufactures and sells folding cartons that are used to package food, paper, beverages, dairy products, tobacco, confectionery, health and beauty, other household consumer, and commercial and industrial products; and express mail packages for the overnight courier industry. It also offers inserts and labels, as well as rigid packaging and other printed packaging products, such as transaction cards, brochures, product literature, marketing materials, and grower tags and plant stakes for the horticultural market; and secondary packages and paperboard packaging for over-the-counter and prescription drugs. In addition, this segment manufactures and sells solid fiber and corrugated partitions, and die-cut paperboard components principally to glass container manufacturers and the automotive industry, as well as producers of beer, food, wine, spirits, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. WestRock Company is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Exxon Mobil Corporation is the largest direct descendent of John D. Rockefellers Standard Oil and one of the worlds largest companies. Its earliest roots lie with Vacuum Oil which got its start in the 1860s. Vacuum Oils primary product was kerosene, an important advancement for heating and lighting in rural America. Vacuum Oil was later merged with Standard Oil of New Jersey which was the parent operation of the Standard Oil empire prior to its breakup. Standard Oil of New Jersey would merge with other independent operators over the next few years until settling on the brand Exxon for most of its operations.
Meanwhile, Standard Oil of New York was operating under much the same impetus, merging and growing, until it became known as Mobil. Then, in 1999, the two giants became one with a merger of equals that on paper had Exxon buying Mobil. Now, the combined company operates under the Exxon, Mobil, and Esso brands as an international vertically integrated energy and petrochemical business.
Today, the company explores and produces crude oil and natural gas and their derivative products globally. As of 2022, it was ranked 6th on Forbes Fortune 500 list and 12th on the Global 500 list but it has held positions from #1 to #10 over the years. In terms of its operations, it is the worlds second-largest oil refiner and the largest refiner outside of China. In terms of reserves, ExxonMobil claimed about 18.5 million barrels of oil and oil equivalents at the end of 2021 and was ranked 15th globally.
ExxonMobil operates through three segments that are the Upstream, Downstream, and Chemical segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces oil and oil equivalents and represents roughly 70% of the income. The Downstream segment gathers, receives, stores, transports and refines oil and equivalents and their derivatives. The Downstream segment also markets and delivers fuel products to consumers and businesses. The Chemicals segment produces the full range of petrochemicals including plastics, resins and synthetic rubber.
ExxonMobil is committed to advancing sustainable and carbon-free energy solutions. The company is targeting 2050 for net-zero emissions and its 2030 interim targets are in alignment with the Paris Accord, the EU's Global Methane Pledge, and US Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan. The companys plans include investing $15 billion into reducing greenhouse emissions by 2028.
How many steps will it take to walk off Thanksgiving dinner?
OSCE Group Adopts Declaration Opposing Russias Occupation of Georgia
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
(VIENNA)The friends of Georgia a group including the US, UK, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Czech Republic and connected to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Grouphas released a statement supporting Georgias territorial integrity and democratic development.We express our full support for the strong determination of Georgia in its aspirations to become part of the European family and integrate with the Euro-Atlantic alliance. We commend the commitment shown by Georgias authorities, the OSCE groups declaration said.The declaration called for a withdrawal of all of Russias military forces from Georgias occupied regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.The group condemned the gross violations of rights in both regions related to the freedom of movement and property, as well as right to education in ones native language.We reiterate that the so called borderization policy by Russia through the placement of artificial obstacles and fortifying the occupation line with barbed and razor wire fences, further aggravates the humanitarian situation on the ground, the group said, adding it supported the right of return for Georgian IDPs from Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
With its captivating Infinity Display, great camera and incredibly sleek design, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is the best Android phone you can buy. But it certainly isn't the cheapest. The smaller, 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 costs $724, while the larger, 6.2-inch S8+ costs $100 more.
OnePlus 5T (left) and Samsung Galaxy S8+ (right)
Fortunately, OnePlus has an answer. The recently released OnePlus 5T is the best smartphone value on the market, offering much of what we loved about the Galaxy S8 but in a cheaper, $499 package.
Let's take a closer look at how the two phones compare, to see whether Samsung's flagships are really worth all that extra money.
Specs
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Galaxy S8 Galaxy S8+ OnePlus 5T Price $724 $824 $499/$549 OS Android 7.0 Nougat with TouchWiz 8.1 Android 7.0 Nougat with TouchWiz 8.1 Android 7.1.1 Nougat with OxygenOS Screen Size, Resolution 5.8-inch, 2960 x 1440, Super AMOLED 6.2-inch, 2960 x 1440, Super AMOLED 6-inch, 2160 x 1080, AMOLED CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 RAM 4GB 4GB 6GB/8GB Storage 64GB 64GB 64GB/128GB microSD Slot Yes Yes No Rear Camera 12 MP (f/1.7) 12 MP (f/1.7) Dual 16 MP (f/1.7) and 20 MP (f/1.7) Front Camera 8 MP (f/1.7) 8 MP (f/1.7) 16 MP (f/2.0) Battery Life (Hrs:Min) 10:39 11:04 11:03 Water Resistance IP68 IP68 No Size 5.9 x 2.7 x 0.3 inches 6.3 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches 6.1 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches Weight 5.5 ounces 6.1 ounces 5.7 ounces
(opens in new tab) Galaxy S8
Design
Samsung has coined an aesthetic all its own with the Galaxy S8. While there's nothing wrong with the OnePlus 5T's design, it really doesn't stand out from the Android crowd. Samsung's handsets don't have that problem, and it mostly comes down to one killer feature: the Infinity Display.
Samsung Galaxy S8
The steeply curved Super AMOLED panels on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ add another dimension to on-screen content. The bezels just melt away, forming a consistent curve running from the back of the phone all the way to the sides of the display. The Galaxy is easier to hold, maximizes viewable real estate, and looks and feels like nothing else out there.
OnePlus 5T
Conversely, the OnePlus 5T compares favorably with its own 18:9 screen and a metal back where the Galaxy S8 employs glass. There's no denying the 5T's premium build quality, but the finished product isn't as remarkable in the hand.
OnePlus 5T
We do, however, much prefer OnePlus' placement of the fingerprint sensor. While Samsung made the questionable choice to place the scanner to the right of the rear camera, OnePlus smartly put the sensor in the center, where it belongs. We're also happy to see 3.5-millimeter headphone jacks included on both of these phones.
The Galaxy S8 doesn't simply look better, though it's more durable too, thanks to IP68 water resistance. That means Samsung's phones can survive for 30 minutes in up to 5 feet of water. The OnePlus 5T boasts no such protection, only offering resistance to splashes.
Winner: Galaxy S8 and S8+
Display
Tiny bezels aside, the Galaxy S8's 2960 x 1440 Super AMOLED display is one of the best out there, with fantastic viewing angles, excellent brightness and a multitude of color profiles, ranging from hyperrealistic to ultrasaturated. The standard model's screen measures 5.8 inches, while the S8+ claims a 6.2-inch panel.
OnePlus 5T (left) and Samsung Galaxy S8+ (right)
The OnePlus 5T's 2160 x 1080 AMOLED panel is pretty great, too, and OnePlus should be commended for fitting such a high-quality OLED screen onto such an inexpensive device. At 6 inches, the 5T's display straddles the line between the S8 and the S8+, though it isn't quite as sharp. The 5T's screen measures 402 pixels per inch, while the Galaxy S8 and S8+ outperform it at 570 and 530 ppi, respectively.
Fortunately, the OnePlus 5T's screen does get nearly as bright, thanks in part to the company's Sunlight Display technology that boosts contrast outdoors. The 5T's peak full-screen brightness of 394 nits is just a hair below the Galaxy S8's 408 nits.
MORE: Best Smartphones on the Market Now
The Galaxy S8 also boasts slightly more accurate colors with its stock display mode, notching a Delta-E score of 0.28. (Numbers closer to 0 are better.) Out of the box, the OnePlus 5T is a little farther off the mark, registering 0.47 though both phones feature several different display modes to suit your preference.
Winner: Galaxy S8 and S8+
Cameras
On paper, the Galaxy S8's camera is at a disadvantage compared with the OnePlus 5T's. Both of Samsung's flagships make do with just one 12-megapixel sensor on the back, with an aperture of f/1.7. It's a great camera in its own right, but because it's not paired up with a second lens, the S8 doesn't allow for short-depth-of-field portraits that have become commonplace in many high-end smartphones.
OnePlus 5T
Meanwhile, the OnePlus 5T combines a 16-MP main camera with a 20-MP secondary one, both of which sport an f/1.7 aperture. Unlike the Galaxy S8's camera, though, the 5T's lenses miss out on optical image stabilization.
In comparisons, the OnePlus 5T held its own against the Galaxy S8, especially in this pair of photos of a statue outside the Flatiron Building in New York. The 5T actually handles the shadows falling on the statue a little better, and takes advantage of more realistic contrast. However, the Galaxy S8 squeezes more color out of the foliage in front, the sky and the trees.
In this much darker scene at an indoor market, the Galaxy S8 dazzled with its brighter exposure, providing so much more detail in the darker areas. And even though Samsung's camera should technically be a little blurrier because of its lower megapixel count, the S8's shot actually appears sharper, which you can observe in the texture of the paper sign. Credit the S8's dual-pixel camera for the strong performance in low-light settings.
When we took portraits with both phones, the differences were stark, and that's mainly because of the OnePlus' extra lens. I used Portrait Mode on the 5T, which blurred the background while keeping my coworker Shaun perfectly in focus. The Galaxy S8 lacks such a function, but Samsungs camera is still the one Id rather have in my pocket for these situations. Shaun's skin tone looks truer to life in the S8's shot, which makes all the difference.
Our face-off also demonstrated that the Galaxy S8 takes better selfies. Its 8-MP, f/1.7 front camera handled the stark difference between light and dark falling across my face much better than the OnePlus 5T could. And while the 5T boasts double the megapixels up front for a sharper shot, its f/2.0 lens produced another image that generally could have used a brightness boost. The Galaxy S8's superior low-light performance earns it the win.
Winner: Galaxy S8 and S8+
Performance
In the performance category, these three phones are more alike than they are different, as each employs Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip. The difference comes down to RAM, where things swing decidedly in OnePlus' favor.
Samsung Galaxy S8
While the Galaxy S8 and S8+ each come in just one configuration consisting of 64GB of storage with 4GB of RAM, the OnePlus 5T starts with 6GB. Spend an extra $60 on the 5T, and you can expand that to 8GB. That's more memory than you can get on any other Android phone available in the States, and helps OnePlus' flagship crush multitasking operations with ease.
When it comes to storage, however, Samsung claws a few points back. Both the Galaxy S8 and the OnePlus 5T come standard with 64GB of onboard storage. And while the 8GB model of the 5T doubles the capacity to 128GB, neither version of the 5T somes with a microSD slot. Samsung has included support for microSD cards in both Galaxy S8 models, allowing you to add up to 2TB of media to your phone.
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Samsung Galaxy S8 OnePlus 5T Geekbench 4 6,295 6,674 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited 36,508 41,496
Still, the level of performance that OnePlus offers for the money is unparalleled. The 5T defeated the Galaxy S8 handily in both the Geekbench 4 and the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited benchmarks.
It also converted a 2-minute 4K video clip to 1080p in less time in the Adobe Premiere Clip app: 3 minutes and 20 seconds, compared with over 4 minutes for the Galaxy S8.
Winner: OnePlus 5T
Special Features
Samsung has loaded the Galaxy S8 with a ton of additional features you won't find on stock Android, like Edge shortcuts and the ability to take scrolling screenshots. There's also one notable peripheral, called the DeX Station ($149), which is a dock that allows you to use your Galaxy S8 as a makeshift desktop computer.
Samsung's DeX dock
But the Galaxy S8's most obvious special feature is Bixby, Samsung's digital assistant that can be summoned with a press of the dedicated button on the left side of the phone. Like Google Lens on the Pixel 2, Bixby can be used in tandem with the device's camera to identify objects and call up relevant details. But perhaps even more useful is its ability to run complex tasks, like posting your last photo to Instagram, or turning off notifications from a specific app, all through dictation.
Samsung Bixby
With the OnePlus 5T, you obviously won't get Bixby. But there's still Google Assistant, and OnePlus' OxygenOS is actually quite similar to stock Android.
OnePlus has thrown in a few extras, like Reading Mode, which allows you to view content in gray scale to make things easier on the eyes, and App Locker, which lets you encrypt specific apps with a password. And while the OnePlus 5T doesn't boast a depth-sensing camera like the iPhone X does, it can still pull off a 2D Face Unlock feature that is faster than what you get from other Android phones. The Galaxy S8 has a similar feature, along with Iris Recognition, which Samsung says is more secure.
OnePlus 5T
Overall, the Samsung phones win this round for their longer list of features, though we prefer OnePlus' OxygenOS interface to Samsung's TouchWiz for its speediness, ease of use and organizational similarity to stock Android.
Winner: Galaxy S8 and S8+
Battery
The Galaxy S8+ and OnePlus 5T finished our battery tests after a little more than 11 hours of continuous surfing over LTE. Those are great results for flagship phones, and much better than the smartphone average of 9 hours and 40 minutes. The smaller Galaxy S8 couldn't help but lose out with the least capacity of the three, though it still posted a more-than-respectable time of 10 hours and 39 minutes.
The difference, then, comes down to charging speeds. In our recent comparison to find the fastest-charging smartphone, the OnePlus 5T led the pack, reaching 59 percent in 30 minutes using its packaged Dash Charge adapter. In an hour, it was at 93 percent.
MORE: Smartphones with the Longest Battery Life
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ managed a little less than 40 percent in a half-hour. Interestingly, the 5.8-inch S8's battery is smaller than the OnePlus 5T's: 3,000 mAh versus 3,300 mAh. And the S8+ actually packs a larger, 3,500-mAh battery.
However, Samsung's phones have one advantage in the battery department: wireless charging. Both Galaxy S8 models are compatible with the Qi standard. The OnePlus 5T's metal construction prevents it from charging the same way, though ultimately we prefer the 5T's battery and Dash Charge system for its quickness.
Winner: OnePlus 5T
Value and Availability
Although the OnePlus 5T costs $225 less than the Galaxy S8, it isn't compatible with all the same networks. That's because the 5T is a GSM-only phone, which means it doesn't work on CDMA carriers, such as Verizon, Sprint and Sprint-owned Boost Mobile.
The Galaxy S8 ($724) and S8+ ($824) don't suffer from this problem. You can buy either of Samsung's phones on- or off-contract from all four major carriers, and many prepaid carriers as well. The OnePlus 5T can only be bought unlocked, directly from the company.
MORE: Best Big Screen Phones
However, the OnePlus 5T wins this category because it offers the greatest value in the flagship segment. For $499, you get a top-of-the-line processor, 6GB of RAM, an 18:9 OLED display and one of the best battery-charging systems on the market. Spending $60 gets you 8GB of RAM and doubles the storage to 128GB. Considering Samsung customers can upgrade to the more expensive Galaxy S8+ and still miss out on many of those features, the OnePlus 5T feels like a bargain.
Winner: OnePlus 5T
Overall Winner: Galaxy S8 and S8+
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and the OnePlus 5T are both fantastic, premium smartphones. But even with its strong specs, the OnePlus 5T still makes some small compromises to hit its lower price tag. A microSD slot and water resistance are two important features OnePlus-phone owners will miss out on. And although the 5T's design and software are impressive, they pale in comparison to the Galaxy S8's futuristic look and feel, and breadth of special features.
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Samsung Galaxy S8 OnePlus 5T Design (10) 9 7 Display (15) 13 10 Cameras (20) 17 14 Performance (10) 8 9 Special Features (10) 9 7 Battery and Charging (20) 16 18 Value (15) 9 13 Overall (100) 81 78
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ have virtually everything you could ask for in a modern smartphone. While most companies are gutting headphone jacks and expandable memory, Samsung is still committed to giving users what they're asking for. Across the board from the camera and display to the performance, battery life and design Samsung's flagships remain the most thoroughly complete smartphones on the market today, and that's why they come out on top.
Credit: Tom's Guide
The Opec Fund for International Development (OFID) has approved more than $454 million of new development funding to benefit developing countries across the globe, a media report said.
OFIDs newly-approved public sector loans, which total nearly $323 million, will support the following projects/programs in Bangladesh ($30 million), Belize ($40 million),Bolivia ($30 million), Burkina Faso ($16.8 million), China ($35 million), Djibouti ($14 million),Kyrgyz Republic ($10 million),Madagascar ($20 million),Nicaragua ($ 30million), Rwanda ($20 million), Sri Lanka ($50 million), Zambia ($12 million) and Zimbabwe ($15 million), reported Emirates news agency Wam.
Other approvals include 11 grants totalling $7.56 million. The grants support many organizations including International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Water Association, United Nations Development Programme Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP) and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
Under OFIDs private sector facility, five financing facilities totalling $114 million were approved. Two will help enhance the energy sectors in Armenia and Jordan; two others will support financial institutions in Cambodia and Nicaragua in expanding their lending to micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises.
The facility will also help strengthen the capital base of the Nicaraguan institution. Also approved was a loan to help expand cement production in Pakistan. Under OFIDs trade finance operations, $10 million was approved to support international trade activities in Turkey.
OFID is the development finance institution established by the Member States of Opec in 1976 as a channel of aid to the developing countries. At the close of the year 2016, contributions pledged by Opec member countries totalled $4,433 million out of which $3,462 million was direct contributions to OFID. The reserve account stood at $2,740 million.
So far, 134 countries worldwide have benefited from OFID's financial assistance.
UAE-based Al Adil Trading Company, a leading name for Indian food stuff in the region, last night opened its 39th outlet in the GCC at Umm Al Hassam in Bahrain, as part of its regional expansion strategy.
The supermarket, which is the third one for Bahrain, was inaugurated by popular Indian movie star Tamannah Bhatia to the cheering of thousands of fans, who had been waiting patiently for nearly two hours to catch a glimpse of their favourite 'Bahubali' actress.
The stunning Bollywood beauty was joined by Al Adil Trading Company chairman Dr Dhananjay Datar, the food tycoon popularly known as Masala King along with other senior officials at the launch.
The store, which is located opposite Copper Chimney restaurant, opened just in time for Bahrains National Day being celebrated today (December 16).
Speaking at the launch, Dr Dhananjay Datar, said: Our commitment to quality foodstuff, freshness and the affordable pricing is a tribute to all women who demand nutrition at the best price for their family.
"Bhatia who is with us for this opening, is a popular and recognized movie star and well-known for her strong on-screen characters that she plays. Her ability to make a mark for herself in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu cinema is an indication of her vast talent as an actress," remarked Dr Datar, whose stores in Bahrain have all been inaugurated by Indian film stars - the earlier being Bollywood queens Juhi Chawla and Preity Zinta who opened the Manama and Yateem Centre outlets respectively.
Dr Datar pointed out that this underscores his admiration for the multi-talented persona of the modern Indian woman.
"I believe that the presence of such a talented and beautiful young star to inaugurate our stores is my way of acknowledging the many roles that modern women play in their lives as artistes, working women and guardians of the family," he added.
The company aims to open eight new stores across the region by the end of 2018 with focus on prime markets such as Oman, Bahrain and Qatar. Talks are also on for expanding the Al Adil brand in Saudi Arabia, Dr Datar told TradeArabia while speaking at the launch.
"We have set an ambitious target to launch five to six stores every year and soon we will hit the magic figure of 50," he said.
"There is a major demand for our organic food products including authentic masalas, spices and pulses in the GCC and that is where our main focus is. With more and more people switching over to a healthy lifestyle, the organic food section is turning out to a hot favourite for our customers, stated Dr Datar.
"From our side, we give customers the options to choose their grains and even get it milled into flour at the premises," he added.
Bhatia, who looked resplendent in her black dress, was all praise for the Al Adil enterprise, saying: "Food is a great cultural connection between people and countries. By showcasing the best of Indian foodstuff, Al Adil and Peacock brand have brought a significant slice of India to the Gulf."
A leading Indian actress Bhatia, who predominantly appears in the south Indian Telugu and Tamil films, became a household name in India after the all-time blockbuster Bahubali: The beginning.
"I am sure the Bahrain Indian community will relish this expansion of their favourite store," she added.
As a special launch offer, Al Adil is offering 50 per cent off on 200 items in its store including pulses, atta, masalas, spices, sugar, ghee, pickles, basmati rice, other rice varieties, biscuits, namkeen and excellent organic products too, said a staff member at the newly opened store.
"In the almost 30 years since opening its first store in the UAE, Al Adil has acquired a cult-like status among Indian expatriates," he stated.
Dr Datar, he said, has been instrumental in bringing 3,000 new more Indian products to the GCC region. He was recently honored by Forbes ME with the Top Indian Leader in the Arab World 2017 Retail award.
"For the NRIs as well as expatriates from other parts of the globe, we have become the first choice when it comes to getting preferred foodstuff including authentic masalas and spices," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
New Tours for 2018
Following a boom 2017, tour operators are rolling out new programs to keep demand high in 2018.
Tour Operator David Cogswell
It's no secret that tortoises are among the most resilient animals on Earth, perfectly adapted for life in natural environments that others would find inhospitable. But for one particularly tenacious pet tortoise, that hardy sense of survival allowed it to endure for decades in the most unnatural of places, according to reports.
A Lost Pet
Back in 1982, the Almeida Family was saddened to learn that their beloved pet, Manuela, a young red-footed tortoise, had gone missing. Their house was under renovation at the time, so the family just assumed that the slow-moving animal had slipped out through a gate left open by the construction crew -- disappearing into the forest near their home in Realengo, Brazil. But they couldn't have been more wrong.
The true fate of their lost pet remained a mystery for the next 30 years, that is, until they were met with an unexpected surprise.
A Shocking Discovery
warren farnell / Getty Images
After their father Leonel passed away, the Almeida children returned to help clean out his cluttered storage room upstairs. As it turns out, Leonel was somewhat of a hoarder, so the room was jam-packed with things that he had found on the street, like broken televisions and furniture. Deciding it was mostly junk, the family set about moving it to the trash out front.But while son Leandro Almeida was making a trip to the dumpster with a box of broken records, a neighbor asked him if he was intending to throw out the tortoise that was holed up inside.
"At that moment I was white and did not believe," Leandro told Globo TV.
That's when the Almeidas learned that, amazingly, the turtle had managed to somehow survive for three decades.
The family suspects she had been able to sustain herself grubbing on termites which, thanks to all that unwanted furniture, were likely in abundance. And although she seemed to be surviving just fine in the confines of the storage room, Manuela is no doubt pleased (in her own tortoisey way) to be reunited with the family that had so long thought her gone forever.
But in the end, it's hard not to be impressed with the resiliency of life and the slow-and-steady approach to survival taken by tortoises -- both in living with us, and perhaps sometimes in spite of it.
Please note, the photos show a red-footed tortoise, though not the actual one from the story, as that image was not available to us. A photo of Manuela can be seen here: Globo.
Not sure of you ticket details. Are you fly in from another country or a domestic flight.
What we can work on is the flight out.
Most International carriers like passenger checked in 1 and half hours before. you can book in early and some can later. Some people thing you need to book in 3 hours before. This is chaos time unless the carrier has a lot of flight and counters open all the time. I fly a few times a year out of SYD and I like to be at the check in line about 2 hours before no less.. If you use this than you would be at T 1 at about 12.40.
So you now have to work out how to get there and from where. The day of the might make a different.
If I was around central I would leave at 12.00 .
So you have sometime in the morning.
Now you need to find a guide I would even think about Hughes and book a car and driver. Pick up from Hotel , a drive a round , then drop off at airport
Good Luck
Re: Looking for non-touristy things to do and places to eat
1. Re: Looking for non-touristy things to do and places to eat
Hi, Youstina - it would be helpful to get a sense of your interests so that folks can give you more targeted recommendations. A few of my personal favorites would be:
- Check out some of the citys smaller museums, like the Museum of the City of New York (if youre interested in urban history), the Morgan Library (books and manuscripts in what was once a robber barons private library), the Noguchi Museum, and the Museum if the Moving Image (the last two in Queens). The Brooklyn Museum is great, too, and puts you close to Prospect Park and some interesting neighborhoods.
- If you like art, go gallery hopping. Its free, you can see new art, and its an excuse to go inside some cool buildings.
- See the amazing street art of the Bushwick Collective around the Jefferson St L stop in Brooklyn (the general neighborhood is fun, too).
- Pick a cuisine youve never had before, and seek it out. Its pretty much all here, and culinary exploration is a good way to see some of the citys non-touristy neighborhoods. (My two favorite eating neighborhoods are Jackson Heights in Queens and Sunset Park in Brooklyn.)
Remember that the "jumping on the bus to Puerto Viejo" cannot be done from the SJO airport, you first need to get to the correct terminal of Transporte Mepe in the city of San Jose. The bus schedule is under the Transportation tab on the site in Post 1. They run about every 2 hrs, takes about 5 hrs. You can reserve bus seats in that 1 direction by phoning the Mepe terminal in SJ with your name, in Spanish, and arriving to the terminal at least 30 min ahead of the bus time to purchase your tickets.
Agree that Puerto Viejo itself may not be the best beach choice.
Do not miss Cahuita National Park for wildlife viewing opportunities. The entire trail goes along the beach (you won't be able to see the water all the time though) and is only 8.5 km long. The main beach at the front part of the park gets busy on the wknds. Admission to the park is by donation. Watch for riptides, some marked with red flags, indicating where not to swim. Do not leave anything on the beach unattended.
The Jaguar Rescue Centre is closed 1 day a wk, so check their schedule on their site. They have 2 admission times (guided public tours) a day.
You can get in between the places in S. Caribbean by a local bus, inexpensively.
Edited: 4 years ago
Sort of depends on which part of midtown you are headed to.
The route across the 59th Street bridge is more scenic. Unlike the Midtown Tunnel, the bridge has no toll, but at certain times of day can be slow.
Yellow cabs are on-the-meter so costs will vary by time/traffic.
You do have the right to specify your preferred route: http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/passenger/taxicab_rights.shtml
The term "Scale" does not make sense here, but I am assuming that you have a layover.
Is this an official connection that is all on one itinerary? If so, then your checked luggage should be checked all the way through. You will have carry-on luggage to consider though. It would be easiest if you could have very minimal carry-on luggage with you. You will also already have boarding passes for your next flight.
You should have time for a short visit into NYC. You should allow on about an hour to get into the city an an hour to get back. Even though you will be checked in for the next flight, you will have to go through security screenings and lines are unpredictable there. You may want to plan on getting back to the airport about 90 minutes before your flight.
You could take a taxi (yellow cab). Just go to the official taxi stand outside the terminal. It's a flat rate each way, plus tolls and tip so about $70 each way. That's for the car with all of you, not per person. Taking Air Train to trains is another option if you are up for navigating that during your brief visit.
For your return, yellow cabs can be hailed from the street.
Uber would work too.
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Delta Kappa Gamma
The December meeting of the Epsilon Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma was held in the beautiful, Christmas-decorated dining room of the Villa, with 13 members in attendance. The delicious meal was catered by Back Alley Eatery. Members greatly enjoyed their food and the fellowship with other members. Hostesses were Darlene Genrich and Connie Wallman.
President Barb Vitosh presided over a short business meeting. Members brought food items, which were given to the Blue Valley Agency on the campus of Southeast Community College.
Residents of the Villa then joined members for a Christmas carol sing, which was enjoyed by all.
An inspirational story, entitled Gods Song, was shared with the group.
The next meeting will be held on Feb. 6 at the Back Alley Eatery. The program will be Prison Fellowship Ministry led by Elizabeth Stanosheck. Hostesses will be Doris Buttell and Sharon Tegtmeier.
- Kisumu County Government and Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL) on December 15, formed a joint committee to cater for community interests in the ongoing revival of the Kisumu Plant
- The plants construction is estimated to cost a staggering KSh 15 billion with the expansion expected to bolster the county's economy
- Construction is slated to be done by 2018, and will create over 100,000 jobs
Kisumu county governor, Anyang' Nyongo', on Friday, announced the formation of the Liaison and Delivery committee that will handle community engagement, issues management and project updates on the upcoming KBL expansion.
Those named to the committee include Nerry Achar, Alice Moraa, John Okise, Kennedy Ajwang and Obunga Awich.
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We are happy with KBLs approach and the progress of the project. We appreciate the fact that problems will arise from time to time and we must always seek to solve the problems together, Anyang Nyongo said in a press release seen by TUKO.co.ke
READ ALSO: Murang'a county senior officer roughed up in a brawl sparked by the assault of a female officer
Governor Anyang' Nyongo' announced the formation of a committee for the upcoming KBL expansion. Photo: Star
KBL managing director, Jane Karuku, welcomed the formation of the committee and said that the brewer was looking forward to becoming an integral part of Kisumus economic wellbeing.
We have made a lot of progress at the new brewery site since July and we are delighted at the progress, Karuku said.
READ ALSO: Embakasi East MP Babu Owino in hot soup over fist fight with Jaguar
KBL managing director, Jane Karuku, welcomed the formation of the committee and said that the brewer was looking forward to becoming an integral part of Kisumus economic wellbeing. Photo:Courtesy
As previously reported by TUKO.co.ke President Uhuru Kenyatta presided over the ground-breaking of the KSh 15 billion Kisumu brewery.
Kenyatta excited the interwebs after a photo of him downing a glass of beer emerged.
"The new plant will provide an expanded market opportunity mainly for sorghum farmers in Nyanza," Karuku added.
Kenyatta excited the interwebs after a photo of him downing a glass of beer emerged. Photo: Star
The plant, she said will be heavily reliant on sorghum among other raw materials sourced from locals.
READ ALSO: Kenyan fans march in the street wishing Victor Wanyama a speedy recovery
Kisumu county residents cannot simply wait for the KSh 15 billion Kenya Breweries plant. Photo: courtesy
Speaking during an earlier stakeholder session, Governor Nyongo welcomed the project and reaffirmed the countys support for the project.
The County of Kisumu supports this project and we look forward to enjoying its economic impact, Nyongo noted.
President Uhuru Kenyatta presided over the ground-breaking of the Kshs 15 billion Kisumu Brewery. Photo: Citizen
Construction is slated to be completed by 2018, and approximately 100,000 direct and indirect jobs will result from this plant.
The plant will initially produce Senator Keg so as to produce healthy affordable drinks to compete with and reduce consumption of illicit brews.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
Russian-backed militants launched eight attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas in last day.
This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.
The enemy violated ceasefire in ATO area eight times over the past day. As a result of the enemy shelling, Ukrainian soldier were neither killed nor wounded, the statement reads.
The enemy violated ceasefire in ATO area eight times over the past day. As a result of the enemy shelling, Ukrainian soldier were neither killed nor wounded, the statement reads.
In Luhansk direction, illegal armed formations used 120mm mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns to fire at Ukrainian positions near Troitske (69km west of Luhansk). Militants also used grenade launchers and small arms to launch attacks on the defenders of Zhovte (17km north-west of Luhansk).
In Donetsk direction, Russian-backed militants opened fire from 82mm mortars on ATO troops near Opytne (11.5km north-west of Donetsk). Militants also used grenade launchers of various types and infantry weapons to launch attacks on the defenders of Pisky (12km north-west of Donetsk), Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk), Vodiane (16km north-west of Donetsk), Butovka coal mine (11.4km north-west of Donetsk) and Marinka (35 km south-west of Donetsk).
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France condemns shelling on the night of December 13 in Popasna (Luhansk region) that endangered the lives of the observers of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
The Foreign Ministry of France discussed this at a briefing on December 15, the French Embassy in Ukraine informed.
"France condemns attacks launched on the night of December 13 in Popasna area (Luhansk region) that endangered the lives of five observers of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine," the report reads.
According to the Foreign Ministry, it is necessary to ensure the safety of observers in accordance with the mandate of the mission, approved by 57 OSCE countries.
"We are very concerned about the warfare intensity in the east of Ukraine, as a result of which 17 people were killed and 37 were injured from the beginning of December," the Foreign Ministry noted.
In addition, France together with Germany is working in the "Normandy format" to settle the situation in Donbas.
"We call upon all parties to return to the ceasefire regime for the period of Christmas holidays during the next meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group, which will be held in Minsk on December 20. We, in particular, urge Russia to exert its influence over separatists to ensure full compliance with the ceasefire regime," the report says.
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The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is not holding any talks with Georgia on the possible extradition of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Vasyl Bodnar told this to journalists on Friday, December 15, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"The Foreign Ministry is definitely not holding any negotiations on [Saakashvili's] extradition," Bodnar said.
He added that Georgia is within his competence, but there were no contacts between the ministries.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office posted on its website a summons calling Saakashvili in for questioning on December 18 at 09.30.
On December 8, Saakashvili was detained by law enforcement officers and placed in a temporary detention center of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). He was detained as part of criminal proceedings opened under Part 1, Article 256 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (assisting members of criminal organizations and concealing their criminal activity).
On December 11, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv rejected the prosecutor's petition to put Saakashvili under house arrest and released him.
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The European Union Advisory Mission Ukraine (EUAM Ukraine) has handed over 30 Nissan Patrol off-road vehicles to the National Police to boosts its capacity to protect and serve communities in remote and difficult to reach areas in Ukraine.
EUAM Head of Mission Kestutis Lancinskas said this on Thursday, December 14, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"I am very glad that today we can help the National Police - to transfer the vehicles that were once used in other EU missions, but they are in good condition. We transfer them today for use to our colleagues in Ukraine, because Ukraine is a big country, and there are many difficult to reach places. These cars will be used where there are no good roads so that you can get to the scene more quickly and provide assistance. I think that these cars will serve for a long time, and this will be significant help to our colleagues," he said.
He added that along with these vehicles, the EU Advisory Mission transfers 230 new computers to criminal police officers, which will help them better investigate crimes.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Head of the National Police Serhiy Knyazev thanked the mission for the equipment provided.
"We have been cooperating with the mission for almost three years, and cars are not the most important in our cooperation. It is difficult to overestimate the level of systemic training provided by the mission's staff to our staff officers, for the structural reform of the Interior Ministry. Therefore, I want to thank the Head of Mission once again for his work," the minister said.
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In Donetsk region, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utility Services Hennadiy Zubko took part in the opening of a specialized school created according to the standards of a new educational system.
The minister informed this on his Facebook page.
He adds that the specialized school is designed for 440 students, and it has the status of Ukrainian-speaking.
On Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utility Services Hennadiy Zubko is on a working visit to Donetsk region.
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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has a motto for service: Gods work. Our hands. St. Paul Lutheran Church in Missoula has a group that is unique in my experience: a mens quilting group that lives out this motto.
Three years ago the men of the church were challenged during an annual meeting to make a quilt. Several men took up the challenge. The womens quilting group taught them how to prepare a quilt and tie it and the men were off. More than 70 quilts later, six to eight men meet twice a month (taking the summer off) and make one or two quilts in a session.
One of the members of the group sews quilt tops from donated squares and they also use quilt tops that are donated to them from various sources. When they meet, they stretch the tops and tie them with yarn (which two of the men cut and insert into a needle) to match the colors in the quilt. A member takes them home and binds them.
When asked why they quilt, the men admit that they take a ribbing from men in other churches. But they enjoy the fellowship, the treats provided by the wives and, especially, the sense of contributing to St. Pauls fundraising, which supports the churchs mission to reach out to the Lutheran community and to our local community.
The groups quilts adorn more than 50 beds in the cabins at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp on Flathead Lake. They provide quilts for auctions held to support the Freedom in Christ Prison Ministry at the Montana State Prison, Emmaus Campus Ministry on the University of Montana campus, the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp. Each year the group donates a quilt to the silent auction at the St. Paul Women in Ministry bazaar, the proceeds of which support many local nonprofit ministries in Missoula.
The men see their quilting as a service for God. Gods work, their hands in action.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that North Korea's growing nuclear capabilities are a direct threat to the United States, and Washington "will use all necessary measures" to defend itself against such aggression.
"In the face of such a threat, inaction is unacceptable for any nation," Tillerson said.
"We have been clear that all options remain on the table in the defense of our nation," the secretary told a packed chamber of the U.N. Security Council in New York. "But we do not seek, nor do we want, war with North Korea," he said.
Tillerson spoke at a meeting on North Korea's proliferation convened by Japan, which holds the rotating Security Council presidency this month.
"The United States will use all necessary measures to defend itself against North Korean aggression, but our hope remains that diplomacy will produce a resolution," Tillerson added.
He repeated his openness to talks with the North Koreans, but added the caveat that Pyongyang "must earn its way back to the table."
"The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved," Tillerson said. "We will, in the meantime, keep our channels of communication open."
Said Japan's foreign minister, Taro Kono, who chaired the meeting, "A peaceful solution is desirable, however, it's North Korea that has consistently rejected such a solution."
Kono called on the international community to maximize pressure on Pyongyang to change course, and announced that Japan had just imposed asset freezes on 19 additional North Korean entities.
Growing capabilities
"In 2017, the DPRK conducted activities related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs at an alarming and accelerated pace," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told council members. "Its actions show blatant disregard of the will and resolutions of the Security Council and undermines the international norm against nuclear testing," he said.
On September 3, Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test, setting off an underground explosion that registered a 6.1 on the seismic scale.
"The DPRK remains the only country to continue to break the norm against nuclear testing," Guterres noted, using the abbreviation for North Korea's formal name.
Throughout the year, the regime has also conducted 20 ballistic missile launches, including the first tests of two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), as well as new medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
International nuclear watchdog agency the IAEA has been unable to gain access to North Korea to verify the status of its nuclear program. It uses satellite imagery to help monitor developments.
The U.N. chief called on North Korea to comply with all Security Council resolutions and to allow space for the resumption of dialogue. In a rare appearance at the council, North Korea's U.N. ambassador was present at the meeting and expected to speak after council members.
"While all concerned seek to avoid an accidental escalation leading to conflict, the risk is being multiplied by misplaced overconfidence, dangerous narratives and rhetoric, and the lack of communications channels," Guterres cautioned.
Last week, his top political official, Jeffrey Feltman, traveled to Pyongyang for the first in-depth political exchange of views between U.N. and North Korean officials to take place in that country in almost eight years.
Feltman, the highest-ranking American at the U.N., told reporters earlier this week that he engaged in more than 15 hours of talks over several days with Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Pak Myong Guk. He did not request a meeting with Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.
"The North Korean interlocutors agreed it was important to prevent war," Feltman said.
This week on Issues in the News, a would-be bomber from Bangladesh sparks more immigration debate. Join moderator David Rennie of The Economist, along with our panelists, Philippe Gelie of Le Figaro and Michael Williams, CBS Radio News Contributor, as they discuss the this and other headlines in the news. Listen this Saturday and Sunday on the Voice of America!
A senior member of Australias Roman Catholic Church has rejected a key recommendation of a five-year inquiry into child sex abuse. The Royal Commission has made more than 400 recommendations, including the creation of a new National Office for Child Safety and the requirement that members of the clergy report abuse confided in them during confession.
The report found that tens of thousands of children were abused in Australian institutions over past decades. Most of the perpetrators were members of the clergy and school teachers.
For years, the vulnerable were preyed upon by pedophiles, while invariably those in charge looked the other way and did nothing.
The government has yet to formally respond to the commissions report, but Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the scale of abuse was a national tragedy.
I want to thank and honor the courage of the survivors and their families who have told, often for the first time, the dreadful stories of abuse that they received from people who actually owed them love and protection, Turnbull said.
For five years the Royal Commission heard agonizing stories of rape and sexual assault. Some of the tortured children would later kill themselves, while others would endure the trauma for the rest of their lives.
Leonie Sheedy was abused in care, and says those who suffered deserve compensation.
Children like me who were raised in Australias orphanages, childrens homes and foster care - we certainly were not safe from the predators and the sadists of this nation, and we deserve redress for all forms of abuse and neglect, Sheedy said.
The head of the Anglican Church of Australia has said had expressed regret over its shameful handling of many abuse allegations. But the Catholic Church has rejected a key recommendation of the Royal Commission that priests should report abuse confided to them, even in the secret context of the confessional. Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart, said any priest who broke the seal of confession would be excommunicated, and be expelled from the Church and denied a Catholic funeral.
More than 2,500 cases of mistreatment have been referred to the authorities, and 230 criminal prosecutions have been initiated.
British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said Saturday it is likely Britain will want to negotiate a bespoke arrangement for a future trade deal with the European Union, rather than copying existing arrangements like the Canada-EU deal.
The European Union agreed Friday to move Brexit talks onto trade and a transition pact, but some leaders cautioned that the final year of divorce negotiations before Britains exit could be fraught with peril.
Summit chairman Donald Tusk said the worlds biggest trading bloc would begin exploratory contacts with Britain on what London wants in a future trade relationship, as well as starting discussion on the immediate post-Brexit transition.
No off-the-shelf deal
Speaking in Beijing, Hammond it was probably not helpful to think in terms of off-the-shelf models like the Canada-EU deal.
We have a level of trade and commercial integration with the EU 27 which is unlike the situation of any trade partner that the EU has ever done a trade deal with before, he told reporters.
And therefore it is likely that we will want to negotiate specific arrangements, bespoke arrangements, Hammond added.
So I expect that we will develop something that is neither the Canada model nor an EEA model, but something which draws on the strength of our existing relationship.
The Brexit negotiations have been a vexed issue for the global economy as markets feared prolonged uncertainty would hit global trade and growth.
A transition period is now seen as crucial for investors and businesses who worry that a cliff-edge Brexit would disrupt trade flows and sow chaos through financial markets.
China visit
Hammonds China visit is the latest installment in long-running economic talks between the two states, but it has now taken on new importance for Britain as it looks to re-invent itself as a global trading nation after leaving the EU in 2019.
China is one of the countries Britain hopes to sign a free trade agreement with once it leaves the EU, and London and Beijing have been keen to show that Britains withdrawal from the bloc will not affect ties.
Hammond sought to offer reassurance to Chinese firms post-March 2019 when Britain formally leaves the EU.
We wont technically or legally be in the customs union or in the single market, but were committed as a result of the agreement weve made this week to creating an environment which will effectively replicate the current status quo, he said.
Addressing the press after Hammond had spoken, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin said China hopes Britain and the EU can reach a win-win agreement.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is reportedly banning a list of seven words or phrases in official documents, sparking a flood of reaction on social media platforms.
Policy analysts at the CDC, based in Atlanta, Georgia, were told about the list of prohibited words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials, according to an unnamed analyst who attended the meeting as reported by The Washington Post newspaper.
The banned words are "diversity," "entitlement," "evidence-based," "fetus," "science-based," "transgender," and "vulnerable."
The meeting was led by Alison Kelly, a top official in the CDC's Office of Financial Services, according to the analyst who the Post said remained anonymous because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about agency affairs. The analyst said Kelly did not explain why the words were being forbidden.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a non-profit group that provides reproductive health care, said on Twitter the action sends strong messages about the administration of President Donald Trump.
"Its clearer than ever: this administration has disdained womens health, LGBTQ people, and science since day one."
David Reiss, an internationally recognized psychiatrist, tweeted that the administration's decision is counterproductive and outside the boundaries of traditional Washington politics.
"This is an attack on reality. Censoring names, Trump attempts to disappear knowledge, people & rational discourse. This is not politics or partisan but a takeover of society by authoritarian kleptocrats. Resist or Collaborate. No other options."
Legal Lambda is a legal organization that advocates on behalf of bisexuals, gay men, lesbians, transgender people and people who have contracted HIV. The group responded on Twitter with disbelief.
"Unbelievable. You cannot erase us, @realDonaldTrump..."
Many of the responses on Twitter were triggered by comments from Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu, who blasted the Trump administration for reportedly banning the words.
"The @realDonaldTrump Administration is making America stupid again. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention banned from using "science-based" and "evidence-based" terms. Are we now going to use Voodoo & leeches to treat diseases?..."
Other officials with the nation's top public health agency confirmed the existence of the list of banned words, the Post reported. The newspaper added the words will be prohibited from inclusion in any official CDC documents being prepared for the 2019 budget.
Unprecedented
The analyst, described by the Post as a "longtime CDC analyst" who helps write descriptions of the agency's work for the administration's annual budget proposal, could not remember past incidents of words being banned from budget documents because they were deemed controversial.
"In my experience, we've never had any pushback from an ideological standpoint," the analyst told the Post.
Others in the meeting reacted with disbelief, the analyst said.
The Trump administration has grappled with how to address issues such as abortion rights, gender identity and sexual orientation. Several federal agencies have altered some federal policies and how they gather information about bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender citizens.
The Department of Health and Human Services has eliminated questions about gender identity and sexual orientation in two surveys of older people. The agency has also deleted information about LGBT people from its website.
On many occasions, the Trump administration has dismissed science-based findings in favor of opinion - particularly regarding climate change. Trump has not said if he believes in climate science and numerous members of his administration have denied facets of scientific findings related to climate change.
The Environmental Protection Agency has eliminated references to climate change on its website and has prohibited its scientists from presenting scientific reports on the topic.
The Office of Management and Budget, which produces the president's budget and monitors federal agencies for compliance with the president's policies, has not responded to requests for comment, nor has the CDC, the Post reported.
Billionaire Sebastian Pinera once looked set to easily win Chiles presidential runoff and swing the country back to the right. Now, the elections outcome is so uncertain analysts say the nation could remain on its center-left path.
Pinera, who previously governed Chile from 2010 to 2014, won the first round of voting in November with 36 percent support, below expectations from pollsters. His center-left challenger Sen. Alejandro Guillier garnered 22 percent. Pineras failure to get an outright majority forced Sundays runoff between the two candidates, the top vote-getters in a crowded field.
Polls are banned in the weeks ahead of the election, but analysts say that based on the last polls released and trends seen, it appears the race is now up for grabs.
What it is showing, though, is that theres practically a tie between the two of them, said Javier Sajuria, a lecturer in politics at Queen Mary University of London.
Economic growth not enough
Pinera oversaw annual economic growth averaging 5.3 percent during his first term. But the 68-year-old conservative struggled to deal with massive protests over inequality and education rights and left office with low popularity ratings.
Since (Guillier) is not very popular, he has tried to turn the election into a referendum on Pinera. As a former president, Pinera has high negatives, said political scientist Patricio Navia of New York University.
Even so, an economic slump in the worlds top copper-producing nation under outgoing, center-left President Michelle Bachelet seemed to have cast a retrospective glow over Pinera leading up to the first round.
Scare tactic backfires
But in recent weeks the race has polarized, with Pinera comparing Guillier to Nicolas Maduro, the president of crisis-riddled Venezuela, a scare tactic that seems to have backfired.
In fact, it seems to have activated voters in the Broad Front (hard-left coalition) who began to endorse Guillier, said Kenneth Bunker, director of the electorate program at Chiles Central University.
Pinera promises to launch an aggressive investment plan to combat the slowdown that has seen growth average about 1.8 percent yearly under Bachelet. The Harvard-educated entrepreneur is also proposing to cut taxes on business to promote growth.
Guillier, a 64-year-old journalist, has vowed to continue Bachelets plan to increase corporate taxes to partly pay for an education overhaul, improvements to the pension and health care system and the development of alternative sources of energy to lower investment costs.
To Pepe Auth, a Chilean electoral expert, this will be the most uncertain election in the history of Chile.
Calming winds Friday gave firefighters a chance to gain ground against a huge wildfire in coastal mountains northwest of Los Angeles, but the blaze continued to surge west, endangering thousands of homes, as forecasts called for a renewal of gusty winds.
The so-called Thomas Fire, the fourth-largest in California history, was 35 percent contained Friday night after sweeping across 400 square miles (about 1,036 square kilometers) of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties since it erupted Dec. 4.
It has burned more than 1,000 buildings, including more than 750 homes. Another 18,000 buildings are in jeopardy, including mansions in the wealthy enclave of Montecito.
Between Thursday night and Friday morning, the blaze claimed another 3,000 acres as it fed on brush and timber killed by Californias long drought or a week of hot, dry weather.
Santa Barbara has had only a tiny amount of rain since Oct. 1, the start of the new water year, and is more than 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) below normal to date.
Firefighters continued to carve firebreaks above the communities of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Summerland and Montecito, and state fire officials said evacuations would be called as needed as flames advanced.
Eastern flank of fire
Another focus of firefighting was on the eastern flank in canyons where a state firefighter was killed Thursday near the agricultural town of Fillmore.
The death of Cory Iverson, 32, was announced by Chief Ken Pimlott of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection but he released no information about the circumstances, citing an ongoing investigation by an accident review team.
Iverson was an engineer with a strike team from the San Diego area and had been with Cal Fire since 2009. He is survived by his wife, who is pregnant, and a 2-year-old daughter, as well as his parents and other family.
Extreme fire danger
The National Weather Service forecast extreme fire danger or red flag conditions through at least Saturday evening, with winds gusting to 40 mph in the Santa Barbara County mountains where the fire is burning. Firefighters were facing first northerly sundowner winds through the night that could turn into northeasterly Santa Ana winds, driving the flames in another direction.
Everything about the fire was massive, from a footprint larger than that of many cities to the sheer scale of destruction that cremated entire neighborhoods or the legions attacking it: more than 8,000 firefighters from nearly a dozen states, aided by 32 helicopters and 78 bulldozers.
Firefighting costs were approaching $89 million.
Meanwhile, firefighters continued to deal with the loss of their own. All 17 of the firefighters on Cory Iversons five-engine strike team were pulled off the fire lines after his death.
On Thursday night, Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean called for a moment of silence during a meeting for Fillmore residents.
As I was up in the canyon and I watched his fire brethren remove his flag-draped body from the canyon in the hills above where we sit right here, I couldnt help but think about his pregnant wife and his young daughter who will never see their husband and father again, Dean said.
It was the second death linked to the fire. The body of a 70-year-old woman was found in a crashed car on an evacuation route last week.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is urging the government of El Salvador to commute the 30 year prison sentence of a woman convicted of aggravated homicide after her baby was stillborn in her ninth month of pregnancy.
Teodora Vasquez has been in prison since 2008 for aggravated homicide, a term used to prosecute women suspected of deliberately terminating their pregnancies. This week, an appeals court in San Salvador rejected her appeal to commute her 30-year sentence.
Vasquez was one of four women High Commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein met in a womens rehabilitation center during his recent visit to El Salvador. All had suffered miscarriages or other obstetric emergencies. All are serving time in prison.
Zeids spokeswoman, Liz Throssell, told VOA the High Commissioner was very moved by the womens stories and he is extremely upset by the Appeal Courts ruling against Vasquez.
It is absolutely astounding, astonishing, appalling that these women are in essence being convicted for having a miscarriage, for having a child stillborn. They are basically being convicted for being women, for losing a child and for being poor, she said.
Throssell said women from wealthier backgrounds in El Salvador are not jailed under similar circumstances.
El Salvador has one of the most draconian abortion laws in the world. Abortion is totally prohibited even if a womans life is at risk or if she has suffered sexual violence.
Throssell said about 150 women have been convicted of abortion-related offenses over the last decade. She says at least 41 other women have been convicted of attempted or aggravated homicide, like Teodora Vasquez, after suffering miscarriages or other complications. All are serving heavy prison sentences.
There will be another gas station at the corner of South Avenue and Reserve Street soon in the Rosauers parking lot.
A Missoula City Council Committee approved the Rosauers owners request to build an eight-pump station in the southwest corner of their lot, with an attached list of conditions negotiated during an hour-long meeting Wednesday.
The conditions were drawn up after a discussion last week broadened in scope to include some council members issues with the safety, design and traffic flow in the parking lot and across the South and Reserve intersection.
You take your life in your own hands, kind of, across that parking lot, Ward 4 representative Jon Wilkins said.
Wilkins was most concerned about pedestrian safety for people walking from the pumps to the store, and traffic flow in and out of the lot onto South Avenue, neither of which ended up on the list of conditions. He was the only council member to vote against the gas station.
The conditions included aesthetic guidelines (masonry on the support columns to match the Rosauers store) and signage prohibitions (on oil company branding and neon). The Rosauers owners also have to build landscaped endcaps at the west edge of each parking row, to delineate driving lanes for people going in and out of the gas station area.
Ward 4 representative John DiBari floated the idea of requiring a phased plan to rework the whole parking lot as part of the gas station agreement, but decided it was a reach.
The proposal initially met with some criticism from the public, through social media and emails to the City Council, largely from those who felt there was just no need for a second gas station on the same corner.
But the City Council focused on the specifics of how the gas station would affect the parking lot, which is fairly wide open, without much incentive to stay in driving lanes when the lot is empty.
Worries over how a busy filling station might exacerbate that behavior led to the endcap requirement, though similar worries with increased traffic turning in and out of the South Avenue exit werent assuaged.
A right-turn-in, right-out-only idea was suggested by Wilkins, but, since that area is under the control of the Montana Department of Transportation, the city cant require changes.
Building the gas station likely will trigger a review from MDT, which may suggest tweaking the entryways into the Rosauers lot.
After weeks of quarrels and qualms and then 11th-hour horse-trading, Republicans revealed their huge national tax rewrite late Friday, along with announcements of support that all but guarantee approval next week.
The legislation would slash tax rates for big business and lower levies on the richest Americans in a massive $1.5 trillion bill that the GOP plans to pass through Congress before the year-end break. Benefits for most other taxpayers would be smaller.
"This is happening. Tax reform under Republican control of Washington is happening," House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin told rank-and-file members in a conference call. "Most critics out there didn't think it could happen. ... And now we're on the doorstep of something truly historic."
According to the 1,097-page bill, today's 35 percent rate on corporations would fall to 21 percent, the crown jewel of the measure for many Republicans. Trump and GOP leaders had set 20 percent as their goal, but added a point to free money for other tax cuts that won over wavering lawmakers in final talks.
Party's first achievement of 2017
The legislation represents the first major legislative achievement for the GOP after nearly a full year in control of Congress and the White House. It's the widest-ranging reshaping of the tax code in three decades and is expected to add to the nation's $20 trillion debt. The debt is expected to soar by at least $1 trillion more than it would without the tax measure, according to projections.
Support is now expected from all Senate Republicans, ensuring narrow approval. Democrats are expected to oppose the legislation unanimously.
"Under this bill, the working class, middle class and upper middle class get skewered while the rich and wealthy corporations make out like bandits," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. "It is just the opposite of what America needs, and Republicans will rue the day they pass this."
The bill would drop today's 39.6 percent top rate on individuals to 37 percent. The standard deduction, used by about two-thirds of households, would be nearly doubled.
Those who itemize their taxes face mixed results. The $1,000-per-child tax deduction would grow to $2,000. The bill makes a smaller amount $1,400 available to families even if they owe no income tax. The money would come in the form of a tax refund, which is why it's called a "refundable" tax credit. In an earlier verison of the bill, the amount was $1,000.
But the deduction that millions use in connection with state and local income, property and sales taxes would be capped at $10,000. Deductions for medical expenses that lawmakers once considered eliminating would be retained.
Only on Friday did Republicans cement support for the major overhaul, securing endorsements from wavering senators.
Rubio, Corker relent
Marco Rubio of Florida relented in his high-profile opposition after negotiators expanded the child tax credit, and he said he would vote for the measure next week.
Rubio had been holding out for a bigger child tax credit for low-income families. After he got it, he tweeted that the change was "a solid step toward broader reforms which are both Pro-Growth and Pro-Worker."
Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the only Republican to vote against the Senate version earlier this month, made the surprise announcement that he would back the legislation. Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has repeatedly warned that the nation's growing debt is the most serious threat to national security.
Although he deemed the bill far from perfect, he said it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity.
"I realize this is a bet on our country's enterprising spirit, and that is a bet I am willing to make," Corker said.
Members of a House-Senate conference committee signed the final version of the legislation Friday, sending it to the two chambers for final passage next week. They have been working to blend the different versions passed by the two houses.
Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate, including two ailing senators who have missed votes this past week.
John McCain of Arizona, 81, is at a Washington-area military hospital being treated for the side effects of brain cancer treatment, and Thad Cochran, 80, of Mississippi had a non-melanoma lesion removed from his nose earlier this week. GOP leaders are hopeful they will be available next week.
Five years after the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old physical therapy student in the Indian capital turned the focus to violence against women, small groups turned out in New Delhi and several other cities on Saturday to highlight the need for safety for women in public spaces.
The Meet to Sleep movement, under which women took a short nap at a park, is one of several campaigns that have emerged in the wake of massive protests that rocked India after the gang rape. The symbolic nap highlights the need for womens safety when they are most vulnerable.
What happened to her [the gang rape victim] happened in a very public place, in a bus, which is a mode of transportation that many women use, but remains unsafe. Five years on, not much has changed, said 26-year-old Kriti Omprakash.
The gang rape victim was assaulted by six men on a bus that she boarded with her male friend in December 2012. She later died due to the injuries she sustained.
Not only do sexual attacks targeting girls and women continue to pose a challenge - such incidents actually have increased, according to the latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau. Delhi, considered one of Indias most unsafe cities, reported 1,996 rape cases in 2016, up from 1,893 in the previous year.
Rising voices
Women's rights activists say the biggest change, however, is that women have become more vocal in demanding their freedom and safety and that the subject of violence is now discussed openly in a country where talk of sex crimes previously had been considered taboo.
In the past five years, one of the most positive things I think is that those kind of agitations have taken teeth and grown, said Kavita Krishnan from the All India Progressive Womens Association.
In a bid to make cities safer, the government has set up help lines and installed security cameras, although that has failed to be a deterrent, according to rights activists. They express disappointment that despite the tightening of laws for rape and sexual harassment, crimes are still surging, sometimes against very young girls.
We feel very, very let down by the system, by the government. The gruesomeness of crime has increased, says Ranjana Kumari at the Center for Social Research in New Delhi. There have been very, very young children who have been assaulted in most brutal way.
Less than a week ago, a six-year-old girl was found murdered with grave sexual injuries in the northern state of Haryana - a case whose brutality led to comparisons with the 2012 bus gang rape.
Legal efforts
The mother of the gang rape victim, Asha Devi, also expressed anguish over reporters asking, Women and girls are still being raped, what changed? The city is as unsafe as it was five years ago.
Activists also worry about what they feel are efforts to dilute the tough laws that were instituted after the gang rape to punish men and point to a judgment.
Earlier this year, a judge set aside the conviction of a Bollywood filmmaker for rape after ruling that a feeble no could indicate willingness on the part of the victim.
Kavita Krishnan stresses the need for more mobilization of the kind that was seen in the wake of the 2012 gang rape to continue to keep the focus on womens safety and freedom.
We cannot celebrate the 2012 movement without realizing what is happening around us right now. It has to be a continued fight. It cant just be a ritual obeisance paid to the 2012 moment, she said.
A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, can be released from house arrest after meeting certain conditions, including sizable fines if he fails to show up for court appearances.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled Friday that Manafort would be subject to electronic monitoring, a curfew, weekly check-ins with authorities and a limited scope of travel.
The order said Manafort must pay $10 million if he fails to show up for a scheduled court appearance. The order also specified that he may travel back and forth between his residences in Alexandria, Virginia, and Palm Beach, Florida, but any other travel must be approved in advance by the court. He must also stay inside between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Legal documents say Manafort has agreed to put up four residential properties believed to be worth a total of $10 million as collateral to secure his release. The properties include the houses in Alexandria and Palm Beach as well as homes in Manhattan and Bridgehampton, New York.
Manafort's wife and daughter must also sign agreements to pay up to $10 million if Manafort fails to appear for court appearances and his four properties fail to equal $10 million in value. They must provide bank documentation showing they have the funds ready to make the payment if necessary.
Manafort, who has surrendered his passport already, will be required to remain in Palm Beach County and neighboring Broward County, Florida, when not traveling to Washington, D.C., for court appearances. With travel for court excepted, he will be required to stay away from transportation facilities, including public and private airports, train stations and bus stations.
Manafort's wife is also required to surrender her passport, which will confine her to the United States.
Friday's legal order said once all these conditions were met, the court would issue a separate order releasing Manafort from his house arrest in Alexandria.
Manafort served as campaign adviser to and later campaign chairman for Trump until his resignation three months before Election Day 2016, when his ties to pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine were exposed.
He faces charges that include money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent.
Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty earlier this month of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia.
Trump has said repeatedly that there was "no collusion" with Russia during his campaign.
Lawmakers in Peru have initiated impeachment proceedings against President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski over alleged corruption.
Opposition lawmakers filed the motion against the president Friday, saying he was morally unfit to lead the country after he resisted calls to resign over the alleged corruption.
Twenty-seven of 130 members of Perus Congress approved launching the process to oust the president during a special session Friday.
Kuczynski vowed to fight on and not resign during a televised speech just before midnight on Thursday. He denied there was anything improper in his consulting business receiving previously undisclosed payments more than 10 years ago from the company at the center of the countrys biggest corruption scandal.
Kuczynski said he had no management duties in his consulting firm when it received nearly $800,000 from scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht.
The president denied as recently as last month to having any links to Odebrecht.
Odebrecht has shaken the politics across Latin America with its confession last year as part of a leniency deal that it gave kickbacks to officials in a dozen countries for more than a decade.
Perus opposition lawmakers control more than half of the votes in the countrys Congress, whose president, Luis Galarreta, said a vote could take place as soon as next week.
President Donald Trump frequently casts his first year in office as a string of successes and campaign promises fulfilled. But less than a quarter of Americans think Trump has made good on the pledges he made to voters while running for president, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Among Republicans, just half say Trump has kept his promises, which included vows to overhaul his predecessors health care law, withdraw the United States from a nuclear accord with Iran and invest millions in new projects to fix the nations aging infrastructure. None of those steps have been taken.
Everything has stalled out, said Mark Krowski, 37, an independent from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who leans Republican but didnt vote for Trump last year.
Worrisome signs
As 2017 comes to a close, the majority of Americans painted a broadly pessimistic view of Trumps presidency, the nations politics and the overall direction of the country. Just 3 in 10 Americans said the United States is heading in the right direction, and 52 percent said the country is worse off since Trump became president, worrisome signs for the White House and Republicans heading into a midterm election year where control of Congress will be at stake.
Along with the 23 percent who think Trump has kept his promises, another 30 percent think he has tried and failed and 45 percent think he hasnt kept them at all.
In a second AP-NORC poll conducted this month, Trumps job approval rating sits at just 32 percent, making him the least popular first-year president on record. A quarter of Republicans say theyre among those who disapprove of the president.
Bit of a bright spot
One relative bright spot for Trump? The improving economy.
With a soaring stock market and unemployment hovering around 4 percent, 40 percent of Americans approved of Trumps handling of the economy. Thats higher than the 3 in 10 Americans that approved of the presidents handling of health care, foreign policy or taxes.
Still, Trump continues to talk about his presidency with lofty rhetorical flourishes, declaring that his first months in office outshine those of his predecessors. But theres no doubt that 2017 has been devoid of any significant legislative accomplishments, though Republicans are urgently trying to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nations tax system. The package would give generous tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest tax cuts to low- and middle-income families.
Were very, very close to a historic legislative victory, the likes of which rarely has this country seen, Trump said during a meeting with lawmakers earlier this week.
Republicans are banking on the tax overhaul being enough to carry them through next years House and Senate contests, elections that will largely be a referendum on Trumps first two years in office and the GOPs stewardship as the majority party on Capitol Hill. But with the legislation rushed through Congress and negotiated largely in private, Trump and lawmakers may have more work to do to sell the public on its benefits.
Theres so much back and forth and so many adjustments being made. Its just so uncertain, Edward Hale, a 72-year-old independent, said of the tax legislation.
One thing Hale, a retired federal government employee from Clarion, Pennsylvania, is certain of in the proposal? It definitely favors Mr. Trump and his wealthy friends, he said.
The survey results suggest that with or without a tax overhaul, Trump has work to do in convincing the public that his presidency is benefiting them. Just 25 percent of Americans think the country is better off since Trump took office, and only 20 percent say they personally are doing better.
By contrast, an AP-NORC poll conducted a year ago found that Americans were more likely to think the country had become better off over the course of Barack Obamas presidency than worse off, 46 percent to 33 percent.
Only 9 percent think the country has become more united as a result of Trumps presidency, while 67 percent think the country is more divided because of Trump. Thats far higher than the 44 percent of Americans who said in a poll one year ago that Obamas presidency had served to divide the country further.
Even Republicans are more likely to say Trump has divided America than united it, 41 percent to 17 percent.
Notably, the deep-seated pessimism about the president and national politics doesnt extend to local communities. Overall, about half of Americans said they feel optimistic about their local communities. And that feeling is shared across the political spectrum: 55 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans feel optimistic about the way things are going locally.
Poll details
The AP-NORC polls surveyed 1,444 adults from Nov. 30-Dec. 4 and 1,020 adults from Dec. 7-11 using samples drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points for the first survey and plus or minus 4.3 percentage points for the second.
Interviews were conducted online and using landlines and cellphones.
With people coming from around the world to work in Silicon Valley, some struggle with the best ways to care for their aging parents.
Increasingly, the solution is an affinity retirement community, where older people from places like India and China can live near but not with their adult children. These communities break from traditional custom that parents and children live together.
The children are so busy these days, they are all the time working, taking care of their kids, so we do not want to interfere in their lives, said Asha RaoRane, an Indian national who wanted to move to the U.S. to be near her three daughters who had immigrated to San Francisco.
Her daughters started exploring the idea of a traditional senior retirement community, but were having trouble finding an American community they thought their mother would fit into.
In July, RaoRane, 70, moved into Priya Living, an affinity-living community, meaning it caters to people with similar interests, such as yoga and meditation.
Arun Paul founded Priya Living as a place for his parents to live. The couple moved from Los Angeles four years ago and are still in a ground floor apartment.
In living here in America, as the son of immigrants, Ive realized that theres very unique needs that immigrants have, said Paul, a real-estate developer.
That old system was based on a different time when women were in the house, really taking care, in many cultures, of their husbands parents, Paul said. Obviously the role of women in society has changed globally.
New friends
For Bhagyashree RaoRane, 38, finding Priya Living for her mother has been a dream come true.
We walked in and instantly it was like walking into an Indian community in India, said RaoRane, a filmmaker. Even the building is painted the same color as so many of the buildings in India are painted.
This type of independent senior community came as a shock to Nagendra Prasad, 62, and Manjula Neelakantaiah, 53, who came to Priya on a two-month visit from Bangalore, India, to see their daughter, an intern at Google.
Really, in the beginning we were surprised, Neelakantaiah said. In India the younger people, they definitely take care of the aged people.
Not always a good fit
For a few residents, Priya is not the perfect fit. Dr. Byravan Viswanathan and his wife, Lakshmi, were born and raised in India but spent much of their adult lives in a small town in Pennsylvania.
We had oodles and oodles of good friends and they were not Indians regular Americans, he said. We had become so Westernized, we have to adapt to Indian living again. Look around. There are six different Indian languages spoken right now at this table, languages I have never spoken or havent spoken in decades. Viswanathans daughter is looking into finding a more American community for them.
All are welcome
While the vast majority of residents are from India, Paul stressed that Priya Living welcomes people of all backgrounds. There are a few non-Indians who call Priya home.
Carlos McCann, an 89-year-old WW II veteran, has been living in the complex for almost 20 years, long before it was purchased and remodeled to become the primarily Indian community.
Everything has sort of come together at this location its like its the center of the world, he said.
Two Sierra Leone health workers who survived Ebola are suing their government for allegedly mismanaging funds during the epidemic.
The Ebola survivors blame a lack of resources provided by the government for their infection and for the deaths of many of their co-workers. Their suit claims the government's mismanagement of funds violated the plaintiffs' "right to life and health."
The virus surfaced in Guinea in 2013 and spread to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone the following year. More than 3,000 people died in Sierra Leone and more than 11,300 died worldwide, mostly in those three West African countries.
Foreign governments and aid organizations donated millions of dollars to help the West African countries stop the spread of the epidemic, but allegations have arisen in all three nations that the governments misused the funds.
The Sierra Leone health workers are suing their government in the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court in Abuja, Nigeria. The court's rulings are legally binding, but some past decisions have, in practice, been ignored by member states.
Sierra Leone's Center for Accountability and Rule of Law helped bring the case to court.
"Sierra Leoneans have repeatedly demanded accountability and justice for the mismanagement of Ebola response funds, but their demands have fallen on deaf ears," group representative Ibrahim Tommy said.
The plaintiffs are seeking financial compensation, an acknowledgement that their rights were violated, and the formation of a national commission to investigate civil and criminal liability from the alleged misuse of funds.
Somalia's prime minister, Hassan ali-Khaire, said his government had demanded the U.S. briefly suspend aid to much of Somalia's armed forces in an effort to improve transparency and accountability following corruption concerns.
Speaking Saturday to reporters in Mogadishu, Khaire blamed former Somali governments for U.S. concerns about corruption.
"In the first month in office, my government stood for the need for Somalia to be governed on transparency principles," he said. "To ensure such principles, Somalia and the U.S. government have agreed to this aid suspension."
He said that the pause in assistance was part of his government's effort to fight corruption by tackling misconduct and opening the door to accountability.
"We have done a study that made it possible to find out the challenges against rebuilding our national army, including diversion of soldiers' salaries, lying about the list of the active and alive military personnel, and as a result, we have jointly decided to suspend the U.S. aid to parts of Somalia's military for a few weeks until we improve and fix the errors," Khaire said.
Mattis 'sure' of progress
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that he was optimistic about improving Somali accountability concerning the distribution of American aid to Somali armed forces.
"I'm sure we can get this thing under control, even if it's not for the whole, but for parts of it," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.
Despite the aid suspension, Khaire said his government was confident that it had gained the trust of both Somali people and its international partners.
"In the light of the recent IMF [International Monetary Fund] and World Bank reports on Somalia and the work we have so far done, we are confident that we have gained the trust of the Somali people and our international friends," he said.
For nearly two decades, Somalia has been among the world's most corrupt countries, topping the list made by the corruption monitoring group Transparency International.
Nepotism, favoritism, bribery and aid embezzlement have been commonplace across all sectors, making many citizens believe that corruption is a normal way of life.
South Africas embattled president made no attempt to hide his pick for his successor as his party met to vote over new leadership, delivering several backhands at his deputy, successful businessman Cyril Ramaphosa.
We cannot exercise things that are foreign to ANC culture and tendencies, Jacob Zuma said to the gathering, in Soweto, of some 5,000 delegates of the African National Congress, who greeted his arrival with half-hearted applause.
He warned delegates, who will vote Saturday and Sunday, to avoid results that would be seen to be beneficial to business, saying such an outcome might cause the ruling party to implode.
Zuma also lashed out at the media for having a vested interest in harming the ANC. The claim drew scattered applause from the floor.
We need to reflect on how to communicate with our people in a climate in which the forces hostile to the ANC control the means to access to platforms of communications, he said.
Zuma, whose mounting corruption scandals have deeply divided the party, will step down as party leader at this conference, as his term ends. His successor will then be the presumptive ruling party presidential candidate when South Africa next votes, in 2019. Zuma may continue as president of the country after the vote, but analysts also predict his party will try to convince him to step out of the role before elections.
Behind the president sat Zumas favored pick: Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a top diplomat and former minister who is also Zumas former wife. She and Ramaphosa are the two top candidates, but others may emerge.
Voting is going to be a complicated, contentious process on Saturday, party secretary Gwede Mantashe told journalists the party had ruled that some 100 delegates affected by three court rulings on Friday will not be granted voting status at the conference.
That could be seen as a blow to Dlamini-Zumas base.
Zuma urged his party to maintain a united front, as did other prominent members of the party and a slew of religious leaders, who delivered an impassioned, emotional call for peace and unity as the conference began. The last year has seen dramatic blowups at ANC events, including a chair-throwing bonanza at a provincial-level meeting in October.
Our people are frustrated when we spend more time fighting amongst ourselves than solving the day-to-day challenges that they experience," said Zuma. Factionalism has become the biggest threat to the organization.
Many political watchers, like former Gauteng province premier Tokyo Sexwale, have warned that this bitter battle could make or break the party that has commanded a clean majority in every national vote since 1994.
At this conference it is at the crossroads, Sexwale told VOA on the conference sidelines. It must be mindful of the fact that a wrong turn could bury this organization.
Heres a chance now to fix the ANC itself, he said. ...To send a strong message that we have turned a corner. If we are not going to do that, nobody is going to trust us.
President Donald Trump is set to unveil on Monday his strategy to counter what he considers the most dire global threats to the United States.
Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, gave a preview of the administration's new national security policy on Tuesday at a conference hosted by the London-based policy research organization Policy Exchange.
"Geopolitics are back and they are back with a vengeance," McMaster told the audience.
McMaster said Trump's policy is driven by four key priorities: protecting the homeland, advancing and protecting U.S. prosperity, maintaining peace through strength, and advancing U.S. influence.
The Army general said the primary threats to American security are "revisionist powers" such as Russia and China, which are trying to undermine global order and stability, and "rogue regimes," including North Korea and Iran.
Russia is threatening the U.S. with "so-called new-generation warfare" that includes sophisticated propaganda campaigns designed to "divide our community," McMaster said without mentioning Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.
'Competitive engagement'
McMaster characterized China's "economic aggression" as a threat that is "challenging the rules-based economic order that helped lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty," and he proposed to counter the threats from Russia and China with "competitive engagement," the idea that American prosperity is a national interest.
He suggested that renegotiating trade agreements would be a primary part of the national security strategy.
"The U.S. and U.K. cannot serve as a force for peace and stability in the world if we are not economically and fiscally secure," McMaster said.
He also cited Islamic State and other terrorist groups as threats that are executing and inspiring attacks against the West.
Regarding North Korea, McMaster called on the global community to take action beyond the resolutions adopted by the U.N. Security Council, saying it "might be our last best chance to avoid military conflict."
By some assessments, the threats McMaster prioritized match those presented in 2015 by former President Barack Obama's administration, but that administration spoke of sharing and broadening U.S. economic interests. The Trump approach is more confined, emphasizing that American prosperity is to be protected, not expanded.
The historic Roundup Central School building might come down if no one steps in to develop it.
Roundup Public Schools, which owns the building, set a deadline of Jan. 5, 2018, for developers or wrecking crews to make their pitch.
Weve put out two RFPs (requests for proposals)," said Superintendent Chad Sealey. "One for salvage and demolition, and one for someone to take it and to re-purpose it.
The two solicitations are posted to the school district's home page, each indicating very different fates for the school building. Both requests note that the school district no longer has use for the 106-year-old school.
The 15,000-square-foot old Central School was built in 1911 with giant sandstone blocks. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
Talks about the building's future intensified after its elementary school students moved into a new building in 2016.
And this year, Musselshell County acquired two small brick additions that connect to the main school building by a breezeway. The county is renovating it for use as a senior center, kitchen and clothing store.
The actual transaction price was $1. County Commissioner Robert Goffena said they worked out that deal when the school district sought votes for its bond campaign for the new building.
If the district got a new school, the seniors would have a new facility as well.
The seniors, which typically would vote against a bond issue being on fixed income, actually went door to door on the bond issue, Goffena said.
The county just took over the additions, known as the annex. The main historical building remains unused.
Public officials don't view demolition as a preferred plan, but they can't justify keeping the building on taxpayers' pocketbooks.
The one thing that weve probably heard the most at public meetings is that they wanna save it, but they dont wanna have their tax dollars involved, Sealey said.
To help entice ideas of development for the site, the district ordered a feasibility study to outline how it might be re-used. The resulting report, published in September 2016, called for commercial or office space on the ground level and residential space on the upper floors.
The report envisioned a $2.6 million remodel project for the prospective developer, which would be offset by various sustainable energy grant programs and historic tax credits. A new building of that size could cost upwards of $4.6 million, according to the report.
But the school district isn't going to oversee a business-residential remodel of the sandstone building. The entire scenario depends on a developer or other entity to step in and buy the building.
The structure can be saved and repurposed. Now its just are we going to be able to get this private development in? said Musselshell County Commissioner Nicole Borner.
Borner said she's part of a small community group seeking private development for the building, working between the various local government entities that are involved.
It's unclear what kind of interest developers might have in Roundup. The area is heavily reliant on the volatile coal industry. Goffena pointed out that 36 percent of the county's revenue comes from Signal Peak Energy's Bull Mountain Mine, just out of town.
Sealey said he's looked toward Whitehall's Borden Hotel as a model. A developer bought the building for $20,000 in 2010 and fixed up the place. It now contains office and residential space.
The district is working with a Lewistown firm, Snowy Mountain Development Corporation, to help find businesses that might want to work out of the old Central School.
You really need to have an anchor tenant," Sealey said. "Someone you know who's gonna be there long term.
Sealey hopes that by January, the district will have some proposals to choose from. There has been some interest Sealey fielded calls from as far away as Canada and Cincinnati, Ohio.
One caller asked about redevelopment. The other, he said, inquired about the demolition.
U.S. President Donald Trump continued to tout the Republican tax bill Saturday, saying "everybody's going to benefit" if it is signed into law.
"But I think the greatest benefit is going to be for jobs and for the middle class, middle income," Trump said to reporters on the White House South Lawn before departing for the presidential Camp David retreat in Maryland.
Republican Senate and House negotiators finalized a final version Friday of their compromise $1.5 trillion tax bill, after appeasing Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who demanded an expansion of the child tax credit that provides benefits for low-income families.
Republican lawmakers hammered out differences Wednesday between the House and Senate versions, and both chambers of Congress plan to vote on the final bill early next week, with the intent of submitting it to President Donald Trump for his signature before Christmas.
Rubio said late Friday he would vote for the bill after saying one day earlier he would not support it unless it includes a more generous child tax credit, which has been beneficial to lower-income families by partially offsetting the expenses of raising children.
The bill doubles the current child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child and allows parents to get a refund of up to $1,400 if the credit is greater than their federal income tax liability.
No Democratic support
No Democrats have publicly expressed their support for the legislation, which they have attacked as a giveaway to corporations and the wealthiest of taxpayers, including Trump, a billionaire.
The measure would cut taxes by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, heavily weighted toward lower corporate taxation, and perhaps add $1 trillion or more to the country's long-term $20 trillion debt obligations to investors and foreign governments such as China the largest owner of U.S. debt.
When asked about the debt, Trump responded by saying a new tax law will encourage inflows of overseas money. "This is going to bring money in. As an example, we think four trillion dollars will come flowing back into the country. That's money that's overseas, that's stuck there for years and years."
Trump administration officials say millions of individual taxpayers, but not everyone, would see their annual tax obligation to the government cut, in many cases by a few hundred dollars, or in the case of wealthy taxpayers, by thousands of dollars.
In the final compromise bill, the individual tax rate for the highest income earners would be cut from 39.6 percent to 37 percent.
The country's corporate tax rate, now at 35 percent and among the highest in the industrialized world, would be cut substantially to 21 percent.
With Democrat Doug Jones winning a special Senate election Tuesday in Alabama, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer has asked that the final tax vote be delayed until January after Jones is sworn in. But Republicans appear intent on voting before then while they have one more Republican vote in the Senate.
An original version of the Senate bill was approved 51-49 with Rubios support. So if Rubio votes against the bill, it could still pass, though with a narrower margin.
If approved and signed into law, the tax legislation would be the first major legislative achievement of Trump's nearly 11-month presidency after he and Republicans failed earlier this year dismantle national health care policies championed by former president Barack Obama.
Two pregnant girls who arrived in the country as unaccompanied minors are suing the Trump administration for blocking them from obtaining abortions, the American Civil Liberties Union said.
The two 17-year-olds are being detained in federal immigration centers, but the ACLU did not give a specific location Friday.
"Both minors have asked their respective doctors and their shelters for an abortion, but to date," the government has "not allowed them to access abortion," the ACLU wrote.
The judge overseeing the case has set a hearing for Monday. It is the same judge that ruled in favor of an earlier ACLU plaintiff, called Jane Doe, another undocumented 17-year-old immigrant who is pregnant. The organization filed court papers Friday night updating her case, in which she was granted access to an abortion after a weeks-long battle that escalated to a federal appeals court.
HHS policy
Department of Health and Human Services attorneys say the government agency has a policy of "refusing to facilitate" abortions.
HHS is responsible for giving temporary housing to children who illegally crossed any U.S. border unaccompanied by a parent.
Court documents refer to the minors in the more recent case as Jane Roe and Jane Poe.
Jane Roe found she was pregnant during a medical examination in November. She was already in federal custody.
The ACLU wrote that the girl decided to have an abortion but was not allowed to obtain it.
"[Jane] Roe learned she was pregnant approximately three weeks ago and, after being counseled about her options, asked for an abortion," documents show.
Similarly, Jane Poe requested an abortion last week after her doctor told her she was "quickly approaching the point in her pregnancy after which she will no longer be able to obtain an abortion in the state where she is located."
The ACLU wrote that the teen wanted to end her pregnancy by taking medication to cause a miscarriage. Because of the government's "obstruction she is now past the point in pregnancy where she can have a medication abortion." She is about 10 weeks pregnant, a court document says.
"If the court does not intervene, Ms. Roe and Ms. Poe will be forced to carry to term against their will," ACLU lawyers wrote.
Documents also show private funds are expected to be used to pay for both procedures.
"In other words, the costs are covered, the logistics related to the transfer of Ms. Roe and Ms. Poe to their respective abortion providers will be handled by their shelters, and any necessary post-procedure care will be handled by the shelters in conjunction with Ms. Roe's and Ms. Poe's medical providers," one of the documents reads.
Earlier case
The Jane Doe case ended when Doe, at the end of October, obtained permission from a state judge, in lieu of parental consent, and raised private money to pay for the procedure.
Doe has been detained in a refugee shelter in Brownsville, Texas, since September 11, when she was apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border.
At first, federal officials refused to transport Doe or temporarily release her so that others could take her to get the procedure. Reports say the Trump administration accused the ACLU lawyers of misleading the government during the case.
The administration also said ACLU attorneys' actions blocked government lawyers from the opportunity to ask the Supreme Court to stop the procedure, at least temporarily.
Ukraines foreign minister applauded decisions announced this week by Canada and the European Union (EU) as important in demonstrating the international communitys solidarity with Ukraine and sending a clear message to Russia.
Look, Russia does not live in a vacuum, sanctions are effective, Pavlo Klimkin said Friday in an interview with VOA.
EU Council President Donald Tusk announced Thursday that leaders of the organizations 28 member states were united on the rollover of economic sanctions on Russia.
The European Unions sanctions post constraints for Russias access to the coveted EU markets. Initially, they were put in place in 2014 in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and deliberate destabilization of a neighboring sovereign country. The EU said all sanctions are kept under constant review in order that they continue to contribute toward their stated objectives.
WATCH: Ukraine's Pavlo Klimkin on Russian sanctions
Earlier this week, the Canadian government added Ukraine to its Automatic Firearms Country Control List, thus enabling Canadian individuals and companies to apply for permits to export certain prohibited firearms, weapons and devices to Ukraine.
Canada and Canadians will continue to stand with the people of Ukraine and support Ukraines territorial integrity and sovereignty, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland declared.
Klimkin said Western nations, especially Europe, understands more and more that Russia has also been waging hybrid war against European institutions.
International community
Against this background, there definitely will be more pressure, in the sense of targeted sanctions, in the sense of solidarity coming from the international community, he said.
Ukraine hopes this sense of solidarity will manifest in a United Nations mandate for an international peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine, responsible for, in Klimkins words, what is going on and what will be going on in the occupied Donbas, including a level of security, and free and fair elections.
We will keep pushing Russia to accept that fundamentally, its about Russia out, international component in, theres no other way around it, Klimkin told VOAs Ukrainian service.
In the meantime, he says Russia has been trying to fix up the situation in Donbas. ... Russia has been trying to come up with more provocations, the idea is very clear: to maintain a Russian protectorate on the ground; the whole idea is simply to say: Look, its about internal conflicts in Ukraine.
The United States has been a strong critic of Russias actions in Ukraine.
The single most difficult obstacle
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson voiced the administrations frustration during his recent trip to Europe.
President (Donald) Trump, as you know, throughout his campaign was very clear that he views it as very important that Russia and the United States have a better relationship, that it is important that countries as powerful as these two nations are should have a more positive relationship, Tillerson said in Vienna.
When one country invades another, that is a difference that is hard to look past or to reconcile, he said, adding, Weve made this clear to Russia from the very beginning that we must address Ukraine. It stands as the single most difficult obstacle to us renormalizing the relationship with Russia, which we badly would like to do.
Natalie Liu has been a staff reporter and writer at Voice of America since 2005. She currently covers the diplomatic beat.
Myroslava Gongadze is VOAs Ukrainian service chief.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Friday that he was optimistic about improving Somali accountability concerning the distribution of American aid to Somali armed forces, much of which was suspended because of corruption concerns.
"I'm sure we can get this thing under control, even if it's not for the whole, but for parts of it," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.
The suspension reflected the Somali military's repeated inability to account for aid items, such as food, fuel and weapons.
'Pause' in assistance
The massive "pause" in aid is being made "to ensure that U.S. assistance is being used effectively and for its intended purpose," a State Department official said.
It will "affect the majority of U.S. logistical support and stipends assistance" to the Somali armed forces "until additional transparency and accountability measures are in place," Marion Wohlers, the spokesperson for African affairs at the State Department, told VOA.
The Somali government has agreed to develop new accountability criteria that meet American standards, a State Department official said.
Mattis said changing a "culture of corruption" takes time, adding that Somalia had "finally got a president worth supporting."
"We have a good relationship with President [Mohamed Abdullahi] Farmajo and his administration, but as you know, he inherited a very difficult situation," Mattis said.
Some assistance to continue
Somali security force members who are actively fighting al-Shabab and receiving some form of mentorship from either the U.S. or a third party will continue to receive appropriate assistance, officials said.
According to documents obtained by the Reuters news agency, the Somali military has been unable to properly feed, pay or equip its soldiers, despite having received hundreds of millions of dollars of American support.
A U.S.-Somali team sent to nine Somali army bases between May and June of this year found that evidence of the arrival of food aid or its consumption by soldiers was present at only two of the bases, Reuters reported.
Plans to suspend the support will be a "big setback" to the effort by Somali security forces to fight al-Shabab, warned former Somali Defense Minister General Abdulkadir Ali Dini.
Dini, who worked closely with American officials in Somalia for many years, first as chief of the Somali national army and later as defense minister, said the decision did not come at the right time.
"If the United States suspends food, fuel and stipends, that will hamper the war and work against the enemy and terrorists," he said. "It does not help these operations, and it damages morale."
The U.S. Embassy in Myanmar has said it is concerned about two Reuters journalists who were arrested three days ago in the country, which is also known as Burma.
The embassy said in a statement Friday that there has been no word from Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, since their arrest, and authorities have not allowed their families to visit.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told reporters Friday that the U.S. is concerned anytime reporters are arrested for doing their jobs.
Reuters President Stephen Adler released a statement Wednesday saying Reuters is outraged by a blatant attack on press freedom.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that the arrests are a signal that press freedom is shrinking in Myanmar. He said the international community must do all it can to get them released.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were working on stories about a military crackdown on Rakhine state, home to the ethnic minority Rohingya. A military crackdown in that area has driven an estimated 600,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh.
The United Nations has called the crackdown a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo went missing Tuesday after being invited to dinner with police officials on the northern outskirts of the capital, Yangon. Myanmar's Ministry of Information said the reporters Illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media.
The ministry has released a photo of the two men in handcuffs, although it has not officially notified Reuters of their status. A court official in Yangon told Reuters the men could be held for as long as 28 days without being charged.
Carla Babb at the Pentagon contributed to this report.
The U.N. refugee agency reports aid agencies are bracing for another humanitarian emergency in Yemen as people flee from intensified fighting in frontline areas on Yemens west coast.
The UNHCR says it has received reports that more than 1,400 people have fled from Hudaydah and Taizz governorates in the past few days. This follows the recent fighting in the Yemeni capital Sanaa and neighboring areas.
The UNHCR says it is working with other aid agencies to scale up operations to help those who are fleeing and others to come. Agency spokesman, Babar Baloch, says emergency relief kits for 2,000 families in Hudaydah have been sent and more relief for thousands of other families is on the way.
But, he says Saudi Arabias blockade of Yemen is harming emergency operations.
The blockade of Yemen, which has yet to be fully eased, has also resulted in shortages and subsequent price increases for fuel, water and essential commodities, including food and vital medicines. This has hit many displaced and local Yemenis as well as refugees. Restrictions on both commercial and humanitarian goods reaching Yemen are still in place, he said.
Baloch says the UNHCR is especially worried about the fate of 1,460 Eritrean refugees as well as Yemeni civilians in Al Khawkah. This area, which is 117 kilometers (73 miles) south of Al Hudaydah City has been declared a military zone. He says it is difficult to bring in food and other goods because of ongoing hostilities.
He says plans to help Somali refugees hoping to escape Yemen and return to Somalia have been put on hold. He says three boats at the Port of Aden have not been able to leave for Berbera in Somalia because necessary clearances from the authorities have not been received.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has fired four senior staffers at the Department of the Interior for what he called inappropriate behavior, in response to widespread allegations of sexual harassment at the agency.
Zinke spoke to employees in a video posted on the Interior Department website, saying, "The culture of harassment and intimidation, which this administration inherited, has come to an end. I've already removed four senior leaders that were guilty of inappropriate behavior, and I will remove 400 more if necessary."
He did not release the names of those he had fired.
Such behavior, he continued, paired with failure to take action, prevents the department from achieving "mission success."
The survey he referenced was released Thursday. It found that of the department's nearly 70,000 employees, 35 percent said they had been harassed or discriminated against in the past 12 months.
Sixteen percent said they had experienced gender-based harassment, 8 percent reported being victims of sexual harassment, and 9 percent described harassment based on race or ethnicity.
Those harassed said in about 40 percent of the cases, no action was taken by the management or they were encouraged to drop the issue.
The survey, which more than 28,000 employees took part in, was conducted from January to March 2017. The employees' answers covered the 12-month period before the survey was completed.
The survey followed findings, released by the Interior Department in October, of widespread harassment within the National Park Service. About 40 percent of Park Service employees reported having been harassed in some way in the previous 12 months.
The findings "suggest there was a meltdown of the accountability mechanisms'' at the department, said Jeff Ruch with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an advocacy group for government employees that has been critical of Zinke's handling of harassment.
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Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister, Retired General Sibusiso Moyo told Studio 7's Tanonoka Whande that his first priority is "economic development and emancipation," of Zimbabweans. He said he will also pursue a robust re-engagement process to reintegrate the country into the international community.
Becca Riding helps her daughters Maggie, 3, left, and Lucy, 5, read a story at their home in American Fork, Utah. (Isaac Hale/For The Washington Post)
This is how Becca Riding, mother of five, thinks about the tax changes speeding through Congress: Will she and her husband still be able to pay swim team fees for Emily, 13, and Caleb, 11? Will Ainsley, 9, be able to go back to the week-long science summer camp she loved? Can their family still go camping once a year in a national park? And will it remain as affordable to give 10 percent of their income to the Mormon Church, as their faith prescribes?
Middle-class families like the Ridings have been at the center of the Republican message about why the party needs to pass a massive overhaul of the nations tax code. The Senates top tax writer, Utahs Orrin G. Hatch (R), pledged that the legislation would bring relief to hard-working American families and small businesses in Utah and around the country. President Trump surrounded himself with families at the White House as he urged lawmakers to pass the bill.
But days before Congress plans to pass the biggest tax overhaul in three decades, the Ridings and other middle-class families are still seeking basic answers about the plan and how it will affect not just their pocketbooks but their everyday lives.
House and Senate negotiators agreed to final legislation Friday, with changes made to a range of provisions affecting families, and final passage is expected by Wednesday. It will have been less than two months since the first legislation was introduced, offering little time for families to process the complex revisions.
All Ive been hearing is how this will be great for families, Riding said. But what Im seeing is this will be great for others.
She added: I dont feel like this is for us.
It is hard to tell. That is because the tax plan is largely an exercise in giving with one hand and taking with the other. There are lower tax rates, but less-known is that the plan also ends the $4,050 personal exemption, which, in a household of seven, would reduce a familys taxable income by more than $28,000 right from the start. Theres a more generous $2,000 child tax credit, but it, along with all the other individual tax cuts, is only temporary, expiring in eight years. And the benefit of swapping child tax credits for exemptions fades with the number of children, because of the complex math underpinning the plan.
Lucy Riding, 5, with her mother, Becca, looking on, peers up at her father, Dave, as he reads from the Book of Mormon. (Isaac Hale/For The Washington Post)
For the Ridings and other families, there are other hard questions. The tax bill sustains a deduction for charitable giving, but it would also change the tax code in other ways that are expected to reduce charitable giving. The plan partially preserves a deduction for state and local taxes but affects the Utah tax code in a way that could significantly increase a residents overall taxes.
Corporations, by contrast, are spared this uneven treatment in the plan. They get a permanent, roughly $1 trillion tax cut.
They could be creating new winners and losers, said Nathan Seegert, a finance professor at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. I think they need to pay close attention to what this means for families.
Any potential effect is amplified in a state like Utah, which has the highest average family size in the nation. Riding is reminded of this every time she sees a family of seven or eight children packed into the same kind of minivan she drives. She recalls how, when the family lived in North Carolina, she would go shopping at Costco with just four of her children and women would approach her to say, Bless your heart. She doesnt hear that in Utah.
Becca Riding, 38, and her husband, Dave Riding, 40, both Mormons, tithe 10 percent of their income each year to the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints, just like many of the Mormons who make up a majority of Utahs population. This strong tithing tradition helps explain why Utah has one of the highest rates of charitable giving in the nation. It is also part of the reason that Utah can look like a coastal blue state at tax time, as residents give so much to the church that they use the charitable deduction more often than people in other states.
The Republican tax plan is projected to dramatically cut the number of people who make charitable contributions, because of a decision to increase a standard tax break that can limit the need for deductions. Donations to charities, including churches, could drop by about $13 billion, or 4.5 percent next year, according to the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Becca Riding said no change to tax law would prevent the family from giving to the church.
Were glad to do it, she said. But why do they need to make it harder for us?
Riding describes herself as moderate, maybe even left-leaning, in a state so conservative that she calls it ruby red. Dave is conservative. But like many in this state, they do not fall neatly into political categorization. Trump won Utah but did not command a majority of the vote.
Dave Riding prays with his son, Caleb, 11, and daughter Ainsley, 9, as the Riding children prepare to head off to school. (Isaac Hale/For The Washington Post)
Watching the tax push on Capitol Hill from 2,000 miles away and trying to figure out what it means for them has been dizzying for Becca and Dave.
Dave earns about $100,000 a year as a software developer. Becca works one day a week at her mothers small business. They consider themselves fortunate, but providing for five children is not easy. They have played around with different online calculators to estimate what would happen to their taxes next year whether, in their minds, they could still go on a family camping trip. Last summer, it was to Zion National Park in their home state. Next summer, they want to visit Redwood in California. The calculators answers ranged from a few hundred dollars more in their pockets to $1,600 more in taxes.
Independent analysts say most families should get a tax cut at least until the individual tax cuts expire but it is hard for any given family to know with certainty.
We just dont want to have less money than we had before, Becca Riding said. So when they say its for the middle class, I want to see proof of it.
It doesnt feel like its for the middle class, Dave said. Its like a sidecar to the whole thing, this corporate tax cut.
Yes, Becca said. It doesnt feel genuine to me.
It seems like it might be a little worse for us, Dave said.
The Ridings face even more uncertainty because Utahs state income tax could balloon under the federal tax overhaul. Utah is one of a handful of states that calculate state income taxes using federal taxable income, which would rise sharply for families because of the loss of personal exemptions, even with a much bigger standard deduction, before being reduced by child tax credits. A report by Utahs Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst estimated that state income taxes could rise by $215 million next year if the federal tax bill passes. State lawmakers would need to make tough decisions, and quickly, about how to realign the state tax code, said Richard Auxier, a research associate at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington. I dont think many states have prepared for this at all.
One recent morning, as lawmakers in Washington hashed out last-minute tax details, Becca stood in her kitchen and hustled to get her five children ready for school. Emily had just run out the door. Caleb stopped playing the piano and hunted for his gloves. Ainsley slipped on her jacket. Lucy, 5, read a picture book as her mother fixed her hair. The youngest, Maggie, 3, was busy building a fort out of couch cushions. In a moment of quiet, Dave sat at the kitchen table littered with empty cereal bowls and read aloud from the Book of Mormon.
Shoes! Teeth! Becca called out to her children.
After scraping ice from her minivans windshield and dropping the children off at school, Becca sat at the kitchen table with her husband. They do not mind paying taxes. They view it as a worthy obligation, in some ways like tithing to the church.
Dave said that maybe the corporate tax cuts would trickle down to his family as higher wages or new opportunities.
Maggie Riding, 3, left, and her sister Lucy, 5, play with Santa hats in their familys living room. (Isaac Hale/For The Washington Post)
But Becca was doubtful. She wondered why tax cuts for families have an expiration date while the tax cuts for corporations do not expire. And she struggled to accept the projected $1.5 trillion cost of the tax plan while her household must stay on budget.
This tax plan is not helping to pay for education or repaving the roads, she said. Those are things for which she would pay more in taxes. For her, the tax overhaul does not feel as though it was intended to help families.
If they want to help middle-class families, she said finally, why dont they ask us whats helpful?
A staff member carries documents through the House Ways and Means Committee hearing room before the start of a markup hearing on the Tax Cut And Jobs Act in Washington. (Bloomberg)
The corporate behemoths of postwar America General Motors, General Electric, DuPont, IBM and the like were different. They paid a bigger cut in federal taxes. They provided pensions for retirees. And while what they paid workers was a small percentage of the take for executives, it was not an infinitesimal fraction.
The corporations were, or at least pretended to be, part of the American bedrock.
For years I thought that what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa, a GM chief famously told Congress in 1953.
The Republican tax plan moving toward passage in Congress promises to erase one of the last remnants of that era when a broader view of corporate responsibility prevailed: corporations existed not just for shareholders, but for workers and their communities.
The Republican bill would drop the corporate tax rate to its lowest point since the 30s.
"The notion of the corporation as a social institution was a defining feature of the mid-20th century but that has been fading," said Benjamin C. Waterhouse, a historian of business and politics at the University of North Carolina and the author of " The Land of Enterprise ," a history of American business. "These days, the broader trend has been that corporations have experienced an increase in political rights and a decrease in social responsibility."
The bill before Congress sets the corporate tax rate at 21 percent, down from 35 percent, and Republican leaders are aiming to shepherd the proposal through the necessary votes as early as next week.
[Republicans have votes to pass tax plan after Rubio, Corker pledge support]
Cutting the tax rate will make the United States a more attractive place for new business ventures, they argue, and that will stimulate investment and create American jobs. As for whether corporations should cater to broader social mandates, supporters of the tax cut simply reject the question. In a competitive global economy, they say, tying up U.S. corporations with social obligations is simply not viable.
In this view, the increasing flow of goods and investments around the world, begun in the 1970s and 1980s, forces U.S. corporations to streamline their operations to compete with companies elsewhere; if they dont, investors will turn to other, thriftier businesses.
Economists on both sides of the political divide cite globalization as a key constraint on the once-broader notions of corporate responsibility.
What the last few decades have shown us is that corporations are quicker to pull the trigger on layoffs, less likely to pay workers as much and less likely to contribute taxes, said Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. I dont think they got mean overnight. But changes in external conditions globalization and the assault on unions meant that they could claim a bigger piece of the pie.
Aparna Mathur, resident scholar in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank, similarly linked globalization to the diminished expectations of corporate social responsibility.
There are larger forces at play today, Mathur said. We can hope corporations will do the right thing by workers. But they are competing with companies from around the world.
In the long run, she said, cutting the corporate tax rate will help workers because it will attract more corporate investments in the United States, boost productivity and, in turn, lift wages.
Many economists believe, however, that most of the immediate benefit of the corporate tax cut will benefit the wealthiest Americans.
Moreover, the corporate tax cut would be just the latest narrowing of the role of corporations in the general well-being of the U.S. economy:
- For generations, about 80 percent of corporate income went to workers as opposed to shareholders, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Today, for instance, that figure has slipped to 75 percent.
- As late as the early 1990s, about 60 percent of full-time workers at medium and large companies had traditional pension coverage, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today, that figure has fallen to 24 percent, and that number is expected to continue to fall as older employees exit the workforce.
- And companies pay less in taxes. During the 1950s and 60s, corporate taxes amounted to between 3 and 6 percent of gross domestic product, according to figures from the Office of Management and Budget; that has fallen over time to less than 2 percent, even as corporate profits have grown.
While some have criticized these changes, however, the notion that companies bear any social responsibility was never a unanimous one. Influential conservative economists have for generations argued that corporations that aimed for anything beyond profits were guilty of theft from shareholders.
Among the earliest and most famous of the critics was Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, who in 1970 published an article titled "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits," in which he mocked executives he had heard speaking of the "social responsibilities of business," chastising them for preaching "pure and unadulterated socialism."
Friedman turned out to be the prophet of what would be called the shareholder revolution, when investors forced corporate managers to focus on maximizing returns for shareholders.
But while Friedman provided the intellectual impetus, at least some of the change was largely a practical matter. The competition posed by globalization of trade and investment, the waning power of unions, and other forces led corporations to change course.
Today, even governments, not just corporations, appear to be competing to keep shareholders happy.
Over a recent 10-year period, nine nations in the Group of 20 cut corporate tax rates by at least five percentage points, according to a March report from the Congressional Budget Office.
That wave of cutting has left the United States looking like a relatively expensive place for a corporation.
The U.S. statutory corporate tax rate ranked as the highest in the CBO report. It was 39 percent, including state taxes.
But thats just the rate printed in the law not what businesses actually pay and that, too, is relatively high in the United States. The average U.S. corporate tax rate was 29 percent, according to the CBO, ranking third behind Argentina and Indonesia.
The U.S. is kind of late to the tax rate competition, said Mathur of the American Enterprise Institute. These economies have felt that doing this would provide a boost.
Whatever happens, the old era, by most accounts, is gone.
One of the cruel ironies of American business is that, for all our big talk, we have been most successful when the international competition was weakest, Waterhouse said. Simply longing for the good old days when corporations took care of the general public is unrealistic.
Ten years into his 15-year sentence, Luke Lloyd had no desire to leave prison.
Im doing great in prison, he said, recalling his thoughts three years ago. He had friends and a job he liked building furniture. I had it made.
Lloyd was locked up for raping a 5-year-old girl. He was originally charged with sexual intercourse without consent, but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of sexual assault.
He got accustomed to prison, and when he was up for parole he figured hed be better off behind bars, finishing out his sentence. Hed only leave prison when he had to, and not before.
In prison, he at least had a sure place to live. Outside prison, finding dependable housing, especially for sex offenders like Lloyd, is a constant struggle. Landlords are leery, and many won't rent to convicts. And with jobs scarce for ex-cons, many can't put together the rent money plus deposit needed to get into an apartment. Many wind up living in week-to-week hotels, homeless shelters, or their cars.
That's more than just a problem for them. Without stable housing, numerous studies show that ex-cons are more likely to reoffend, and that's a problem for communities.
Soon Lloyd heard about a place in Billings, Adullam House, that takes in sex offenders like him. Instead of getting out on his own and looking for a place to live, hed be guaranteed a bed. That couldnt be underestimated.
So he decided he wanted in. The house program director agreed, and the parole board signed off on the placement.
Lloyd left prison in April 2014, and has since stayed sober, gotten a full-time job as a manager at a fast food restaurant, and moved into his own house, which he sublets from the Adullam House. He credits the program with his post-prison stability.
Ken Cottrell, the Adullam program director, says communities benefit from having a designated place like theirs for sex offenders to live, calling the house a safety valve for the community.
Chris Evans, deputy chief for probation and parole in the Billings region, echoed that thought.
Theyre going to be in the community, he said, of sex offenders. Theyre not going to be locked down forever, for the most part.
Adullam House
The Adullam House opened on Billings' South Side in early 2012 one of the first in a wave of sober living houses to open in Billings.
There are now a handful of such homes in the city, often with live-in managers who earn no salary for their work. They might stay in the house rent-free and work an outside job to make a living, treating the residents of the house as family and adhering to the idea that a well-connected community of ex-addicts with shared struggles is the best path to sobriety.
Adullams model is similar, operating on a shoestring budget without grants or public funds. People stay for as many months as they need, with the idea of eventually moving out on their own and living independently.
Due to a shortage of offender-friendly housing in a city that receives its fair share of parolees, the sober living programs expand when possible leasing out new houses that fill up quickly.
But in a few ways, Adullam is different.
While the house caters to people with violent or sexual criminal history, the folks running the house have no such past. Instead its managed by a live-in married couple who, in middle age, saw it as their God-given mission to share a roof with murderers and rapists, treat them as family, and resort to personal savings to keep the financially struggling program afloat.
Cottrell, Adullams program director, has never been to prison, but hes no stranger to adversity. Growing up in Cleveland, he lost several family members at a young age, lived on the streets, and became addicted to drugs meth, crack, heroin, whatever, he said. He has since become sober and deeply religious.
Ken and his wife, Jody, moved to Billings in 2001, when Jody was transferred from Seattle for her work at a shoe company. Adullam leases out various houses, including one for women.
Adullam serves a key demographic sex offenders who have the hardest time finding stable housing. Prerelease centers are reluctant to take them. Many sober living houses wont, due to geographic restrictions on where sex offenders can live. The Montana Rescue Mission takes only lower-level offenders on a case-by-case basis at the mens shelter and has a blanket ban on them and on violent offenders at the womens shelter.
Adullams numbers show relative success: While 57 percent of offenders statewide made no return to a correctional program within three years of release from prison, 66 percent of Adullams men and women have done so. That number includes residents who stayed at Adullum for only a few days, after other housing plans fell through.
Money is a constant challenge for the organization. House residents pay $350 a month in rent, but no one gets turned away if they cant pay. When the nonprofit comes up short on money for monthly bills, program members pray for help.
In calendar year 2017, the program would have been roughly $9,000 in debt if not for a cash infusion in July of roughly $20,000. That was money Cottrell took out of his retirement account, draining it and paying a tax penalty in the process.
The program can house 27 men at a time, with space for five additional men through sublease arrangements. Seven women live at the Butterfly House, a similar program for women that started two years ago.
The shock of re-entry
Most house rules are basic: No overnight guests. No drugs or alcohol. Abide by a 10 p.m. curfew, or give notice if youll be out later.
But the house is full of men whove been behind bars for decades, and some structure and authority is necessary.
For instance, once when the Cottrells left for a rare weekend away, someone living in the house broke into the petty cash kept in the house office and stole $1,000. The money was never recovered.
We are working with a population that you get burned a lot, Cottrell said. Thats just the way it is. Its difficult.
Emotional and social support is a big focus of the program. Cottrell said you cant teach those skills you can only warn people about the shock of getting out.
For example, a man who worked his way up the food chain in prison, had the top maintenance job and enjoyed status behind bars landed a dishwashing job upon release and now his boss is half his age.
Or a man sits down at a restaurant and sees, at the next table over, a woman the age of his ex-wife, or a man the age of his son, and he is struck with the sudden realization hes lost decades of his life.
Its not unusual for a man to be in a back room on his third or fourth day and cry and ask to go back to prison," Cottrell said.
A neighbors support
Plenty of neighbors are unaware of the Adullam house, but most who know of it expressed support.
Toni Banister, who has lived next door to the main Adullam house for three years, supports the program and has grown to trust the men who live there.
Some of the residents offered to help her unload furniture when she moved in. Another made sure to warn her about a recent break-in at a house across the street. And she once gave a spare key to one of the men so he could let in a cable company worker scheduled to arrive while Banister was at work.
Asked if shed ever had misgivings about living next door to a house full of violent and sexual offenders, she was firm.
No, never, she said. Not at all. Im glad that there are places like this for people like that.
As GOP tax legislation nears final passage on Capitol Hill, Sen. Susan Collins is approaching the moment for a mighty leap of faith.
The Maine Republican extracted key concessions in exchange for her support for the bill, including commitments from the Trump administration and Senate leaders to back two pieces of legislation pumping money into the health-care system.
The problem is, House Republicans largely oppose the health-care bills. And while Collins anticipates that the commitments will be included in must-pass spending legislation to keep the government open, the tax package is scheduled for a final vote next week, before the spending measure.
That means Collins will have to cast her vote on the tax bill without knowing for certain that commitments made to her will be honored, leading critics to say shes getting played for a fool.
If she prevails, Collins will have been responsible for the passage of significant legislation that could help make insurance coverage more affordable for tens of thousands of Americans.
And if not?
Im counting on the administration to make sure that does not happen, Collins said in an interview. I would consider it a very serious breach of a promise to me.
And, Collins added with a laugh, they dont want to do that.
Indeed, with the fourth-term senator poised to play an even more pivotal role in the Senate next year, she might be among the last people President Trump or Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants to alienate.
One of the few remaining moderate Republicans in the Senate, the 65-year-old Collins has repeatedly used her vote to sway outcomes and shape the debate on issues from nominations to health care to the environment. She passed up a run for Maine governor earlier this year even though she would have been the instant front-runner, saying she believed her influence was best wielded from the Senate floor.
Because of the upset win by Democrat Doug Jones in a special election for Senate in Alabama on Tuesday, the GOPs already slim 52-to-48 Senate majority will dwindle to 51 to 49 next year. That will only increase Collinss influence, giving the diligent lawmaker a pivotal role in every legislative fight for the remainder of Trumps first term and beyond.
The closer your margins between majority and minority, there is a greater role for those who are very deliberate in how theyre moving forward, who are working with both sides of the aisle in a very clear and demonstrated way, said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Collinss close friend who sometimes joins with her to oppose fellow Republicans. And I think that Sen. Collins does exactly that.
Collins, Murkowski and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) were the three Republicans who killed the GOPs efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act earlier this year, driving a stake through seven years of their partys promises to undo former president Barack Obamas signature legislative achievement.
When she returned home to Maine after casting that pivotal vote, Collins was greeted as a hero. Passengers in the Bangor airport broke into applause when she stepped off her plane, a scene Collins later described as heartwarming and affirming.
The reaction at home to her stance on the tax legislation has been quite different. The tax bill, which increases the deficit while delivering huge benefits to corporations and the wealthy, polls poorly and has sparked repeated protests against Collins. Students have staged sit-ins while religious leaders were arrested after occupying one of her offices.
After Collinss votes against the repeal of the ACA, also known as Obamacare, some Maine residents have struggled to understand why she would support a tax bill that slashes corporate rates while repealing the ACAs mandate for most Americans to carry health insurance or pay fines. The individual mandate repeal is expected to result in 13 million more uninsured Americans, and health-care advocates say that even if they do end up becoming law, the health bills Collins supports will not make up for that.
Its the last vote that counts. You can say no 53 times in a row but if the 54th is the yes that puts the thing over the line, thats going to be your legacy, said Steve Butterfield, policy director of Consumers for Affordable Health Care in Augusta, Maine.
In this case, Butterfield added, Collinss legacy would be millions of Americans losing their health insurance.
Its absolutely unbelievable, he said.
Collins counters that she has never liked the individual mandate, because it forces consumers to buy a product they may not want, and the fines on abstainers fall disproportionately on people who make less than $50,000 a year. She draws a distinction between the individual mandate repeal in the tax legislation and the earlier GOP health bills that she opposed, which in addition to the mandate repeal also kicked millions of people off Medicaid, which serves the poor, among other changes.
Theres a big difference between forcing someone to buy insurance that they deem unaffordable versus taking away from people insurance that they already have, need and want, Collins said, which is what the health-care bills last summer would have done.
Nonetheless, Collins opposed including the mandate repeal in the tax legislation, saying the issues should be addressed separately. Once Republican leaders decided to include it, partly because it raised nearly $340 billion in revenue they could use to lower taxes for corporations and make other changes, Collins began arguing that other health-care legislation would be needed to stabilize insurance markets and keep premiums from spiking. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the individual mandate repeal would lead to premiums rising 10 percent in the individual insurance market.
One of the bills Collins supports, authored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), restores cost-sharing reduction payments that help insurers reduce costs for lower-income Americans under the ACA. Congressional Republicans had challenged the federal payments in court during the Obama administration, and Trump decided in October to stop making them.
The other bill is one Collins co-authored with Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) to create a $10 billion reinsurance program that states could draw on over two years to set up high-risk pools that lower costs for patients who are particularly hard to insure.
In addition to pushing for the health-care bills, Collins negotiated several other changes to the tax legislation, including preserving taxpayers ability to deduct medical expenses and allowing them to deduct up to $10,000 in state and local taxes from their federal tax bill. Those changes were included in the tax legislation itself, instead of relying on the promise of future action by Congress.
Collinss moves on the health bills have been met with skepticism, if not downright ridicule, from critics who note that she has already backed off her call for the health legislation to pass before the tax bill. Instead, she now says the health bills must pass by the end of this year, pointing to a written pledge from McConnell and to verbal commitments from administration officials including Vice President Pence and Trump.
Some Democrats argue that those promises will not amount to much.
How any senator much less one who has served as long as Sen. Collins has ever agreed to such a deal is beyond me, said Jim Manley, a Democratic consultant and former high-ranking Senate aide. The promises she extracted were never, ever going to be binding on rank-and-file House Republicans, and now she has nothing to show for all of this. She got rolled big time.
Whether thats the case remains to be seen. A must-pass year-end spending bill presents the only realistic vehicle to carry the health bills, but its uncertain whether the final maneuvers on that legislation will play out as Collins would wish. Democratic votes will be needed in the Senate, but Democrats have not committed to supporting her priorities, nor have House Republicans, many of whom oppose the health bills and Collinss attempts to push them into law over their objections.
Youve got individual senators that think, in my view arrogantly, that they are entitled to disproportionate representation of the country, said Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus. I mean, the American people ought to be ticked off.
In the end, Collins may have little recourse if the bills shes touting dont become law, other than making known her displeasure with the Trump administration and her partys leadership in Congress.
Yet given the pivotal position she occupies, that may just be enough to push GOP leaders from the president on down to do everything they can to keep her happy.
Senate Republicans seem to know that.
Its good, said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), to have Susan in the tent.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is reconsidering an Obama-era rule that requires states to more closely monitor school districts for racial disparities in special education. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants to delay an Obama-era rule designed to protect children of color from being disproportionately sent to special-education classrooms or from being unfairly disciplined.
The Education Department on Thursday posted a notice online signaling that it wants to postpone the regulation, called the significant disproportionality rule, for two years, meaning it would take effect in 2020 instead of 2018. But in the interim, DeVos could decide to scrap the rule altogether.
Through the regulatory review process, weve heard from states, school districts, superintendents and other stakeholders on a wide range of issues, including the significant disproportionality rule, said Elizabeth Hill, a spokeswoman for the department. Because of the concerns raised, the department is looking closely at this rule and has determined that, while this review takes place, it is prudent to delay implementation for two years.
The rule, drawn up at the end of the Obama administration, stems from a 2004 change to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which governs special education in schools across the nation. Congress, responding to concerns that students of color were overrepresented in special education, began requiring school districts to collect data on the demographics and treatment of special-education students.
Congress wanted states to track whether black special-education students were more likely to be removed from mainstream classrooms, for example, or whether Hispanic special-education students faced harsher discipline.
If states identified problematic disparities, they could set aside federal special-education funds to help schools improve.
But advocates said the law did not go far enough because it allowed states to decide when a problem exists. A 2013 report from the Government Accountability Office found that states identified just 2 percent of districts nationwide as having problems with disparities. Advocates suspect the problem is far more widespread.
So in January, the Obama administration put in place the significant disproportionality rule, which more clearly defines how states should identify problematic school systems.
"This rule is important because we know and we have clear data that indicates that African American kids are not treated the same as other children in special education," said Diane Smith Howard, a senior staff attorney with the National Disability Rights Network, an advocacy group for people with disabilities.
But the American Association of School Administrators, which represents superintendents across the country, applauded the move to delay the rule, saying it could be costly to implement.
AASA supports the decision to roll back Obama-era regulations . . . that would impose significant costs and administrative burdens on half of the school districts throughout the country, Executive Director Daniel A. Domenech said. This heavy-handed and aggressive regulation by the Obama administration should be pulled back given the enormous financial consequences for districts.
A 30-year-old man died early Saturday after being trapped under a car that hit him in Silver Spring, police said.
Inmar Alejan Garmendez-Escobar was already lying on the ground, apparently suffering from an injury, when he was hit by a 2009 Toyota Corolla driven by Noellie Espinal Rosario, 40, of Silver Spring, according to authorities.
The victims address is unknown.
About 1 a.m., Rosario was driving north on Piney Branch Road near Garland Avenue when she struck Garmendez-Escobar, police said.
He was trapped under the car, extricated by Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, and taken to a trauma center, where he was pronounced dead. It is unclear how he initially was injured, and that is a focus of the ongoing police investigation.
Neither the driver of the car nor the passenger sustained injuries.
Montgomery County Police ask that anyone with information about the collision call 240-773-6200.
An arrest was made Friday in the death of a man whose body was found after a fire earlier this year in a house in the Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast, D.C. police said.
They said Garrett Taylor, 40, of Northeast, was arrested in the death of Awlachew Ayele, 66. Ayeles body was found Jan. 26, in an apartment in the 1100 block of Queen Street NE after a fire was extinguished there, police said.
An autopsy June 7 determed that the cause of Ayeles death was smoke and soot inhalation with blunt force injuries also significant, the police said.. The death was determined to be a homicide, police said. Taylor was charged with murder, they said.
Prince Georges County police are investigating the fatal shooting of a man found near the Cameron Grove senior community.
Police were called around 11 p.m. Friday for a report of a death in the 13400 block of Vandiver Court, where officers found a mans body.
The shooting occurred in the quiet neighborhood just off Central Avenue, near Six Flags America and Evangel Cathedral church.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. Additional details, including a description of the victim, were not made available.
Police have declared the case a homicide.
MARYLAND
Robbers target guards loading cash into ATM
Prince Georges County police are looking for at least two people who stole more than $200,000 outside a Bank of America in an armed robbery Friday morning.
The robbers pointed guns at armed guards outside their armored vehicle as the guards loaded money into an ATM in the 10600 block of Baltimore Avenue in Beltsville around 10:30 a.m. The thieves stole the money and left in a van, police said. There were no reports of injuries.
Prince Georges police spokeswoman Jennifer Donelan called the heist a brazen robbery that was obviously orchestrated and calculated.
A third guard in the armored vehicle triggered an alarm, individuals inside the bank sounded another alarm, and police arrived in minutes.
By then, the thieves had abandoned the car they used in the robbery, police said. When asked how the robbers were able to get away and what weapons were used, police declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
Police are reviewing camera footage and have not released descriptions of the robbers.
Deputy Chief Sammy Patel said, These guys are out there. Were confident in our ability to catch them, so its best for them to turn themselves in.
Ellie Silverman and Lynh Bui
Tributaries picked for oyster restoration
Maryland has announced a new plan for oyster restoration.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources intends to recommend Breton Bay and the upper St. Marys River as the fourth and fifth tributaries to satisfy the states commitment to restoring native oyster habitat and populations in five tributaries by 2025.
The department says the selection complements ongoing large-scale oyster restoration activities in Harris Creek, the Little Choptank River and the Tred Avon River.
Associated Press
A 32-year-old Butte man was killed at about 10:30 p.m. Friday on Harrison Avenue in front of the Copper King Hotel and Convention Center.
The name of the victim has not yet been released.
The victim and the three other people involved in the crash were transported to St. James Healthcare. No information was available on the extent of their injuries Saturday.
The victim pulled out of the Copper King Hotel parking lot onto Harrison Avenue Friday night when a pickup truck heading south on Harrison hit the passenger car. Montana Highway Patrol Captain Gary Becker said the crash is still under investigation, adding that speed and alcohol are both believed to be factors in the accident.
The driver of the pickup has not been cited. The Butte-Silver Bow county attorney will make that determination after police have fully investigated the accident.
While police were working the scene of the accident, another crash occurred, involving both BSB police and Montana Highway Patrol. Mikel Solomon, 18, of Jefferson County was arrested for three felony counts of criminal endangerment and three misdemeanors: reckless driving, disobeying directions of a highway patrol officer, and a right-of-way violation. A Highway Patrol car was blocking traffic in the southbound lanes in front of Star Lanes Bowling Center, 4600 Harrison Ave., while officers were attending to the fatal accident. Solomon allegedly ran into the police car and nearly hit a BSB officer trying to get his attention to stop. The officer was not injured in the accident, but Solomon was transported to St. James Healthcare for minor injuries.
The view north along the Red River into Canada from the boundary of Minnesota and North Dakota. (Benjamin Olson/For The Washington Post)
NOYES, Minn. Chad Cosley tracks them as if they were deer.
He looks for footprints and frequently checks his network of trail cameras, which had been documenting wildlife along the U.S.-Canada border but now also capture would-be refugees fleeing the United States under President Trump.
"I was up there hunting just on November 4, and we had fresh snow," said Cosley, 45, who owns a parcel delivery service. "The following morning, we had four sets of footprints walking all the way up to the border with Canada, and there was a glove laying there on the ground brand new, with perfume on it so it was definitely a gal."
Since the start of the year, more than 1,000 people have made similar journeys through this tiny community in far northwestern Minnesota in an attempt to enter Canada by avoiding official border crossings, part of a nationwide surge as Trump advances his campaign pledge to make life uninviting for undocumented immigrants and some aspiring refugees. The exodus, also playing out in border towns in the Northeast that lead to Quebec and Ontario, is rattling local officials on both sides of the border who are now angry about being shoved onto the front lines of America's divisive immigration debate.
[Canada fears a huge rush of asylum seekers if their U.S. protected status is lifted]
A Ghanaian womans body was found in a ditch near this small Minnesota town in May. She was an asylum seeker who succumbed to hypothermia while trying to cross the border. Residents fear there will be calamities in coming months as travelers encounter winter here, when a frigid northwestern wind scours barren fields separating Minnesota from Canadas Manitoba province, making the traverse through blizzards and across frozen swamps a harrowing and life-threatening trip.
The concern has intensified, with county officials publicly calling on the Trump administration and Canada to waive a policy that prevents would-be refugees from passing through official border crossings. That plea has been met with silence.
Although rural Minnesota overwhelmingly supported Trump in last years election, some residents are troubled by his hard-line immigration policies, given the impact on their towns.
For us, its a shocker to see these people wandering around, said Leroy Clow, 73, a retired farmer and electrician. Its nice-dressed families like they could be your neighbor but they are scared and dont know what else to do.
According to the Canadian government, 9,335 people made asylum claims at land ports of entry between January and October, including those picked up after crossing the border from the United States at unauthorized locations. That is more than double the average of annual claims made from 2011 through 2016.
Chad Cosley pulls up his trail camera picture of would-be refugees in Pembina, N.D. (Benjamin Olson/For The Washington Post)
Counting asylum requests at airports, marine terminals and immigration offices, the Canadian government processed more than 41,000 applications this year through Oct. 31, nearly double the total processed in all of 2016.
The influx overwhelmed Canadian immigration authorities, who scrambled to open temporary shelters during the summer, including briefly converting part of Montreal's Olympic Stadium into temporary housing.
By hiking through rural communities, the migrants to Canada are largely bypassing a 2002 agreement between the United States and Canada that was designed to manage movement between the countries.
The Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement requires migrants to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach, unless they are minors or have family ties at their next destination. The agreement means those who try to cross from the United States into Canada at official border posts are turned away; a loophole permits asylum claims to be made by individuals who enter Canada covertly.
The closed border post at Emerson, Canada. (Benjamin Olson/For The Washington Post)
The journey to Canada
For many migrants fleeing the Midwest, the fields here in Kittson County, Minn., have become the favored entry into Canada. Just west of the county line, Interstate 29 in North Dakota leads to an official border crossing.
After arriving by car from cities across the Midwest, asylum seekers drive on the highway to the last exit before the Canadian border, Pembina, N.D.
From there, some follow the twisting Red River on foot about five miles north into Canada. Others wander through Kittson County farms and marshes until they arrive near St. Vincent, which has a population of just 64, or here in Noyes.
Noyes has a railroad yard but is largely abandoned. There are just three inhabited houses two of which are owned by one family, according to local residents. But the town abuts Emerson, Canada, once a bustling entryway to the Canadian frontier but now home to just 700 residents.
Crossing the border illegally here is perilous, especially at night and during the winter. If migrants do not align their planned route to lead directly into Emerson, a city of just eight square miles, they could wander for days in vast, desolate stretches of the Canadian prairie, authorities said.
The Ghanaian woman who died near Noyes this year apparently became disoriented in a field and stumbled into a drainage ditch, according to the Kittson County Sheriff's Office. The 57-year-old woman had been living illegally in the United States and was trying to reunite with relatives in Toronto, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
In December 2016, a truck driver in Manitoba province found two men from Ghana wandering along a highway and suffering from frostbite. The men, each of whom had to have several fingers amputated, told Canadian media that their U.S. visas had expired and that they feared the Trump presidency.
Emerson-Franklin City Council member Doug Johnston discusses asylum seekers in Emerson, Canada. (Benjamin Olson/For The Washington Post)
Doug Johnston, a council member and firefighter in the combined Canadian municipality of Emerson-Franklin, said local rescue squads now are called out several times a month after receiving emergency calls from lost or disoriented asylum seekers.
It seems the worse the weather, the more people we can get, said Johnston, noting that temperatures can drop to minus-20 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. They are calling 911, but it can get so cold their phones go dead.
He said that families sometimes become separated as they cross the border.
We are not always finding them together, but we seem to eventually catch up and find them, Johnston said, pausing to look out over a snowy field extending beyond the line of sight. At least to my knowledge.
Many of those fleeing to Canada are Africans or Haitians, according to local officials.
The outflow of Haitians began late last year, when community concerns first surfaced that Trump was going to rescind temporary residency permits issued in the wake of Haitis 2010 earthquake.
The Department of Homeland Security this month finalized the policy change ending temporary protected status for an estimated 60,000 Haitians but set an 18-month window for them to depart voluntarily.
[Protected status no longer justified for Central Americans and Haitians in U.S., State Dept. says]
Temporary protected status for more than 370,000 people from Honduras, Nepal, El Salvador, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen remains in place, although the Department of Homeland Security has signaled that those groups protected status is under aggressive review. Temporary protection for 263,000 citizens of El Salvador could expire as soon as March.
U.S. and Canadian officials say the rate of asylum seekers crossing the border into Canada appears to have slowed in November and so far this month. But local officials in this sparsely populated area and activists from immigrant-heavy communities say they fear the slowdown might be temporary.
Abdullah Kiatamba, executive director of African Immigrant Services in suburban Minneapolis, said such worries are well founded as U.S. policy shifts.
A lot of people are concerned and think that its better in Canada, and they can create a new life instead of waiting hopelessly and endlessly that something will change here, Kiatamba said. There are three layers to this a new anti-immigrant bias, unpredictably and the trauma of waiting to see if there will be more cancellations of protected status.
Jacques LeBlanc, president of the Haitian American Community Association in Chicago, said thousands of Haitians now live day by day.
Everyone is leaving their options open . . . like a bird, LeBlanc said. What does a bird do? When its cold, they migrate someplace warmer.
One 48-year-old woman crossed the border into Quebec this spring with her husband, son and brother after they said local police and federal immigration agents began harassing undocumented immigrants in suburban Atlanta. She had been living in the United States for 13 years.
When Trump first got elected, all the police would go around to the apartments and say, Come over here, banging on the doors, said the woman, who is Honduran and asked not to be identified while her case for protected status in Canada is pending. I got scared and scared for my son.
So she paid someone $600 to drive her to the Canadian border, she said.
" I am hoping here in Canada, I can live without fear, and in peace, and nobody is going to look for me," she said.
Local farmer Shane Stewart, 60, chats with Chales Oil owner Wayne Chale, 54, in St. Vincent, Minn. (Benjamin Olson/For The Washington Post)
I didnt vote for Trump for this
Worried about the safety of the migrants, local officials in Kittson County and Emerson-Franklin sent a joint letter in August asking Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minnesotas congressional delegation and U.S. and Canadian immigration and border patrol agencies to address the matter.
The letter said the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement should be suspended so that migrants can claim asylum at official border crossings.
Our woods have large populations of wolves and bears, which could present a danger to those wandering around, the letter said. Correcting this problem should easily be within the power of both federal governments.
Officials in both municipalities said they have not received a response.
We dont know why they havent gotten back to us, said Betty Younggren, chair of the Kittson County Board of Commissioners. This is a whole new subject for us, and it was very surprising for us . . . and we just dont want these people to suffer.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to address the letter directly but said in a statement that it advises that all border crossings occur at official ports of entry, suggesting that all other travelers will be stopped.
If it is determined that the subject being questioned has valid immigration status, the subject is released and is allowed to continue with their travels, the agency statement said.
But Eric Christensen, Kittson Countys administrator, worries that tens of thousands of people could decide to flee north if the Trump administration starts deporting Haitians or removes protected status from others.
I dont think there is enough of Haiti left to suddenly hold 60,000 people, so Canada is the only option for the people pushed off, Christensen said. And if he ever pulls the protection for Honduras or El Salvador, we would have a flood.
Tom Denton, executive director of Hospitality House Refugee Ministry in Winnipeg, Canada, which has mentored and cared for some of the asylum seekers crossing the border from Minnesota, said that forecasting future arrivals all depends on whats happening in the United States.
American politics is so volatile right now, every day we wonder what is going to happen next, Denton said, adding that he thinks the Canadian government ultimately will grant asylum to about half of the refugee claimants who recently fled the United States.
Here in northwestern Minnesota, the prospect of even more-heated debates over immigration policy is dividing local residents.
Once a Democratic-leaning county, Kittson went for Trump in last years election by more than 20 points after voters here concluded that he was more attuned to rural American concerns about population loss and stagnant local economies, residents said. Kittson County has lost half of its population since 1960; it now has 4,300 residents.
But at the Chales Oil service station, where locals gather to socialize while buying gas for farm equipment and waiting to have tires replaced on trucks and tractors, some residents wondered whether Trumps immigration crackdown has gone too far.
Some of them have been here so long, and they have families, said Matt Chale, 27, whose father owns the century-old service station. Why would you take the dad away from kids and send him to Mexico? That is just wrong, and I didnt vote for Trump for this.
Shane Stewart, who owns a 500-acre farm nearby and also voted for Trump, is not as sympathetic.
I cant even figure out why we have all of these refugees, or whatever you call them, and I am not in favor of them being here, Stewart said.
Johnston said Canadians want to be neighborly but worry that unpredictable policy in Washington will keep manifesting itself in migrant flows through their sugar beet and wheat fields.
Is it going to stop tomorrow? Is it going to stop five years from now? said Johnston, noting that various studies estimate 11 million to 12.5 million undocumented immigrants are living in the United States. Are they all coming to Canada? What if even 1 percent comes?
DELAWARE
Prison riot lawsuit settled for $7.5 million
State officials have agreed to pay more than $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from an inmate riot at Delawares maximum-security prison that left a correctional officer dead.
Under the settlement announced Friday, 11 plaintiffs, including six Department of Correction employees and relatives of slain officer Steven Floyd, will share $7.55 million.
In settling the lawsuit, state officials did not acknowledge any wrongdoing in the Feb. 1 riot, and claims against individual current and former state officials were dismissed.
The plaintiffs alleged that state officials deliberately ignored security and staffing problems at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna for years, leaving poorly trained and overworked correctional officers at risk.
Eighteen inmates have been charged for their alleged roles in the riot, including 16 charged with first-degree murder in Floyds death. The siege ended when tactical teams used a backhoe to breach the building and rescue a female counselor.
Associated Press
ALASKA
Lawmaker to resign amid sexual misconduct claims
An Alaska state lawmaker who was accused by several women of inappropriate behavior announced Friday that he will resign.
Staff for state Rep. Dean Westlake handed his resignation letter to the House speakers office three days after Westlake rejected calls from House and party leaders to step down.
Pressure mounted on the freshman Democrat from western Alaska after a growing number of women came forward claiming Westlake acted inappropriately or made them feel uncomfortable.
Westlakes resignation letter thanked the women who came forward and apologized.
The letter was dated Friday and did not specify a date for Westlakes resignation. If no date is specified in a lawmakers resignation, it becomes effective 10 days after it is sent under Alaska state law.
Associated Press
CALIFORNIA
Sea lion attacks hospitalize 2
Two unusual sea lion attacks in a San Francisco Bay cove led authorities to close the popular area to swimmers Friday as officials try to determine the reason for the aggressive behavior.
A sea lion bit a man in the groin area as he swam in the waters off San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, park spokesman Lynn Cullivan said. The man was taken to a hospital.
The cove hosts swimming and rowing clubs and is a favorite spot for dedicated swimmers. Its usually a transit area for sea lions heading to Pier 39, where they normally congregate, Cullivan said.
The area just off Ghirardelli Square, a popular square with shops and restaurants, will be closed to swimmers until Monday, he said.
Another swimmer was seriously injured Thursday after a sea lion bit him on the arm.
The aggressive behavior is so unusual for sea lions that officials think the same animal attacked both swimmers, Cullivan said.
Associated Press
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a Trump administration rule that allows virtually any business to cite religious or moral objections and opt out of a federal requirement that they cover contraception as part of employee health plans.
In a 44-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia sided with the plaintiff, the state of Pennsylvania, which argued that the rule was harmful to working women and would force the state to shoulder the costs of their birth control and unplanned pregnancies.
The Commonwealths concern is . . . women will either forgo contraception entirely or choose cheaper but less effective methods individual choices which will result in an increase in unintended pregnancies, Beetlestone wrote, calling the potential harm to women there and nationwide enormous and irreversible.
She detailed how the rule could play out. It would allow an employer with a sincerely held moral conviction that women do not have a place in the workplace to simply stop providing contraceptive coverage, she wrote. It is difficult to comprehend a rule that does more to undermine the Contraceptive Mandate or that intrudes more into the lives of women.
The ruling stems from a long-running legal and political conflict over a provision of the Affordable Care Act, the health-care law passed under President Barack Obama, requiring most employers to cover as part of their workers' health plans any birth control approved by the Food and Drug Administration, without a co-pay.
Reproductive-rights advocates cheered the rule, saying it recognizes birth control is integral to womens health care and critical to their ability to control their futures.
Some religious groups objected to the rule because of their opposition to certain forms of birth control, particularly intrauterine devices and the morning-after pill. Both, they say, are akin to abortion because they may halt a pregnancy after an egg has been fertilized.
In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that certain closely held corporations with religious objections could opt out of the contraception mandate. Many entities still had objections, and the Trump administration announced in October that it would give organizations and businesses a broad right to opt out.
Religious-liberty groups, which have lauded President Trumps efforts to protect people of faith, said they were confident the latest judicial ruling would not withstand scrutiny by other courts.
We are confident that the appeals court or the Supreme Court will overturn this ruling and ensure that the government can do the right thing and continue to protect religious groups, Lori Windham, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said in a statement.
But Beetlestones ruling was applauded by lawmakers and other officials who oppose Trumps efforts to dismantle the ACA and hard-won victories on issues of reproductive rights.
Today is a critical victory for millions of women and families and for the rule of law, said Josh Shapiro, attorney general of Pennsylvania, one of the several states challenging the Trump administration rule. The harm from this rule was immediate. Women need contraception for their health because contraception is health care, pure and simple.
Women's advocacy groups also praised the decision as a victory, at least in the short term. Multiple cases are still moving through the court system, and it is likely that the administration will appeal Friday's outcome.
"A nationwide injunction is a really great step for women across the country, who now know at least for a while they can take a breath and know their birth control coverage isn't going anywhere," said Mara Gandal-Powers, senior counsel for the National Women's Law Center.
The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nations top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases including fetus and transgender in official documents being prepared for next years budget.
Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based."
In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of science-based or evidence-based, the suggested phrase is CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes, the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, will continue to use the best scientific evidence available to improve the health of all Americans, HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd told The Washington Post. HHS also strongly encourages the use of outcome and evidence data in program evaluations and budget decisions.
The question of how to address such issues as sexual orientation, gender identity and abortion rights all of which received significant visibility under the Obama administration has surfaced repeatedly in federal agencies since President Trump took office. Several key departments including HHS, as well as Justice, Education, and Housing and Urban Development have changed some federal policies and how they collect government information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
In March, for example, HHS dropped questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in two surveys of elderly people.
HHS has also removed information about LGBT Americans from its website. The department's Administration for Children and Families, for example, archived a page that outlined federal services that are available for LGBT people and their families, including how they can adopt and receive help if they are the victims of sex trafficking.
At the CDC, the meeting about the banned words was led by Alison Kelly, a career civil servant who is a senior leader in the agencys Office of Financial Resources, according to the CDC analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly. Kelly did not say why the words are being banned, according to the analyst, and told the group that she was merely relaying the information.
Other CDC officials confirmed the existence of a list of forbidden words. It's likely that other parts of HHS are operating under the same guidelines regarding the use of these words, the analyst said.
At the CDC, several offices have responsibility for work that uses some of these words. The National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention is working on ways to prevent HIV among transgender people and reduce health disparities. The CDC's work on birth defects caused by the Zika virus includes research on the developing fetus.
The ban is related to the budget and supporting materials that are to be given to the CDCs partners and to Congress, the analyst said. The presidents budget for 2019 is expected to be released in early February. The budget blueprint is generally shaped to reflect an administrations priorities.
Federal agencies are sending in their budget proposals to the Office of Management and Budget, which has authority about what is included.
Neither an OMB spokesman nor a CDC spokeswoman responded to requests for comment Friday.
[This is how the Trump administration has shifted course on civil rights]
The longtime CDC analyst, whose job includes writing descriptions of the CDCs work for the administrations annual spending blueprint, could not recall a previous time when words were banned from budget documents because they were considered controversial.
The reaction of people in the meeting was incredulous, the analyst said. It was very much, Are you serious? Are you kidding?
In my experience, weve never had any pushback from an ideological standpoint, the analyst said.
News of the ban on certain words hasnt yet spread to the broader group of scientists at the CDC, but its likely to provoke a backlash, the analyst said. Our subject matter experts will not lay down quietly this hasnt trickled down to them yet.
The CDC has a budget of about $7 billion and more than 12,000 employees working across the nation and around the globe on everything from food and water safety, to heart disease and cancer, to infectious disease outbreak prevention. Much of the CDC's work has strong bipartisan support.
Kelly told the analysts that certain words in the CDCs budget drafts were being sent back to the agency for correction. Three words that had been flagged in these drafts were vulnerable, entitlement and diversity. Kelly told the group the ban on the other words had been conveyed verbally.
Correction: This article originally misidentified CDCs Office of Financial Resources as the Office of Financial Services.
Amy C. Hughes was looking forward to a rare luxury: a leisurely weekday lunch with a friend at a restaurant near her suburban Philadelphia home.
Hughes, an engineer at Merck, had taken off the week after Christmas 2015 to spend time with her husband, Kevin, and their two children. The couple's son, Rion, then 13, had come down with a cold on Christmas Day and complained of a headache. A few days later, his pediatrician suspected a sinus infection and prescribed a three-day course of antibiotics.
Nothing seemed unusual, Hughes recalled. But an hour after she headed off for lunch, she received an urgent call from her husband summoning her home. Three police cars and an ambulance were lined up in front of her house. A team of paramedics was attempting to manually resuscitate her son as they hurried out the front door. His eyes were closed and his body was racked by a violent seizure. Hughes later learned that the paramedics worried that despite their best efforts, Rion wouldnt make it to the closest hospital, 25 minutes away.
For the next six days, doctors tried to determine why Rion, who had been healthy, suddenly developed a life-threatening seizure that seemed impervious to even high doses of anticonvulsants.
The answer would turn out to be as disarmingly simple as it was uncommon. And while Rion has fully recovered, the emotional fallout from his frightening illness took longer for his mother to overcome.
Amy C. Hughes with son Rion, whose life-threatening seizure went unexplained for days and seemed impervious to anticonvulsants. (Picture People) )
There was lots of anxiety for about a year, but its no longer there, Hughes said. Ive thought a lot about what I could have done differently, and the answer is: Really nothing.
Seemed like an eternity
As the ambulance carrying Rion roared off, Hughes and her husband followed in their car, a drive that seemed like an eternity.
At the hospital, the ER staff peppered them with questions about whether Rion used drugs. The seizures suggested a possible overdose, and a CT scan showed no signs of a head injury, another cause of seizures.
I remember saying, I cant believe youre asking me this even though I know you have to, said Hughes, whose father had been an emergency room physician.
Rion, she told the staff, has a mild form of autism and attention-deficit disorder; she wasn't sure he even knew what illegal drugs were.
In addition to the severity of the seizure they were struggling to control, doctors were worried about its extremely long duration. They believed Rion might have been having a seizure for more than an hour before his father discovered him and called 911.
They kept saying, We dont know what hes going to be like when he wakes up, Hughes recalled. I was terrified he had brain damage.
Because he was on a ventilator and needed specialized care, doctors at the community hospital decided to transport him to Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. Unable to medevac Rion the helicopter had been grounded by wind a specialized team from CHOP arrived in an ambulance. Hughes climbed in next to her son for the 45-minute ride.
Heavily sedated, Rion was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit with a fever, and was given a spinal tap to look for an infection capable of triggering seizures, such as meningitis. He received three IV antibiotics and an antifungal drug, but no infection was identified in his spinal fluid.
Hughes tried to spend the night in the ICU with her son. I sat there after they turned off the lights and watched all the displays and constant alarms and thought, He is going to die, she said. I started hyperventilating. My blood pressure was 170/140 and my pulse was really high. The medical team wanted Hughes to go to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvanias ER across the street, but instead she went back to a family room she had been assigned elsewhere at CHOP and calmed down.
After tests failed to reveal another cause, doctors told Rion's parents they suspected he had contracted a human metapneumovirus, a respiratory infection that typically affects the very young and the very old, and is most common in winter. The virus is typically mild and usually goes away without treatment in a few days; in some people, it can cause more serious illness.
Over the next few days, Rion began showing improvement and was taken off sedation and the ventilator and moved to a general pediatric unit.
Hughes was overjoyed that he showed no sign of brain damage. Other than slight coordination problems, she said, Rion was joking and seemed like his old self.
To ensure that he was never alone, Rions parents and his grandmother, a nurse, took turns staying in the hospital with him. At 6 a.m. on his sixth day in the hospital, his grandmother and mother awoke to find Rion in the midst of a seizure.
At that point, Hughes recalled, I was in panic mode. Rion was still on anti-seizure drugs, although the dose had been lowered. Surely, his mother thought, the virus had cleared his system. So why was he having a seizure? Unlike the first, this one was quickly controlled with medication.
A few hours later, when the medical team made rounds, Hughes questioned the doctors. They told her they thought some of the virus might still remain in his system, but they were upbeat about his progress. The plan was to send him home the following day, with instructions for an MRI scan of his brain in four to six weeks.
I thought, He cant come home, Hughes remembers. What if he has a seizure in the middle of the night and stops breathing?
A frightening finding
Hughes asked if the MRI could be done while Rion was still in the hospital. She had struck up a rapport with Stacey R. Rose, the pediatrician on duty, and hoped Rose would agree.
Mom and I had a lot of discussions about whether we felt comfortable having Rion go home, Rose recalled. Doing an MRI at this point carried some risk, because a test in the ICU had revealed possible damage to Rions kidneys. There was concern that the dye used in the MRI could harm his kidneys; waiting looked like a safer bet.
But Rose decided that the potential benefit outweighed the risk, and she ordered the scan.
That night, Rion was still in the MRI machine when a neurosurgeon approached Rions father in the waiting room.
The scan showed that Rion had a massive infection in the subdural area of his brain that had breached the bony flap separating the brain from the sinuses. The infection had formed an abscess called an empyema, which triggered the seizures. Other symptoms of a subdural empyema include headaches and lethargy.
Before the advent of antibiotics, the condition, which is rare, was uniformly fatal. The problem disproportionately affects males between ages 10 and 40, and typically occurs during the winter.
Rion, his father was told, would need a procedure to relieve pressure that had built up inside his skull, and the area would need to be rinsed to rid it of infection. Surgery was scheduled for first thing the following morning, the neurosurgeon said sooner, if his condition deteriorated.
That night, Hughes slept in Rions hospital bed, holding him as if I could protect him from having another seizure. He had none, and the surgery was successful. Nearly a week later, Rion went home.
Hughes said she asked doctors why they hadnt suspected an abscess, and was told the disorder is rare; she said she later learned that CHOP sees about one case a week in winter. Rose suspects the CT did not show the abscess because the test was not performed with contrast dye; an MRI scan is the definitive test used to diagnose it.
Its unclear why Rion developed an empyema. I think its just bad luck for some kids, Rose said.
Hughes suspects that Rions high pain tolerance might have complicated the clinical picture. When I asked him, he said he had a headache, Hughes said. But the pain was controllable with over-the-counter pain relievers and never seemed especially bothersome. Rion had developed some swelling over one eye another possible sign of an abscess but that had largely receded after he took the oral antibiotic.
What would have happened had Rion been discharged before being diagnosed?
Rose chose her words carefully. He would have continued to have seizures and fever and worsening headaches, and he would have returned to care at that point, she said. He could certainly have had a poor outcome.
The diagnosis, she said, surprised the medical team. I think its always important to be questioning the diagnosis, she said. Its good to reevaluate.
Hughes, she added, was a great advocate for Rion.
Hughes said she will be forever grateful for the care her son received and especially to Rose for listening to my concerns. I truly believe she saved his life.
Submit your solved medical mystery to sandra.boodman@washpost.com. No unsolved cases, please. Read previous mysteries at wapo.st/medicalmysteries.
Read more
One mans battle with a rare cancer created a thriving new community
Want to avoid becoming a medical mystery? Read this.
She gave birth in a parking lot, then fought for her life.
MUSCATINE Since the 1990s, whenever a crisis has struck Muscatine, the Clark House Quilters have put their hands and needles to work.
Once a large group of both male and female quilters, the now-called Clark House Quilters has dwindled down to four members. But the impact they have on the Muscatine community remains as strong as ever.
For the past two decades, the local artisans have donated quilts to families affected by floods, tornadoes and house fires. And most recently, the Clark House Quilters presented blankets, plus around $700 to purchase children's shoes, to the Muscatine Center for Social Action.
The idea for starting a Muscatine quilting group with a purpose came from Sandy Hallett, who said before the '90s, she had never quilted before.
"Years and years ago, I had six boys and I sewed clothes for all of them," Hallett said. "But I never did anything like this."
Hallett took direction from some friends, who were prolific sewers and quilters, and before long, word of the group spread across Muscatine. Before retiring from her job as a program director at Senior Resources when the group was in full swing Hallett said the quilters would make 300 quilts a year.
"[The quilts] started mounting up and we didn't like them laying around unused," she said. "So we wanted to do something with them that was special."
First, the group donated quilts to MCSA, the domestic violence shelter and Birthright of Muscatine, and then it started responding to disasters. During the flood of 1993, Hallett said "we got our fingers busy and put out 80 quilts." After this year's March tornado, the group provided 40 quilts to affected residents.
"It's a way of giving back that we can do as we get older," Hallett said. "And we don't sell them. They all have a place to go."
When residents receive quilts at MCSA, Hallett said they are meant to take the quilt home with them.
"It's so heartwarming to see these ladies here every week, doing this, and it's nice for our guests to be able to take a blanket or quilt and keep it and have it forever," Bonnie Nichols, with MCSA, said. "And they know it's made with love."
The pieces of each quilt are made from donated materials, according to Hallett, who receives blankets, curtains, sheets and other fabric from churches and people throughout the community.
The quilters also raffle off a quilt at the Clark House a couple of times each year, she said, and use the money to purchase supplies. This year, however, Hallett realized money from the raffles was piling up, so they decided to do something special with it.
After a call to MCSA, Hallett donated the nearly $700 to be used to purchase shoes for children and adults at the family shelter. Nichols said around five children need shoes at the shelter right now.
"We're pleased to see it go to something useful," Virginia Sissel, a member of the group, said. "We all have had kids and some of us went through turmoil ourselves as kids."
And while making quilts is a way for the women to give back to the community, the four members agreed it is also a necessary time for socializing and unwinding with friends.
Along with Hallett's leadership, Karen Burhop cuts the fabric and organizes the space they use at the Clark House. And Sissel's specialty is making blankets for babies.
"She takes the bits and pieces and puts them together like a crossword puzzle," Hallett said.
The latest member of the group is Lilia Zlobina, who joined after moving to Muscatine from Ukraine around seven years ago. In Ukraine, she worked as a construction engineer and teacher at a university.
"I'm from the Ukraine and couldn't speak English, so this was good practice for me," Zlobina said. "And it's good business, to help people. It's not easy to do but it's good company. That's why I like it."
The group has lost several members over the years, and Hallett worries about its future, with young people losing interest in the art form. But at the weekly meeting Friday, the Clark House Quilters met a new potential member: a current resident of MCSA, Veronica Garcia, who said she made five crochet blankets for Hurricane Katrina survivors.
And while the future of quilting may be uncertain, Hallett said there is always a need for a pair of hands willing to help out.
"There's always a need and you don't have to look very far for it. I don't think [the quilts] will ever go wasted; they have a home," she said. "But it would be really nice if all of a sudden they weren't needed. Then there would be peace on Earth."
Columnist
As the #MeToo movement gained momentum the past several weeks and more than a dozen powerful men accused of sexual misconduct were suspended, fired or banished into the outer darkness, it was reasonable to wonder where it would all end.
On Wednesday afternoon, it ended for Kentucky state Rep. Dan Johnson (R) on a remote bridge, where he shot himself with a .40-caliber handgun. In an apparent suicide note posted (briefly) on Facebook, he wrote: "GOD knows the truth, nothing is the way they make it out to be. . . . I cannot handle it any longer . . . BUT HEAVEN IS MY HOME."
Johnson was referring to accusations published two days earlier by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting that he had fondled a 17-year-old friend of his daughter during a New Years Eve sleepover in 2013. According to his accuser, now 21, a drunk Johnson slipped his hand under her top and down her pants as she was sleeping on a couch. She begged him to stop, which, ultimately, he did.
Assuming the womans story is true, Johnsons actions were reprehensible, made more so by the fact that the girl considered him a second dad. The betrayal of a trusted adult is a higher order of evil. The circumstances of the alleged event magnify the drama and invite condemnation seasoned with relish. The woman, whose identity is being protected, said the incident occurred at the Popes House, a fellowship hall next to the Heart of Fire Church where the well-known Republican was the self-anointed pope to his congregation.
Even with all of that, however, didnt Johnson have a right to some sort of dispassionate hearing? It is convenient to think he was too ashamed to withstand what would lie ahead. Or, one could believe, as Johnson hoped people would, that things didnt happen as described. Thats the trouble with weighing allegations of years-old behavior in the court of public opinion. Given that statutes of limitations preclude indictments in many of these recent cases, were left to decide for ourselves whether the accusers are telling the truth or enough truth to be convincing.
An accusation isnt a conviction or even an indictment, of course. Yet, the draconian actions weve witnessed as each case comes to light have provided cause for concern even in the most despicable of alleged offenses. Weve rather quickly moved away from a society that embraces the suspension of judgment pending a fair trial to one in which opinion or fear of financial repercussions justifies harsh sentencing.
Why have a jury-trial system at all if were comfortable passing judgments derived primarily from common sense-based calculus. This we know about common sense: Everyone considers theirs to be of higher quality than mine or yours. During the past couple of months, weve all become rather expert in dispensing verdicts, which seem to go something like this:
When several women tell similar stories of sordid encounters with the same individual, then we deem the accusations true. This was the case with Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who admitted to some of the charges. When only one accuser is involved, we tend to give the accused some benefit of the doubt. It's only when three or four victims come forward with similar tales that we begin to hear terms such as "credible accusations" or "credibly accused."
"Credible" accusations brought down U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama after The Post conducted an extensive investigation into allegations against him. There's no proof of anything, of course, but there was enough corroboration from other people interviewed to suggest a strong likelihood that the women were truthful.
Even if one believes all the women who have come forward thus far, theres room for some self-doubt in our individual rushes to judgment, as well as our participation in social medias ruthless, often-anonymous dispensations. Were on new ground these days when everyone occupies a seat of infinite power. Thus, it may be impossible to mitigate the effects of a determined mob, especially given a zeitgeist poised to assume the worst of men and the best of women. This shift in the balance of power may feel justified at some level, but this, too, should give one pause.
Should every man who has ever made an unwelcome advance on a grown woman be ruined? In instances of poor judgement or reckless behavior, is there no punishment short of firing?
It is notable that shame, so long out of vogue, is in these most modern of times making a comeback, indeed, with a vengeance. Johnsons suicide reminds us that the best of causes conducted without the usual rules of law can lead to disastrous, even fatal, consequences.
Read more from Kathleen Parker's archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook.
The Dec. 9 editorial "Police state terror in the Philippines" flowed from the misperception that the Philippines has become a lawless place. Nothing could be further from the truth. More than 80 percent of Metro Manila residents say they feel safer because of the government's campaign against illegal drugs.
The anti-drug campaign aims to restore law and order in our country. The administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is delivering on his campaign promise to end the scourge of illegal drugs, which has already destroyed millions of lives and corrupted our countrys institutions. A great number of Filipinos put their faith in this promise, tired as they were of the business as usual attitude that allowed this problem to fester and worsen through the years.
It behooves any sovereign state to do everything in its power to ensure the security and safeguard the future of its citizens. The Philippine National Police has the expertise and resources needed to eradicate the drug problem. More important, the police are duty-bound to enforce the law. This includes the strict observance of the rule of law and ensuring accountability in legitimate police operations.
Jose Manuel G. Romualdez, Washington
The writer is the ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines to the United States.
Columnist
How did he do it? Thats the question I was asked more than once by European friends the day after Alabamas Senate election: How did Doug Jones win? The question was not idle. In many ways, the electoral challenge Jones faced in Alabama was strikingly similar to the challenge facing European politicians of the center-left and even or maybe especially the center-right: How to defeat racist, xenophobic or homophobic candidates who are supported by a passionate, unified minority? Or, to put it differently: How to get the majority which is often complacent rather than passionate, and divided rather than unified to vote?
This was the same question asked after the victory of Emmanuel Macron in the French elections, and part of the answer, in both cases, was luck. Nobody predicted a Roy Moore sex scandal. Nobody predicted that the French political establishment would fold so quickly either. Frances previous, center-left president was so unpopular that he discredited his party; Frances center-right leader, Francois Fillon, was knocked out of the race by a scandal. Macron wound up as the leader of a new centrist coalition, the electoral arithmetic was in his favor, and he won.
But beyond luck, both Macron and Jones also tried to reach across some traditional lines, in part by appealing to traditional values. Macron, fighting a nationalist opponent in the second round of the elections, openly promoted patriotism. Instead of fear and anger, he projected optimism about France and its international role. He spoke of the opportunities globalization brought to France instead of focusing on the dangers, and he declared himself proud to be both French and a citizen of the world.
He wasn't the only European to take this route: Alexander Van der Bellen, the former Green Party leader who is now president of Austria, used a similar kind of campaign to beat a nationalist opponent. Van der Bellen's posters featured beautiful Alpine scenes, the Austrian flag and the slogan "Those who love their homeland do not divide it."
In Alabama, Jones used remarkably similar language. Jones's Facebook ads (archived by ProPublica) used the slogan "restore honor and civility," emphasized his background in law and order and, like Macron and Van der Bellen, projected patriotism instead of nationalism. "I believe the United States of America is a land of laws, justice, freedom, equality and opportunity," he said. He also described his own fight against racism as an important civic achievement with benefits for all: "I prosecuted KKK terrorists, getting justice for the four young girls who were murdered. Join our campaign and bring civility and compassion back to Alabama."
Of course, there were other factors in all of these victories. A successful voter turnout operation in Alabama, for example, as well as more-targeted advertising, helped Jones win. Macron was also helped by timing: French awareness of the Russian and online alt-right role in the U.S. election strengthened the resolve of both media and voters to ignore their attempts to influence the result in France.
Still, if they hadnt reached for something higher, victory might have eluded them. Modern democracy is by definition an exercise in coalition-building, whatever the voting system. In big, diverse, complicated countries, where people have vastly different interests and backgrounds, politicians seeking national office (or in the United States even statewide office) have to find common denominators as well as specific messages for particular groups. The nation that we all share, our common history and aspirations, is the most obvious.
As these elections prove, an appeal to national pride doesnt have to be xenophobic or close-minded. At least some Alabamians as I know from my family there voted for Jones because they want to see their state as part of an American story that includes the civil rights movement and the emancipation of women. They want to live in an America that is tolerant and open. An appeal to that strand of the American tradition can win them over.
Even Europeans, many of whom live in countries that really are unlike the United States defined by a single ethnic group, can be reached by this kind of appeal. You can be French, Polish or Dutch and still be a citizen of the world. You can love your country because its a part of an international community. And you can refuse to let xenophobic nationalists define what it means to be patriotic, too.
Read more from Anne Applebaum's archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.
MANY STATE legislatures suffer from comparisons to fraternity houses, where (mostly) male lawmakers, often on months-long leaves from their families and regular jobs, do the taxpayers' business in settings where some decide that the normal rules don't apply. The profusion of free liquor and fawning lobbyists, combined with a sense of entitlement and privilege, sometimes add up to ignominious conduct grist for the scandal mill of many a statehouse reporter.
As incidents of sexual harassment and assault continue to engulf the rich and famous from coast to coast, state legislators have been the subjects of a drumbeat of allegations. A survey last month by the USA Today Network found that at least 40 of them, nearly all men, had been accused of some form of sexual misconduct in the course of the past year. On Wednesday night, Dan Johnson, a Republican state lawmaker in Kentucky, died in an apparent suicide after having been accused of assaulting a teenage girl. Four other GOP lawmakers in Kentucky have been implicated in a recent sexual-harassment scandal; one of them, Jeff Hoover, resigned his position as the state's House speaker.
Mindful of the furor, Maryland's two top legislative leaders have ordered legislative officials to begin systematically keeping track of sexual-misconduct complaints and producing an annual report on the number, nature and resolution of allegations. That's a welcome initiative with one glaring shortcoming: The data that will be compiled and, presumably, available to the public will exclude the names of alleged perpetrators, including any members of the General Assembly, as well as legislative staffers.
As a personnel matter, it may be that House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) believed their hands were tied. As a practical matter, collecting information on the alleged transgressions of lawmakers who remain anonymous is likely to have little real-world effect. For better or worse, the most potent disincentive for would-be harassers and abusers is not discreet inquiries from human resources personnel but the threat of public disgrace.
Under Marylands new system, reports of sexual harassment may be referred to ethics officials, who might recommend that lawmakers be publicly censured or even expelled from office. Then again, they might not be if deemed insufficiently serious. And shouldnt it be up to voters, not legislative insiders or officials, to decide the fate of the people they hire in elections namely, lawmakers?
To its credit, the Maryland legislature does welcome reports of misconduct from witnesses as well as victims, a change made in the wake of accusations against Donald Trump during the presidential campaign last year. Its policy does seem to go beyond that in Virginia, where, despite a recent assertion by House Republican Majority Leader M. Kirkland Cox (Colonial Heights) describing his chamber's "zero tolerance" policy on sexual harassment and other abuse, no systematic, publicly available documentation of such incidents is in place.
Marylands Mr. Miller was correct when he described the current national revelations as a watershed moment. But if thats what it is, how is anonymity an adequate response?
Columnist
2017 draws to a close. "Feminism" has been declared the word of the year. And House Speaker Paul D. Ryan has just urged women to have more babies for the good of the state.
A joke? An outtake from "The Handmaid's Tale"? Alas, neither. At his weekly news briefing Thursday, Ryan (R-Wis.) suggested that the most important way to shore up the economy was for Americans to have bigger families.
"This is going to be the new economic challenge for America: People. . . . I did my part, but we need to have higher birth rates in this country," he said as part of a riff on how Republicans planned to tackle entitlement reform in 2018. "We have something like a 90 percent increase in the retirement population of America but only a 19 percent increase in the working population in America. So what do we have to do? Be smarter, more efficient, more technology . . . still going to need more people."
And we all know whose job that is.
It's not that Ryan is wrong, exactly. The United States is in the middle of a baby bust, perhaps one more dire than we realize. Last year saw a record-low fertility rate, and an even sharper drop is predicted for 2017. To blithely instrumentalize the miracle of life in homage to the House speaker: We'll need more bodies to keep the economy humming.
Even so, Ryan's comments are shocking in their hypocrisy, not to mention obliviousness at best to the context in which they'll be received.
To be clear: The prospect of having more children is not necessarily off-putting to women. True, Ryan's comments feel particularly ill considered at this moment, given the creepy Congressional Surrogacy Surprise that emerged from the office of former House Republican Trent Franks (Ariz.) last week. And it is more than a little insulting to insinuate that to "do their part," women need to lie back and think of America. That said, research has shown that many women in the United States have fewer children than they would like to have and begin having them later than they would prefer.
But this suboptimal situation is directly related to policies the speaker and his party have pursued. If Ryan wants more babies to prop up the United States, maybe he and the rest of the GOP should consider making it easier to live in America with one.
The reasons for delaying family formation are often economic. When those of child-bearing age spend their entire stagnant incomes on rent, debt and health care, the prospect of having a baby recedes into the distance. The effect is most acute for women, who are often least able to afford housing, whose incomes are likely to sink after breaks for childbearing, and whose health risks increase with motherhood. (Maternal mortality is on the rise in the United States, yet the GOP's proposed and mercifully failed health-care reform considered cuts to pregnancy-related benefits.)
Yet rather than promoting policies that might ease the economic pressure, Ryan and his party are peddling a "tax reform" bill that prioritizes fiscal favors for corporations, which cannot have children, over everyday citizens who can. And once passed, the bill will cripple our country's ability to pay for the sort of safety net that could make a new baby a cause for celebration rather than alarm.
If we must have tax reform, why not at the very least implement a more effective child tax credit that is fully deductible for those at the lowest income brackets? That would give those citizens generously contributing new "people" to our economy some support to help make ends meet. Or why not promote a real paid-leave proposal that encompasses both maternal and paternal leave, to make it easier to combine child care and work? The paltry provision attached to the bill is a gift for corporations, not parents.
Of course, maybe Ryan does really care about our demographic difficulties but doesn't want to go about fixing them through economic means. If so, there is the obvious solution of liberalizing immigration, yet Republicans from top to bottom have refused to consider it.
When it comes down to it, there is a raft of policies that could help mitigate the problem of falling birth rates. The fact that they remain unimplemented suggests that maybe Ryan hasn't "done his part" as well as he thinks.
The Dec. 12 editorial "Away from freedom" and Anne Applebaum's PostPartisan blog excerpt, "The Polish government latches on to 'fake news,' " argued for a more vociferous U.S. critique of Poland's embrace of "anti-democratic" measures against judicial independence and independent media.
But don't expect more vocal criticism from Washington, let alone downgraded bilateral relations as with Viktor Orban's Hungary for two reasons. First, President Trump is unconcerned about democratic checks and balances and labels much of the media "fake news." He is much more interested in cutting business deals with any foreign country regardless of political or ideological orientation. Under its 10-year, $36 billion military-modernization program, Poland has become the Saudi Arabia on the eastern flank of NATO because of its massive purchase of advanced American military equipment, including missile defense systems and aircraft.
Second, under A. Wess Mitchell, the new assistant secretary of state in charge of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, a policy shift is expected to take place toward a more security-focused cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe. His 2016 book, "The Unquiet Frontier" (co-written with Jakub J. Grygiel), argues that the United States should take "a less publicly critical stance of states underperforming in democratic governance in order to advance pragmatic security cooperation against Russia. Democratic values continue to matter, but security must come first. . . . All other policy objectives are secondary." This must be music to Polish leaders' ears given their country's central role on NATO's eastern front as an anti-Russian bulwark.
Istvan Dobozi, Gaithersburg
Deputy editorial page editor
Of the deluge of sexual-harassment stories gushing forth in recent weeks, one of the most disturbing one of the creepiest, really has also been one of the least noted: the allegations involving federal appeals court judge Alex Kozinski.
There are, certainly, more egregious fact patterns. But of the powerful and prominent men who have been accused of preying on powerless women, Kozinski occupies an especially troubling role: There are few jobs whose occupants are more insulated from scrutiny than that of federal judge.
The insulation is appropriate; indeed, it is constitutionally mandated. Yet as we have seen in case after case, Harvey Weinstein to Charlie Rose to John Conyers Jr., it may be precisely that untrammeled power, the sense of invulnerability from consequences, that enables such abuse. When youre a star or a judge they let you do it.
A week ago, The Post reported allegations that included Kozinski calling a clerk into his chambers to show her pornography and ask whether it aroused her; suggesting to a clerk for another 9th Circuit judge that she should work out naked; and making other court staffers uncomfortable with sexual innuendo or outright ogling. Friday evening, the allegations crossed the line into unwanted physical contact, with additional women coming forward, including four a law student, a lawyer, a law professor and a former judge who described Kozinski touching them without consent.
Bad enough, because Kozinski holds a lifetime appointment to the federal bench, where his duties include hearing appeals involving sexual harassment and sexual assault. Bad enough, because a judge and law clerk enjoy a relationship that is at once uniquely intimate and inherently unequal.
But it would be wrong to understand Kozinski as just one among 179 federal appeals court judges. He is among the most influential and celebrated, an icon among conservatives and perhaps another explanation for why the reports about his behavior took so long to surface a reliable "feeder judge" for those seeking Supreme Court clerkships.
Kozinski has always been known as a brilliant, transgressive provocateur. His willingness to push the boundaries not only of stodgy judicial writing ("The parties are advised to chill," he concluded one opinion) but also of stodgy judicial behavior was part of his charm, or so it seemed. In 1996, Kozinski wrote for Slate about going at the invitation of a law clerk, gender unstated to an outre "lingerie party" that included a "bondage peep show."
After the Los Angeles Times reported in 2008 that Kozinski maintained a publicly accessible website that included pornographic images, a judicial investigation reprimanded him for "poor judgment."
Kozinski dismissed the harassment allegations, telling the Times, "If this is all they are able to dredge up after 35 years, I am not too worried," and, in a statement Friday, cited his "unusual sense of humor."
It remains to be seen whether such insouciance is justified. Writing for Slate, Dahlia Lithwick recounted how, as a young clerk to a different 9th Circuit judge in 1996, she called Kozinski's chambers to firm up drink plans with one of his clerks. Kozinski himself answered the phone. Lithwick recalls: "The judge asked where I was. I said I was in my hotel room. Then he said, 'What are you wearing?' "
Southern Methodist University law professor Joanna Grossman tweeted that during her 9th Circuit clerkship, in 1994 and 1995, "Kozinski sent a memo to all the judges suggesting that a rule prohibiting female attorneys from wearing push-up bras would be more effective than the newly convened Gender Bias Task Force."
Nancy Rapoport, who clerked for a different 9th Circuit judge in 1985 and 1986, described how Kozinski invited her to drinks and asked, What do single girls in San Francisco do for sex?
And, most heartbreaking, former clerk Heidi Bond, one of the women who went on the record with The Post, elaborated on Kozinski in an online essay. She described how Kozinksi, during her clerkship in 2006-2007, referred to her as his "slave" and asserted his complete "control" of her behavior.
How, after an abusive outburst, he would ask, Heidi, honey. . . . Do you still love me? and kiss her cheek, expecting a kiss in return. How he showed her a knock chart . . . listing all the girls that he and his friends had banged while they were in college. How she felt like a prey animal.
How the trauma of working for Kozinski almost dissuaded her from moving on to clerk for Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day OConnor and Anthony M. Kennedy. How she could not escape the notion that my career success was built entirely on my silence.
Even before the latest story broke, one or more Kozinski clerks took the extraordinary step of resigning, and 9th Circuit Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas ordered a judicial misconduct review. Let the process proceed but if the behavior is anything like what has been alleged, this man has no business sitting in judgment of others.
Read more from Ruth Marcus's archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.
IN A tax-bill saga full of clarifying moments, there was one particularly eloquent expression of Republican priorities. First, Republicans refused to fund Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's plan to expand tax benefits for low-income families because he proposed paying for it by dropping the corporate tax rate to merely 21 percent rather than 20 percent. Then, in final negotiations on the bill, they adopted the 21 percent rate Mr. Rubio had sought, after all and used the savings not to help needy families or to lessen the bill's impact on the national debt but to lower the top income tax rate for the highest wage earners.
After some last-minute theatrics, a smaller version of Mr. Rubio's plan was added to the final package. But it is telling how easy it was for Republicans to drop top income tax rates, how hard it has been for Mr. Rubio to secure even a limited victory for low-income people and how irrelevant concerns about ballooning the national debt have been for most in the GOP.
What started as a bipartisan push for smart tax-code reform mutated over the past year into an expensive, one-sided legislative power play animated by ideological misconceptions rather than a sober assessment of the countrys real needs. This process is nearly complete, with the conclusion this week of negotiations among GOP lawmakers reconciling House and Senate versions into a final tax bill, set to be voted on early next week.
In a bill slanted toward the wealthy, Mr. Rubios idea to expand the child tax credit for low-income families would make the overall tax plan a bit more progressive, diverting a little more money toward those who could really use the help. By contrast, the GOP plan to lower the top income tax rate to 37 percent would sharply and unexpectedly increase incomes at the top. As with previous iterations of the GOP plan, the overall picture is still of a tax reform that offers little benefit to many ordinary people while handing huge benefits to the rich at the expense of the countrys long-term fiscal health.
A tax cut for corporations would be warranted under different circumstances particularly if it were paid for. But many of the bills provisions are simply unjustifiable. Obamacares crucial individual mandate should not be repealed. Wealthy heirs do not require relief from the estate tax. High earners do not need a lower top tax rate.
Republicans claim that the bills provisions will spur economic growth and Americans will share broadly in the resulting prosperity. In fact, the growth effects will probably be mild, and the price tag will probably be a trillion-plus dollars in new debt, according to nonpartisan projections. This debt will further burden low- and middle-income Americans in future generations as their government loses the means to invest in research, education, health care and infrastructure.
Independent analysis after independent analysis concluded that the GOP tax framework would exacerbate economic inequality and add massively to the debt well more than the Obama stimulus Republicans attacked as an irresponsible monstrosity for relatively little in return. The Republican response has been to ignore the experts, attack the messengers and double down on bad policy.
Commuters board a MARC train bound for Washington in Laurel on Sept. 1. (J.M. Eddins, Jr./For The Washington Post)
Regarding Jason Neuringer's Dec. 10 Local Opinions essay, "Let's really open up Montgomery's roads":
Mr. Neuringer and I agree that our community faces a traffic crisis, but we disagree about how to address it. Research demonstrates that we can't pave our way out of traffic.
Other metropolitan areas offer quality regional rail. Why not suburban Maryland? We should work toward all-day, week-long MARC service from Frederick to the District.
We also need to give commuters more options for connecting to rail in the first place, as well as to nearby employment and commercial centers. Bus rapid transit (BRT) has proved a popular option in other cities. In fact, 30 percent of additional trips generated by BRT in car-centric Los Angeles served customers who were new to transit.
Nationwide, the majority of vehicle trips are less than 10 miles. Smart-growth policies that foster neighborhoods where people live, work and play are a vital component of congestion relief.
Finally, we should consider adding two reversible lanes to Interstate 270 and give priority to carpools and buses. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's (R) four lanes would pave over neighborhoods and cost an untenable amount.
Id be happy to accept Mr. Neuringers invitation to join him for a commute over the American Legion Bridge. In turn, I hope he would join me on the MARC train from Union Station to Rockville to witness the untapped potential of our regions rail network.
Ben Shnider, Rockville
The writer, a Democrat, is a candidate for Montgomery County Council District 3.
Columnist
Donald Trump learned a powerful lesson while running for president.
The rules don't apply to me. Trump blew through one political stop sign after another as he sped recklessly past the competition; again and again, he burned rubber away from the feckless, doughnut-munching cops of the media, the swamp and academia. The rule about not calling Mexican immigrants "rapists" in your announcement speech? The rule about not attacking a war hero or a Gold Star family? The rule about releasing your tax returns, and the one about never, ever boasting of sexual assault while wearing a live microphone?
Trump squealed his tires and waved a one-finger salute.
But it appears the lesson was mistaken, for the long arm of political law is catching up to the president. That's one of my takeaways from the special U.S. Senate election this last week in Alabama, where hogs sprouted wings, rivers ran backward and a Democrat won. Trump believed he could get away with flouting the political commandment that says Thou Shalt Not Endorse Accused Child Molesters. He thought his cloak of immunity was large enough to enfold Roy Moore, with room for Stephen K. Bannon left over.
The margin of victory for Democrat Doug Jones was like Trump's own victory last year small in terms of ballots but huge in its implications. The last time that Senate seat was before the voters, the Republican ran unopposed and won 97 percent of the ballots. Last year, Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Alabama by almost 2 to 1. But when the president tried to hoist Moore into office, he found he had lost his pull. He tried tweeting; he tried rallying; he even bestowed his personal benediction on Moore. "He says it didn't happen," Trump observed in dismissing multiple accounts of sexual impropriety. The very same standard to which Trump holds himself.
It didnt work.
Youd think a billionaire would know what every investment prospectus preaches: Past performance does not guarantee future results. And youd think a TV star would understand the need to add layers and complexity to a protagonist over the course of a long-running series. Yet Trump persists in his one-dimensional role: rebel without a pause button.
A fascinating and, for patriotic citizens, dispiriting account of life inside the Trump White House by the New York Times recently disclosed that the amped-up monotony of this presidency is entirely intentional. From the start, Trump conceived of this drama as a relentless serial. "Before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals."
However, he forgot to make the audience root for the star. In Trump's confrontations with multiple women who allege that he sexually harassed or assaulted them, most Americans are with the women, according to Rasmussen. In Trump's rivalry with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, a majority of Americans back Mueller, according to a Post-ABC poll. Overall, Trump's Gallup approval rating has not been above 40 percent since early summer and lately has been hovering in the mid-30s.
If his presidency were truly a TV drama, it would be canceled.
Or it would be relegated to a niche cable channel or streamed on YouTube for an especially grumpy, iconoclastic audience. And this is exactly the problem. Trump and his so-called strategist Bannon (after the Moore debacle, Trump may finally stop taking his calls) appear to have learned their politics from cable and the Internet. Conduits such as Bannons Breitbart and the Sean Hannity show can be very powerful in a partisan primary, but their business model involves pandering to a minority. They dont need a big audience as long as they mesmerize a small one.
A successful president, on the other hand, must have a large part of the country willing to lend an ear and show support. With only about a third of the public behind him and always the same third Trump is increasingly weighed down by his offenses, no longer soaring free of them. Though he is almost certain to get a tax bill to crow about, he lacked enough juice to get the funding mechanism for a big infrastructure package he has promised to deliver next year.
The loss of a Senate seat may well put the brakes on his judicial juggernaut, with moderate Republicans now controlling enough votes to block right-wing nominees. Last years dreams of a filibuster-proof Republican Senate majority have turned to the possible nightmare of an impeachment-minded Democratic majority in the House in 2019.
Of all the laws in all the books, perhaps the most stubborn are the laws of math and physics. Trump has tried to transform politics from a game of addition to a game of division, but math is catching up with him. And the law of gravity is taking hold.
Read more from David Von Drehle's archive.
MUSCATINE After reading reports about West Liberty Police Department passing out turkey vouchers to motorists in lieu of traffic tickets Monday, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) penned a letter to the department. They are offered to donate vegan roasts for the department to give away instead of Turkey.
The letter was addressed to Sergeant Dave Lira of the West Liberty Police Department who said in a news release Friday that they were open delivering the vegan roasts if supplied by PETA.
As of Friday morning, a PETA spokesperson, Audrey Shircliff, confirmed that vegan roasts were, in fact, on their way to the West Liberty Police Department.
In the letter, PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said that these vegan roast vouchers could help the community "keep cruelty off the table this holiday season."
"More and more Americans are choosing to celebrate the holidays with a healthy, humane vegan roast instead of the corpse of a sensitive bird who didn't want to die," Reiman wrote.
"Turkeys are smart, sensitive birds who have been known to enjoy clucking along to music and love to have their feathers stroked," Reiman wrote.
Because of the growth in vegan eating in the U.S., Reiman wrote that it only makes sense for the police department "to give turkeys arrest."
Columnist
A household appliance will be the next stepping-stone on Americas path to restored greatness. The government is poised to punish many Americans, in the name of protecting a few of them, because, in the governments opinion, too many of them are choosing to buy foreign-made washing machines for no better reason than that the buyers think they are better. If you are wondering why the government is squandering its dwindling prestige by having opinions about such things, you have not been paying attention to Whirlpools demonstration that it is more adept at manipulating Washington than it is at making washing machines.
In 2006, when Whirlpool was paying $1.7 billion to buy its largest competitor, Maytag, federal regulators fretted that this would give the company too much market power. Whirlpool said: Fear not, competition from foreign manufacturers such as South Korea's Samsung and LG will keep us sharp and benefit American consumers. Now, however, Whirlpool, which is weary of competition, has persuaded the U.S. International Trade Commission to rule that Samsung and LG should be reproached for what, 11 years ago, Whirlpool said it welcomed: competition.
The U.S. market for washing machines has grown 35 percent in just five years. Whirlpool's share of this market, although not the 70 percent it was in 2006, is still more than Samsung's and LG's combined 35 percent. In this happy circumstance, Whirlpool is profitable. It would, however, like to be more so, and it will be if President Trump accedes to the commission's unanimous recommendation and imposes a "tariff-rate quota."
This is a tax, paid by American consumers, on imports that exceed a certain quantity that, in the governments opinion (formed with the assistance of domestic manufacturers), is excessive. If you are wondering why the government has nothing better to do than have opinions about such things, you have not been paying attention to modern governments vast diligence on our behalf.
The tariff/tax, which is designed to limit the choices of, and increase the prices paid by, American consumers would be 50 percent on all imported machines, after the first 1.2 million. U.S. customers caused the importation of about 3 million Samsung and LG washers in 2016.
Back in the day, Henry Ford said people could have the Model T in any color they wanted, as long as they wanted black. General Motors' ascent was helped by offering color choices. Until recently, purchasers of washing machines had to want white ones. And ones that loaded in the top, and signaled the end of a cycle with buzzers. Then came imports in various colors, that loaded in the front, had chimes instead of buzzers, and other features.
Competition increased, and so did Whirlpool's reliance on the government, which in 2012 imposed duties on machines imported from South Korea and Mexico. Samsung and LG responded rationally, by what protectionists stigmatize as "country hopping," moving some production to China, then Vietnam and Thailand. And now to the United States. Samsung and LG have announced plans to become domestic manufacturers. Samsung will open a manufacturing plant, with approximately 1,000 employees, in Newberry, S.C . LG's plant will be near Clarksville, Tenn.
Before Whirlpool became dependent on government, it depended on Sears, which in the 1920s threw a financial lifeline to a struggling appliance manufacturer, Upton Machine Co., which became Whirlpool. According to the Wall Street Journal, as recently as 2002, when Sears sold 40 percent of the major appliances bought in America, sales through Sears generated about a fifth of Whirlpool's revenues. In October, Sears announced that it would stop selling Whirlpool brand products because Whirlpool is powerful enough to make pricing demands that "would have prohibited us from" selling those products "at a reasonable price."
Sears is not what it was just 15 years ago and is a shadow of what it was in the 1960s, when its sales were almost 1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product . Sears has been prostrated not by perfidious foreigners but by America's efficient "big box" retailers (Walmart, Home Depot, Best Buy, Lowe's, etc.) and by Amazon. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Post.) The real villains, however, are American consumers, with their persnickety search for high quality and low prices.
The president has until February to exercise his vast discretion regarding things such as washing machine imports. If you are wondering how presidents came to have such discretion to impose taxation on American consumers, you have not been paying attention to Congress's creation, by improperly delegated powers, of the imperial presidency.
Read more from George F. Will's archive or follow him on Facebook.
President Trump is not on the ballot in 2018, but the White House is planning a full-throttle campaign to plunge the president into the midterm elections, according to senior officials and advisers familiar with the planning.
Trumps political aides have met with 116 candidates for office in recent months, according to senior White House officials, seeking to become involved in Senate, House and gubernatorial races and possibly contested Republican primaries as well.
The president has told advisers that he wants to travel extensively and hold rallies and that he is looking forward to spending much of 2018 campaigning. He has also told aides that the elections would largely determine what he can get done and that he expects he would be blamed for losses, such as last weeks humiliating defeat that handed a Senate seat in Alabama to a Democrat for the first time in 25 years.
For the president, this isnt about adulation and cheering crowds, White House political director Bill Stepien said in an interview. This is about electing and reelecting Republicans.
But getting deeply involved in the midterms could be a highly risky strategy for a president with historically low approval ratings, now hovering in the mid- to low 30s in many national polls, and might be particularly disruptive in primary contests pitting establishment candidates against pro-Trump insurgents. Last weeks upset in Alabama where Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican nominee Roy Moore came after Trump endorsed two losing candidates in both the primary and special election.
Many Democrats also say they relish the idea of being able to run against Trump.
He absolutely is turbocharging the opposition. My guess is most of the people running for office in 2018 are not going to want to cleave too closely to him, said David Axelrod, former president Barack Obamas chief strategist. He torques up both sides, but he torques up the opposition more. He is the greatest organizing tool that Democrats could have.
[I would have won Alabama: Trump spreads blame for Moore loss]
Jared Leopold, a spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association, said, we look forward to everything that comes out of the presidents iPhone.
In coming months, Stepien is planning nearly daily meetings with potential candidates from around the country and aims to give Trump endorsement recommendations by the spring, officials said. The White House is also working with the Republican National Committee to discuss the strongest fundraising opportunities for Trump, they said.
Stepien meets with Trump weekly to talk about the 2018 slate, poll numbers, candidates, their issues and their level of agreement with Trump, and he also regularly convenes with Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and other senior aides on the midterm outlook, officials said. Trump, senior officials said, has shown particular interest in certain races, including Republican senatorial candidate Josh Hawley in Missouri and the possibilities of Senate bids by Gov. Rick Scott of Florida and Gov. Paul LePage of Maine.
On Saturday, Trumps campaign sent out a 2018 candidates survey to supporters on issues including abortion, gun rights and Trumps call for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Sen. Luther Strange R-Ala.) and President Trump embrace after Trumps's speech during a rally in Huntsville, Ala., Sept. 22. Strange went on to lose the GOP Senate primary. (Marvin Gentry/Reuters)
But fundraising has been hurt in some quarters under Trumps presidency, posing a financial challenge for a party increasingly spread thin in defending potentially vulnerable seats in the House and Senate. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, for example, has raised only about $2 million a month for the past four months and is spending more money than it is taking in. The White House has grown concerned about the anemic fundraising, according to one political adviser. Committee officials declined to comment.
Trump himself has proved to be a prodigious fundraiser when he wants to do it, and advisers say he may share his valuable donor and supporter database with favored candidates.
There are other risks for Trump on the campaign trail. The president frequently wanders off topic at rallies and often prefers to talk about himself, sometimes generating new controversies and making the candidate a sideshow at best. But the president can also draw a crowd as few other Republicans can.
Chris Ruddy, a longtime Trump friend, said the president needs to work to broaden his appeal ahead of the midterms.
President Trump deserves far more credit for his accomplishments, but any president who has those types of numbers loses the House and the Senate, Ruddy said, referring to recent polling. He must move to the center. He must be the old Donald Trump the bipartisan dealmaker who is looking for consensus.
[As Democrats add Senate seat, Republicans left to cast blame over Alabama failure]
Trumps political team plays down popularity concerns and says candidates are lining up to get in the door, particularly for GOP primaries.
To say the president has shaky political standing, Id say the pollsters, the experts, the pundits have never figured out how to poll this guy, Stepien said. You look at public polling we have our own numbers that I trust because the experts dont know how to poll him. They never have.
The president is also unpredictable in following his political teams advice. In Alabama, Stepien warned Trump not to endorse anyone, according to White House officials. He first backed establishment favorite Sen. Luther Strange in the primary, who was trounced by Moore. Then, Stepien and others urged him to shy away from Moore after the candidate faced allegations of sexual misconduct; Trump vocally supported him anyway.
Former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon remains another wild card as he pledges to continue backing anti-establishment candidates like Moore. In Nevada, for example, Bannon has told others he will help raise money for Danny Tarkanian, an insurgent candidate with a controversial past planning to challenge Sen. Dean Heller (R), while Trump has yet to make a commitment. Bannon also wants to back Chris McDaniel for Senate if he runs in Mississippi, while Trump and McConnell support Sen. Roger Wicker (R).
Bannon's rift with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is particularly treacherous for Trump, who is expected to try to thread the needle, and could make it more difficult to recruit establishment candidates. Last week, defeated Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie who was endorsed by Trump and attempted to reach Trump voters with incendiary positions on immigration and crime said the political atmosphere was so "poisonous" that he would not recommend that other Republicans run for office.
[On the eve of the big tax vote, Republicans place big bet for 2018]
Democrats have been watching the Republican infighting from the sidelines with rising hope that Trumps approach will play into their hands next year.
They are mixing a very risky cocktail, where they are alienating suburban voters at the same time that they are motivating progressives and people of color, said Joel Benenson, who served as the top pollster for Obama and continues to work on Democratic campaigns.
Trumps team has also struggled at times to make basic decisions. Republicans aligned with the NRSC struggled for weeks to get a reading from the White House on what it wanted to do in the Alabama primary earlier this year, with calls and emails often going unreturned, strategists said.
Some consultants say the White Houses political team doesnt have the influence to secure decisions from Trump, and some fear that much of the midterm campaign will hinge on his unpredictable moods.
Still, some Republicans say they have recently seen improved communications with the White House. Trump has patched up his fractious relationship with McConnell for the most part, advisers say, and the political team has been given more leeway under Kelly.
In a challenging midterm, a split within the party is deadly. Everything other than internal consensus is totally irrelevant, said Josh Holmes, a top McConnell adviser. I think there are some improved communications between the White House and political entities related to 2018.
The White House plans to send surveys to candidates across the country to complete an audition of sorts for Trumps endorsement gauging their views on issues such as immigration and health care. They are also asking potential candidates for internal polling and fundraising numbers and to secure petition signatures.
In 2018 governors races, the White House is particularly interested in three states that will be battlegrounds in 2020: Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, advisers said.
Trump is expected to start meeting regularly with candidates in the next month, including Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), whom he wants to run for Senate against Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). The presidents team has already met with Josh Mandel, the Ohio treasurer running for Senate; Paul Mango, a gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania; and Troy Downing, a Senate candidate from Montana.
In Pennsylvania, the White House has begun planning for a special House election to replace former congressman Tim Murphy, who resigned amid a personal scandal in October. Cabinet secretaries are expected to fly into the area for events. A senior White House official said a Trump visit is also possible.
[Jubilant Democrats look ahead after big gain on Trumps turf]
The White House political team, with 12 members, says its messaging in 2018 will largely focus on the economy if Trump sticks to the theme.
With the Republican tax cut package expected to pass in Congress this week, Stepien argued that the administration and Republicans have a marquee issue to sell despite its low approval among the public so far. Stepien said the White House expects people to vote largely on economic issues such as, Are you employed? How are your investments doing?
On many key issues, the American people are still with Trump. He needs to focus on defense, infrastructure and terrorism. All indications are the economy is doing well, said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.). He needs to stop tweeting and getting in all these culture wars.
Even with the recent defeats in Alabama and Virginia, Stepien said the president improved the fortunes of both candidates by raising turnout near the end.
The presidents base is motivated and strong in every poll we see, he said. Off-year elections are all about turnout, and we believe the presidents base will be motivated to turn out.
But Steve Israel, who ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2012 and 2014, said there are many districts the president cant touch and that he would be better off quietly raising money.
Democrats have all the energy. They are on offense, Israel said. Its very difficult for an unpopular president to move the needle in the other direction.
Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), seen here in a file photo, urged the White House this week to reconsider the nominations of two of President Trumps judicial nominees. (Rachel Mummey/For The Washington Post)
President Trumps aggressive push to fill scores of federal court vacancies with conservative judges hit severe turbulence this week, as he was forced to withdraw two nominees and an embarrassing video went viral showing a third struggling to answer rudimentary questions about the law.
The White House said Friday that it is standing by the nomination of Matthew Petersen, a nominee for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, despite a clip from his confirmation hearing posted on Twitter in which Petersen was unable to answer questions about legal and courtroom terms posed by a Republican senator.
The episode offered more ammunition to Democrats, who have accused Trump of tapping inexperienced nominees in a rush to reshape the federal judiciary. Even some Republicans have suggested they've felt pressured by the White House to move forward with his picks.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley defended the qualifications of Petersen, a member of the Federal Election Commission since 2008 with no trial experience, saying the regulatory panel handles the very kinds of issues the court decides.
It is no surprise the Presidents opponents keep trying to distract from the record-setting success the President has had on judicial nominations, which includes a Supreme Court Justice and twelve outstanding circuit judges in his first year, Gidley said in a statement.
Until this week, Trumps record of getting judicial nominees confirmed by the Senate stood out as a bright spot for a president who has struggled for big wins on Capitol Hill. In addition to Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the Senate has confirmed 12 circuit court judges and six district court judges.
In a news release this week, Senate Republicans touted their work with Trump as "the sleeper story of the year." But that release came just a day after the nominations for two district court judgeships began to run aground, as Republicans on the Judiciary Committee registered strong objections to the nominees' credentials and character.
This year is the first since 2006 in which the GOP has controlled both the presidency and Senate, presenting a prime opportunity to fill lifetime appointments to what are currently 143 vacancies on the federal bench.
Only one GOP senator John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana has voted against a Trump judicial nominee. But this week demonstrated a new willingness by Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and others to derail Trump's picks.
Grassley on Tuesday told the White House to reconsider the nominations of Jeff Mateer and Brett Talley, both of whom were reported to have endorsed positions or groups that embrace discrimination. A day later, both nominations were pulled.
Talley, Trumps nominee for a U.S. district court seat in Alabama, originally had received the endorsement of the Judiciary Committee, despite the fact that he had never litigated a case and was one of two Trump picks whom the American Bar Association had found not qualified for the federal bench.
Mateer was nominated to serve on the bench in the Eastern District of Texas, but the committee never received his paperwork.
Mateer, according to reports, had said in 2015 that transgender children are part of Satans plan, while Talley was reported to have posted a defense of the first KKK in an online comment in 2011.
Neither disclosed those comments during the vetting process. Talley also did not tell the committee that he is married to the chief of staff for White House counsel Donald McGahn.
For Grassley, those transgressions were enough to yank his support. But he refused to condemn the White House for nominating Talley or voice any concerns with its vetting process.
Theres no way to have an absolutely perfect way of vetting, Grassley said. With all this social networking, how do you keep track of everything that everybody does?
A Harvard Law School graduate, Tally had once belonged to a paranormal research group in Tuscaloosa, Ala., that hunted for ghosts, according to a biography submitted to the Senate. He also drew fire from critics for hard-right blog posts, some of them strongly opposing restrictions on gun ownership.
Objections by Democrats to his resume did not initially appear to faze Republicans, who in recent weeks have instead lashed out at the ABA, accusing it of being politically biased in its rankings.
Republicans also have accused Democrats of inventing excuses to try to block qualified nominees with whom they disagree politically from ascending to the bench. This complaint is at the heart of the GOP's decision this year to waive the traditional "blue slip" consensus process named for the piece of paper senators from a potential federal judge's state must sign to indicate their approval in some cases where only Democrats are objecting to the consideration of circuit court judges.
A White House official acknowledged that Trump had a bad week on judicial nominations but said the president remains undeterred in following through on a campaign promise to appoint conservative judges a pledge that is particularly important to his political base.
Our efforts are not going to be deterred by a negative news cycle, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
The video of Petersen that went viral Thursday captured five minutes of brutal questioning by Kennedy at Petersens confirmation hearing the day before. It was posted on Twitter by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who wrote that it showed Kennedy asking Petersen basic questions of law & he cant answer a single one.
Hoo-boy, Whitehouse wrote.
During Wednesdays hearing, Kennedy started by asking Petersen, whom the ABA rated as qualified for a judgeship, and four other nominees who appeared with him, Have any of you not tried a case to verdict in a courtroom?
Petersen alone raised his hand. Kennedy then bore down.
Had Petersen ever handled a jury trial? I have not, the nominee responded.
Civil? No. Criminal? No. Bench trial? No. State or federal court? No.
How many depositions had he taken fewer than five?
Probably somewhere in that range, Petersen said.
Had he ever argued a motion in state court? Federal court? No on both counts.
Kennedy then asked the last time Petersen had read the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure the standards that govern civil cases in U.S. district courts.
In my current position, Petersen stuttered, I obviously dont need to stay as invested in those on a day-to-day basis, but I do try to keep up to speed.
The inquisition continued for a few more minutes.
Last month, Kennedy complained that the White House was trying to strong-arm nominees through the Senate without taking senators opinions into consideration.
His complaint revolved around Kyle Duncan, Trumps choice to fill an empty seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Instead of consulting him, Kennedy said, White House counsel McGahn told him in a very firm tone that Duncan would be the nominee, to the point that he was on the scarce side, in one conversation, of being polite.
A spokeswoman for Kennedy said Friday that he has not decided if he will vote against Petersens nomination. Kennedy backed out of a scheduled interview with The Post. In a statement, he defended his questioning.
I enthusiastically supported President Trump for president, and I still do, Kennedy said. In the past year, I have supported nearly every one of President Trumps picks, but I dont blindly support them. I ask questions that I expect them to be able to answer. In doing so, Im just doing my job.
A statement issued by Whitehouses office said Petersens testimony speaks for itself.
Mr. Petersen has been nominated to one of the busiest courts in the country but hes never tried a case, the statement said. Hes never argued a motion. He cannot recall the basic legal procedure and doctrine he would be charged with applying.
Petersen, a graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, has served on the FEC for nearly a decade. His tenure there overlapped with that of McGahn, before he was White House counsel, for about five years.
Current and former FEC officials described Petersen as amiable, bright, well liked by his colleagues and deeply devoted to anti-regulatory principles. A study of the commissions voting patterns found that Petersen voted in virtual lockstep on key issues for years with other Republicans on the commission, including McGahn.
In an interview, Ann Ravel, a former Democratic commissioner who served with Petersen for more than three years, questioned Petersens assertion that he gained legal experience through oversight of FEC lawyers, saying the commission had little direct responsibility for litigation, legal techniques or strategy.
I do not believe it qualifies one to be a federal judge, said Ravel, who is now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley Law School.
Derek Hawkins contributed to this report.
In November, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, who is 83, was at the helm when the Senates massive tax bill came through the Finance Committee. But Hatch also deputized four younger Republicans on the panel to serve as de facto co-chairmen over various parts of the legislation.
This week, with a compromise bill marching toward final passage in both chambers, the House has to vote first because a pair of senators, Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), are recuperating from, respectively, non-melanoma skin surgery and the side effects of cancer treatments.
Hatchs advisers say his move demonstrates a keen sense of coalition building, and aides and friends to Cochran, 80, and McCain, 81, contend that their bosses should be back in the Senate before long.
But heres something else to consider: All three are exemplars of an institution that has become, by one measure, the oldest Senate ever. Eight octogenarians currently serve, nearly twice as many as ever before, according to records maintained by the Senate Historical Office. Another handful of senators are at least 75.
For decades, older members of Congress have brushed aside questions about their fitness for office. They have defended their health and faculties, and some have implied that those who inquire are ageists who dont understand that America is growing older.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy D-Vt.), 77, late last month at his office at the Capitol, where he has served since 1975. (Mari Matsuri/AFP/Getty Images)
But the change in schedule for the tax bill is at least the third time this year that Senate leaders paused action to accommodate ailing colleagues. It is now clear that the large number of older senators in positions of power is taking a toll on the operations of Washington.
First came the unsuccessful repeal effort of the Affordable Care Act, delayed until McCain returned to Washington following his initial diagnosis and surgery. McCain as of Saturday was at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, suffering from the side effects of an aggressive round of chemotherapy and radiation.
In mid-October, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) waited out Cochrans return from a debilitating urinary tract infection to pass a budget that was essential to setting up the framework for passage of the tax plan.
To be fair, some of these seniors are healthier and wittier than their junior colleagues Sen. Charles E. Grassley, 84, runs four times a week and some exemplify an aging society where professionals function at high levels well beyond traditional retirement age.
But, collectively, the institution is struggling amid the weight of so many seniors holding such critical positions. Some colleagues say that it has become too hard for senators to walk away at the right time.
What happens around here, its pretty seductive, said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a 65-year-old who decided this fall he would retire at the end of 2018. The longer youre here, the more influence that you have. So it causes you to want to stay and stay and stay.
[The week John McCain shook the Senate]
All eight of todays 80-something senators hold top posts. Cochran, first elected in 1978, controls the purse strings of every federal agency as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. McCain, who oversees the Pentagon on the Armed Services Committee, temporarily handed over the gavel this week to Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who ran hearings on Middle East security issues. Inhofe, 83, was until early this year the chairman of the Environment Committee.
Some senators get angry when asked about their age. If I can run three miles four times a week, Ill be running for reelection, said Grassley (R-Iowa), pondering a bid for reelection in 2022, when he will be 89. I ran just two miles this morning, but dont read too much into that. Because its the same day I packed my suitcase to go home, and I needed a little extra time.
Informed that this was the oldest Senate ever, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) chuckled. I feel younger every day, the 77-year-old joked.
Leahy, first elected in 1974, won reelection last year to a term that will end when he is 82. He has a ritual, around every birthday, to test his physical fitness. He goes scuba diving, first swimming down to the depth of his new age, doing a somersault underwater to the 90-foot mark, then swimming to the surface.
If I reach the point that I cant go scuba diving and do my somersaults, that will be one clear indication, Leahy said of knowing when to retire.
For the Senates first 100 years, no one ever served into their 80s, according to Senate Historical Office data. Over the next 100 years, there were a few brief moments with two or three. Only 49 senators have ever turned 80 in office, and 15 of those came in the past 20 years.
Its a very sensitive topic. When Leahy noted that some in both parties stayed too long, his chief of staff interjected to say the senator was not referring to any of todays senators.
Some senators face pressure to stay in office from former staffers whose K Street livelihood is in large part connected to clients with interests before that senator. Sometimes it comes from leaders back home who want their states to reap the benefits of Senate seniority.
Trent Lott, the Republican former Senate majority leader, said his friends in Mississippi are worried about Cochrans health, but he tells them that the Appropriations chairmanship is too valuable to pass up: Some people say, Is it time for Thad to come home? I say, No! We should keep that chairmanship until the bloody last day that we can.
Now running the lobbying shop Squire Patton Boggs, Lott gives a presentation to senators who decide it is time to retire. Its called the wheel of fortune. And every spoke represents what you can do when you get a real life, he said, with options ranging from joining a lobbying shop to teaching.
Its hard to know when its time to move on, Lott added.
President Trump, 71, is pressing Hatch (R-Utah) to ask the voters in his state to elect him to an eighth six-year term that would end when he is 90 and bring his service in the Senate to 48 years. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the oldest senator, is already running for reelection to a fifth full term that would last until she is 91.
Cochran, when he has appeared in the Senate in recent months, has been attended by a staffer who sits next to him and alerts the senator when it is time to vote. McCain, who appeared in good health when he won a sixth term last year, in the past few weeks has relied on staff to push him in a wheelchair to Senate votes.
Corker says its easy to grow comfortable with the trappings of power and a large staff that, as senators grow older, sometimes functions like a team of aides in a retirement home.
Think about it, he said. If youre older, youve got more influence, and youve got an entire staff of people that, in essence, take care of you every day. Where else, where else can you obtain that? Seriously?
Yet for him, the decision to retire was clear. He wanted to leave on his own terms, at an age, 65, when he could start another chapter of his life. There are fewer senators than ever making that choice.
It is a lot of work, if you really want to do your job right, Leahy said. Youve got to be able to do that. If you cant, its not fair to your state or the U.S. Senate to stay here.
Read more from Paul Kane's archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated Inhofes current role on the Senate Environment Commission. He is a member but no longer chairman.
Sanctions aimed at punishing the North Korean regime are hampering the ability of aid groups to operate inside the country, triggering warnings that the international campaign is harming ordinary North Koreans.
Difficulties in obtaining supplies, including medical equipment, and in transferring money to fund aid programs could have a direct impact on health and nutrition levels throughout North Korea, aid groups say.
We need to deal with the nuclear problem, but we need to properly ponder our means for achieving that goal, Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N. special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, said in an interview in Tokyo.
About 70 percent of the North Korean population is already categorized as food insecure, meaning constantly struggling against hunger, and growth stunting occurs in 1 in 4 children.
The sanctions could increase the levels of food insecurity and the incidence of acute malnutrition among children.
These are not just statistics. This is reality in the DPRK, Quintana said, using the abbreviation for North Koreas official name.
Its my responsibility to remind the Security Council that they should develop a comprehensive assessment of the possible impact of their sanctions, he said. What is the concrete impact on humanitarian agencies working inside North Korea?
The U.N. World Food Program, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the U.N. Development Program all have operations in North Korea. A small number of humanitarian agencies based in the United States and elsewhere provide food, medicines and agricultural assistance from bases outside the country.
But the waves of multilateral and direct U.S. sanctions that have been imposed on Kim Jong Uns regime following its missile launches and nuclear tests have now made operations so difficult that some agencies are pulling out. Save the Children has shut down its operations in Pyongyang, billing the move as a temporary suspension.
"U.S. and international humanitarian NGOs working in North Korea are experiencing death by a thousand cuts," said Keith Luse, executive director of the Washington-based National Committee on North Korea, which includes many humanitarian agencies among its members.
These sanctions were not intended for them, but they have ended up being victims of the international sanctions regime, Luse said.
At a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that it was the responsibility of the North Korean regime to care for its own people.
A truck enters the Rason Special Economic Zone as it makes its way across a bridge over the Tumen river marking the border between North Korea bottom) and China top). (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)
The regime could feed and care for women, children and ordinary people of North Korea if it chose the welfare of its people over weapons development, Tillerson said.
It can reverse course, give up its unlawful nuclear weapons program, and join the community of nations, or it can continue to condemn its people to poverty and isolation, he said.
[ Trump pledges new wave of major sanctions on North Korea after call with Chinas Xi ]
The difficulties have mounted as the crackdown has broadened, from smart sanctions designed to cut off parts and funding for the nuclear weapons program to more general measures that are starting to look like a trade embargo.
President Trump has vowed to use maximum pressure to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program.
Sanctions imposed in September through the Security Council, at the United States instigation, banned North Korean exports of seafood, garments and coal, adding to previous prohibitions on commodities.
Japan, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, is urging other member states to cut off humanitarian aid to North Korea.
The campaign is having a tangible impact.
The British government announced that it would no longer send assistance to North Korea. We will use whatever means we have to make clear our displeasure at the reckless provocations from Kim Jong Un, Mark Field, the British minister of state for Asia, told South Koreas Yonhap News Agency in Seoul last month.
The South Korean government, which has vowed not to let political considerations affect humanitarian decisions, has not delivered on its September pledge to give $8 million to the World Food Program and UNICEF for children and pregnant women.
Seoul was still in consultation with the two agencies, said Unification Ministry spokeswoman Choi Ji-seon.
[ Kim Jong Uns North Korea: Life inside the totalitarian state ]
The relatively few aid agencies still working to help North Koreans face increasing bureaucratic challenges to operate in a country replete with difficulties.
The sanctions were becoming a serious concern for U.N. agencies operating in North Korea and could hamper assistance and relief activities, Tapan Mishra, the U.N. resident coordinator in Pyongyang, wrote in letters to U.N. officials at the end of October.
"Crucial relief items, including medical equipment and drugs, have been held up for months despite being equipped with the required paperwork affirming that they are not on the list of sanctions items," he wrote in the letters, which were first reported by NK News, a specialist website.
Items that had been blocked included anesthesia machines used for emergency operations and digital X-ray machines needed to diagnose tuberculosis.
American aid agencies must get licenses from the Commerce or Treasury departments to send goods needed for their work into North Korea and now are required to get special dispensation to airfreight time-sensitive equipment, such as medical supplies, because Air Koryo, North Koreas national carrier, is under sanction.
Its all very tricky and new for us, said one American humanitarian worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because sensitive negotiations were ongoing. Its been weeks and months of back-and-forth and talking to lawyers. Its very complex and challenging, but if we dont do it, we cant continue.
Chinese customs officials are also cracking down on shipments to North Korea and to a surprising extent, given Beijings previous halfhearted implementation of international sanctions.
They have become stricter about shipments, asking for detailed inventories, including lists of manufacturers names and materials used in every item. A container of wheelchairs sent by a South Korean aid agency was blocked by China, as were water purification tablets meant for flood victims, according to people with knowledge of the incidents.
[ Retired military leaders urge Trump to choose words, not action, to deal with North Korea ]
A Pyongyang-based humanitarian worker said there were also self-imposed sanctions by suppliers in China.
Chinese suppliers who had been sending us raw materials we need for our projects have just suddenly disappeared, the worker said, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize the humanitarian work. Theyre not doing anything thats banned by sanctions, but they seem to have decided that its not worth the exposure or the risk to their reputations.
Meanwhile, Chinese banks are refusing to handle any money related to North Korea, say humanitarian workers who are trying to wire money to Chinese suppliers of medical equipment for use inside North Korea even when the supplier is Chinese-owned.
While foreign journalists invited to North Korea see the impressive construction projects in the capital, life is very different in the rest of the country, regular visitors say.
Its going to be the people who are the most vulnerable, the people outside Pyongyang, who will suffer, said Kee Park, an American neurosurgeon who performs operations in North Korea.
The sanctions on the fishing, garment and coal industries, coupled with South Koreas decision to close a joint factory complex that employed more than 50,000 North Koreans, will deprive many people of their incomes in an economy that is increasingly market-based, Park said.
Sanctions are designed to hurt so that the government will change its policy, he said. But theyre hurting the wrong people.
Read more
North Koreas prisons are as bad as Nazi camps, says judge who survived Auschwitz
Could North Koreas missile test lead to talks?
North Korea is a nuclear state. But can the U.S. accept that?
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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The total number of women who now accuse Alex Kozinski a high-profile judge who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit of some kind of inappropriate comments, touching or other behavior is 15. (J. David Ake/AP)
Nine more women say that Alex Kozinski a high-profile judge who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit subjected them to sexual comments or other conduct, including four who say he touched them inappropriately.
Kozinski, known for his libertarian views and colorful written opinions, already had been accused of subjecting several women to a range of inappropriate sexual conduct or comments, and the circuit's chief judge on Thursday took the first step in launching an investigation into his behavior. The matter was assigned Friday to the 2nd Circuit judicial council.
The new allegations which span decades and include not just those who worked for Kozinski but also those who encountered him at events bring the total number of women accusing the judge of inappropriate behavior to at least 15.
[Prominent appeals court Judge Alex Kozinski accused of sexual misconduct]
One recent law student at the University of Montana said that Kozinski, at a 2016 reception, pressed his finger into the side of her breast, which was covered by her clothes, and moved it with some deliberateness to the center, purporting to be pushing aside her lapel to fully see her name tag.
Another lawyer said Kozinski approached her when she was alone in a room at a legal community event around 2008 in downtown Los Angeles and with no warning gave her a bear hug and kissed her on the lips.
A University of California at Irvine law professor said Kozinski pinched her at a dinner this year, and he also joked that he had just had sex with his wife and she or others at the table would be happy to know it still works.
A former U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge said Kozinski grabbed and squeezed each of her breasts as the two drove back from an event in Baltimore in the mid-1980s, after she had told him she did not want to stop at a motel and have sex.
The Washington Post reported on Dec. 8 that six women all former clerks or more junior staff members known as externs in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit alleged that Kozinski had subjected them to inappropriate sexual conduct or comments, including two who said the judge showed them pornography in his chambers.
Soon after that account became public, two others made allegations of impropriety in published, firsthand accounts that included their names. Dahlia Lithwick, who clerked for another judge in the 9th Circuit in the mid-1990s, wrote in Slate about how Kozinski, upon learning she was in a hotel room, had asked her what she was wearing. Nancy Rapoport, special counsel to the president of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas wrote in a personal blog post how the judge had invited her to drinks during her clerkship for another 9th Circuit judge and remarked: "What do single girls in San Francisco do for sex?"
Seven more women have since described their experiences to The Washington Post, three of them in on-the-record interviews.
In a statement read by one of his lawyers, Susan Estrich of the firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan, Kozinski said: Many of the things that are being said about me are simply not true, but I deeply regret that my unusual sense of humor caused offense or made anyone uncomfortable. I have always treated my male and female law clerks the same.
After The Post published its first report, Kozinski told the Los Angeles Times, "If this is all they are able to dredge up after 35 years, I am not too worried."
The review of possible misconduct that Kozinski now faces could lead to his being reprimanded, asked to retire or blocked from taking new cases for a period of time. On Thursday, Assistant Circuit Executive David Madden said in a statement that one or more of Kozinskis clerks had resigned. The reason was unclear.
A 33-year-old woman said that when she was a student at the University of Montana Law School in 2016, Kozinski came to speak at an event. She said she encountered Kozinski at a reception afterward, and Kozinski in an apparent attempt to see her name tag, which was partially obscured by her lapel very deliberately put his finger on the other side of my breast, and moved it, with some pressure toward the center.
It was shocking to me, the woman said, adding: I thought it was wrong. I thought it was inappropriate, and it felt extremely entitled.
Four of the womans friends, two men and two women, said she told them about what had happened soon after the incident. One friend, Kathryn Ore, 31, then a fellow Montana student who was also at the event, said Kozinski spent the whole time staring at my breasts for likely a minute or two during a conversation they had.
It was long enough and the context was weird enough that it kind of threw me, Ore said, adding that, although it was possible his gaze meant something else, I dont think I misinterpreted.
Leah Litman, 33, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine, said she, similarly, encountered Kozinski when they appeared together on a panel at her school in July to discuss Supreme Court issues. Litman said that at a dinner at the Italian restaurant Canaletto the night before their panel, Kozinski talked of having just had sex and pinched her side and her leg, just above the knee, with his thumb and middle finger. She said he also tried to feed her with a utensil.
I felt uncomfortable and just wanted to leave, Litman said.
Rick Hasen, a University of California at Irvine professor who was at the dinner, said he recalled Kozinski making a comment similar to what Litman described, and the experience was surreal. Hasen said he would not have been able to see any touching of Litmans leg or side.
Three friends also confirmed that Litman had previously told them about various parts of the interaction not long after it occurred, and Litman provided screenshots of text messages exchanges with two of them. In one exchange, she indicated she was touched repeatedly, remarking, It was gross. The friend who received that message, University of Michigan Law professor Gil Seinfeld, confirmed the texts were authentic and that he and Litman had discussed Kozinski touching her.
Christine O.C. Miller, 73, a retired U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge, said that around early 1986 shortly after Kozinski was appointed to his seat in the 9th Circuit he invited her to attend a legal community function in the Baltimore area.
As the two drove back together, Miller said, Kozinski asked if she wanted to stop at a motel and have sex.
Miller, then in her early 40s and married, said she had considered Kozinski, who had served as chief of the Claims Court, an ally and a professional friend but harbored no romantic feelings for him.
I told him, no, I wasnt interested and didnt want to be involved in anything like that, she said. Kozinski, she said, persisted.
He said if you wont sleep with me, I want to touch you, and then he reached over, and this was the most antiseptic he grabbed each of my breasts and squeezed them, Miller said. She said she stared straight ahead, and he soon dropped her off at her home.
Miller said she told a friend and her husband at the time both of whom are now deceased. Her current husband, Dennis Miller, said that when he started dating Miller decades ago, she also told him of an incident in which Kozinski tried to grope her.
Many of Kozinskis accusers have talked only on the condition that their names and other identifying information not be published, out of fear that he might retaliate against them or the institutions for which they work.
One lawyer said that Kozinski approached her when she was alone in a room at a legal community function in downtown Los Angeles in 2008 and planted a kiss on her lips. The woman was then in her 50s and said she was hardly even an acquaintance of Kozinski.
It was really disgusting, the woman said. It would have been disgusting if I were young, but it was particularly gross and unwelcome.
The womans husband confirmed that his wife had told him about the episode and they felt they were unable to do anything, given Kozinskis position.
A former Kozinski clerk said Kozinski, in his chambers, showed her an open-legged image of a male figure that was naked, although it did not have the intent of typical porn. Still, the former clerk said she was startled and soon went to talk to another 9th Circuit clerk about what had happened.
I was pretty shaken about it, the former clerk said. The other former clerk confirmed their conversation.
The former Kozinski clerk, who is the third to have described the judge showing her an explicit image in chambers, said the judge must have seen the dismay on her face, because he soon came to her to apologize and ask if she was okay.
I said I was okay but that was not the kind of thing I wanted to be exposed to, and he never showed me anything like that again, the former clerk said.
A former 9th Circuit clerk said that at a dinner with other clerks, Kozinski brought up a movie that contained a topless woman, talking about her voluptuous breasts. The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she made a face to signal her disbelief at what he was saying, and Kozinski turned to her and said something like, What? Im a man. Another person who was at the table said he recalled the dinner and that he apologized to the clerk afterward, as he had brought her to Kozinskis table.
Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Bailey Boswell and Aubrey Trail, whom investigators have called persons of interest in the disappearance and death of Sydney Loofe, pleaded not guilty Thursday in a stolen goods case, the most recent in a string of allegations against them from across the country.
At separate hearings that each lasted less than 5 minutes, Boswell, 23, and Trail, 51, wore shackles and orange jail clothes before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Zwart in U.S. District Court in Lincoln.
A federal prosecutor told them they'd been indicted for interstate transportation of stolen goods and faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if they're convicted.
Zwart set a three-day trial for them both in February.
An FBI spokesman has declined to give details about the allegations. A complaint said they brought the stolen goods valued at $5,000 or more from Hiawatha, Kansas, to Beatrice on or about Oct. 20.
They haven't been charged in connection with Loofe's death yet, but after Trail's hearing, his court-appointed attorney, Korey Reiman, said he anticipates charges could come within the next few weeks.
Loofe, 24, was reported missing in Lincoln on Nov. 16. She was last seen Nov. 15 in Wilber, where she went with Boswell after meeting on the dating app Tinder.
Loofe's body was found in rural Clay County on Dec. 4.
Police have said Boswell and Trail are two of the last people to have seen Loofe alive.
In social media videos, the pair denied involvement in Loofe's disappearance.
Trail confirmed in a recent letter to the Journal Star that he has been speaking with investigators.
"I have made it clear that I can only answer questions about me and what I know," Trail wrote. "I have made it very clear that Bailey Boswell had nothing to do with the death of Sydney Loofe."
Trail, in his letter, did not address what, if anything, he knows about Loofe's death.
Thursday, an FBI spokesman said an autopsy has been completed and confirmed the body found was Loofe's, but investigators are awaiting further testing before describing the cause and manner of her death.
Lincoln's police chief has said foul play is suspected.
Ten days after the body was found, investigators haven't said anything about how they think Loofe's remains got to Clay County or what they've learned about Trail and Boswell since they began looking for them publicly last month.
It's also unclear how Boswell, who was a star high school athlete in Iowa, met Trail or what brought them to the Wilber area, where they've lived in a downstairs apartment for the past several months.
In the videos they posted, they said they made more than $100,000 a year dealing antiques.
What seems clear from court records and police reports is that their dealings have raised eyebrows from Utah to Pennsylvania.
In June, a detective with the St. George (Utah) Police Department released photos that appear to be of Trail and Boswell. Police called the people in the pictures suspects in a theft from a coin dealer there, according to a national clearinghouse that gathers intelligence on crimes related to collectable coins and currency.
While one suspect distracted an employee, the other pocketed several coins worth thousands of dollars, according to a June 14 alert put out by the Numismatic Crime Information Center.
The man, who appears to be Trail, went by the name Allan and gave a phone number with a 402 area code.
"We do know that they were traveling," said Doug Davis, a former police chief in Texas who now runs the Numismatic Crime Information Center.
He said they were mostly hitting antique, pawn and coin shops. The same couple had been seen in Iowa and Tennessee.
By September, police in York County, Pennsylvania, had picked up Boswell for allegedly writing a bad check for $23,298 in antique coins at an April 22 auction. She was with a man who identified himself as Jeffrey Boswell, a Pennsylvania State Police trooper wrote in court documents.
Her check bounced, and an examination of Boswell's bank account showed only an initial deposit of $200, the trooper said.
Investigators also believe Boswell passed a bad check for more than $15,000 at an auction in Kansas in May, according to court documents.
They believe the man who was with her was Trail, and that the two are in a romantic relationship, a Pennsylvania State Police spokesman said.
Boswell posted a $7,500 bond in the Pennsylvania case and has pending charges there her first felony, according to court records.
But Trail's criminal history spans several states, including Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri, where he has a history of convictions for passing bad checks often at antique shops.
One of his last prison stints in Iowa stemmed from a transaction at the antique mall just across the river from Nebraska City.
Alicia Chrastil, owner of Finders Keepers Antique Mall, said she won't forget the day Trail came in on a Sunday in July 2010. He had been there several times but had finally decided on some sterling silver flatware, she said.
Something just doesnt add up with this guy, Chrastil said recently when recalling that day.
Trail was overly pleasant, "creepy nice," she said.
He paid for the flatware with a check for $2,650, and left, but the check didn't clear, she said.
She reported it to the local sheriff's office, which discovered 20 days later that Trail had just gotten out of prison in Missouri for writing bad checks.
Authorities ultimately found Trail in Arkansas and brought him back to Missouri, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Chrastil said Trail has paid just $155 of the $5,000 in restitution he owes her.
Lars Ostrom of Bargain John's Antiques in Lexington hasn't had a bad deal since his exchange with Trail in 2005, and he can't believe Trail's track record since he went to prison for stealing from him.
Trail came in on a November day, looked at an antique sideboard and bookcase, left and came back the next day, having decided to buy it.
He was calm, and they exchanged info about a piece Trail was selling that Ostrom had a buyer for, Ostrom said.
Trail wrote him a check for $5,500 and left.
When he didn't send photos of the piece Ostrom was curious about, Ostrom called the number Trail left. An ex-girlfriend answered the phone and said, "you're probably calling about that check that isn't good," according to Ostrom.
"I didn't know that I was getting myself into a mess that I was soon to find out about, he said.
Authorities put a warrant out for Trail's arrest but didn't bring him to court in Dawson County until 2008.
He spent two years in prison and just resurfaced on Ostrom's radar this year when a local radio station broadcast news of Trail's connection to Loofe's disappearance.
"That name Ill probably remember forever, for the bad," Ostrom said.
While three elementary schools celebrated being named "commendable" schools this year, other Muscatine Community Schools were not as lucky in this year's Iowa School Report Card released on Wednesday.
Grant, Franklin and McKinley Elementary Schools all received a "commendable" rank on their report card. For the past two years, they'd been "acceptable."
Mulberry and Jefferson Elementary Schools received "acceptable" ranks. This was nothing new for Mulberry, but for Jefferson, this a jump up from the past year's ranking.
Madison and Colorado Elementary Schools received "needs improvement" ranks. During the 2014-15 school year, Madison and Colorado were "acceptable" and "commendable" respectively. But for the second year in a row, both schools are told they need improvements.
Both Middle School received the same rank they have had the past three years. West "needs improvement;" Central is "acceptable." Between 2016 and 2017, West did not show significant improvements in their reading and mathematics proficiency. While Central's proficiency in reading and mathematics was higher than West, these scores did not show significant improvement over last year. Both middle schools were beneath the benchmarks for college and career readiness, a metric that is tied to reading and mathematics.
Muscatine High School received a "Needs Improvement" Rating for the third year in a row. While metrics, such as attendance (90.9 percent) and staff retention (86.6 percent) were relatively high, Muscatine High has significant work to do in preparing students for post-secondary success and to close the achievement gap within the school between minority students and the school's overall average.
In 2015, a legislative requirement launched the Iowa School Report Card to rate public schools on measures of achievement. It is designed to meet accomplish a component of the 2013 education reform legislation. The report includes measures on math and reading proficiency, student academic growth, achievement gaps among students, post-secondary readiness, attendance, graduation rates and staff retention. Based on their performance on these indicators, schools are given a rating: Exceptional, High-Performing, Commendable, Acceptable, Needs Improvement and Priority.
Muscatine Community Schools Ranking 2014-2017 School 2014-15 Rank 2015-16 Rank 2016-17 Rank Change Grant Elementary School Acceptable Acceptable Commendable Up Franklin Elementary School Acceptable Acceptable Commendable Up McKinley Elementary School Acceptable Acceptable Commendable Up Jefferson Elementary School Acceptable Needs Improvement Acceptable Up Mulberry Elementary School Commendable Acceptable Acceptable Same Colorado Elementary School Commendable Needs Improvement Needs Improvement Same Madison Elementary School Acceptable Needs Improvement Needs Improvement Same Central Middle School Acceptable Acceptable Acceptable Same West Middle School Needs Improvement Needs Improvement Needs Improvement Same Muscatine High School Needs Improvement Needs Improvement Needs Improvement Same
Across the state, these ratings are trending down from last year. An analysis from the Iowa Department of Education found that 20.5 percent of Iowa public school received a higher rating than 2016. 50.9 percent received the same rating. 28.6 percent received a lower rating.
Statewide Iowa School Report Card Results Statewide Iowa School Report Card Results Exceptional High-Performing Commendable Acceptable Needs Improvement Priority 2017 2.2% 8.8% 26.4% 41.5% 15.3% 5.7 2016 2.1% 10% 30.6% 38.1% 13.2% 5.9%
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/12/2017 (1798 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
When J.J. Abrams rebooted the Star Wars franchise with The Force Awakens in 2015, reaction was mostly rapturous. Viewed with a little hindsight, that feeling looks more like relief. (As in, Whew, it wasnt The Phantom Menace.)
Abrams is a good synthesizer. But Rian Johnson, brought in as writer and director for the second outing of the new trilogy, has a stubborn instinct for originality. Even handling a huge and, to some extent, predetermined pop-culture legacy like the Star Wars universe, Johnson (whose quirk-laden filmography includes Brick, The Brothers Bloom and Looper) manages to tweak expectations.
The Last Jedi combines sincerity with self-awareness, and fanboy callbacks with ranging cinematic references. The results are fun, funny, rousing and wondrously even a little surprising.
AT-M6 Walkers, along with Kylo's Shuttle (Lucasfilm photos)
Like The Empire Strikes Back, the story covers that crucial midpoint in the battle between light and dark. Those First Order fascists have the ragtag rebels on the run. General Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher) does what she can, but the weary Resistance needs new hope.
Rey (Daisy Ridley) has sought out Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to draw him back into the fight, while pursuing a personal quest of her own.
Rebel pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) keeps up his keeno enthusiasm and impetuous energy, Isaac somehow making every cocky flyboy cliche feel fresh. Finn (John Boyega) ends up on a Hail Mary mission with Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), a determined ships engineer.
Meanwhile, over on the Dark Side, Supreme Commander Snoke (really, not a scary name or is that just me?) tests and torments his protege, Darth Vader-wannabe Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).
Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)
Driver continues his tricky mandate, which involves an almost comically mopey exploration of the awkward adolescent stage of villainy. Last time out, Kylo Ren had mommy and daddy issues. Now, having somehow opened up a psychic link with Rey, hes kind of like that bad boyfriend many of us remember from our 20s. Hes possibly deep but mostly sulky and conflicted, and Rey is convinced she can change him.
Johnson manoeuvres all these subplots with fluid ease. He has a talent for mustering set-pieces that are magnificent and massive without feeling impersonal. Along with the usual action sequences dogfights, chases, things getting blown up Johnson pulls off some visually luscious effects, including a battle on a desert mining planet where the sands turn red with salt and a gorgeously surreal scene in which Rey encounters her shadow self in an underwater cave.
The movie is also packed with the detailed stuff of sci-fi, namely those fleeting and fascinating glimpses into whole worlds and their inhabitants, from a decadent intergalactic gambling port to Lukes desolately beautiful island retreat. Johnson, unfortunately, continues the franchises penchant for cute critters with the porgs, which are sort of like guinea pigs with wings.
Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac)
Movie references abound. At one point, Rey deploys an absolutely iconic Princess Leia moment to try to lure Luke back into the battle. That was a cheap move, Luke comments, in a meta sort of way. Along with remixing the Star Wars canon, Johnson also seems to be referencing David Lean and Akira Kurosawa, Soviet cinema and American westerns, with riffs on fast-talking screwball comedy and fatalistic film noir (mostly through a brilliant drop-in from Benicio del Toro).
This genre-jumping sometimes involves stylized dialogue and sly humour. As First Order military leader General Hux, Domhnall Gleeson seems to be taking the old war-movie convention that Nazis speak with posh British accents to its absolute and absolutely hilarious extreme. Huxs uptight pomposity is punctured in the opening scene when Poe Dameron manages to drag him into in a crosstalk comedy act that could have come right out of Spaceballs.
The Last Jedi also explores serious themes. Johnson makes some interesting observations about power, going beyond the vaguely New Age notion of the Force to suggest the grit of actual politics.
Examining how change comes about, how momentum builds and dynamics shift, the script keeps punching the word hope, which feels obvious but also sweetly earnest, timeless but also topical. Bringing new hope to an old movie franchise, Johnson manages to reinvigorate the Resistance, in a galaxy far, far away and maybe even here in our worn-out world.
Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)
alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.ca
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/12/2017 (1797 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Before we begin todays story about Cheesemongers, a specialty cheese shop due to open soon at 839 Corydon Ave., owners Meg Gifford and Courtney Dhaliwal would like to take a moment to pay homage to a few individuals who, each in their own way, inspired them to open Winnipegs only dedicated fromagerie.
For me it was my grandpa, who used to take me with him to get groceries on weekends, says Dhaliwal, seated in her and Giffords brightly-lit, 544-square-foot retail space. To him, shopping for food never meant a single trip to Safeway. Instead, he always made a point of driving to a bakery for his bread and buns, to a butcher shop for his sausage and when he was in the mood for cheese, to whomever he felt was selling the best cheese, at the time.
Both my parents are from Montreal and my mother grew up with good, European cheese in the house, as a rule, Gifford pipes in. Her father my grandfather kept a little cheese shelf in his fridge, and there was always a nice block of cheese my mom could nibble on, she used to tell me. My parents raised me in the same sort of environment.
Gifford and Dhaliwal met in 2008, while walking their dogs through Crescentwood.
When my dog Lumi was a pup, somebody at the dog park called him a bad apple, saying he started all the fights. But the moment he met Megs dog Charlie, not only did they get along famously, we did, too, Dhaliwal says, giving her pal a playful poke in the ribs.
Soon, the women and their husbands were spending time together on a regular basis, going to a movie, or taking turns hosting dinner. Five years ago, Dhaliwal, a systems engineer, and Gifford, a marketing and public relations expert, were lounging in a hot tub at the lake apres ski when, over a glass of champagne (OK, maybe two, Gifford chuckles), they began tossing ideas back and forth, about what sort of small business they could establish.
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Cheesemonger's Meg Gifford (left) and Courtney Dhaliwal are owners of Cheesemongers.
Meg had always talked about having a business of her own, but Id never really given it much thought, aside from this romantic vision in my head that, in retirement, Id run a little cheese shop somewhere, Dhaliwal says. I dont recall, but I must have mentioned that to Meg at some point because suddenly, there we were, in the hot tub, coming up with business models for a fromagerie.
At the time, both women had a rudimentary knowledge of cheese, and could tell the difference between blue cheese and brie, for example, or soft cheese versus brined. But they agreed if they were serious about going into the cheese biz, the first thing theyd have to do is fully educate themselves on all aspects of the industry.
In 2013, Gifford and Dhaliwal joined the American Cheese Society, a non-profit organization open to anybody passionate about specialty and artisanal cheeses. Through their association with the Denver-based body, they were put in touch with cheese shop owners across North America, whom they contacted by phone, email or, if they were travelling in the vicinity, in-person. After picking multiple vendors brains, they each signed up for a series of in-depth cheese workshops Gifford at Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont and Dhaliwal at Academie Opus Caseus in Saint-Haon-le-Chatel, France. There they were taught everything from how to age cheese to how to wrap cheese to how to milk a goat. (I grew up in a family of farmers and had milked cows before, but I can honestly say that was my first time milking a goat, Dhaliwal says.)
It was quite the experience, and really all-encompassing, Gifford says. We werent so much trying to learn how to produce cheese for the purpose of being cheesemakers. Rather, it was about getting to fully understand all the steps along the way, so wed be better prepared to answer questions, and become that liaison between consumer and cheesemaker.
Gifford and Dhaliwal founded Cheesemongers in 2014. Sure, a storefront location was their ultimate goal, but for the first two years, they were content, in Dhaliwals words, to find creative ways to get cheese into customers hands without having a physical retail location.
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
We had a temporary space in Osborne Village we did tasting events out of. Through our connections, we have access to 6,000-plus cheeses, from as far as New Zealand and Tasmania, so were always rotating our stock and streamlining things to meet peoples tastes, explains Gifford, adding she and Dhaliwal also became familiar faces at Banville & Jones Wine Co. on St. Marys Road, where, in tandem with a sommelier, they began hosting regularly-scheduled seminars, pairing wines with cheeses imported from all corners of the globe, as well as all regions of Canada.
In November 2016, the women added a cheese-of-the-month component to the mix, whereby interested parties could sign up for a three-, six- or 12-month subscription to receive a personally-delivered assortment of cheeses, hand-chosen by Gifford and Dhaliwal.
Elsie Guenther and her husband Craig Guenther own Urban Prairie, a full-service caterer based at the Winnipeg Winter Club. For his most recent birthday, Elsie got Craig a three-month, Cheesemongers subscription, a gift she describes as the best fun ever.
Every time the box arrives, it instantly becomes date night, Guenther says, describing Craig, a noted chef who has cooked for Queen Elizabeth, as a huge cheese guy. You open it up and inside are three cheeses all of which have been exceptional, and none of which we ever would have found on our own. You also got a special gift. One time it was this gorgeous, dark-chocolate bar and another time it was a half-pound of butter that, according to the accompanying notes, was churned from the milk of a single, grain-fed cow. That butter was like oh my God. We were licking the packaging, it was so good.
Gifford says Cheesemongers will continue offering its subscription service, despite the fact it has opened a bricks-and-mortar operation, with a full-service, cut-to-order cheese counter and seating for eight. (Come January, the duo plans to introduce a lunch menu, as well as offer a mix of in-house cheese and charcuterie boards, which can be paired with wine or local beers.)
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A display case at Cheesemongers on Corydon Avenue.
We truly believe Winnipeggers are ready for something like this because for the last two years, whenever weve done tastings or corporate events, everybody has been like, Where are you located? or When are you opening? Gifford says. Winnipeggers travel a ton and theres a lot they experience when theyre away, that they miss when they come back. A cheese shop is definitely on that list, we think.
Gifford, who grew up in Burlington, Ont. and didnt move to Winnipeg until she was 22, nods and says, Yes, Im familiar with that, when reminded of this citys Scrooge-like reputation, in regards to dropping upwards of $40 on a kilogram of cheese.
Rather than using the word frugal, I think its more to the point to say Winnipeggers arent frivolous with their money, but do have a high expectation of quality, she replies. I mean, look at the class of restaurants in our city its amazing. Courtney and I think the people that support all these great dining establishments are the same ones looking to enjoy that quality of food at home, and thats where we fit in.
That said, Gifford admits there are occasions when even she has a craving for something a bit more down-to-earth than a slice of, say, Moliterno al Tartufo, an Italian sheeps milk cheese laced with black truffle, or Grand Paccard, a spreadable, soft cheese from France that becomes almost fondue-like when taken out of the fridge and allowed to reach room temperature.
If Im in the mood for a BLT or something, its processed cheese all the way, she says, grinning. Heck, I still eat Kraft Dinner. I definitely have a deep-rooted interested in all these beautiful, artisanal cheeses but no, I wouldnt describe myself as a cheese-snob, at all.
For more information, go to www.thecheesemongers.ca.
david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Artisan breads.
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One of the best-known prayers in the English language might need an update for the sake of theological clarity, Pope Francis recently suggested in an interview.
The words in the Lords Prayer that ask, Lead us not into temptation, can cause confusion, Francis said.
To make it clear that God would not lead anybody toward sin, the Pope suggested a better translation of the Greek prayer from the New Testament would be something along the lines of, Do not let us fall into temptation.
Pope Francis makes it clear in an interview: Satans the one leading you into temptation.
Any change to the text of the Mass in the Catholic Church takes lengthy deliberations. Franciss comments wont lead to a change in what churchgoers recite this Sunday.
But theres precedent for the sort of change he suggested: the Catholic Church in France switched its liturgy from Ne nous soumets pas a la tentation (roughly Dont expose us to temptation) to an updated version, Ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation (meaning Dont let us enter into temptation).
Christians who have been taught the Lords Prayer, also known as the Our Father prayer, from the time they were children, reacted with surprise to the news of the Popes comments.
On social media, many reacted with comments such as, Leave the Lords Prayer alone!
The prayer comes from the book of Matthew, in which Jesus teaches his followers, This, then, is how you should pray, then recites the now-famous words.
Francis spoke about the prayer in an interview with Marco Pozza, a prison chaplain in Padua, Italy, on the channel TV2000 that is owned by Italian bishops. Pozza said that people sometimes ask him, Father Marco, how can God ever lead us into temptation?
The Pope replied that the translation is not good.
Its not about letting me fall into temptation. Its I, the one who falls, not Him pushing me toward temptation,
Francis said, miming the gesture of pushing someone, so as to then see how I fall. No, well, a father wont do that. A father will immediately help you pick yourself up. Satans the one leading you into temptation. Thats Satans task.
Michael Dauphinais, the chair of the theology department at Ave Maria University, said he has discussed the same confusion with his students about the meaning of this key prayer.
Its certainly important to understand that God is not ever going to lead us into temptation, that our Lord permits evils and sufferings to occur, but he does not ever lead us into sin, he said.
He said Pope Francis is a good pastor to have realized that his flock may be misunderstanding the words.
The only thing that can separate us from God is our own sins and never his action. The traditional language, when it says, Lead us not into temptation, the alternative that God will lead us to sin: it cant mean that, or else the rest of the prayer, and the rest of the Christian faith, wouldnt make sense, Dauphinais said.
Thats what the Pope is trying to exclude. Hes trying to exclude a possible misunderstanding of that expression.
When we say, Lead us not into temptation, its just a trust, that we are under the care of a loving father; there are no accidents.
Washington Post
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Manitoba Education Minister Ian Wishart will play host to a series of full-day Indigenous education roundtables in Winnipeg and Brandon over the next month.
The Winnipeg meetings are set for Monday and Tuesday, and in Brandon on Jan. 15 and 16.
Our government is committed to advancing reconciliation by working to improve education outcomes for Indigenous students, Wishart said in a news release. Through these roundtables, we hope to foster meaningful engagement with Indigenous Peoples and the education community to meet this commitment.
He has already held one similar session in Thompson.
Discussions will focus on: student and family well-being, early childhood development, kindergarten to Grade 12 education, adult learning, post-secondary education and the workplace.
The Winnipeg sessions begin at 9:30 a.m. at 1577 Dublin Ave.; Brandons will be held at the Brandon Friendship Centre (836 Lorne Ave.). They are open to the public.
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NDP Leader Wab Kinew is hopeful the spring sitting of the legislature will open each days business with an acknowledgment that Manitoba is treaty land.
It would be awesome if the Speaker (Myrna Driedger) consulted with Indigenous organizations in the province, Kinew said.
I wrote a letter at the end of September, of doing a land acknowledgment in addition to the opening prayer. It would be a nice way to start the spring session.
BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Provincial NDP leader Wab Kinew would like to see a treaty land acknowledgement formally included in the routine proceedings during daily sittings of the Manitoba legislature beginning in the spring session.
Kinew said he talked to Driedger and provincial house leaders about the issue.
Theyre interested in looking at some suggested wording. Its a group decision. Its fair to say its being actively considered.
The subject of treaty acknowledgment has been on my radar for quite some time, even before Wab sent his letter, Driedger said. The decision isnt the Speakers alone. It is on an agenda for a decision, hopefully, before the house resumes, but no guarantees.
It has become common in Winnipeg to open events by acknowledging the people participating are on Treaty 1 land and the traditional homeland of the Metis people, Kinew said.
But the legislature encompasses all of Manitoba, so all First Nations and all treaties within the province should be included, as well as First Nations such as the Dakota and Inuit who have not signed treaties, he said.
Conservative government house leader Cliff Cullen said he has discussed the issue with Kinew and Driedger, and expects those talks to continue.
While there is no protocol in place at the moment to have this as part of routine proceedings during daily sittings of the Manitoba legislature, our government acknowledges we are gathered on treaty territory and ancestral Indigenous lands at many special events and announcements, he said.
The Liberal caucus is in favour of Kinews proposal.
We fully support this initiative. It is long overdue. The Manitoba government currently recognizes that the legislative building was built upon Treaty 1 territory during the throne speech and budget speeches.
It only makes sense to open daily session with this acknowledgment, the party said in a statement.
However, acknowledgments during the throne speech are informal, Kinew noted.
We want to formalize it and make it part of the tradition. It would be a powerful message, he said.
It would be especially important to name each Indigenous community in the acknowledgment, and to use the name by which members of that community call themselves, Kinew said.
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
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Premier Brian Pallister has reached out to Hong Kong to find an Australian to head Manitoba Public Insurance.
Benjamin Graham will become the Crown corporations new president and chief executive officer on Feb. 1.
Mr. Graham brings nearly 15 years of senior leadership to his new role as president and CEO of MPI, with particular expertise in risk management, energy, financial services and insurance companies internationally, Pallister said in a news release Friday.
Manitoba Public Insurance's new president and CEO Benjamin Graham
Graham will succeed current president and CEO Dan Guimond, who announced his retirement plans earlier this year. Grahams most recent job is head of risk for QBE Insurance Asia Pacific, headquartered in Hong Kong.
Mr. Grahams international experience will bring new perspectives to the organization and ensure the Crown corporation is delivering industry best-practice solutions within the public insurance context that we are so proud to offer to Manitobans, Crown Services Minister Cliff Cullen said in a prepared statement.
I have no doubt the selection of Mr. Graham by the corporations board of directors will serve to strengthen and secure the long-term sustainability of the public insurance program in Manitoba.
The province said Graham holds a masters degree in risk management from Monash University in Australia and an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of New South Wales. He also holds numerous professional affiliations, including memberships in the Institute of Risk Management in the Middle East and Australia.
Like all Crown corporations and government civil service departments, MPI was ordered by Pallister to slash 15 per cent of its management jobs after the Tories took office in 2016.
The Manitoba Government and General Employees Union, which represents MPI staff, said Friday: The MGEU congratulates the new president and CEO and welcomes him to Manitoba. MPI is a very valuable public service and we are lucky to have some of the most affordable auto insurance rates in the country. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with Mr. Graham in his new role and talk about how we can work together to ensure strong public auto insurance for Manitobans.
NDP Crowns critic Tom Lindsey was similarly welcoming: We congratulate Mr. Graham on his new position, and wish him well. Manitobans are relying on his leadership to deliver affordable publicly owned auto insurance through MPI, and we hope he can deliver.
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
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Winnipeg police are investigating a double shooting in the North End from early Saturday morning.
Two people were taken to hospital, including an adult female in critical condition. She has since been upgraded to stable condition.
The second victim, a male youth, is in hospital in stable condition.
BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The shooting took place at about 4 a.m. at a home in the 300 block of Aikins Street.
Police were providing few details on Saturday. The shooting took place at about 4 a.m. The home in the 300 block of Aikins where the shooting took place is cordoned off by police tape while officers continue their investigation.
Police spokesman Const. Jay Murray said the shooting took place at a get together and police are talking to several people who were there.
Any witnesses or anyone with information that may help investigators are asked to call 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477).
Opinion
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It has almost become a mantra of the times.
Job-hunting sons and daughters of baby boomers have it tougher than their parents, who can remember being able to launch a lifelong career with only a high school diploma.
Not so much, anymore.
WAYNE GLOWACKI / FREE PRESS FILES Potential recruits to the WPS must go through a rigorous screening process, which involves, among other things, a thorough background check. Candidates are also expected to have traits such as humility, honesty and resilience.
Unless, maybe, you want to join the Winnipeg Police Service.
If youre interested and, judging by the more than 2,000 employment applications the WPS has received during the past four years, you wouldnt be alone all you need to do is find your diploma and prepare for background investigators to look into every corner, every social media site and everyone in your life.
In the meantime, the wait could be as long as the odds are of getting hired, even for the qualified women, visible minorities and Indigenous applicants the WPS covets but cant seem to attract. Thats because of those 2,000-plus applications, just 136 new officers have been hired since 2014.
The lure, beyond the dynamic nature of the job itself, is a generous benefit package and pension, plus the prospect of overtime to top up a tantalizing basic salary that can reach six figures for constables. In fact, two years ago, nearly 75 per cent of the services 1,451 officers earned $100,000 or more with overtime.
But it wasnt what cops earn that intrigued me about the recruiting process it was what police are looking for in candidates. How do some applicants get tripped up? And why, with so many lined up wanting the job, does the force select people who end up on the other side of law, getting arrested by fellow officers?
What got me interested initially was a couple of chance conversations with fathers whose sons applied and didnt get in. The two dads independently expressed anger about how their boys were treated by retired cops acting as background investigators for the WPS.
Coincidentally, both young men had their applications deferred, meaning that for whatever reasons, neither was judged ready to be hired and they cant reapply for up to five years. Which feels like a lifetime for guys in their 20s trying to find a meaningful career direction. Both fathers believed their sons had been deferred unfairly, one because of what the dad considered guilt by association his sons relationship with a close relative.
Last month, I sat down with deputy chief Gord Perrier, who, as a young would-be cop, was deferred twice and waited six years before getting on the force in 1994. When I shared some of the fathers complaints, Perrier suggested sons dont always tell their dads everything that happened during the interview process. Applicants are never told why they were deferred or disqualified, but he believes they can figure it out.
So, what about guilt by association? What if someone grows up in a family where one son is dealing drugs and the other wants a career arresting drug dealers?
Its a very fair question, Perrier said, because people worry about that all the time.
His answer?
You cant pick your family, can you? Youre your own person, we get that. But we do our investigations. And you say, Well, I dont associate with that person and havent for years. And I establish you were out drinking with them last week. Its not the association thats the problem. Its the integrity thing thats the problem.
Of course, it can be the association thats the problem, too. Perrier took that to a place I hadnt considered with a question that hadnt occurred to me.
Do we get organized crime trying to infiltrate our recruiting process? The short answer is yes.
I asked if they had ever been successful.
Well, not that I know of, he replied.
But in the wider context of Canadian policing, yes, theyve been successful, he acknowledged.
Thats one of the reasons police screen an applicants connections, and not just on Facebook.
And we dont make apologies for those kinds of checks, either, he said. I mean, people sign off knowing this kind of process is going to occur.
Investigators will, as Perrier suggested, get to know you better than your family does. Theyll even dig into your banking records and financial situation, generally.
You can owe a ton of money, he said.
And were still going to take you.
As long as youre not doing something illegal, such as kiting cheques to support five credit cards. Thats the sort of thing background investigators look into.
But what does the WPS look for in a candidate?
Perrier referred to empathy being able to connect and communicate with people and having a measure of humility. An open, thoughtful mind is vital. As are continuing education and volunteering. Then there are those two fundamental pillars of policing.
Honesty and ethics are huge, he said. I cant stress that enough.
To illustrate how important they are, he related a story about an applicant who arrived for a background interview. He recalled the investigator starting the conversation with a prescribed question.
What was your day like today?
Oh, I had this. Thats it.
Were you supposed to work today?
No, no. I took the day off.
And then, Perrier said, we look and we find out the person actually booked sick that day. Because we check every time.
BORIS MINKEVICH / FREE PRESS FILES Gord Perrier, now WPS deputy chief, was deferred twice and had to wait six years before being allowed to join the force in 1994.
Perrier still shakes his head.
You know what it takes to get a background interview?
I mean, these are $100,000 jobs. And you werent brave enough to say, My boss wont let me out of work that day. Can I reschedule? Because we will. Weve done things on weekends, on evenings.
Perrier recognizes everyone makes mistakes. Police dont demand perfection, but
If you dont have enough humility to say, Im a human being. Ive made mistakes, how can I rely on you to take the oath to tell the truth, even when its uncomfortable?
Two other qualities police look for? Stability and resilience.
There are seven steps in the gauntlet that is the application process, including a personality and psychological assessment. The central part of what the psychological assessors are looking for is an applicants ability to not only do the job, but cope with what cops have to do, see and be seen by the public as being.
So they will look at what your risks are when it comes to self-medicating, for instance.
But psychological profiling isnt a perfect filter. Or the complete measure of how a man or woman will manage the stress of the street and, sometimes, the undertow of the police subculture.
Consider the arrests this year of five police officers for impaired driving. One of them Justin Holz, a 34-year-old cop with eight years on the job, who was working in major crimes went for after-work drinks with some other WPS members and then got behind the wheel of his car. Hes charged with killing 23-year-old Cody Severight in a Main Street hit-and-run a short time later.
There have been other Winnipeg cops arrested and charged over the past couple of years, including the tragic case of Trent Milan. Last year, the 18-year veteran was charged with 34 offences, including possession of prohibited weapons; trafficking in cocaine, meth and ecstasy; attempting to obstruct justice; and sharing police information with members of the public. Not long after he was charged, Milan died in an apparent suicide in a highway collision near Birds Hill park.
Predicting human behaviour is really difficult, Perrier said. Theres going to be misses.
Some cops can reach a breaking point because of accumulated job stress, vicarious trauma or marital problems.
All of those things, when you pile them on each other, sometimes you end up in a place where, Well, how did that person get hired? he said.
Still, Perrier said the WPS relies on the psychological assessment aspect fairly heavily.
Some forces, including Edmontons, use polygraph tests. The WPS does not.
Const. Heather Spence of the Edmonton Police Services recruit selection unit, said they find it an effective tool in their vetting process.
There are definitely people who are eliminated at the polygraph stage, she said.
Winnipeg doesnt take that extra step, in part, Perrier said, because of the cost.
But cost doesnt seem to be as much of an issue for the Edmonton service, which travels the country attending job fairs. In October, they touched down here, where about 130 Winnipeggers registered and 70 of them wrote the first-step tests to join the EPS.
Cherry-picking is what Perrier called it.
Perhaps, but one of those cherries who turned out in hopes of being picked had already been discarded by Winnipeg police. He was one of the two young men whose fathers had complained to me about unfair deferment.
He apparently was trying again much sooner with Edmonton. But doesnt being turned away by the WPS mean hes not ready for that citys force either?
No, Spence said, We do our own thing. We assess each candidate regardless of their status with another department.
All of which suggests that the competition in police recruiting isnt just among long lines of applicants.
Not when one police service feels it cant afford not to take the road to recruit.
And not when an applicant who gets rejected in Winnipeg can apply for a job in Edmonton.
Where, according to the latest website posting, starting salaries are even higher than here.
gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion
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If a vast chunk of economic activity were shifting into untaxed areas from places where it was traditionally taxed, most governments would be alarmed.
This is why it is puzzling that finance ministers in provinces across the country with the exception of Quebec are reluctant to dive into the rapidly growing world of digital commerce, which is quickly coming to dominate some parts of the Canadian economy.
Massive amounts of buying and selling activity that used to be taxed in the bricks-and-mortar, paper-and-ink world, are escaping transactional taxes. Worse, the sellers are the worlds largest companies and they are taking huge stashes of cash out of local economies, while putting little back in the way of employment, taxes paid or public service provided.
A case in point is the internet advertising industry, which has grown to dwarf all other forms of advertising. Digital ads are expected to bring in $6.2 billion in revenue in Canada this year, more than half of all media ad spending, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada.
You would think that Finance Minister Bill Morneau would be counting on hundreds of millions from this activity. Not so. The federal GST is not even charged on digital advertising. Buy an ad in the Winnipeg Free Press and you get charged five per cent GST; not so on Google or Facebook.
So now half the media ad industry is escaping taxation that is imposed on the rest of the industry. Whats more, most of the revenue is going to just two giant, foreign-owned companies. Three out of every four dollars spent on digital ads in Canada go to either Google or Facebook.
The Canadian revenues of Google and Facebook were $4 billion last year. Google alone took in $2.6 billion. It is expected to grow by around 20 per cent this year, meaning this single digital firm will have more revenue than all the newspaper companies in Canada combined.
Put in a Manitoba context, Google and Facebook are the largest advertising companies in the province.
These are estimates a provincial breakdown on revenues is not available but based on the fact Manitobas population makes up 3.5 per cent of Canada, Google and Facebook revenues combined were around $140 million in 2016. That is about $67 million for Google and about $34 million for Facebook. Those revenues are expected to grow to about $170 million in 2017.
These estimates are probably low. Facebook, for example, says each user is worth $62.23 in revenue per year. Manitoba has about 750,000 Facebook users, which would put Facebook revenues at about $47 million in the province.
Even with a low estimate, Google alone will have higher revenues than FP Newspapers, which owns the Winnipeg Free Press, Brandon Sun, Steinbach Carillon and six free-distribution community newspapers in Winnipeg.
It used to be that most advertising spending in the province went back into communities here, employing people, paying taxes and supporting media outlets such as radio and TV stations and newspapers, including underwriting the gathering of local news and information.
Now the money just leaves town as our governments struggle with how to capture tax from companies that have many customers, but no offices or other physical presence in our communities.
FP Newspapers employs 469 people directly one for every $172,000 in revenue it generates and provides part-time income for hundreds of others. Most FP revenue is spent back into the local economy buying goods and services. Local spending has a multiplier effect, meaning that FP activity supports from 1,500 to 2,500 jobs in Manitoba. Facebook employs one person, typically in California, for every $1.6 million in revenues. Google employs one person for every $1.3 million in revenues.
FP generated about $17.2 million in taxes last year, paid to municipal, provincial and federal governments. Its not clear what corporate taxes Google and Facebook pay in Canada. Neither firm reports results separately for Canada.
The companies disclose, overall, what they pay in taxes. Their 2016 annual reports show Google paid 6.8 per cent of its operating income in taxes and Facebook paid 9.7 per cent.
By comparison, Canadian Tire paid 23.8 per cent of its operating income in taxes and Walmart paid 19.8 per cent.
The European Union estimates that digital companies operating there pay about half the corporate tax rate of traditional firms.
The European Union and Israel are considering taxing digital sales of Google and Facebook plans that the two companies vehemently oppose.
In Canada, Quebec is the sole province thus far to indicate it is concerned about this. Quebecs finance minister is seeking to tax online businesses that dont have a significant presence in Quebec.
Manitoba Finance Minister Cameron Friesen should look in the same direction. Most sales transactions in the province are subject to provincial sales tax.
If an eight per cent provincial tax were applied to digital ad spending, it would generate about $14 million on Facebook and Google alone and much more if it were extended to other digital purchases.
The province could devote some of that money to the biggest casualty of the dominance of Facebook and Google local news gathering.
Bob Cox is publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press and chairman of News Media Canada.
A majority ruling by Australias High Court this month places even more onerous conditions on workers taking industrial action and is another means for employers to sue workers for profit losses during enterprise agreement disputes.
Under Australias Fair Works anti-strike provisions, industrial action can only be taken during bargaining periods for new enterprise work agreements (EBAs). All other action is illegal. In order to take EBA protected action, workers are required to go through lengthy procedures, including holding a secret ballot.
Even if the ballot endorses industrial action, the specific forms must be submitted in advance to the Fair Work Commission (FWC), the governments industrial tribunal, for approval. The FWC, however, can terminate the protected action on a whole range of pretexts, including if the action threatens to cause significant economic harm.
On December 6, the High Court ruled that workers cannot take protected action for the remainder of any enterprise bargaining period if they, or their union, breaches an FWC order related to the dispute. The ban would remain in place even if the breach was quickly corrected or related to minor procedural matters.
Delivering its majority decision, the court said that the Fair Work Act was intended to deny the immunity of protected industrial action to all those who had demonstrated they were not prepared, or prepared to take sufficient care, to play by the rules. A dissenting judgement from Justice Stephen Gageler admitted that the ruling was a sweeping denial of a unions capacity to take protected industrial action.
The High Court determination was in response to an application by Essothe Australian arm of ExxonMobilover its long-running EBA dispute with the Australian Workers Union (AWU) at its Longford oil and gas operations in Victoria. The dispute involved 600 workers who rejected a company EBA which imposed a 14-day on, 14 day-off roster and abolished mandated pay levels, with current take home wages slashed by up to 50 percent.
In March 2015, the FWC ordered the Australian Workers Union (AWU) to lift bans on de-isolating or testing equipment at Longford. The bans had already been specified in the AWUs previous applications for protected action.
The FWC, however, ordered the AWU to lift the bans after Esso successfully argued that AWUs definition did not apply to equipment for testing air freeing and leak testing.
When the union did not immediately comply, Esso took legal action the Federal Court of Australia. The company claimed that the unions breach of the FWC directive rendered all industrial action organised by the AWU after the breach to be unprotected. It called on the Federal Court to ban the AWU from organising any further protected action during the dispute.
While the Federal Court denied the companys application this was overturned on December 6 by the High Court. The matter has now been remitted to the Federal Court for the determination of the penalties on the union
The High Court ruling establishes a precedent with far-reaching implications. It opens up the AWU to possible legal action by Esso for damages claims and court fines for so-called illegal industrial action. This will now be used by other companies to seek damages if FWC orders have been breached during past EBA disputes.
It will also fan greater corporate agitation for an even-more stringent industrial relations regime despite the fact that the unions operate as an industrial police force, consistently isolating all industrial disputes and negotiated agreements in line with employers demands.
The unions not only enforce FWC rules but also seek the industrial courts interventions and then impose the arbitrated and regressive outcomes. This is the case with the AWUs dispute with Esso where the arbitration process has been underway for over a year after the union called off indefinite strike action in late 2016 following an FWC order (see: Australia: State Labor government moves to ban Esso strike).
Employer groups welcomed the High Court decision. Australian Mines and Metals Association director of workplace relations Amanda Mansini hailed the decision as a test case and gloated: If unions want protection of our laws to organise a strike in support of bargaining claims then the unions must comply with Australias laws until an agreement is struck, not just when it suits them.
Former federal Liberal government employment minister Eric Abetz declared: This decision will clarify the operation of the law and ensure further consequences for law-breaking and defiance.
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Sally McManus said the court ruling made it even harder and more unpredictable for workers to take protected action.
McManus called for detailed discussion with the Labor Party but made clear that the ACTU was not calling for the total abolition of the anti-strike laws or an unmitigated right to strike but only a fair one.
This year McManus launched an ACTU campaign to rewrite the [Fair Work] rules and bring fairness back. The campaign is a total fraud.
The rules, which were introduced by the Rudd Labor government in 2009 with the enthusiastic backing of the unions, were never about fairness or protecting workers rights but to assist employers demands for increased productivity and other cost-cutting measures to bolster profits.
The ACTU campaign and McManuss posturing is another cynical attempt to cover over this history and promote the return of a Labor government, which the unions hope will allow them to deepen their role as the principal industrial police force in the escalating assault on jobs, wages and working conditions.
After a spate of homicides in Huntington, West Virginia, Governor Jim Justice announced he was deploying the National Guard to the small city of 53,000. The governor made the announcement during a televised town hall meeting in Huntington Thursday afternoon.
So far this year, the city has been the scene of 19 confirmed homicides, with two others under investigation. A string of five shootings resulting in three deaths in the past week has catapulted Huntington ahead of Cleveland and New Orleans in terms of per capita homicides. This rail hub on the Ohio River now sits just behind St. Louis and Baltimore, large cities battered by deindustrialization, in the nationwide violent crime rankings.
The violence, along with an increase in theft and robberies, has set many working class residents on edge and contributed to the efforts by politicians to whip up fear and a siege mentality. The deployment of National Guard forces to respond to civilian drug crimes sets a dangerous precedent in the United States.
In an interview with MetroNews Talkline radio show October 14, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams described the killings as a turf war and largely internal to the drug trade. Dont think for a minute that we dont know who is causing harm, Williams said. We know who they are and where they are and we are going to come in and lock them away for years to come. Williams suggested that drugs like meth and crack cocaine, not just heroin, were fueling some bit of craziness and aggressive drug dealers with it.
Governor Justice, who switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican earlier this year, seized on the violence to burnish his law-and-order credentials in an apparently snap decision in front of television cameras. Im going to call upon our National Guard, Justice declared to local television station WSAZ. Our National Guard has resources that can absolutely combat this thing. In his typically incoherent manner, Justice intoned that Huntington must replace drugs for jobs When I was here it was the great town in the world. Streets running one way, avenues running another way. It was a sweater-type town.
Now Huntington will be a martial-law-type town, with National Guard troops deployed to reinforce civil law enforcement. It is unclear whether the governor either consulted with Mayor Williams or forewarned National Guard officials before his announcement. Major General James Hoyer, the adjutant general of the states National Guard, released a video on social media Thursday night attempting to explain the technical support role the military force would play, ostensibly in response to public dismay over the prospect of boots on the ground.
That doesnt mean setting a Humvee on every street corner, Justice insisted. We cant do that because the National Guard doesnt get involved with law enforcement. But between the National Guard, the state police and great police of the city of Huntington were going to stop it.
Huntington has gained national notoriety in the past few years as an epicenter of the opioid crisis. West Virginia has a fatal overdose rate of 35.3 per 100,000far outpacing the already staggering national death rate of 15 per 100,000 for drug overdoses.
Huntingtons Cabell County, population approximately 100,000, saw an appalling 105 fatal overdoses in the first nine months of the year, most of them attributable to heroin or other opioids.
Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader has estimated that as many as one in ten Cabell County residents are drug-addicted. We average 5.3 overdoses a day in Huntington, West Virginia, Rader told NBCs Meet the Press October 30. Twenty-six percent of the time that my guys get a call, they are climbing on their truck and going to an overdose.
Rader has gained a national profile following the Netflix release of a short documentary, Heroin(e), a film that follows the fire chief and two other women involved in responding to the drug crisis. In interviews, she and other emergency responders have repeatedly stressed the necessity for drug rehabilitation programs. In Cabell County, Rader explained on PBSs Bill Moyers program November 22, thousands of addicts have access to only eight detox beds, none of them medically assisted.
The city has served as a stage backdrop for Democratic and Republican politicians who seek to pose as champions of drug treatment, law-and-order, or some combination of the two. In 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders made a well-attended campaign stop in Huntington to give his standard stump speech railing against the billionaire class. Last summer, Republican President Donald Trump filled the same arena with supporters for a rally in which he issued promises to bring jobs to the region, crippled by the collapse in the coal industry.
In early October, First Lady Melania Trump ventured out into the open air for a photo-op at Lilys Place, Huntingtons specialized infant recovery center for babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. The presidents wife traveled with Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway and Republican Congressman Evan Jenkins. Unsurprisingly, the few public comments issued during the visit were couched in platitudes about personal responsibility. No promises were made, WSAZ reported, but there are plans to keep in touch with medical providers.
The promises of politicians for meaningful drug treatment are nothing more than lip service. As a few million dollars are pledged here and there, the Trump administration has moved to gut Medicaid and other lifeline health care services. Much federal money earmarked for emergency response has been allocated to police departments rather than rehabilitation services.
In early December, the state Department of Health and Human Resources announced $20.8 million in lawsuit settlements with pharmaceutical companies involved in creating the opioid epidemic would be divided among nine drug treatment programs. Huntingtons Marshall University Recovery Center for Families was earmarked $2.8 million to provide residential treatment services for pregnant women.
Meanwhile, municipal emergency services have been all but bankrupted by the cost of naloxone, the anti-opioid drug used to reverse overdoses. The Evzio-branded naloxone auto-injector device runs at approximately $4,500 for a box containing only two doses. Naloxone delivered by auto-injector can cost up to $3,800 per dose. The nasal delivery version of Narcan, which is not as effective for overdose cases involving fentanyl-laced heroin, runs $50 per dose.
Thousands of lives have been saved by emergency responders, but the effort has cost Huntington and Cabell County emergency services a staggering $100 million in the past year and a half.
In communities smaller than Huntington, the funding crisis has had a shattering impact on municipal budgets. Funding for emergency services are completely threadbare, staff are run ragged, and naloxone shortages are widespread. Of West Virginias 434 local fire departments, a November 16 Charleston Gazette-Mail article noted, all but 16 are volunteer.
Many cities in West Virginia and throughout the country are dysfunctional and falling deeper into debtopening their infrastructure up to be picked clean by the bond rating agencies and hedge fund vultures. Americas drug epidemic is fundamentally an expression of the rapacious appetite of the capitalist class.
Consider: just three pharmaceutical companies at the center of the opioid racketMcKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergenpull in revenues of $400 billion every year. These three companies were responsible for supplying hundreds of millions of addictive painkillers to West Virginia over a five-year period, causing the deaths of at least 1,700 people.
The legal settlements are little more than pocket change for the pharmaceutical giants, and will do little to alleviate the crisis. Nothing short of the expropriation of the profits of the major pharmaceuticals will suffice to address the social devastation they have wrought. Working people in West Virginia and across the US must fight for genuine redress by liquidating the ill-gotten gains of these capitalist criminals. Only through a massive reorganization of economic life to meet pressing social needs will the working class gain the resources required to restore their lives and rehabilitate their loved ones.
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 []
Hopefully 2018 will mark a new beginning for Ben Affleck.
The actor has reignited rehab speculation after paparazzi spotted him looking "disoriented" on a sidewalk near a treatment center in Los Angeles, according to the Daily Mail. He allegedly left the center in the early evening and returned the same night.
Affleck had two blonde women by his side; he reportedly had his arm around one, but video footage shows her removing his arm as photographers snapped away.
It's unclear who is speaking in the video, but a woman's voice can be heard saying "You're such a d--k."
A man's voice later says, "Why don't you get the f--k out of here?" presumably directed toward the paparazzi.
Us Weekly confirmed Friday that Affleck is still in treatment for alcohol and substance abuse, as a source noted, "Dealing with this disease is something hell have to work on for the rest of his life and he remains focused on it."
Affleck first sought treatment for alcohol addiction in 2001. In September of this year, he reportedly "reached a breaking point" and asked ex-wife Jennifer Garner and brother Casey Affleck to help him find a 30-day program, which he's since completed. He is now doing outpatient treatment.
LUCASFILM
[This post contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi]
The scripts for Game of Thrones season seven were leaked online months in advance. Its big news when a major death on The Walking Dead isnt ruined. A this post contains spoilers is now a near-obligatory introduction to any article (see: this article) written about Marvel. Or DC. Or especially Star Wars.
But to the immense credit of Disney, and the millions they spent on anti-drone drones and the jacked Eastern European bodyguards who flew them, little about The Last Jedi was spoiled in advance. Think about it: how much do you actually know about the movie? Do you know who Reys parents are? Do you know anything about Supreme Leader Snoke, other than his height? What the heck is that porg screaming about? If you avoided the trailers, and fast-forward through commercials (so: everyone), you could come into The Last Jedi cold turkey.
But even if you read all the fan theories and devoured every nugget of pre-release information like a rancor eating a Gamorrean guard, theres one surprise in the movie that, based on my theater experience, made you gasp.
It happens near the end of the second act, after Rey departs Ahch-To to join the fight against the First Order, leaving Luke Skywalker alone and broken. The self-loathing Jedi tries to burn the tomes of his hokey religion, in order to rid the world of the Jedi for good, but stops himself at the last moment. (Much like he did in killing Kylo in his sleep during a flashback.) However, Luke is surprised to learn hes not the only one there. For the first time since declaring his self-imposed exile at the end of Revenge of the Sith (or, in episodic order, ghosting with Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Return of the Jedi), Master Yoda appears! Hes not the wise Yoda of the prequels, either, but the rascally Yoda who steals Lukes food and bashes R2-D2 with his stick. I missed that guy.
Yodas in fine form in The Last Jedi. Hes funny (page turners, they were not), insightful (the greatest teacher, failure is), and, unlike Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Babas cameo in Rogue One, hes important to the plot. He helps convince Luke to stop sulking. Oh yeah, and he uses force lightning to burn down the Jedi tree, which was almost as cool as seeing puppet Yoda again.
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(At least it looked like a puppet to me. If so, that would be the first time since The Phantom Menace, although hes since been replaced by a digital Yoda. There could have been some CGI involved, but its unlikely Disney will say anything until next week, after more people have watched the movie.)
Yoda is one of the few characters to appear in the original trilogy, the prequels, and the new trilogy, and hes always been voiced by Frank Oz. In the lead-up to The Last Jedi, the Muppet legend was asked if Yoda would ever return to Star Wars. To be true to the people who asked me, and they are kind of my family, I have to say Ive been asked not to talk about it, he teased, although theres nothing in there that hints, I am going to set a tree on fire in a few months.
Hes back in the fold now, though, and Yodas appearance is significant for the final chapter in the post-Lucas-era trilogy. The Force Awakens was Force Ghost free, but with Yoda again doling out advice from beyond the pile of robes, we may not have seen the last of Luke, who, in the other big Last Jedi surprise, finds peace before dying. With so much death in the Star Wars universe, both on-screen (Han Solo, Luke, Admiral Ackbar) and off (Carrie Fisher and Kenny Baker), Yodas cameo was an unexpected source of excitement.
Even if the Jedi dont believe in it.
The Force is strong with Billie Lourd and her late mother Carrie Fisher.
On Friday, Lourd remembered Fisher with a moving throwback photo on her Instagram of the pair together on the red carpet for the Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiere in 2015. The mother-daughter duo both appeared together in J.J. Abrams blockbuster, as well as The Last Jedi, which opens Friday.
In her caption of the photo, Lourd payed tribute to her mother by writing I miss you in the unique emoji-heavy style Fisher often tweeted in.
?? ???????????? ??????????? A post shared by Billie Lourd (@praisethelourd) on Dec 15, 2017 at 9:01am PST
In October, Lourd shared a sweet throwback photo of herself with Fisher to honor her late mothers birthday.
In the picture, the mother-daughter duo are wearing matching nightgowns, and young Lourd can be seen smiling while her mother stands with one hand on her hip and the other on her daughters shoulder.
In September, the American Horror Story: Cult actress spoke to Ellen DeGeneres about the hardships of adjusting to life without her mom and grandmother Debbie Reynolds who died within one day of each other last December.
Its completely surreal, Lourd said. Theres no way to really explain it its so hard to talk about. If I say Im doing good, Im too happy. If I say Im not doing good, then Im a mess. So its really hard to know what to say about it because its so surreal and impossible to deal with.
The actress also talked about the special experience she had with her mom while filming 2015s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was her first acting job.
Im a big believer of things happening for a reason and I think I ended up on that movie for a reason, Lourd said. It was really incredible for us to get to have that experience together.
Fisher went into cardiac arrest aboard a flight from London to Los Angeles on Dec. 23, 2016. She died four days later in the hospital.
1927- 2017
Peacefully and fully alert, Ruth Karsten passed away with her daughter by her side on Tuesday, December 5, 2017. She left this earth just as she lived on it, calmly, quietly and with no fear.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida Ruth and her family moved to Brisbane, CA in 1939 and later to Burlingame where she graduated from Burlingame High. Before her senior year she decided to become a nurse and took extra classes to fulfill requirements for acceptance at San Jose School of Nursing. At the age of 18, she was recruited and joined the Nurse Cadet Corp which had an accelerated 3 year nursing degree to meet the need for nurses during the WWII. Upon graduation in 1947 she worked at Mills Memorial Hospital in San Mateo. In 1948, while shopping in San Francisco, she stopped into Standard Oil of New Jerseys headquarters inquiring about overseas nursing opportunities and was advised to go down the street to Aramco Oil which did have foreign job opportunities. Within six months she was hired and boarding a plane for a two-day long journey to nursing positions in clinics in Dhahran and Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia. During this time she met Everett E. Karsten, a fellow Aramco employee and was married in May 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon. They honeymooned through Europe and returned to a 3-floor walkup bachelor pad in New York City. In 1953 they moved to San Mateo, CA where their daughter Mary-Anne was born. Subsequently Everetts career took them to Los Angeles and then to San Tome, Venezuela in 1954 and then to the Lake Maracaibo area in western Venezuela, returning stateside for thirteen years and then to the island of Aruba, Netherland Antilles where Everett retired in 1983.
Upon moving to Napa in 1967 Ruths volunteer nursing flourished. She worked as a maternity leave replacement at the Napa County Health Department, as a volunteer nurse for the Countys Well Baby program, Senior Blood Pressure Screening Clinics and as a Diabetic Educator and translator with the Queen of the Valley Outreach program. She was the licensed health care provider insuring that Clinic Ole remained open in Rutherford before a medical director could be hired. She spent more than 30 years offering her nursing and translation services to Clinic Ole. Ruth was a diabetic educator for clinics and schools in the area. Although she never wanted any accolades she was named the First Volunteer of the Year 1975-76 in Napa County as well as acknowledged for her community work by California Human Development Corp in 1990. On May 5, 2014 she was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for service in the Cadet Nurse Corps by the U.S. Public Health Service. She was also a devoted worker at St. Johns Lutheran and Faith Lutheran for over 45 years.
Ruth was gentle, caring and provided unconditional support to all who knew her. She lived by the principals of her faith in God. She was a role model for more people that she could have possibly imagined and had a delightful sense of humor. She never placed herself above others, saw the good in mankind and in life, always made do with what life offered and adjusted accordingly and managed the challenges of life with dignity and grace. She marveled at the blessings received during her life and thought of herself as ordinary and unexceptional.
She was blessed that in her later years, although not able to continue her volunteer activities, she kept in contact with friends from grammar school, nursing classmates, a multitude of friends from her life overseas and those she met and served here in California.
She will be remembered with love and fondness by many. She was predeceased by her husband, Everett E. Karsten, her son John Emery Karsten and is survived by her daughter, Mary-Anne Karsten, brother, John Roy McMillan, Jr., numerous nieces and nephews and by her adopted relatives, the Pabon and Smith families.
Interment will be at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon, CA. A memorial service will be held at St. Johns Lutheran Church, Napa, CA in January 2018; the date will be announced later. The family is being served by Treadway & Wigger and memorials can be made in her honor at The Lutheran Hour, Collabria Care Napa, CA or the Salvation Army.
President Donald Trump stuck mostly to his campaign-rally greatest hits while addressing an FBI Academy graduation today murder is on the rise, MS13 gang members are savages, visa lotteries allow the worst of the worst to immigrate here but he went seemingly off-script to make an odd reference to law enforcers and their families.
By the way, you are great people, Trump told the graduates. I hope your families know that. Id say 90 percent agree. The other 10 percent thats not working out so well.
It was unclear whether Trump meant 10 percent of law enforcers arent great people, or whether 10 percent of their families dont think so.
Trump indulged in some additional fuzzy math when pointing to reporters in attendance another campaign rally hold-over. You see, theres the fake news back there, Trump said, no actually some of them are fine people. Then he added about 30 percent.
Trumps media fact-checkers were already digging in to his claim today that murder rates are soaring and a suggestion that the visa lottery involves a bin and no vigorous screening.
Trump managed to avoid direct criticism of the FBI, though, staying away from recent claims that the agency was in tatters. Today, he told the graduates at Quantico that they have a true friend and loyal friend in the White House, more loyal than anyone can be, I tell you.
Todays ceremony involved graduates of a course for law enforcement managers from police departments and law enforcement agencies. Trump told the audience that he favored the death penalty for people who kill police officers.
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The Royals took a moment on Thursday to remember the lives lost in Londons tragic Grenfell Tower fire. Prince Harry, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Charles, and the Duchess of Cornwall attended the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service at St. Pauls Cathedral in London.
The royal family looked somber at the multi-faith service. The service was in honor of the lives lost and to give thanks for the first responders who helped those affected.
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Middleton, who is currently pregnant with her third child, wore a button-down black peacoat and dress with a matching hat, while William and Harry each wore black suits.
Adele also was seen in attendance at the service.
The event marked six months since the horrific fire ripped through the high rise building in June. The fire killed more than 70 people and injured even more.
The Royals have shown their support for members of the community affected by the tragedy with both Queen Elizabeth and Prince William visiting the victims.
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In a touching moment, Prince William broke royal protocol earlier this year and allowed a grieving woman searching for her missing husband to hug him an act not normally allowed between civilians and members of the royal family.
For more from the Royals, watch the clip below.
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As the allegations of sexual assault and harassment continue to roll in the latest involving Dustin Hoffman and Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock many in Hollywood have felt the need to comment on the new age of accountability for men. While on the press tour for his upcoming film, Downsizing, Matt Damon sat down with Peter Travers and shared his opinions on his connection to Harvey Weinstein and the latest harassment accusations in Hollywood, claiming I do believe that theres a spectrum of behavior. And were going to have to figure you know, theres a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right? Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldnt be conflated, right?
Many would agree this is true and there does need to be some sort of discussion. But as many pointed out online, Damon continued and complicated his statement:
All of that behavior needs to be confronted, but there is a continuum. And on this end of the continuum where you have rape and child molestation or whatever, you know, thats prison. Right? And thats what needs to happen. OK? And then we can talk about rehabilitation and everything else. Thats criminal behavior, and it needs to be dealt with that way. The other stuff is just kind of shameful and gross.
Damon continued to give his thoughts on specific instances of sexual assault. He agrees with the response to the allegations against Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, but seems to waver on the backlash against other notable cases like Louis C.K. and Al Franken, wondering if the response to them was justified:
The Louis C.K. thing, I dont know all the details. I dont do deep dives on this, but I did see his statement, which kind of, which [was] arresting to me. When he came out and said, I did this. I did these things. These women are all telling the truth. And I just remember thinking, Well, thats the sign of somebody who well, we can work with that.'
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While he didnt get specific, Damon held a similar sentiment to his friends and colleagues that had been accused of sexual misconduct:
It depends on what the accusation is. It depends on whats happening. If its a friend of mine, Im always talking to them. I know the real story if its my friend If its a colleague I dont know I guess it depends on the situation and the allegation and how believable I think it is.
Damon is one of the figures connected to early reports in the Harvey Weinstein scandal along with George Clooney and Ben Affleck, who was also accused of sexual misconduct. The Downsizing actor has already taken criticism for his past comments and actions, including reports that he helped suppress a New York Times story on Weinstein in 2004. This was later cleared up by the author of the piece and Damon himself, though his latest comments are already causing some controversy.
Matt Damons been canceled since 2015. Hes moments away from talking to an empty chair at a GOP convention. Nobody cares what he says. Lexi Alexander (@Lexialex) December 15, 2017
Matt Damon said re: Casey Affleck accusations "if it's a friend of mine, I know the real story." Allow me to show you the NOPE. Jessica Ellis (@baddestmamajama) December 15, 2017
(Via ABC News / Vulture)
Although a source told PEOPLE that Matt Lauer believed that his affair with the Today show colleague who reported him to NBC was consensual, he should absolutely have refrained from engaging in an intimate relationship with a co-worker, according to a human resources expert.
The power differential between him and literally every other Today show employee is huge. Any relationship he has with an NBC employee will be heavily influenced a better term might be tainted by that differential, The Purposeful Culture Groups Chris Edmonds exclusively tells PEOPLE. The only person who benefits from a workplace affair like this is the person in power.
And on Thursday, another woman went public about her alleged affair with Lauer in the office: Former Today show staff member Addie Zinone (nee Collins) wrote a piece for Variety detailing an alleged month-long affair with Lauer in 2000, when she was a 24-year-old production assistant about to leave NBC News and he was newly married.
Lauers representatives did not respond to PEOPLEs request for comment.
Even though my situation with Matt was consensual, I ultimately felt like a victim because of the power dynamic. He knew that I was leaving, and that there was no better prey than somebody who is going to be gone. He went after the most vulnerable and the least powerful and those were the production assistants and the interns, said Zinone, who added that Lauer felt like he was untouchable.
NBC announced last month that 59-year-old Lauer co-anchor of the morning show since January 1997 had been fired after the network received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior on Monday, with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.
According to a source with knowledge of the former anchors firing, in [Lauers] mind, this had been a consensual affair. And a long-term one at that.
Although the source said Lauer, who has been married to Annette Roque for 19 years, was shocked and dumbfounded that the woman who came forward on Monday alleged that their relationship was non-consensual, Edmonds tells PEOPLE that workplace affairs are always a liability, especially so when they occur between a person of power and a subordinate.
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It creates secrecy and insider/outsider dynamics. If two people fall in love, great one of them needs to work somewhere else. If its lust, its short-lived, anyway (by definition) and the affair will erode trust, respect, and dignity between the parties in the know, Edmonds explains.
Though the NBC employee chose to come forward with her allegations, Edmonds says fear of job loss, career impact, and more can prevent victims from reporting sexual misconduct by a superior in the workplace and the victim the woman in nearly all cases suffers 99 percent of the consequences.
Power and control by the higher ranking male or the threat of that power being wielded against the woman leaves the victim feeling alone, shamed, and without any avenue for her experience to be heard by a kind authority, says Edmonds, author of the Amazon bestseller The Culture Engine. That power enables predators to act on their selfish desires with little concern for retribution.
Adds Edmonds, Sexual gratification has no place in any work environment. No one at any level has the right to demand it, take it, or even tease about it, at any time.
An organizations culture drives everything that happens in that organization, for better or worse. If you want a purposeful, positive, productive work culture where everyone is treated with trust, respect, and dignity in every interaction senior leaders must define that desired culture then align all plans, decisions, and actions to that desired culture every day, he says.
Last month, NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack issued a memo to NBC staff members, in which he said that the network has been spending time listening to your concerns, your feedback, your ideas on how we move forward as an organization in the wake of Matt Lauers appalling behavior, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Lack said that a team of the most experienced NBCUniversal Legal and Human Resources leaders have begun a thorough and timely review of what happened and will share what weve learned, no matter how painful, and act on it.
Additionally, Lack said the the News Division is launching an immediate effort to implement in-person training on sexual harassment awareness and appropriate behavior in the workplace and encouraged employees to speak up and raise any concerns they might have.
In a report published last month by Variety, three anonymous women accused the former newsman of sexual harassment, claiming Lauer had once brought a female employee into this office and then dropped his pants, showing her his penis. Lauer then allegedly reprimanded her for not engaging in a sexual act.
A former NBC employee who spoke to the The New York Times on condition of anonymity also came forward, saying that Lauer sexually assaulted her in 2001. According to the publication, Lauer had been making inappropriate comments to her after she started working at the media company in the late 1990s.
Lauer, who is focusing on his family since he parted ways with the network, spoke out in a statement read by Today anchor Savannah Guthrie.
There are no words to express my sorrow and regret for the pain I have caused others by words and actions, Lauer said. To the people I have hurt, I am truly sorry. As I am writing this, I realize the depth of the damage and disappointment I have left behind at home and at NBC.
Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed. I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish dearly, he added. Repairing the damage will take a lot of time and soul searching, and Im committed to beginning that effort. It is now my full time job. The last two days have forced me to take a very hard look at my own troubling flaws. Its been humbling. I am blessed to be surrounded by people I love. I thank them for their patience and grace.
After the Federal Communications Commission voted to pull back net neutrality on Thursday, the floodgates have now been opened for internet service providers (ISPs) to exert more power than they already have. And that means smaller players are at risk of being muscled out of the space.
Moves against the FCCs highly unpopular ruling are already in motion. Spearheaded by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a multi-state lawsuit against the FCCs ruling is expected in the coming days. Schneiderman argues that the vote enables ISPs to favor certain viewpoints over others.
Still, a successful lawsuit or a move to overturn by lawmakers is highly unlikely.
Also Read: Behind the Disney-Fox Merger: 7 Things We Still Need to Know - and 3 We Already Do
It will be fairly difficult to undo the significant changes that were made by this weeks FCC vote, according to Terry Kramer, ex-Vodafone executive and current professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management who spoke with TheWrap.
And the possibility of Congress striking down the FCCs ruling is highly unlikely: Itd take two-thirds of the House and Senate to negate the move, and it has to happen within 60 days. With the GOP controlling Congress, and the FCC voting 3-2 along party lines, dont hold your breath.
Whats next?
Its called throttling, or slowing down (or even outright blocking) access to particular websites and with the FCCs vote, its now on the table for ISPs. The same goes when it comes to charging consumers for paid fast lanes to access content. And making streaming heavyweights, like Netflix or YouTube which account for more than 70 percent of peak internet traffic in North America pay for better prime time speeds is also in play.
The only concession is that internet giants like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T have to disclose this information online or to the FCC but not at the point of sale to consumers.
Also Read: How FCC's Net Neutrality Repeal Would Rock Hollywood and Big Media: Winners & Losers
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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has argued the heavy handed rules passed under the Obama administration have stymied investment, and that tech innovation flourished before the 2015 regulations were put in place. What is the FCC doing today? asked Pai at the vote. Quite simply, we are restoring the light-touch framework that has governed the internet for most of its existence.
But his enthusiasm wasnt shared by the vast majority of the country: 83 percent of Americans opposed the FCCs proposal. As detractors argue, its hard (read: impossible) to see where the Commissions decision will benefit consumers or small businesses.
Kramer said he expects broadband providers to dip their toes into the water just blessed by Pai.
Also Read: Help, John Oliver: How the FCC Is Trying to Trick Us About Net Neutrality
What the [ISPs] will do is start experimenting with certain paid prioritization models, the ex-Vodafone executive told TheWrap. Theyre going to get players like Netflix and even smaller ones who are going to want a certain quality of their transmission and they will negotiate rates that allow that paid prioritization.
Netflix has a history of advocating for net neutrality, but this would be less of an issue for its CEO Reed Hastings now. His company boasts 110 million subscribers across the world, giving Netflix the capital to shrug off premiums from ISPs. But this cost could derail new startups from entering the market.
Bad news for the little guy
Its a slippery slope, because once you say its pay to play, then the people that cant pay are going to be in a disadvantaged position, and thats always kind of the classic worry about repealing net neutrality, continued Kramer. The issue is going to be with medium and smaller companies. Those are the ones that may not have the scale to play here.
Also Read: Net Neutrality Starter Pack: 5 Essential Things to Know
This is something Colin Petrie-Norris, CEO of Xumo, an over-the-top streaming startup, echoed to TheWrap.
Im competing against giants, said Petrie-Norris. My concern is that, whereas Netflix and others launched with a level playing field in the streaming space, I could be greatly disadvantaged as a new entrant if Im expected to pay for a high quality streaming experience.
The ramifications for consumers could be just as dire. A graphic (below) has blitzed the internet lately, showing how the U.S. could soon resemble Portugal by stripping away net neutrality. You want to use Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat? Youll have to pay for the social bundle. Want to stream Netflix or Hulu? Thatll add on the video package to your bill.
Also Read: Will Disney-Fox Deal Face Antitrust Challenge From Trump Administration Like AT&T-Time Warner?
In Portugal, with no net neutrality, internet providers are starting to split the net into packages. pic.twitter.com/TlLYGezmv6 Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) October 27, 2017
In areas with several ISPs, this blow could be somewhat offset by market forces; charging users for apps and services that were once free, while your competitor charges a lower price, would be bad for business. And Pai a former Verizon attorney, keep in mind believes ceding control to the Federal Trade Commission will prevent companies from exploiting customers.
The Federal Trade Commission has long had authority and had authority prior to 2015 for almost 20 years over this space, Pai told NPR last month. And the result was pretty clear. They took targeted action against the bad apples and they let everyone else thrive in a free market. And I think consumers and companies were better off as a result.
Also Read: Here's the Real Reason Disney Is Buying Most of Fox
The problem, however, is that 40 percent of Americans dont have a choice when it comes to internet providers. The FCCs own data, as Vice pointed out earlier this week, shows 129 million only have one option for broadband internet service in their area. Those customers are left at the mercy of the ISPs.
The silver lining for the millions of Americans mourning the death of net neutrality is that the decision can be overturned under new leadership just as the Obama-era rules were cast aside this week. In the meantime, Itll boil down to how much leeway lawmakers give ISPs to exploit its newfound strength.
The FCC is ultimately going to have to listen to legislators, said Kramer. This is the beauty, ironically, of the internet. When you have a lot of people communicating their displeasure, then youll have a change in momentum.
Until then, expect to see your internet provider scrambling for new ways to charge you for streaming Stranger Things.
Related stories from TheWrap:
Jimmy Kimmel Blasts 'Jackhole' Ajit Pai and FCC for Repealing Net Neutrality (Video)
FCC Strikes Down Net Neutrality
Why Net Neutrality Is Important for Online Streaming
Star Wars heroes have survived wampa attacks, carbonite hibernation, trash compacting and much more. So in The Force Awakens, when John Boyegas Stormtrooper-turned-hero Finn suffered a lightsaber to the back, everyone knew somehow hed return.
And he does in The Last Jedi, looking like he could take on the whole Empire himself.
His emotions are kind of against the clock now, and its a very vital moment for him, Boyega, 25, says of Finn in PEOPLEs new special issue Star Wars: The Ultimate Guide to The Last Jedi (on newsstands now).
Not since Darth Vader threw the Emperor over the railing in Return of the Jedi has a Star Wars bad guy turned good. That was the case with Finn in Episode VII. But now that he looks like he has physically recovered from that lightsaber injury, where is his head at?
We meet Finn at a point in Episode VIII where he needs to decide where he belongs, Boyega says. The Resistance are under pressure, the First Order are in retaliation mode, and theyre fighting back with everything theyve got.
The Last Jedi opens Dec. 15.
The president and CEO of the conservative advocacy group The Family Leader is calling on Congress to investigate the allegations of sexual assault and harassment against President Donald Trump by more than a dozen women.
Bob Vander Plaats declared that Trumps accusers need to be heard and said their allegations shouldnt be dismissed simply because Trump was elected president.
A lot of these ladies came forth in the election, and for whatever reason, the American people said, Were going to give the presidency to Donald Trump, Vander Plaats said in an interview on Iowa Public Radio. That doesnt mean their issue went away because he became president.
I think if these ladies need to be heard on this and I think they probably should be heard then lets let the facts play out, he added. I dont think it should be really dismissed.
The top conservative activist, who endorsed Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2016 presidential election, added that Congress should launch an investigation into the allegations against Trump.
Vander Plaats comments come days after a group of Democratic lawmakers called on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to look into the sexual misconduct allegations against Trump. The committees chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, shot down the request almost immediately, referring it to the Department of Justice, over which Trump has oversight.
But Norm Eisen, an attorney who served as ethics chief for the Obama White House, told PEOPLE that Democrats on the Oversight committee can look at the allegations on their own, though they do not have formal power to hold an official hearing or issue an official report absent majority (Republican) consent.
He added that there are other House and Senate committees that could look into the matter, calling Gowdys referral to the Justice Department all the more reason for the DOJ to take up the matter.
Three of the women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct also called on Congress to investigate the allegations in a joint press conference on Monday.
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Trump, who has denied the allegations against him and called all of his accusers liars, later claimed in a tweet that he didnt know the women or had never met them.
PEOPLE provided photo proof that he had, in fact, met several of his accusers, including PEOPLE writer Natasha Stoynoff, who alleged Trump pushed her against the wall and forced a kiss on her mouth in a 2005 interview.
For the seventh year in a row, Napa citizen scientists participated with the UC Berkeley Forest Pathology and Mycology Lab in an ongoing effort to track Sudden Oak Death (SOD), the exotic disease that has killed hundreds of thousands of oaks and tanoaks in California.
The Napa SOD Blitz was held on May 6 and the results came out in October.
The disease is caused by Phytophthora ramorum, a microscopic organism that spreads during periods of relatively warm, rainy weather in late spring in northern California, according to the labs website.
As predicted by Dr. Matteo Garbelotto, the Berkeley lab director and lead researcher, heavy and persistent rainfall last winter and spring led to increased infection ratesthe worst he has seen since he initiated the testing program in 2007.
Interestingly, the Napa results showed a very low infection rate. And I was surprised to see all negative results two years in a row after submitting samples with classic symptoms from an area along the Napa River Trail between Trancas Street and Lincoln Avenue.
It was good news for Napa, especially after all the horrible fire destruction in October.
Blitz volunteers take samples of symptomatic leaves from California bay laurels, the main vector for the disease. Here is a comparison of Napa with other Blitz areas:
Napa County: 116 trees sampled. Positives: 1.7 percent
Carmel: 214 trees sampled. Positives: 47.7 percent
Marin County: 136 trees sampled. Positives: 27.2 percent
San Francisco Peninsula South: 126 trees sampled. Positives: 62.7 percent
San Luis Obispo: 289 trees sampled. Positives: Zero
Sonoma County West: 89 trees sampled. Positives: 69.7 percent
The positives in Napa were in remote, wooded areasone in Skyline Park along the Lake Marie Road, and one in a remote area between Mt. Veeder Road and Dry Creek Road.
Looking at the Google Earth 2017 SOD map (available through the matteolab website), where the positives are shown as red tree icons, the disease appears concentrated approximately along the coast from Big Sur at the southern limit and almost up to Fort Bragg at the north end.
The map allows for viewing results for each year starting with 2008, revealing a slightly broader distribution, with some positives just east of Mt. Diablo, and more positives in Napa County in previous years.
With respect to the recent wildfires, Dr. Garbelotto has said there is an obvious overlap of burned areas and SOD infected areas. Dead and dying, drier trees burn more readily, but that does not mean SOD was a major contributor to the fires.
Look at the burned mountainsides from Atlas Peak and southward to Skyline Park. The burn areas do not coincide with high rates of SOD infection.
At our 2017 SOD Blitz fall workshop session at the Napa County Library, someone asked if the fires might have cleaned out SOD. It is an interesting supposition, since the disease needs moisture and foliar hosts for active growth. I responded that the effect would be temporary.
Garbelotto has stated the disease can be expected to return when the susceptible vegetation returns.
Of further interest, the Berkeley labs studies now show P. ramorum killing manzanitas of species that were previously only moderately damaged. Also, infections are increasing in urban areas and places frequented by people. As yet, and as far as I know, no conclusions are being drawn as to the correlation.
Keep in mind the disease can move from place to place in plant material, debris, and soil, and it can survive as a chlamydospore, a tiny, thick-walled resting structure that can survive dry conditions and germinate when conditions are right.
The force is strong among The Last Jedi fans, which is why big chains and local establishments alike are hosting special celebrations for those looking to take their love of the Star Wars universe beyond the movie theater. Featuring fun activities like trivia, cosplay, film screenings and even themed food and cocktail menus, these parties are a sure fire way to revel in the true power of the light and dark sides during opening weekend. If youre looking for a way to expand your own Star Wars celebration, here are six places around the country whose The Last Jedi-themed food and drink menus are worth checking out.
Alamo Drafthouse
Taste the force.
Find out more on our STAR WARS menu: https://t.co/XFeH1qLpp7 pic.twitter.com/8A1nxmLyaZ Alamo Drafthouse NYC (@AlamoNYC) December 13, 2017
Similar to their special event menu for Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiere, Alamo Drafthouse has released its Last Jedi-inspired space-menu of unique dishes, snacks, and cocktails. The menu will feature dishes like the hearty butternut squash, kale and sweet potato Scavenger Stew and Roasted Nerf Strips, which are chile-marinated beef sirloin, skewered and roasted, and served with fried garlic and spiced peanuts. You can also grab a Supreme Leader shake, a blend of dark chocolate ice cream, cayenne chile, raspberries, salt and whipped cream. You can visit Alamos website to see if theres a theater near you.
Kings Dining and Entertainment
If you stop into any of this upscale bowling alley chains locations in Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina or Tennessee between Friday, December 15 and Sunday, December 17, you can enjoy a large cocktail menu inspired by the Star Wars films. Kings is letting guests sip on drinks like Did It All for the Wookiee, a Kahlua, vodka and sweet cream cocktail garnished with mini marshmallows and chocolate sauce, Vader-Adea mix of vodka with lemon juice, strawberry and raspberry puree thats rimmed with black sugaror Rey of Sunshine, a raspberry vodka, pineapple juice and bubbles drink. Other cocktails include the Blue Skywalker, The Dark Side, Storm Trooper, Yoda Soda, and Princess Leia.
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Alulu Brewpub
Now through Sunday, December 17, this Chicago brewpub will have a meaty menu of Star Wars-themed dishes that have been appropriately paired with a selection of beers. That includes the Brualki Brisket, a dry-rubbed brisket with a quick Korean braise at the end, thats topped with grilled greens and features a roux gravy, sesame kale, tempura carrots and potato rounds on the side. Its best paired with the Marzen-style lager Onyx Delta. Alulu Brewpub will also serve a Gamorrean (Beef) Tenderloin and Hutt Guts, a Korean barbecue-marinated pork belly sandwich.
Disneys Hollywood Studios
While Disneys new Star Wars theme park isnt slated to open until 2019, you can celebrate The Last Jedi in true Disney style thanks to Hollywood Studios Star Wars: Galactic Nights event in Orlando. Held on December 16, guests who attend the celebration can enjoy Lightsaber churros, Wookiee-inspired shrimp and chorizo skewers, and Tatooine Bisque. Special beverages will also be available, including the watermelon lemonade Jettison Juice which will come with a miniature Death Star glow cube. For those having trouble deciding on which menu item to try, there will be a "Galactic Tasting and Viewing" sampler package that features alcoholic drinks.
The Fountain Bar
If youre looking for a more relaxing way to appreciate the latest franchise installment, stop by The Groves newly opened space in Los Angeles for a pair of Star Wars inspired cocktails. Guests can choose between The Dark Side or The Force cocktail, both based on The Fountain Bars custom gin and tonic menu. The Dark Side includes Plymouth Navy Strength Gin, Fever Tree Indian Tonic, and three dried red chile peppers, and when you sip it, the cocktail turns red.
Meanwhile, The Force features both Kendricks Gin and Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic served with a pipette of cucumber juice that, when squeezed, turns the drink bright greenthe color of Lukes newest lightsaber.
Cane Rosso
If you happen to live in Houston, you can stop by either Cane Rossos Montrose or The Heights locations to get in on this all out taste celebration taking place December 14. As part of its Last Jedi event, this Texas-based Neapolitan style pizza restaurant will be offering customers menu items like the three-cheese C-3PO pizza (a play on C-3), a Ham Solo pizza and Death Star ravioli featuring ravioli in the shape of the battle station. For the 21+ crowd, the special drink menu will feature Red 5 and Cloud City cocktails, with Noble Rey Brewing Company's "Yub-Nub" beer, an imperial sweet stout brewed with coffee and caramel, on tap.
The full extent of the devastation caused by the wildfires tearing through Southern California is still unknown. But with the roaring blaze sweeping westward across Ventura County into Santa Barbara County, some of Americas biggest avocado farms are now at risk of going up in flames.
Technically separate from other wildfires closer to Los Angeles proper, the Thomas Fire originated closer to Ventura, and has pushed westward due to some especially severe Santa Ana winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour. Amid dry conditions, Thomas has grown to the fourth-largest wildfire in Californias history, burning through 242,000+ acres as of Thursday morning.
And avocado orchards have been swept up in its destruction. Their hillside locations and dessicated leaves make avocado orchards particularly suspect to Thomas terror as it burns through an area thats grown to 60 miles long and 40 miles wide. The timing of the destruction is also especially tragic given that some farms were days away from harvesting their annual crop. Even those who plucked avocados from their trees before the storm passed through fear the scorching of earth on their property, not to mention the possibility of farmhands losing their homes to the fire.
Ventura Countys low-lying lemon groves have evaded the worst of the fires, but unseasonably strong winds have shaken lemons off their branches and sent them tumbling to the ground, which means they now cannot legally be sold. It will take days, weeks or longer to assess the loss, said Ventura County Farm Bureau CEO John Krist. What we know is, theres a lot of fruit on the ground.
Officials say Thomas is only 30% contained, but many of Ventura countys farm workers (overwhelmingly composed of immigrants) have been instrumental in combating the flames. Relying on little more than hoses, back-mounted water tanks, and whatever sand they could toss at approaching fires, many have worked to protect the crops they tend until the moment theyre forced to evacuate. The fire was all around us, and I felt despair and sadness for my boss and the land as I saw it approaching, said one Mexican farm worker who spoke to the Seattle Times.
Though it could take a while for Californias $45 billion agricultural sector to recover, the glut of avocados the US imports from Mexico means that this loss of domestic supply shouldnt be enough to drive prices up even further. Even still, with some family farmers like Ellen Brokaw estimating the loss of up to 80% of a 200-acre crop, the impact on southern Californias farming community is hard to overstate.
With earlier wildfires in California wine country and widespread damage to Floridian citrus groves during Hurricane Irma, 2017 has surely been a year where the impact of natural disasters (likely exacerbated by climate change) on agricultural production has become impossible to ignore. Even once Thomas is little more than fading embers, its only a matter of whennot if the flames rise up again.
Its been almost a year since we lost the great Carrie Fisher at far too young an age, and among those who miss the legendary actress is her adorable pup, Gary.
The French bulldog was one of Fishers most loyal and trusted companions. Gary is like my heart. Gary is very devoted to me and that calms me down. Hes anxious when hes away from me, Fisher told the Herald-Tribune in 2013.
Just watched the new trailer of The Last Jedi and my mom looks more beautiful than ever. #garymisseshismom #garyloveshismom #garyloveshisfans #garyfisher #thelastjedi #starwars A post shared by Gary Fisher the Dog (@garyfisher) on Oct 9, 2017 at 7:36pm PDT
Just watched the new trailer of The Last Jedi and my mom looks more beautiful than ever. #garymisseshismom #garyloveshismom #garyloveshisfans #garyfisher #thelastjedi #starwars A post shared by Gary Fisher the Dog (@garyfisher) on Oct 9, 2017 at 7:36pm PDT
When Gary finally saw his owners final film, he was just as excited to see Fisher once again. On Friday, reporter Veronica Miracle shared a video of Gary in Star Wars gear at a screening of the film. The late Carrie Fishers dog Gary just watched The Last Jedi! He sat on Fishers former assistants lap during the film. She said his ears perked up every time she was on screen, she wrote.
The late @carrieffisher's dog Gary just watched #TheLastJedi! He sat on Fisher's former assistant's lap during the film. She said his ears perked up every time she was on screen ??@starwars @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/2rCCGIi6Al Veronica Miracle (@ABC7Veronica) December 15, 2017
RELATED: How's Carrie Fisher's Dog Doing? We Have an Update
Fisher wasnt the only recognizable character that Gary saw on-screen. The pup even has a cameo in the film as a space creature, as he was a fixture when Fisher was on set.
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YES! Wow, good eyes. Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) December 6, 2017
While Gary surely misses his mom, according to Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd, he's loving the jet-setting life. "Hes the best, hes the best," Lourd previously told InStyle. "Tongue is still out and dragging all over floors all over the world."
The firefighter killed battling the Thomas fire has just been identified, and he was a husband and father
Yesterday, the Thomas fire in California took another devastating turn, taking the life of a young firefighter from San Diego. The firefighter was identified as 32-year-old Cory Iverson, a San Diego Unit Fire Apparatus Engineer. This tragic news marks the fires first casualty.
According to Cal Fire Director Chief Ken Pimlott, Iverson was married and had a two-year-old daughter. Iversons wife, Ashley, is currently pregnant with their second daughter. He had been working for the department since 2009, and been fighting the Thomas fire since it began on December 4th. Ventura County sheriff officials say he suffered fatal injuries near the eastern flank of the fire on Thursday morning. There is currently an investigation underway regarding the circumstances of his death, so details are still scarce.
Cal Fire San Diego Chief Tony Mecham spoke about Iverson on Thursday, December 14th, saying, Corys just a great young man, and, you know, hes a great young man. Hes somebody who loved this job. He took great pride in wearing the Cal Fire patch. He was an extraordinary firefighter.
Firetrucks lined bridges above the freeway as Iversons body was transported by motorcade to the Ventura County Coroners Office, and an honorary procession was held. California governor Jerry Brown ordered Capitol flags to be flown at half-staff to honor the fallen fire fighter.
Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of CAL FIRE Fire Engineer Cory Iverson of the @CALFIRESANDIEGO Unit. Please keep his family and fellow firefighters in your thoughts, as we all grieve this devastating loss. pic.twitter.com/0PmVXTlP8f CAL FIRE (@CAL_FIRE) December 15, 2017
Gov. Jerry Brown ordered Capitol flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of Cal Fire Engineer Cory Iverson of Escondido, killed while battling the #ThomasFire. https://t.co/Bx6RZ3lsMP pic.twitter.com/eGRQtgHAE4 #NBC7 San Diego (@nbcsandiego) December 15, 2017
The Thomas fire began as a brushfire in the city of Santa Paula, just north of Los Angeles. Because of strong winds, the fire has only continued to grow since then, with experts saying there is no end in sight. Cal Fire says that the Thomas fire has currently consumed 249,500 acres since it began. It is now the fourth-largest wildfire in California history, and was 35 percent contained as of December 14th. The LA Times reports that strong Santa Ana and sundowner winds will hit the area this weekend, potentially making things even worse.
We can only hope that the fires end soon, and our thoughts are with all of Iversons loved ones today.
Update: This article previously reported that the first lady was wearing custom Delpozo, which the Spanish house has confirmed is incorrect.
The White House is officially getting in the holiday spirit with the release of their annual Christmas card!
This year's holiday shot was released on Thursday night, featuring President Trump and Melania posing in the White House's Cross Hall. The hall is decorated with snow-dusted Christmas trees, a silver holiday banner and an American and presidential flag.
%InlineRelated-url="https://www.aol.com/article/lifestyle/2017/11/28/creepy-photo-of-white-house-christmas-decorations-goes-viral/23290702/" CTA="SEE ALSO" title="Creepy photo of White House Christmas decorations goes viral"%
While many were quick to notice Barron was unfortunately missing from the presidential photo opp, our eyes were on the first lady's outfit. For the photo, the 47-year-old FLOTUS sparkled in a black cocktail gown. The dazzling black sleeveless and tea-length fitted ensemble featured intricate beading starting at the neckline.
Merry Christmas from President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.@POTUS & @FLOTUS are seen Tuesday, December 5, in their official 2017 Christmas portrait, in the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, D.C.
(Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks) pic.twitter.com/WRvY1sUUuw Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) December 14, 2017
To accessorize the look, Melania sported Christian Louboutin black pointed stilettos, her trusty blowout and a sleek smoky eye. Her husband stands next to her in an elegantly fitted tuxedo, holding her hand. The photo was taken on December 5th by photographer Andrea Hanks.
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Related: FLOTUS' most fashionable moments
Though this dress is quite understated and elegant, Melania hasn't shied away from wearing bold designs since taking up her position in the White House. On the Trump's 12-day tour of Asia, Melania sported a mauve, avant-garde coat while arriving in Seoul, South Korea.
%InlineRelated-url="https://www.aol.com/article/lifestyle/2017/11/27/melania-trump-unveils-white-house-christmas-decorations-in-dior-showstopper/23289541/" CTA="SEE ALSO" title="Melania Trump unveils White House Christmas decorations in Dior showstopper"%
Nonetheless, it's been quite the fashionable year for the first lady. See our favorite looks in the slideshow above!
RELATED: FLOTUS over the years
Gary Fisher perked up when he saw his mom, Carrie, in The Last Jedi, and pass the tissues
Its been nearly a year since the sudden passing of Carrie Fisher, but her presence loomed large at The Last Jedis premiere last weekend.
Fishers daughter Billie Lourd, who plays Lieutenant Connix in the most recent Star Wars films, paid homage to her mothers iconic character at the premiere by donning a strikingly similar braided bun to that of Leias at the end of A New Hope. Meanwhile, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson revealed that the film was dedicated to the late actress at the event.
But Fishers Star Wars and real-life families arent the only ones missing the hilarious actress.
Carrie Fishers beloved French Bulldog Gary Fisher, who became a star in his own right after making numerous appearances with Carrie during her The Force Awakens press tour, is reportedly missing his mom. After Fishers passing, Lourd temporarily took Gary Fisher in, but now, hes owned by Carries former assistant, Corby McCoin.
McCoin took Gary Fisher to a Thursday showing of The Last Jedi where the adorable dog was dressed in costume and according to reporter Veronica Miracle, he recognized his late mom on-screen.
The late Carrie Fishers dog Gary just watched The Last Jedi! Miracle tweeted. He sat on Fishers former assistants lap during the film. She said his ears perked up every time she was on-screen.
The late @carrieffisher's dog Gary just watched #TheLastJedi! He sat on Fisher's former assistant's lap during the film. She said his ears perked up every time she was on screen @starwars@ABC7pic.twitter.com/2rCCGIi6Al Veronica Miracle (@ABC7Veronica) December 15, 2017
Gary and Carries close bond was heavily documented during the press tour for The Force Awakens.
And it seems Gary became such a staple within the Star Wars family that he even makes a blink-and-youll-miss-it cameo in the movie. An eagle-eyed Twitter user named Clair Henry spotted the French Bulldog in a still published in Empire. When asked about it on Twitter, Johnson revealed that a version of the beloved pup does appear in the film.
While adapting to life without Carrie cant be easy for Gary Fisher, were so glad to see his new owner keeping her memory alive for the pup.
Idris Elba is just as charmed as Meghan Markle as we are. The British actor attended a Princes Trust event on Thursday, introducing his new girlfriend Sabrina Dhowre to Prince Charles. But before he met with the royal, he spoke a few remarks about the future of the monarchyand its new addition.
At the charity event, Elba didnt hold back his praise for Prince Harrys fiancee. Meghan Markle, as a person, regardless of her color, is a role model. As a strong woman marrying into our royal family, shes going to be a role model for any woman, he said, according to Sky News.
The point is that of course our society is one of mixed heritage and its nice to see Meghan within the royal family. Its great, he added. And of course shes going to be a beacon and of course shes going to be someone that people look toward.
Elba is an ambassador of the Princes Trust, which he credits with helping him get into acting. If I pinpoint a time when I didnt have any money, my parents didnt have any money, I needed some help, the Princes Trust came through, he said.
RELATED: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Officially Set Their Wedding Date
The Princes Trust gave me some money to go to the National Youth Music Theatre, Elba added. And I remember if I hadnt got that money, I wouldnt have ever gone into that theater show, I wouldnt have had that experience of going into the National theatre, and I probably wouldnt be standing here today.
Idris Elba may be an award-winning thespian, but hes not above fangirling over Meghan Markle
The Luther star attended a Princes Trust event last night and revealed that, as a British man, hes just as charmed by Markle as we are.
The London native told Sky News, As a strong woman marrying into our royal family, [Meghan Markle is] going to be a role model for any womanShes going to be a beacon, and of course, shes going to be someone that people look towards.
You preach, Idris Elba.
RELATED: The 9 Royal Wedding Traditions We Can Expect to See When Harry and Meghan Tie the Knot
Heres a list of every state currently suing the FCC over the net neutrality decision
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has officially decided to axe net neutrality, giving internet service providers more control over the web. But the free and open internet isnt going down without a fight. Net neutrality supporters vow to reboot, with individual states suing the FCC over the net neutrality repeal.
New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman released a statement on December 14th announcing that he will lead multiple states in a law suit against the FCC.
New Yorkers deserve a free and open internet, Schneiderman wrote. Thats why we will sue to stop the FCCs illegal rollback of net neutrality.
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson also said he intended to file a suit in the coming days. Attorneys general in Illinois, Iowa, Oregon, and Massachusetts will reportedly join Schneidermans suit. So far, its not clear which other states will join Schneidermans lawsuit, but a letter that Schneiderman wrote to the FCC asking to delay the net neutrality vote was signed by attorneys general in 17 states and Washington, D.C. Its possible that the 11 states from this letter who havent yet committed to suing the FCC will join Schneidermans suit.
I will sue to stop the FCCs illegal rollback of #netneutrality. New Yorkers and all Americans deserve a free and open internet. pic.twitter.com/BNW7TDsp4z Eric Schneiderman (@AGSchneiderman) December 14, 2017
The @FCC's repeal of #NetNeutrality was illegal and we will be filing suit. Here's why: pic.twitter.com/9Imp7P19sz Maura Healey (@MassAGO) December 14, 2017
In California, Santa Clara County announced it will also attempt to sue the FCC.
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And in Congress, Pennsylvania Representative Mike Doyle has said that he will introduce legislation to reverse the net neutrality decision.
Schneidermans lawsuit will likely include his investigation into comments left on the FCCs website in favor of the repeal. He wrote that about 2 million of these comments appeared to be fake, using the stolen identities of Americans. A report from Pew Research Center backs up Scheidermans claims that many comments were falsified. According to the report, one pro-repeal comment appeared 2.8 million times on the website making up 13 percent of all comments. The report also stated that many comments contained false personal information.
Repealing net neutrality will have a huge impact on everybody. But were glad to see that these states are taking a stand and fighting for the internet. If you want to help stop the repeal, call your attorney general today.
About 30 million pieces of paper, all official Napa County documents, are stored in 15,000 cardboard boxes stacked inside an industrial park warehouse.
The scene looks like a miniature version of the sprawling storage facility shown at the end of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is the place where outdated county documents go to die, be they county correspondence, criminal justice case files, planning documents or mental and public health files.
Its a lingering death. Though inactive, state law requires these documents be kept for varying lengths of time, perhaps as long as 10 years. They are retained in case of audits, lawsuits and other just-in-case needs.
Napa County sees a better, high-tech way of doing business.
The county intends to replace much of this warehouse space with a virtual warehouse, a 21st-century archive without walls or roof. It wants to digitize its records at a cost of more than $900,000, with Planning, Building and Environmental Services records coming first.
Scanning the voluminous amounts of paper into electronic format could take three years. Even then, the record center will hold onto the original copies of historical documents in its care, such as Board of Supervisors minutes from the 19th century.
Well never get rid of all the paper, county Chief Information Officer Jon Gjestvang said as he walked amid the rows of boxed documents extending some 15 feet high. The intention of digitization is to reduce our footprint.
The timing is right.
Napa County pays about $107,000 annually to lease 7,624 square feet of warehouse space to store those 30 million pages of paper documents. But the warehouse owner has expressed interest in using the space for other purposes at some point, a county report said.
County officials hope to cut paper storage by about two-thirds. That could save money on future leases, construction and relocation costs.
California requires communities ditching paper copies of official documents for electronic ones to use what it calls a trusted system. Among other things, the system must maintain at least two separate copies of an electronic record and stand up to an audit that ensures documents cant be altered.
Electronic documents with personal information, such as public health client forms, will be available only to authorized county officials. Others documents, such as planning papers, will be available online to the world at large.
Besides reducing its existing paper load, the county wants to create less paper in the first place. Online county application forms for various county services can help accomplish this goal.
On a recent day at the records center, a batch of papers reached their storage expiration dates. A company shredded papers kept in 240 cardboard boxes as county officials watched.
We just had a purge, county Technology Architect Andy Szmidt said.
With an electronic storage center, the county will purge records in a different way. The county will destroy them by the gigabytes instead of by the paper pages.
Some documents are too valuable to purge. They are even too valuable to exist solely amid the electronic ether of a virtual world.
Among the real-world, you-can-touch-them pages that will remain in the archives are those historical, 19th century, hand-written Board of Supervisors meeting minutes.
Stuff like that you wouldnt destroy, Gjestvang said.
Patagonia publicly denounced President Trumps decision to reduce the size of the Bears Ears monument. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
Nearly two weeks after the outdoor apparel and gear retailer Patagonia publicly denounced President Trumps decision to reduce the size of the Bears Ears monument, Congress has called for the companys chief executive to present its case before the nations lawmakers.
Rob Bishop, the Republican congressman representing Utah who is serving as the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, delivered a letter to Patagonias CEO and founder, Yvon Chouinard, inviting him to testify before Congress.
It is apparent through multiple media accounts and appearances that you have strong feelings on this topic as well, the letter reads. The Committee believes that major public policy decisions involving millions of acres of public land should be discussed, debated, and considered in the light of day.
On Dec. 4, Patagonia changed its site homepage to proclaim, The President Stole Your Land. In an illegal move, the president just reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. This is the largest elimination of protected land in American history. While some shoppers threatened theyd stop giving business to the retailer, sales actually spiked in the weeks following the announcement (hardly surprising, considering the general ineffectiveness of consumer boycotts related to the Trump administration.)
We first learned of this invitation through press reports, says Corley Kenna, a Patagonia spokesperson, in a statement to Yahoo Lifestyle. We are reviewing the invitation now and will get back to the committee as soon as we are able.
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Now is not the time to talk about gun control.
Its an oft-used phrase uttered by gun rights activists nearly every time someone with a gun slaughters a number of innocent people. And when the most lethal modern mass shooting in the U.S. occurred earlier this year in Las Vegas, it was the White House itself that deflected talk about meaningful gun control legislation.
There will certainly be a time for that policy discussion to take place, but thats not the place that were in at this moment, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said following that massacre.
Five years ago on this day, a 20-year-old man with a gun walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and stole the lives of 20 children and six faculty members. The shooting prompted then-President Barack Obama to openly weep as he asked for more sensible gun control laws. Congress blocked his proposals instead.
Twenty-seven angel figures were placed beside a road near the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Dec. 16, 2012. Two days earlier, a gunman who had killed his mother then massacred 26 people -- including 20 children -- at the school. (Photo: Mike Segar / Reuters)
The prospect of sensible gun control legislation has only eroded since then.
Early in his term, President Donald Trump, with members of Congress, overturned a background check regulation put in place by Obama that made it harder for individuals with mental illnesses to legally access a gun.
Chris Cox, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, was thrilled.
Today marks a new era for law-abiding gun owners, as we now have a president who respects and supports our right to keep and bear arms, Cox said. We are pleased that this example of government overreach will no longer be pursued.
The NRA, for all its chest-pounding about the right to own assault-style rifles, went into hiding following the Las Vegas shooting, where it took just one man with multiple guns to kill 58 people. NRA officials are unable, or unwilling, to see that moderate control of access to guns is what can save future lives. Instead, the powerful organization has shifted its focus to blame Hollywood or the Black Lives Matter movement for many of the problems this nation faces.
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The NRA is so embedded in the fabric of Washington politics that some of those who once pushed for national gun control legislation are taking a new tactic by running for local offices. Nine volunteers for the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America started as a response to the Sandy Hook killings won positions this year in local government, Reuters reports.
Distraught leave the fire station after hearing news of their loved ones from officials December 14, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. (Photo: DON EMMERT via Getty Images)
The reality is that the work doesnt really start in Congress, founder Shannon Watts told the new outlet. Thats where it ends.
In some states, anti-gun measures have been on the rise. Both New York and Connecticut passed legislation after Sandy Hook that toughened background-check requirements for gun purchases and expanded the firearms covered by assault weapon bans.
But other states have gone in a different direction, passing laws that allow people to carry concealed handguns without a permit. These include New Hampshire, Idaho, Mississippi and West Virginia.
And simply researching gun violence has scientists wary of potential pushback. David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, told Mother Jones that such work comes with a cost.
There are so many big issues in the world, and the question is: Do you want to do gun research? Because youre going to get attacked, Hemenway told the publication. No one is attacking us when we do heart disease.
Even something so simple as banning bump stocks devices that make semi-automatic weapons function like machine guns and were used by the Las Vegas shooter has hit a dead end. Some gun manufacturers promised to suspend sale of the devices, which only caused an increase in demand. And a legislative ban proposed in Congress has stalled after (guess who?) the NRA came out against it.
The first action Congress took on firearm legislation under Trump occurred last week, when the House passed a bill that would require every state regardless of its laws to recognize another states concealed-carry gun permit.
This vote marks a watershed moment for Second Amendment rights, the NRAs Cox said.
Despite his celebratory language, the measure is considered unlikely to make it through the Senate.
Still, perhaps the most sobering fact is this: While stock prices for American Airlines fell 39 percent following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, stock prices for guns skyrocket nearly every time a mass shooting happens.
Five years ago today, 20 children were slaughtered. We keep being told not to talk about gun control, but heres the truth: We talk about gun control now, or more children die later.
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Florida authorities released an elderly woman from jail on Thursday after police arrested her when she allegedly refused to leave her home in a senior housing community after being evicted.
Juanita Fitzgerald spent her 94th birthday Friday in a motel room, The Orlando Sentinel reported. The day before, she had been released from Floridas Lake County Jail, which is where police took her after she was evicted from her home at the National Church Residences Franklin House in Eustis. The facility accused her of refusing to leave.
Clad in an orange jumpsuit, Fitzgerald told WFTV reporters earlier this week that she did not understand why she was being evicted. She had lived there since 2011.
Bodycam footage from the arrest showed her screaming and sliding to the ground in an apparent attempt to avoid being taken away. A police report obtained by The Miami Herald noted that Fitzgerald had told officers, Unless you carry me out of here, Im not going anywhere.
Franklin House spokeswoman Karen Twinem told the Sentinel that Fitzgerald was evicted based on her refusal to pay rent and that the complex had been trying to work with Fitzgerald for months to get her to agree to get more help so she could live in a situation that was more suitable.
Fitzgerald countered that she had previously attempted to pay rent that the facility rejected, though Twinem has said Fitzgerald only presented a partial rent payment.
The police report stated that Fitzgerald was transported to jail without handcuffs because of her age. However, she can be seen wearing handcuffs and ankle restraints at the jail in an on-camera interview with WCMH-TV. Her wrists and forearms appear deeply bruised.
After her release, she showed the Sentinel bruises and scratches on her ankles that she said were from the prison shackles. A jail spokeswoman told the site that it was typical for inmates to wear restraints, but could not confirm anything specifically about Fitzgeralds situation.
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Fitzgerald was released from jail on her own recognizance on Thursday. Since then, shes been meeting with the Mid Florida Homeless Coalition to find permanent housing.
This story has been updated to note that Fitzgerald can be seen on camera wearing restraints at the jail.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Fitzgerald was arrested for allegedly refusing to pay rent. She was arrested for allegedly refusing to leave her home when she was evicted.
Also on HuffPost
Review The Agency Checklist
One of the first decisions in choosing an elderly caregiver is deciding whether to interview independent candidates or look to a caregiving agency, according to Caring.com. If you choose the later, it's best to choose a leading national or regional chain that is well known for it's professionalism and training. Run through a caregiving checklist, such as The Caregiver Partnership's 10 important caregiver criteria, which covers specific needs including language requirements, memory care, nutrition needs and transportation, or ask the 10 crucial questions proposed by Lee Lindquist of Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Set Clear Expectations
Before interviewing a caregiver candidate set clear job expectations and tailor interview questions to assess the candidate's experience carrying out tasks that will be required, Caring.com recommends. Inside Elder Care suggests creating a timeline of daily activities so the potential caregiver will be fully aware and prepared for any and all day-to-day duties.
Include Patient In Interview
When looking for someone to care for your parent day in and day out it's best to include your senior in the interview process, according to Caring.com. "Having shared interests can make a big difference," Jacqueline Dollar, a geriatric care manager, said. "One of my clients loved NASCAR and found a home health aide who did, too. They immediately hit it off."
Assess The Degree Of Speciality
Make sure your parents receive the appropriate amount of care by assessing the caregiver's degree of speciality, Inside Elder Care recommends. If the patient requires special treatment for a particular ailment, make sure that the caregiving candidate is properly trained and well versed in that area.
Ask For References
Whether you choose an agency or not, checking into a caregiver's background is a must. Asking for references can provide insight into the caregiver's past experience and training. Conducting an independent background check may also be useful to ensure that a caregiver is properly vetted.
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Johannesburg (AFP) - South African President Jacob Zuma on Saturday blamed infighting and perceived corruption for the troubles of the ANC party, which risks losing power for the first time since the end of apartheid.
Zuma, whose reign has been marred by graft scandals, spoke at a party conference that will elect his successor as head of the African National Congress, though he will remain as head of state ahead of 2019 elections.
The two front-runners in the divisive party leadership race are his ex-wife and former African Union head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a wealthy businessman.
The 75-year-old Zuma said the party's poor local election results last year "were a stark reminder that our people are not happy with the state of the ANC".
He blamed the decline in support on "perceptions in society that we are soft on corruption, self-serving and arrogant."
"Petty squabbling that takes us nowhere needs to take a back seat," he said.
"Our people are frustrated when we spend more time fighting among ourselves instead of solving the daily challenges they experience... Factionalism has become the biggest threat to our movement."
The ANC is still South Africa's biggest party by far, but the 54 percent it won in local elections last year was its worst poll result since the 1994 elections that marked the end of white-minority rule.
- Elections loom -
The Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters opposition parties are both hoping to exploit the ANC's woes in the 2019 election, with one possible outcome being a coalition government.
Soaring unemployment and government corruption have fuelled frustration at the ANC among millions of poor black South Africans who face dire housing, inadequate education and continuing racial inequality.
The five-day ANC meeting outside Johannesburg to elect a new leader is widely seen as a pivotal moment in the country's post-apartheid history.
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The battle between Dlamini-Zuma, who is reportedly backed by Zuma, and Ramaphosa could even split the party.
The conference started seven hours late after an acrimonious dispute over which delegates will be qualified to vote. The day of the vote remains uncertain.
Dlamini-Zuma, 68, headed the African Union commission until earlier this year and is a former interior, foreign affairs and health minister.
But her critics say she would pursue Zuma's failing economic and political policies, and would protect him from criminal prosecution over graft allegations.
The couple had four children together before divorcing in 1998.
Ramaphosa, 65, a former trade union leader, led the historic negotiations in the 1990s to end apartheid before launching a business career that made him one of the country's wealthiest men.
He is often accused of failing to confront Zuma while serving as his deputy since 2014.
His chances were lifted when parliament speaker Baleka Mbete backed him to be the leader in an eleventh hour intervention.
"We publicly endorse Cyril... and we agree on how to approach the issue of maximising unity," she said outside the conference hall late on Saturday.
- Sparse applause -
Zuma also criticised the media, the judiciary, some civil society groups and the private sector in a speech in which he described himself as "an outgoing president".
Zuma must step down as president when his second term ends in 2019.
The ANC candidates had agreed "to abide by the outcome of the conference. I want each of them to bear that in mind," he said.
"I am convinced that the ANC will sail through the current rough and stormy seas."
Zuma's speech was greeted with sparse applause and a partial standing ovation after raucous party delegates had danced and sang songs in support of their chosen candidate to succeed him.
Tefu Velaphi, a 38-year-old delegate, told AFP: "Zuma's legacy is disastrous. He only cares about himself and his friends. We want them to be arrested.
"That lady will protect Zuma," he said, referring to Dlamini-Zuma.
But Matthew Tsepang, one of her supporters, said: "We cannot judge a person by her previous life. She can be a former wife but have her independence. She is a capable leader."
Other leadership hopefuls include presidency minister Jeff Radebe and Zweli Mkhize, the party treasurer.
President Trump refused to rule out a pardon for former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn Friday.
Speaking to reporters shortly before an appearance at an FBI National Academy graduation, Trump said he did not want to address the possibility of a pardon for Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI earlier this month.
I dont want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet. Well see what happens, Trump told reporters. Lets see, I can say this: When you look at whats gone on with the FBI and the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.
Trump attorney Ty Cobb later clarified the remark in a statement to CNN.
WH attorney Ty Cobb to CNN: "There is no consideration being given to pardoning Michael Flynn at the White House." Jim Acosta (@Acosta) December 15, 2017
Trump has considered pardons for family members and staff caught up in the Russia investigation being led by former FBI head Robert Mueller before, but experts warn it could backfire. He cant pardon for offenses under state law, meaning staffers could still be in legal jeopardy depending on their actions, and pardoned officials would no longer be able to avoid testifying publicly.
The president would also have to choose whether to pardon Flynn for the single offense hes been charged with or issue a blanket pardon that covers other potentially illegal activity which he was not charged with.
Trumps remarks were not the first time hes criticized the FBI. He recently argued the bureaus reputation is in tatters, although his own FBI director, Christopher Wray, told Congress in response that the bureaus reputation was quite good.
The Festival of Lights, also known as Hanukkah or Chanukah, is an eight-day holiday celebrated by people of Jewish faith. On Thursday, the third day of Hanukkah, locals celebrated together with music, food and menorah lighting at Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Napa.
Light is such an important part of the holiday, said Holly Finkelstein of Napa. During this time, she said, her family remembers the miracle of Hanukkah and to give to those in need.
This years menorah lighting in the park also served as a way for the Chabad of Napa Valley to honor first responders who served the county during the October wildfires.
CHP Flight Officer/Paramedic Whitney Lowe, who, along with Officer/Pilot Pete Gavitte, helped save Napa County residents during the fires, lit the first candle. Roy Barush, who lost his home in the fires, had the honor of lighting the remaining candles.
Its fabulous, Barush said Thursday. I really enjoy that they do this in a public space.
Barush and his wife, Sue, lost nearly everything in the fire. But, he said, As many things as we lost, I think we gained that much more in community support.
The couple has since found a new home closer to Napa and is thankful that life is becoming stable again.
Rabbi Elchonon Tenenbaum said that everyone has it in themselves to help others. Sometimes, he said, they can even push themselves further than they thought they could go, like the CHP Golden Gate Division officers who pushed the aircraft to its limits.
We really have it within ourselves to help other people, he said. Really, were all a lamplighter.
Finkelsteins 7-year-old daughter, Ruby, attempted to explain the celebration, saying it honors a time long ago when a lamp that only had enough oil to burn for one night, burned for eight nights.
In addition to lighting the menorah each night, a Hanukkah celebration also involves playing dreidel, making latkes and giving back, Ruby said.
Dreidel is like a spinning top that has Hebrew letters on it, said her sister, Talulah, 10. Its a game of chance, but instead of money, she said, you play for chocolate coins.
In the United States, some children are given gifts for all eight days of Hanukkah. Holly Finkelstein said this isnt really a Hanukkah tradition, but is more of an American tradition.
Its not about getting gifts at all, Talulah said.
Former President Obama now has a new title - and its Santa Claus.
Showing off his holiday spirit on Thursday, Barack Obama proved he makes a pretty cool Father Christmas when he donned a leather jacket and a Santa hat during a visit to the Boys & Girls Club in Washington, DC.
Visiting 50 middle school students at the Jelleff Club in Northeast Washington, the former president looked full of Christmas joy as he laughed and posed with the students.
In addition to cracking smiles and shaking hands with adults and kids alike, Obama immersed himself in the role of Santa.
The former president completed the look with a present-laden green sack tied with a purple ribbon from which he handed out presents to the kids.
The best present, however, may have been the opportunity to meet and talk with the former president, who stayed and chatted with the middle-schoolers for half an hour.
The children, who were there to take part in after-school activities at their local branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs, seemed overjoyed during the visit with Barack Obama-Claus.
There's no better time than the holiday season to reach out and give back to our communities. Great to hear from young people at the Boys & Girls Club in DC today. pic.twitter.com/FSJkj1qwg9 Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 14, 2017
Clearly at home in his new role, Obama shared a photo of the occasion on social media, along with the caption, Theres no better time than the holiday season to reach out and give back to our communities. Great to hear from young people at the Boys & Girls Club in DC today.
Obamas picture features him sporting a huge grin, surrounded by happy children, with one child perched in his lap.
But even when hes not dressed as Santa, Obama makes sure to make time for the children - since leaving the White House in January, he and former first lady Michelle Obama have visited four other DC schools and community centres unannounced.
While it is common knowledge the former president has a soft spot for children, it is clear from their smiling faces that the feelings are mutual.
As Chinese President Xi Jinping settles into a second term, he has received fawning accolades from leaders around the world. Yet as Xis power at home consolidates, the relationship between Beijing and Taiwan has degenerated sharply, thanks to the Chinese Communist Partys blindness to generational shifts that have taken place on the island.
Over the past decade, the Chinese economy has continued to grow, consumer choices have expanded, and the CCP has tightened its vice-like grip on power. But while Chinas political horizons have narrowed, Taiwans democracy has bloomed and that has made the island nation harder and harder for Beijing to understand.
When Taiwan was a single-party autocracy, China could glower across the strait at its Cold War adversary. Though the two sides were enemies, they were mutually comprehensible. When Taiwan became a democracy but was still dominated by the Kuomintang, a party the Communists had long dealt with, China could manage. However, todays vibrant and participatory society in Taiwan confuses and dismays the CCP.
But Beijings habitual apoplexy isnt simply reactive its also strategic. By making every single item a line in the sand, China slowly squeezes Taiwans room for maneuvering. In going nuclear over minor matters, the Peoples Republic of China has unilaterally changed the rules of its diplomatic game with Taiwan.
Take the furious Chinese reaction to the Taiwanese premiers first address to the legislature. William Lai, a popular physician-turned-mayor who had ascended to the post in a September Cabinet shakeup, uttered the words Taiwan and independence in the same statement. But he was actually pointing out that since the island is already de facto independent, there was no need for a formal declaration to that effect it was a way for him to avoid further provocations on the issue and get back to the business of governing. Indeed, before taking office, Lai, once a fierce member of the independence camp, had already been testing a number of softer positions, suggesting his position with the phrase qinzhong aitai, One can reach out to China, while still loving Taiwan.
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Lais statements nonetheless prompted an enraged response, including a declaration that People who split China will suffer by their own hand and fervent condemnation from state media editorials and government spokesmen.
A key part of the problem lies in Beijings misunderstanding of democracy a blind spot when it comes to the genuine aspirations of the Taiwanese people. China may suffer from a type of great power myopia, of that kind that Edward Luttwak has previously described as a collective national lack of situational awareness that reduces a countrys ability to perceive international realities and the complexities of other societies with clarity.
Because the Chinese Communist Party artificially stokes nationalist outrage for political cover, it assumes the phenomenon must be the same everywhere else. In the Chinese conception, popular sentiment is contrived managed, propagated, or quashed by powerful elites. When the ruling party controls the media, as the CCP does; cuts off most other sources of public information; and handicaps civil society, that is an easy assumption to make.
For many years, this was the modus operandi of the Kuomintang in Taiwan as well. While the two parties were ideological opposites, they operated with similar authoritarian habits. After all, the KMT and the CCP were both Leninist political parties with dictatorial tendencies. Both parties used torture and arbitrary arrest; both persecuted citizens for thought crimes. Both deployed secret police to monitor the populace, massacred protesting civilians, and murdered dissidents to enforce the partys will. T.J. Cheng at the College of William and Mary has called them political twins.
But as Taiwan liberalized over the past three decades, becoming a lively, albeit imperfect, democracy, public sentiment has gained a strong influence on governance. At the end of the day, politicians are responsible to their voters, not the other way around and only elected officials responsive to public input are likely to stay in office for long.
The fate of the Kuomintang is a case in point. Under its last presidential administration (from 2008 to 2016), the party ignored the Taiwanese publics growing concern about China. It was out of touch with the everyday struggles of working citizens and took a paternalistic we know best approach to governing, which alienated many younger Taiwanese voters. The KMT responded to Chinese overtures and signed a cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, then later acceded to Beijings demands by trying to ram through additional controversial economic accords. This helped engender the Sunflower Movement a massive student-led protest against the KMTs violations of democratic norms in the partys headlong pursuit of further agreements with China.
The combination of doubling down on hard-line presidential candidates, ignoring a coalescing Taiwanese identity, and disregarding the role of genuine civic movements was tantamount to electoral suicide. In the aftermath of its vicious thrashing in the 2016 election, there are questions of whether the KMT can even survive as an ongoing political concern.
Yet before, during, and after the most recent presidential election, the CCP has conspicuously pointed out how closely the KMTs position aligns with Chinas interests, and it trumpeted (in a rather menacing way) how wonderful this would be for Taiwans economy not realizing these statements are anathema to many Taiwanese voters and ultimately render the KMT less attractive.
Throughout this period of change, Beijing has appeared unwilling or unable to cope with the rise of the Democratic Progressive Party, the longtime democratic opposition that now leads Taiwan. Since Tsai Ing-wen, the DPPs candidate, won the election and became Taiwans first female president nearly a year and a half ago, Beijing has regularly expressed its unhappiness with her.
In direct response to the concerns of Taiwanese voters, Tsai an avowed moderate with a doctorate in law from the United Kingdom has opted for a more careful approach than that of her KMT predecessor. Most notably, she has chosen not to kowtow to the One China principle outlined in the 1992 Consensus. This phrase was coined years after the fact, in 2000, and then utilized by the KMT in 2008 to describe the cross-strait negotiations of 1992, where each side of the Taiwan Strait essentially agreed to disagree. By mechanically intoning the existence of One China [but crucially] with different interpretations and intentionally leaving ambiguous the meaning of what China actually is, both sides could dodge the issue of sovereignty and move on to address more pragmatic concerns.
However, for a Taiwanese leader today, acceding to the idea of One China in the 1992 Consensus is a difficult precondition to swallow. In addition to being unpopular with DPP voters, this line prematurely boxes in Taiwans fate, instead of leaving the issue truly open for future generations to decide.
Though she declined to concede on this point of rhetoric, Tsai has avoided other provocations, and actively sought out new formulations to meet Beijing in the middle. In her May 2016 inauguration speech, Tsai declared her respect for the historical fact of the negotiations in 1992 that led to joint acknowledgements and understandings. This near-acknowledgement is likely as close as a DPP president can get to saying 1992 Consensus without inciting her supporters. Beyond repeated public and private statements of goodwill, her administration also dropped Taiwans annual bid to join the United Nations, because it was seen as needlessly provocative. These efforts have been duly ignored by Beijing.
Instead, the CCP has vociferously denounced Tsai and moved to further clamp down on Taiwans international space, bribing more countries to switch recognition to Beijing and blocking Taiwan from taking part in global events.
This year, Taiwan was pushed out of the World Health Organizations policy-setting body, the World Health Assembly, in which it had participated as an observer since 2009. At a May summit to discuss conflict diamonds, the Chinese delegation hijacked the microphone and loudly interrupted the Australian hosts, insisting all Taiwanese representatives be ejected. Ugly interference by China also briefly marred the summer Universiade games, and in an especially petty move, Taiwanese visitors to the U.N. headquarters are now barred from entering the premises when using their Taiwanese Republic Of China passports as identification.
The CCPs ire at Tsai seems to stem from a mistaken belief that political leaders can simply issue dictums to an obedient nation. In Taiwan today, the opposite is true: As a responsible elected head of state, Tsai must represent the aspirations of the people who voted her into office. The democratic reality is that Tsai serves at the pleasure of her constituents: She can continue to reach out to Beijing and maintain a friendly attitude, but if she simply ignores grassroots sentiments as her predecessors did, she could be booted from office. Despite these constraints, Tsai has gone out of her way to seek common ground. Unfortunately, China refuses to engage in dialogue and continues to denounce her, often in brutally personal terms, labeling every action defiant and provocative.
Fury at Tsais provocations has led to a series of spiteful cross-strait actions. For example, to apply economic pressure on Taiwan, Beijing limited Chinese tourist permits this year, though this spectacularly backfired. More visitors from Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia have increased tourism to Taiwan, while popular sites appear to be cleaner and more orderly, now that the influx of mainland tourists has settled at a lower, more sustainable level. The CCP also tried to entice Taiwanese mayors to undermine the Tsai administration, and there are whispers of covert united front campaigns to support more thuggish pro-China elements in Taiwan some of whom allegedly showed up at a concert to assault student protestors.
But by cutting off direct communications and suffocating Taiwans international space, far from forcing a reset, the CCP has worsened cross-strait relations. Callous acts and a bullying attitude engender public ill will, which will eventually hamper continued outreach toward China by Taiwans leaders. After all, they cannot ignore for long the wishes of the Taiwanese public.
Even the DPP is already finding itself out of step with many young Taiwanese on issues such as LGBT rights. After the nations constitutional court ruled in favor of gay marriage, the DPP dithered on amending the civil code to allow for it, due to vocal opposition by a numerically small, but stridently loud, religious minority. With legislation on LGBT rights and other social justice measures stuck in electoral purgatory, there are increasing rumblings by young Taiwanese voters and legislators who are frustrated with the DPP. Talk of supporting alternative parties abounds parties that are not only more socially progressive, but also more independent-leaning. The DPP will eventually have to tack to meet this challenge.
Chinese leaders frequently invoke the new normal in its pattern of economic growth. Likewise, given these new democratic realities in the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial for China to recognize that its erstwhile partner, the KMT, is unlikely to regain its past dominance. To maintain stable and peaceful relations across the Strait, the Chinese Communist Party will need to deal with the leadership in Taiwan, whoever is in office. That may mean joining in efforts to newly describe and creatively understand those relations. It can choose to act now and improve ties while Tsai and the DPP lead, or wait until even more radical Taiwanese parties join the fray.
By seizing the moment to act collaboratively, there are numerous social, cultural and environmental benefits to be realized that could remedy some of Chinas own domestic troubles. Intense pollution and environmental degradation? Popular unrest and public protests? Rapid economic transformation in a globalizing world? Taiwanese society has faced all of these challenges and come up with some ingenious solutions.
In Taipei, disappointment has not yet hardened into resentment. During her Oct. 10 National Day address, Tsai once again extended a hand in friendship, celebrating 30 years of fruitful exchanges across the strait and declaring that our goodwill has not changed. She expressed her hopes that the two sides could build on this foundation and seek a new breakthrough in cross-strait relations. China did not respond.
By Ben Klayman (Reuters) - Dani Hahn was terrified as she watched dozens of firefighters racing to light a small blaze that they hoped would clear enough space to halt the giant wildfire advancing on her rose farm at the foot of Southern California's Santa Ynez Mountains. The owner of Rose Story Farm in the seaside city of Carpinteria saw her trampled roses and avocados and felled citrus trees as "small prices" to pay to ensure her farm did not suffer more than the scorching it received on Tuesday from the Thomas Fire, one of the state's largest ever wildfires. "We know we live in a desert climate and are prone to wildfires, but I don't think anyone could expect the scope of this," she said by telephone this week. The tale of Rose Story Farm was repeated at farms and nurseries across the Carpinteria Valley, a region state officials tout as the "flower basket of the United States" because more cut flowers are grown there than anywhere else in the nation. Imported flowers from Colombia and other South American countries make up 80 percent of the U.S. cut flower market, but the majority of the U.S. supply comes from California, state officials said. And most of that comes from the more than 40 farms and nurseries in the Carpinteria region that grow blooms including roses, Gerbera daisies, orchids and lilies. Industry officials consider the singeing of Rose Story Farm, lower output from other farms because staff could not get to work and possible ash damage as a better-than-expected outcome compared with their worst fears. "We've been pretty fortunate," Kasey Cronquist, chief executive of the California Cut Flower Commission, which promotes the state's flower farmers, said by phone while visiting the fire-damaged area. The Thomas Fire has claimed the life of one firefighter and burned down more than 700 homes. Strong winds in the mountains near Santa Barbara could cause flare-ups in the coming days. But the region's flower growers, who employ almost 800 people and generate a daily economic impact of more than $2.1 million according to Cronquist, have dodged serious damage much to the delight of florists and brides-to-be everywhere. 'PERISHABLE PRODUCT' However, they have not escaped unscathed: Rose Flower Farm lost almost a week of deliveries in an industry where the product is shipped daily. "These aren't crops that can just hang on trees and wait until this thing passes," Cronquist said. "It's a very perishable product that just needs to keep moving." Carpinteria's West Orchids Inc, founded by one of four Dutch families who moved to the valley in the late 1960s to grow flowers, saw the flames advance to within a half-mile of the 30-acre farm, keeping workers away. Its marketing director, David Van Wingerden, figured he will have to pay a lot of overtime as staff catch up, and he worried the ash covering his greenhouses could slow flower growth. "The impact is going to be yet to come," he said. "We'll have to see if we have any quality issues." Hahn said the 200 rose stems she lost to firefighting efforts were nothing compared to the 25,000 roses and property they saved. Hann and her husband Bill charge $45 for 10 stems. She recalled the 50-foot flames approaching her 15-acre farm and the relief she felt when the firefighters' plan to create a gap with a second blaze snuffed out the approaching danger. "You could feel it. You could hear it," she said of the heat and flames. People further afield were also affected. Liz Griffith, owner of Siloh Floral Artistry in Denver, has a destination wedding on the Big Island of Hawaii on Saturday. She had ordered 100 stems from Rose Story Farm but knew Monday they wouldn't arrive. Griffith arranged for 50 roses from another supplier and filled in with other flowers. Having had other weddings she served affected by a tsunami or ravenous insects, she took the news in stride. "The world of flowers is pretty much unpredictable because we can't control nature," Griffith said. (Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
By Sonya Dowsett MADRID (Reuters) - An election in Catalonia will fail to conclusively resolve a political crisis over an independence drive in the region, the final surveys before the Dec. 21 vote showed on Friday. The ballot will result in a hung parliament, a Metroscopia poll showed, with parties favoring unity with Spain tipped to gain a maximum of 62 seats and pro-secession factions 63, both short of a majority in the region's 135-seat legislature. Spain's worst political crisis since its transition to democracy four decades ago erupted in October, when Madrid cracked down on an independence referendum it had declared illegal and took control of the wealthy northeastern region. The standoff has bitterly divided society, led to a business exodus and tarnished Spain's rosy economic prospects, with the central bank on Friday blaming events in Catalonia for a cut in its growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019. Both the Metroscopia poll, published in El Pais, and a second survey in another newspaper, La Razon, predicted a record turnout for a Catalan election. But the vote looks likely to trigger weeks of haggling between different parties to try to form a government. Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont is campaigning from Brussels, where he moved shortly after he was fired by Madrid following a unilateral declaration of independence by the region. With Friday the last day polls were permitted before the ballot, the El Pais survey - which questioned 3,300 people in Catalonia between Dec. 4 and Dec. 13 - showed his party winning 22 seats. Pro-unity party Ciudadanos, which has backed the minority central government of Mariano Rajoy's People's Party (PP) in parliamentary votes, will win most seats, closely followed by pro-independence ERC. But at a maximum of 36 for Ciudadanos and 33 for ERC, both fall far short of the 68 seats needed for a majority. The survey's inconclusive split between pro-unity and pro-independence parties would leave the regional offshoot of left-wing party Podemos, which supports unity but wants a referendum on independence, as potential kingmaker. Further muddying the waters, its leader Xavier Domenech favors a left-wing alliance across parties that both back and reject independence. The La Razon poll, which surveyed 1,000 Catalans also between Dec. 4 and Dec. 13, showed parties in favor of independence winning 66 seats and unity supporters 60, leaving the Catalan Podemos arm with nine. (Editing by Paul Day and John Stonestreet)
The mayor of Nazareth is canceling Christmas, and he's blaming Donald Trump.
Ali Salam, who is Muslim in the Muslim-majority city, shut down all Christmas festivities in the city in protest of Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
SEE ALSO: Net neutrality is officially dead
Our identity and faith arent up for debate, Salam said, according to the Times of Israel. The decision (by Trump) has taken away the joy of the holiday, and we will thus cancel the festivities this year.
The city council was the bearer of the bad news Thursday after the mayor made the economically risky decision. Religious tourists flock to the city where Jesus grew up, especially for the Christmas holiday.
Nice work, Trump.
You killed Christmas in the place where Jesus grew up.
Nazareth cancels Christmas celebration over Trump Jerusalem move https://t.co/i0uK6ZSg9H#ThursdayThoughts Holly O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) December 14, 2017
After the surprising result of the special election for Alabamas vacant U.S. Senate seat, the pundit class is buzzing about the implications for the future direction of each political party. But the ideologically driven conclusions those pundits keep reaching are inward-looking and wrong.
Alabamas powerful message about where both parties need to go: the political center.
Thats where Tuesdays election was won and lost, and this illustration of the strength and importance of independents and moderates is the most important takeaway for Americas politics.
Party tribalists voted as they were expected to in the Alabama contest: 92% of Republicans voted for Roy Moore and 98% of Democrats voted for Doug Jones. It was a landslide of moderates that elected Jones: three times as many of them voted for the former U.S. attorney as voted for Moore.
Without the atmospheric gravity of party affiliations weighing on them to vote a certain way, independents were free to consider the implications of electing Moore, whose baggage only begins with the charge of trolling for young girls at shopping malls. Not surprisingly, those voters overwhelmingly chose to keep Moore in Alabama rather than turn him loose in the Capitol as their senator.
Thats a profound reversal from the last U.S. Senate election in the state, when independent voters helped re-elect Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) by a crushing 65% to 35% margin over his Democratic opponent. But then again, Shelby is a classic Alabama centrist, elected to the Senate as a conservative Democrat in 1986, winning a second term as a Democrat in 1992, and then switching to the Republican Party in 1994.
While Shelby and some centrist-appealing GOP politicians like Utahs Mitt Romney and Colorados Cory Gardner encouraged Alabama voters to put patriotism and good judgment over the partys narrow short-term interests, President Trump and many other Republicans urged party loyalty above all else. As we saw on Tuesday, the appeal to higher values won out.
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But thats not stopping GOP establishment types from believing the partys screw-ups all lie inside the GOP itself. The same people who for weeks have been proclaiming, Nobody tells Bama voters what to do! spent weeks doing just that, and then instinctively and arrogantly pointed fingers the morning after, finding fault with Washington-based strategies and tactics.
U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) blamed party leadership for the loss: Mitch McConnell should have stayed out of this race. If he would have, wed have a Republican U.S. senator coming up therenot a Democrat.
U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), on the other hand, tweeted that it was GOP rebel leader Steve Bannons fault: After Alabama disaster GOP must do right thing and DUMP Steve Bannon.
But grounded through common sense and good judgment rather than tethered to hardline party ideology, moderate and independent Alabama voters didnt need politicians or celebrities to explain to them the implications of voting for a man with an alleged history of hitting on 14-year-old girls.
It also didnt take millions in TV ads to help those independents and moderates decide whether they should believe Moores denials of bad behavior. Most moderates didnt.
The partisan political establishment needs to replace the arrogance of thinking that the election was about them or the other party. Theyd be well-advised instead to start thinking about how to build political movements around forward-looking ideas and policies that address all-too-real middle class economic worries.
Before the election, conservative firebrand Steve Bannon lectured Republican loyalists, Theres a special place in hell for Republicans who should know better. What he failed to understand is that the center of America, not shackled by tribal loyalty, gets to vote for whoever they want.
Wedge-issue-powered campaigns designed to bring out the base will be increasingly vulnerable to the bright lights of information and historical transparency. Movements and candidates that focus on appealing broadly to the common-sense center of the American electorate meanwhile, will likely find increasing success, just as they did in Alabama this week.
David Dodson is a lecturer in management at the Stanford School of Business and a serial entrepreneur.
Californias long-running feud over the direction of its 6-million-student public school system has raged in many arenas, but never in a high-profile campaign for political office.
That day, however, may come soon.
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, two candidates for governor who run a close 1-2 in the polls, are exhibiting serious differences over education policy that next years campaign may magnify.
Newsom is destined, it seems, to be the candidate of the education establishment and its leading component, the California Teachers Association.
That likelihood is enhanced by having Villaraigosa in the race because he sparred with education unions as mayor of Los Angeles and seems to be siding with the establishments foes in the school reform movement. Also, the woman who wants to be the education candidate, former state schools Supt. Delaine Eastin, is scarcely a blip in the polls.
Villaraigosa warred with school unions over the direction of the Los Angeles troubled school system, and celebrated when a reformist, pro-charter school coalition, opposed by unions, recently captured control of the Los Angeles Unified School District board.
Villaraigosa echoes reform and civil rights groups, self-dubbed the Equity Coalition, when he says, We must disrupt our education system by adopting assessment, accountability and transparency.
I, as governor, will shut down schools that have failed our kids for a very long time, whether they're charter schools or traditional public schools, Villaraigosa said when all the candidates appeared at a recent forum on education in San Diego.
Villaraigosas positioning was bolstered recently by an endorsement from Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, a San Diego Democrat considered to be the Capitols most vociferous advocate of education reform.
Shes gone head-to-head with the CTA over teacher tenure and other issues and has mostly been rebuffed by a union-oriented majority of her fellow Democrats. Education is not a pressing issue in Sacramento, she says.
The establishment has consistently maintained that closing the achievement gap separating poor and English-learner students from more privileged classmates is best accomplished by spending more money in the classroom.
Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature have responded by increasing per-pupil spending by 50 percent in the last half-decade and directing that much of the money be concentrated on high-needs students through the Local Control Funding Formula.
Reformers, however, question whether the money is being spent as directed or being diverted to other purposes, and whether its making a difference. They have demanded stricter accountability, as Villaraigosa and Weber support.
Brown himself has been content, at least so far, to trust local schools officials to act wisely and effectively, even though studies to date show no major closure of the achievement gap. Weber has been pressing him to join the reformer cause and hes dropped some hints that he wants education to be addressed again in the last year of his governorship.
All of these developments imply that the education battle, so far confined to bureaucratic wrangles over education rules, rhetorical exchanges, occasional lawsuits and local school elections, could explode next year, not only in the contest for governor but what shapes up as a sharp-elbows battle for state schools superintendent.
That duel will pit charter school advocate Marshall Tuck against Tony Thurmond, a Democratic assemblyman from Richmond who will be the CTAs candidate. Tuck came close in 2014 to unseating the current superintendent, Tom Torlakson, who survived only with massive financial and other support from the CTA.
Joe and Claryce Holcombes big Texas family always sprawled on Christmas Day their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren spread out across the small towns near where they live. But they all came together for Christmas dinner.
This year, there will be eight fewer loved ones at the dinner table.
The Holcombes, age 86 and 85, lost eight family members, three generations of the Holcombe family, in a matter of minutes when a gunman opened fire at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs during Sunday services on Nov. 5. In all, 26 people were murdered.
Their son Bryan, 60, is now gone; so is their daughter-in-law Karla 58; their grandson Danny, 36; their pregnant granddaughter-in-law Crystal, 36; and four great-grandchildren: Noah, 18 months, Greg Hill, 13, Emily Hill, 11, and Megan Hill, 9.
Even in the face of this unspeakable tragedy, Joe Holcombe who goes by Papa Joe says there will still be joy at Christmas this year.
We probably wont have as much Christmas as we usually do, but well have plenty, he said. Its something definitely worth celebrating.
He added: Everybody always wants us to be whimpering and crying because we lost some of our family. Thats not the way we are. It happened and it hurt. But we dont look at death as separation. We look at it as just another event in our life.
Propelled by their Christian faith, Holcombe and his wife say they find comfort in knowing their loved ones are in heaven. And they hope to be reunited there with them soon. It wont be long until well be there with the rest of the family, he said. I miss my family. We dont see them coming down the sidewalk at the front door anymore. But I wont miss them long.
Its difficult for Holcombe to predict how he will feel on Christmas when eight family members are absent from the days festivities, but he said, Im sure it will be hard this year, but well get over that too because it wont last long.
The Holcombes, married for more than 60 years, had no idea what had happened on Nov. 5 until a pastor from their own church in Floresville paid them a rare visit and broke the news of their family members deaths one-by-one.
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Bryan? Holcombe recalled asking, about his son, who was filling in as a guest preacher that day.
Hes dead, the pastor said.
Karla? he asked about his daughter-in-law.
Shes dead, the pastor replied.
Husband Bryan Holcombe and wife Karla Plain Holcombe, victims of the mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, are seen in this photo obtained Nov. 6, 2017.
Ten days later, when the Holcombes had to bury their dead, they made sure to lay grandson Marc Daniel Danny Holcombe in the same casket as his daughter Noah. The toddler was wrapped in her fathers arms when they were both gunned down.
They were buried together and they were shot together, Holcombe said. It was fitting.
The horror of the Holcombes sudden loss moved people across the country an estimated 3,000 showed up to mourn at a funeral service near the church on Nov. 15. The loss was unimaginable to millions of Americans, who watched news of the shooting unfold from their televisions and phoned. But, the Holcombes emerged from the tragedy with unrelenting positivity.
The Holcombes leave their Christmas tree up all year, mostly because they dont have a place to store it. The family usually gathered for dinner with friends at Bryan and his wife Karlas house on Christmas. The house was full, gee whiz, Holcombe recalled.
This year, Holcombe plans to stay home. He expects visitors, since theres always somebody coming by, and he said he will probably take a nap. He and his wife will not be visiting the cemetery where their loved ones are buried because he said their souls are no longer with them. Theres a dead body, but theyre not ours anymore, he said. We know ours are in heaven.
Joe and Claryce Holcombe recently filed a legal claim with the U.S. Air Force, saying mistakes by the military branch eventually led shooter Devin Kelley to be able to buy the weapons he used in the massacre. I dont hold what happened against anyone, said Joe Holcombe. But he said the legal action needed to be taken to prevent other deaths. (The Air Force did not immediately comment on the claim.)
Ahead of the holidays, the couple remembers the loved ones they lost as people who deeply loved Jesus and each other.
Thats what we all should do, Holcombe said. Well never forget them.
By Eric M. Johnson (Reuters) - CSX Corp shares skidded as much as 10 percent on Friday, wiping out $4 billion in market value, as the No. 3 U.S. railroad by revenue sought to assure investors its turnaround would progress despite the unexpected medical leave of its chief executive officer. CSX stock, which has soared nearly 60 percent this year, tumbled 7.3 percent to $53.11 in midafternoon trading after earlier falling as low as $51.63. Most of the gains came after Hunter Harrison, 73, who led turnarounds of two Canadian railroads, was hired as CEO in March in a push by activist investor Paul Hilal. Harrison has tried to reform CSX to boost profits and streamline operations, although his rapid-fire system changes, cost cuts and layoffs triggered service disruptions and drew the ire of customers and regulators. Harrison started the overhaul of the railroad in March, but customer complaints and service disruptions came to light over the summer and continued at least through October, drawing federal scrutiny. Acting CEO Jim Foote, who worked with Harrison at Canadian National Railway , insisted he will carry on the CEO's plans, but offered no details on his health or when he might return to the helm of the Jacksonville, Florida-based company. Harrison previously took a medical leave at Canadian Pacific in 2015 after surgery and a bout with pneumonia. "My thoughts are totally consistent with everything that Hunter and CSX have said to date about what we intend to do. I see no significant material change from those plans," Foote told Reuters by phone after a conference call with analysts. In June, CSX shareholders approved an $84 million payout to Hilal's new investment firm Mantle Ridge for arranging Harrison's appointment and gave the septuagenarian a four-year contract estimated at $300 million. Hilal, who now sits on the CSX board, was instrumental in appointing Harrison to run Canadian Pacific Ltd when Hilal worked at William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management. The bet on CP earned the hedge fund $2.5 billion. Hilal did not return requests for comment. RAISING QUESTIONS With Foote now running the show, investors showed some nervousness about whether the executive can deliver on Harrison's ambitious plans. "It will be a classic 'show me' story," said Taylor Glasebrook, an associate portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, which owns 10.5 million shares of CSX, making it the No. 8 shareholder in CSX. "One investor concern may be that any possible changes to the pace of margin improvements (envisioned by Harrison) could slow down," he said. Even before taking on the CEO job, Foote had his hands full as chief operating officer and chief sales and marketing officer. "There could be concerns among investors about whether Jim can wear three hats," Glasebrook added. CSX will give investors details on the company's strategy, such as possible plans to sell off some short-line rail segments, at its investor conference in early March, Foote said. Given Harrison's age and health problems - he was seen using an oxygen tank when meeting with investors last month - investors want to know more about the company's succession plans. Harrison on Nov. 29 said he was "trying to stay back a little bit" to give Foote and other managers the space to steer CSX, a move he described as part of his succession plan. "Hunter Harrison is a unique talent and leader and if he is unable to return to the company it would raise real questions over CSX's long-term margin potential," Citi analyst Christian Wetherbee said in a research note. While at Canadian Pacific, Harrison sought to acquire competitors. He made a failed bid for No. 4 U.S. railroad Norfolk Southern Corp , backed by CP shareholder Pershing Square and held abortive talks to buy CSX. Foote, who previously was the CEO of railroad products supplier Bright Rail Energy Inc, has never headed a major railroad. Foote brushed off questions about whether the board was slow in warning that Harrison has health problems. "The board acted properly and promptly based on the information that we had," Foote said, adding that Harrison held management training sessions and spoke at an analyst conference in recent days. Foote said CSX has already gone through the "real heavy lifting," including closing numerous rail yards where train cars are sorted. But Foote declined to say whether he would be in contact with Harrison regarding day-to-day operations. "We just can't talk about it, simple as that," he said. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; additional reporting by Nick Carey in Detroit, Svea Herbst-Balyiss in Boston, Arunima Banerjee in Bangalore, and Anna Driver in New York; editing by Chizu Nomiyama and G Crosse)
(JAKARTA, Indonesia) A strong earthquake shook the Indonesian capital Thursday and other cities on the countrys most populous island of Java, killing an unknown number of people amid reports of collapsed buildings.
Authorities issued a tsunami warning for parts of Javas coastline after the quake struck just before midnight Friday. People ran out of buildings in panic in many areas and Indonesian television showed heavy traffic on roads as people left coastal areas.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said there were deaths and injuries reported in the Ciamis region of western Java but could not immediately provide details. He also said there were reports that buildings had collapsed in the city of Tasikmalaya in western Java and in several western Java districts.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.5 and was about 91 kilometers (56 miles) deep and located just inland. Indonesian authorities reported a quake of similar magnitude offshore of Java.
Nugroho said strong tremors were felt for about 20 seconds in the capital of Jakarta and in cities and villages.
Indonesias MetroTV said a general hospital in the central Java town of Banyumas was damaged and patients were evacuated.
The country sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and has frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
After Doug Jones unexpected win in the Alabama Senate race Tuesday night, jubilant Democrats could hardly contain their enthusiasm about what it means for next years midterm elections.
The upset win in deeply conservative Alabama, which hasnt had a Democratic senator in two decades, reduced the Republican majority in the upper chamber to 51 while also showing that Democrats could compete in states they havent done well in recently.
Senate Republicans are rushing to duck responsibility and blame all of their problems on Roy Moore, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee wrote in a memo Thursday. But make no mistake: the same trends that our counterparts want to gloss over are emerging in Senate races across the country.
But the optimism masks a tough reality, at least in the Senate. In 2018, Democrats will be defending 26 seats, including two independents who caucus with them. Ten of those seats are in states President Trump won in 2016, and five are in states where he won by over 15 percentage points. Republicans, on the other hand, are only defending eight seats.
Republicans have seized on this dynamic, targeting Missouri and Indiana, state where President Donald Trump won handily last year and Sens. Claire McCaskill and Joe Donnelly are running for reelection, as two of the most optimal opportunities to turn the Senate seats red. On visits to tout his tax reform plan, President Trump specifically called out McCaskill and Donnelly, telling the crowds to vote them out of office if they dont support the plan. Neither of them have.
In order for Democrats to take control, theyll need to push back hard against these forces, keeping all of their seats in contention and flip an additional two.
Still, Democrats argued its within reach.
Obviously, Senate Democrats face a very challenging map, but Republicans are facing expensive and divisive primaries and an electorate that is repulsed by their agenda, said an aide to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. We are running with strong incumbents and challengers, and are preparing to take advantage of every opportunity we can.
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Chris Pack, a spokesman for the Senate Majority Fund, a SuperPac aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, told TIME that while the environment was undeniably tough for Republicans, the electoral map gives the party an advantage.
Its such a great map for us this cycle; I dont think its been this favorable to Republicans when you have the president and the same party [in control of the Senate] in decades, he said. It will be a tough climate but the map is so favorable.
There is also the possibility that Republicans become even more energized following Jones victory. Some of the most potentially competitive races, like Arizona and Nevada, include insurgent primary challengers Kelli Ward in Arizona and Danny Tarkanian in Nevada who are backed by Steve Bannon and embody the populist conservative grassroots movement, similar to Alabamas Republican candidate, Roy Moore. It is likely that Republicans will go into overdrive to ensure more centrist candidates prevail in the primaries.
Although the Senate Leadership Fund has yet to detail its strategy, it has already released an ad blasting Ward and slammed Tarkanian on Twitter after he challenged Heller to sign a pledge replacing McConnell as Senate Majority Leader.
We will play in primaries because we think its important to get candidates through their primaries who can win in November when it counts, said Pack.
President Donald Trump refused to state whether hed consider pardoning former national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying, Well see what happens.
I dont want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet. Well see what happens, Trump told reporters Friday on his way to Marine One, before speaking at the FBI National Academy graduation. Lets see, I can say this: When you look at whats gone on with the FBI and the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.
Flynn pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI about his communications with the Russian government.
On Friday afternoon, White House attorney Ty Cobb told CNN: There is no consideration being given to pardoning Michael Flynn at the White House.
President Donald Trump wouldn't say Friday whether he would consider pardoning Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
In his Friday comments, Trump referenced messages critical of the president that were sent between an FBI lawyer and an agent who later worked for special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. They caused anger, the president said.
Its a shame whats happened with the FBI, but, were going to rebuild the FBI, itll be bigger and better than ever, Trump said. But it is very sad, when you look at those documents and how theyve done that is really, really disgraceful and you have a lot of angry people who are seeing it.
The level of anger at what theyve been witnessing with respect to the FBI is certainly very sad, Trump added.
Earlier Friday, deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox News there is extreme bias against this president with high-ranking officials at the FBI.
Trump again called Muellers investigation into Russia and his campaign a hoax.
There is absolutely no collusion, that has been proven, Trump claimed, arguing even his worst enemies say there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia.
I didnt make a phone call to Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia. Everybody knows it, Trump said. That was a Democrat hoax. It was an excuse for losing the election. And it should have never been this way ... so now even the Democrats admit theres no collusion. There is no collusion. Thats it.
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In addition to Flynn, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians during the campaign. Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, two top Trump campaign staffers, were also charged as part of Muellers investigation.
This story has been updated with more details and background and with comment from Ty Cobb.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before leaving the White House in Washington, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017, for a trip to Quantico, Virginia to attend the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump has refused to say whether he would pardon his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who pled guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI.
I dont want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet. Well see what happens, Mr Trump told reporters. Lets see, I can say this: When you look at whats gone on with the FBI and the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.
Mr Trump made his comments before he headed to Quantico, Virginia to make a speech at the FBI National Academy's graduation ceremony.
A few weeks ago, Mr Flynn admitted to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a senior-level Russian official, indicating he is cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe into alleged ties between the Kremlin and Trump campaign advisers.
Mr Flynns discussions with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, suggested that Mr Trumps aides tried to create foreign policy before they were in power, according to documents released as part of Mr Flynns plea agreement.
On Friday, Mr Trump insisted again that there was no collusion between him and Russia.
There is absolutely no collusion, Mr Trump said. I didnt make a phone call to Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia. Everybody knows it. That was a Democrat hoax. It was an excuse for losing the election, and it should have never been this way, where they spent all these millions of dollars.
Mr Trump has referred to the multiple Russia investigations as a witch hunt. Along with Mr Mueller, congressional committees are also looking into whether the Trump campaign team colluded with the Kremlin.
When you look at the committees, whether it's the Senate or the House, everybody - my worst enemies, they walk out, they say, There is no collusion but we'll continue to look. They're spending millions and millions of dollars, Mr Trump told reporters on Friday.
US President Donald Trump (Photo by Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump has called on Roy Moore to admit defeat and concede after voters in Alabama chose to elect Democrat Doug Jones to the United States Senate on Tuesday.
Mr Moore has thus far refused to concede, instead indicating that he is waiting for direction from God.
I think he should. He tried, Mr Trump told reporters Friday when asked if Mr Moore, who the President endorsed, should let up.
The President had initially endorsed Mr Moores primary opponent, Senator Luther Strange, who also had the support of more centrist Republicans in Congress. Mr Moore was championed in the race by Mr Trumps former White House strategist, Steve Bannon, who has vowed to upend the Republican establishment.
Mr Trump eventually endorsed Mr Moore, in spite of numerous claims that the Republican had pursued sexual relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s. Mr Moore has denied the allegations.
Mr Moores loss has been seen as a signal of general discontent with Mr Trump and his Republican control of Congress, and could imperil the Presidents legislative agenda once Mr Jones is sworn into office. Before Tuesday, Alabama voters had not chosen a Democrat to represent them in the Senate in over 20 years.
Mr Jones, whose campaign courted black voters, has described his election as a unifying and historic day for his state.
"I have always believed that the people of Alabama have more in common than to divide us," Mr Jones said on election night, just after returns indicated that he had won the race. "We have shown not just around the state of Alabama but we have shown the country the way that we can be unified."
Mr Jones is likely to be sworn into office in January, although his swearing in could take place sooner if the state of Alabama certifies the election results, and if the Senate is unable to meet looming budget and funding deadlines that need to be agreed upon to keep the government running.
Dustin Hoffman faces major accusations in a Variety report published Friday that alleges he exposed himself to a 16-year-old classmate of his daughters in 1980 and assaulted two other women while working on 1987s Ishtar.
The allegations fit a pattern of behavior similar to other recent accusations made against the 80-year-old actor.
Cori Thomas told Variety she attended high school with Hoffmans daughter Karina and spent a day with the two of them walking around Manhattan in 1980.
Hoffman, who was in the process of divorcing Karinas mother, suggested his daughter go back to her home because it was a school night and said Thomas could wait for her parents at the hotel where he was saying.
So she left, and I was left in the hotel room with him alone, Thomas said. I was just sitting there waiting for my parents.
Several minutes later, the actor allegedly came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around him. Thomas said he then dropped the towel.
He was standing there naked. I think I almost collapsed, actually. It was the first time I had ever seen a naked man. I was mortified, she said.
The actor eventually put on a robe and sat on the bed. Thomas said Hoffman asked her to massage his feet.
I didnt know what to do in the circumstance, she said. I didnt know that I could say no, so I did it. And he kept telling me, Im naked. Do you want to see? Thomas said.
Thomas said she never told Karina about the incident, even though the actors daughter was a bridesmaid in her wedding.
(Photo: Jamie McCarthy via Getty Images)
Variety also interviewed two other women, one of whom wished to remain anonymous, about encounters they had with Hoffman.
Melissa Kester said she was in a recording studio watching Hoffman record vocals for Ishtar when he asked her to come into the booth because he was bored and needed inspiration.
Im thinking that its kind of flirtatious and funny, like hes holding onto me, because Im going to help him sing better, she told Variety. I felt awkward. Its a little weird. Hes hugging me while hes singing. But ha ha ha, its all a joke. My boyfriend is right there.
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As Hoffman continued with the take, Kester says he started to take liberties with her.
He literally just stuck his fingers down my pants, Kester said. He put his fingers inside me. And the thing I feel most bad about is I didnt know what to do. I just stood there. I just froze in the situation like Oh my god, what is happening? Its shocking when that happens to you.
Another woman told Variety about an alleged incident during a wrap party for Ishtar, when she was 22 years old. The actor allegedly stuck his fingers right up inside of me, she said, while they were driving in a car with others.
Hoffman did not comment on the allegations in the Variety story, but his attorney Mark A. Neubauer of Carlton Fields Jordan Burt called the accusations defamatory falsehoods.
The alleged assaults are just the latest made against the actor in the last six weeks.
Earlier this month, actress Kathryn Rossetter said that when she worked with Hoffman in 1985 on Death of a Salesman, he repeatedly groped her during the run of the play and also digitally penetrated her.
In early November, Hoffman was accused of sexually harassing a 17-year-old intern on the set of the 1985 TV adaptation of the same Arthur Miller play. Anna Graham Hunter said the actor asked her to give him a foot massage her first day on set.
Hoffman responded to her allegations with this statement:
I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am.
That response led late-night host John Oliver to call out Hoffman during a pre-screening panel discussion about the 20th anniversary of the film Wag the Dog on Dec. 4.
The Last Week Tonight host zeroed in on Hoffmans phrase It is not reflective of who I am, which he called a cop out.
Its that kind of response to this stuff that pisses me off because it is reflective of who you were if it happened and youve given no evidence to show that it didnt happen, Oliver told the actor. Then there was a period of time for awhile when you were creeping around women.
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A California firefighter was killed this week while battling one of the wildfires that has scorched the state in recent weeks.
It's a story of heartbreak for Cory Iverson's wife and 2-year-old daughter, but one that has a glimmer of light through the grief: The 32-year-old and his wife have a second baby on the way.
Iversons wife Ashley is due in the spring. And as her family begins to grieve, they have the collective sympathy of those who knew Iverson and a nation that now knows him as a hero.
We are deeply saddened to have to notify you of a fatality involving one of our firefighters, Cal Fire San Diego confirmed on social media Thursday.
While it remained unclear exactly how Iverson was killed, officials said he was engaged in a "very active part of the fire just outside the town of Fillmore when he died.
Today, Fire Apparatus Engineer Cory Iverson has succumbed to fatal injuries while engaged in fire suppression efforts on the Thomas Fire. We ask that everyone take a minute to keep the entire Iverson family and friends in your thoughts and prayers," the Cal Fire San Diego statement read.
The Thomas Fire, still just 30 percent contained, is the fourth-largest blaze in California history.
Firefighters lined the road in tribute Thursday as Iverson's body was transported in a hearse to the Ventura County Medical Examiner.
A GoFundMe page has been established in Ashley's name by a woman who identified herself as a friend.
"As people are asking how they can help, what we know is that they first need your prayers. They also will need help in the coming year as they grieve and learn to adapt to life without Cory," Cecily Bauchmann wrote. "This money will go to Ashley to use as neededfor funeral arrangements, for their girls, for help with the home and the yard, whatever she needs as she grieves and adjusts."
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Moscow (AFP) - Flights between Russia and Egypt will resume in February, the Russian transport ministry announced Friday, after they were suspended in 2015 following an airliner bombing claimed by the Islamic State group.
Russian transport minister Maksim Sokolov and Egyptian civil aviation minister Sherif Fathy signed an agreement on aviation security that "is the first step for the resumption of flights between our countries," the Moscow ministry said.
Sokolov said flights between Moscow and Cairo would restart in February 2018 pending internal procedures, in comments echoed by the Egyptian minister.
Russia suspended flights to Egypt after IS said it had bombed a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from a Red Sea resort popular with Russian tourists, killing all 224 people on board.
The plane crash and subsequent suspension badly hit Egypt's tourism sector, which was already reeling from the political and security turmoil that followed the uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.
The drop in tourism revenues, a main source of foreign hard currency, exacerbated a dollar shortage in Egypt that in turn affected imports.
Russian tour operators said Friday's agreement was unlikely to immediately restart mass tourism from Russia to Egypt, with direct flights only to Cairo rather than resort destinations.
But it was a step towards a revival of the sector, they were quoted by news agencies as saying.
Last week Egypt and Russia signed a contract for the building of Egypt's first nuclear power plant, during a visit to Cairo by President Vladimir Putin.
Poor Al Franken. The Minnesota Democrat was kicked to the curb by a party that, until a few months ago, not only turned a blind eye to sexual misconduct but also lionized serial predators such as Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy. So why was Franken a bridge too far for Democrats? Because he stood in the way of their effort to claim the "moral high ground" when Roy Moore was elected to the United States Senate.
Democrats were looking forward to spending the next year wrapping Moore around the necks of Republicans. They were gearing up for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation that would keep Moore in the spotlight for months and preparing to demand public hearings where his accusers could be paraded before the media. They were waiting with bated breath for the cavalcade of bigoted gaffes Moore would have made.
They were looking forward to seeing Republicans squirm, as they were forced to court an increasingly toxic Moore for his vote in a narrowly divided Senate. And they were ready to pummel Republicans when, in the end, the GOP-controlled Senate would fail to expel him - knowing full well there was no precedent for removing a senator from office for actions he allegedly committed decades ago, before he was a senator, and that voters knew about before electing him.
"Sen. Roy Moore, R-Ala.," would have been the greatest Christmas gift Democrats could have wished for. Instead, Santa left them with a lump of coal. Moore isn't coming to Washington after all. There will be no investigation, no public hearings. The voters of conservative Republican Alabama, in their wisdom, decided that Moore was not worthy to represent them in the United States Senate. Roll tide!
Of course, the idea that Democrats could have claimed moral superiority when it comes to the sexual abuse of women was laughable to begin with.
Just last year, Democrats gave Clinton - who faced credible allegations of rape and other sexual misconduct - a hero's welcome at their convention in Philadelphia. They nominated Hillary Clinton, who rather than believe the women stood by her husband through the allegations, as their standard-bearer. And just a few years ago, they named a Senate caucus room for Ted and John F. Kennedy, both harassers as well.
Watching the party of Clinton, Kennedy, Franken, Conyers, Weiner, Condit and countless others excoriating anyone over sexual misconduct would have been rich indeed. But Moore's election would have given Democrats a credible pretext to do just that.
Instead, they got Doug Jones. Democrats never intended for Jones to win. After all, if they were serious about competing in Alabama, they would not have nominated a pro-abortion extremist in one of the most pro-life states in the country. Indeed, Jones would have lost easily Tuesday night if any Republican other than an alleged sex predator had been on the ballot. And he is virtually guaranteed to lose his seat in 2020.
Democrats will take the unexpected benefits of his victory, which narrows the GOP's Senate majority from 52 to 51, complicating President Donald Trump's ability to pass legislation and confirm judges (including a possible Supreme Court pick) next year. They will try to spin it as a repudiation of Trump, which it was not. (Trump maintains a 59 percent approval rating in Alabama.) And they know it means they have one less seat they need to win in order to regain control of the Senate in 2018.
But all that pales in comparison with what Moore would have done for the Democratic Party as a Republican senator. That is why so many conservatives in Alabama either wrote in another candidate or stayed home, giving Jones the victory.
And it is why Alabama's senior senator, Richard C. Shelby - possibly the most astute political mind on the Republican side of the aisle - came out publicly against Moore the Sunday before the election. They knew that Moore is the Democrats' caricature of a Republican come to life. Democrats are glad to gain a Senate seat, but with a Moore victory they might have gained a whole lot more.
Thank God for the people of Alabama.
I was born in the latter part of the Great Depression and the start of World War 11 when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Coined the Silent Generation by Time Magazine in 1951, my cohort was squeezed between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers. We were a smaller group than our named predecessors and successors. The 1950s were a period of relative Eisenhower tranquility, close-knit families and employment in the rise of major corporations, for many white people. But there was a never resolved Korean conflict, and while racism persisted and was addressed by the Supreme Court in 1954, real public outcry had to await the vocal champions of the civil rights movement of the 60s. It was a placid, self-satisfied period without public orators to articulate the need for change. The silence itself was comforting then, damning in hindsight.
Now, I am a part of my aging generation, reflected in ads for elevator stairs, catheters and newly designed canes. Yet I have a queasy feeling I am living a replay of a new Silent Generation composed of leaders, mostly male, chained by Wall Streets values-free score card. Nor do we hear enough from Academic presidents who are constrained by raising funds from alums. I dont hear the clarion call of noble purpose when there is an obvious shattering of our most basic principles by the current dangerously buffoonish resident in a divisive White House. Many of us know it, see it, are disgusted by it, but are silent in the face of political indecency and twisted propaganda.
I have a modestly radical proposal. Overthrow with women the men in government, starting at the top and working down from the Cabinet through Congress. Replace any male CEO and continue the emergence of female leadership in Academia 100%. While were at it, overturn Hollywood and media with a cadre of women, and undo the male-bastion tech world. Why? Women are more likely to speak out for fairness, for values-based competence and, most of all, for individual and universal peace. Women are able to manage and foresee crucial events with compassion combined with steely resolve. It is time for the majority to rule, for women to take over from that male massive inequality spawned by a bloated, ungodly 1% holding all the money. Im not saying this would solve all problems, and my point is not to put women on a pedestal, but to underscore real data that shows the many ways in which women are better leaders. So now they should lead everything.
You can come down on me for being a soured former CEO who played by and succeeded under these same male rules. You can say this sounds self-serving, or comes too late. But with age comes some measure of wisdom generated by having lived through the didacticism of history. I dont want to be a part of this Silent Generation. I want to return to the Sixties when people spoke out with words that addressed the American Dream and gave their lives in this cause of freedom. It has been said that the true measure of your beliefs, your values, what you stand for, is the willingness to put yourself on the line by articulating openly who you are. I am standing now for the power of words to free us, and give it over to that shining symbol standing in the New York Harbor Lady Liberty!
Nicole Finn, the 43-year-old Iowa mother authorities say starved her teenage daughter to death, was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child endangerment on Thursday.
A 12-person jury, which began deliberating the case since Wednesday, convicted Finn in the October 2016 death of 16-year-old Natalie Finn, according to the Des Moines Register.
Natalie weighed just 85 pounds at the time of her death and one attorney described the case as the worst he had ever seen.
The mother of five will be sentenced Jan. 26, but first-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence in Iowa.
Nicole Finn
In final arguments, the prosecution argued Finn sought to kill and torment the three children, including Natalie, who was adopted. The defense claimed Finn was detached from reality.
In 18 years of being a prosecutor, this is the worst case Ive ever seen, Assistant Polk County Attorney Bret Lucas said after the verdict, as reported by CBS News.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Finn wipes the corner of her eye after the second day of testimony on Dec. 6
Police said Natalie was found emaciated, unresponsive and wearing adult diapers when authorities responded to an emergency call at Finns home in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 24, 2016.
The teen was not breathing and was lying on the waste-covered linoleum floor of her unfurnished bedroom, investigators have said. Police believe the girl had been in her own excrement for some time.
Days before her death, two of Natalies siblings fed her water with a syringe and tried giving her yogurt, Finns son, Jaden, said in court during the first full week of testimony.
Natalie Finn
Earlier this month, a police detective detailed several of Finns alleged text messages about her kids, four of whom she adopted, according to the Register.
They are worthless, she allegedly wrote in a March 2, 2016, text. I cant stand them. [Im] so done with this s.
Finns ex-husband, Joe Finn, has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, neglect or abandonment and child endangerment. He wasnt living with the rest of the family when Natalie died. His trial begins Jan. 8.
Game of Thrones star Kit Harington shifts into producing with Gunpowder, a miniseries in which he plays his real-life ancestor on his mothers side, Catholic rebel Robert Catesby. Catesby was part of Britains 1605 Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament. Gunpowder airs on HBO nightly from Dec. 18 to Dec. 20. TIME spoke to Haringtoncurrently at work on the final season of Thronesabout coming into his own as a producer and what he learned from his bosses on the Game of Thrones set.
When did you first learn you were related to Robert Catesby?
I dont actually knowit was one of those first things you learn, one of those family stories, one of those pieces of family curiosity. I cant pinpoint when I knew or found out about it. What went into the inception of this piece is the drama around that piece of history. Thats how I started approaching it, from the family connection to him, but its just one of those family things you grow up with.
Did you find Catesby to be a relatable figure?
As I went along trying to depict Catesby and get into his head, the less I sympathized with him. Hes persecutedI see why he does what he does. But the more I looked, the more I realized hes an incredibly selfish person. He takes a whole lot of people along with him who wouldnt have ended up becoming attempted murderers. Reading up on him and looking at the real historical person, he thought quite a lot of himself. He really felt he was on the way to change history. He basically after a while couldnt see what he was attempting which was to kill innocent people and become as bad as those people who were persecuting him.
It must be a complicated thing that youve now made this project bringing a family name further into the lightand yet youve depicted him as an impetuous, zealous, person. How did your parents feel about this project?
They were over the moon about it! It must have been 2005, my mum had written a very good piece for the radioshes a playwright, and she wrote a really good piece about the women of the Gunpowder Plot, and she wrote about Catesbys mother. She looked into the complexity of it as well. Because of that, she was very pleased I had the same thought to do something around it.
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From a less sympathetic angle, Catesby and his compatriots might look like terrorists.
I dont think they were terroriststhe word terrorism hadnt been coined at that point. They were revolutionaries. Often you see terrorists in movies and it isnt explored why they did what they did. There was a chance in this to do that.
Was it interesting to do research into a real family story?
You know about the plot, you know about the 36 barrels [of gunpowder], you know about Guy Fawkes. You dont know anything else! This is a fascinating period of history, a brutal one, and there was so much to explore that hadnt been explored. You look at the period just prior to this, that is so pawed over in film and TV. This period has kind of been forgotten and its a really interesting period of great change.
With Gunpowder, you went from an actor on set to running the ship. How did that transition go?
I didnt find it a huge leap; Id been watching for however many years now on Thrones, watching the role of the producer and how it all worked. And Ive worked with some of the best, Chris Newman and Bernie Caulfield and Carolyn Strauss and Frank Doelger and David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] on Thrones. I think I really wanted to test that and see what it was really like doing it. And I enjoyed it! I really thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. I found it quite a natural place to be. I loved the control it gave me over the whole thing. I can feel sometimes a bit like a pawnyou want more ownership over your story. Thats what Id been searching for in some way.
Was there anything specific you learned about producing on the Game of Thrones set?
I think the one thing that Ive noticed is that if people are enjoying what theyre doing and the cast and the crew and the producers are melding in the right way and everyone is getting on in the right way, the right kind of energy is flowing through a group of people, then the end product can only benefit from it and can only become better for it. And I think thats something that David and Danwhat happens there happens very well. Everyone kind of feels like a family. And that was something I wanted to try if I was going to produce something; it comes from the producers. I like to think Im part of helping to achieve that in some way as well.
Youre now working on your final season of Thrones. When we last spoke during the filming of season 7, you said you were trying to come to terms with the shows end. Is the reality of the ending sinking in yet?
It kind of is! Im actually down in York, Im back in Belfast [where the show is filmed] some next week. Its a lot ofits just bigger than its ever been! It is sinking in, its just quite emotional. I dont know how Im going to feel sometime next year when Ive finished. Its quite a sudden shift, I guess, but it feels like the right time.
Keaton Jones's parents have been accused of racism for their social media posts: Facebook
The story of Keaton Jones, a middle school student from Tennessee, started out simple: A young boy made a video about being bullied, the video went viral, and hundreds of Americans rallied to his defence.
The reality, however, is much more complicated. In the days since Keatons video went viral, social media has brimmed with disturbing allegations about his family including accusations of racism. While sympathy for Keaton still abounds, many people have found themselves wondering: Whats really going on here?
Keep reading for everything you need to know.
Who is Keaton Jones?
Keaton is a middle-school student who lives in Tennessee with his mother and two sisters. According to his mother, Kimberly, Keaton was born with a tumour. Treatment for the tumour required numerous surgeries, which affected the appearance of his face.
Earlier this month, Ms Jones uploaded a video to Facebook of Keaton describing the bullying he faced for looking different. He said other students made fun of his appearance, poured milk on him, and stuffed ham down his shirt.
Just out of curiosity, why do they bully? What's the point of it? he asked.
The tearful plea struck a chord with millions of viewers. The video was shared widely across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, rendering the bullied boy an overnight celebrity.
What has happened since he went viral?
A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on Dec 10, 2017 at 7:20pm PST
The initial reaction to the video was heartwarming: Viewers flooded Keaton with messages of support, urging him to be strong in the face of adversity.
Millie Bobby Brown, the child actor who plays Eleven in Netflix's Stranger Things, tweeted that she wanted to be friends with Keaton. Rapper Snoop Dogg told Keaton to hit me on dm so we can chop it up. Chris Evans, the actor who plays Captain America, invited the boy and his mother to attend the premiere of The Avengers in Los Angeles next year.
This broke my ]]>
Kelly Cutrone is the most recent woman to accuse hip-hop producer Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct.
Cutrone, a TV personality and founder of fashion PR company Peoples Revolution, told Page Six on Thursday that Simmons attempted to rape her in 1991 at his apartment. A dozen women have now accused Simmons of some form of sexual misconduct ranging from rape to sexual assault and harassment.
According to Cutrone, the two ran into each other at a party and were walking to another when Simmons said he had to stop at a friends apartment. Cutrone, who was 26 at the time, said she believes Simmons led her to his own apartment instead of a friends.
He pushed me into his apartment and then he threw me down on the floor and literally tried to grab ... take my clothes off of me. And I started kicking him really, really hard, screaming, telling him to get the fuck off of me, Cutrone told Page Six. And that I would have him killed if he ever fucking laid a hand on me.
Once Cutrone was able to fend off Simmons, she said, she left his apartment really shaken up.
I remember running out the door and getting a cab and all I remember was that I got in a cab and I remember a feeling which was so crazy of, Oh my god. Somebody just tried to rape me. What do I do? she said. And then the energy of going to the police and pressing charges against him was overwhelming to me.
Reports from The New York Times and Los Angeles Times published on Wednesday featured nine women who allege that Simmons raped, sexually assaulted or harassed them between 1983 and 2016. In November, a former model accused Simmons of sexually assaulting her when she was a minor. Screenwriter Jenny Lumet accused Simmons of raping her.
Simmons has denied all of the allegations against him.
On Wednesday, he wrote on Instagram: I have never had a sexual encounter that was not consensual or lawful. Ever. Simmons followed up his statement with another post on Instagram that read #NotMe as a response to the #MeToo movement.
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My intention is not to diminish the #MeToo movement in anyway, but instead hold my accusers accountable, Simmons wrote in the caption. ... Its just a statement about my innocence.
HuffPost has reached out to Cutrone and Simmons for comment.
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Russell Simmons Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Teen As Brett Ratner Watched
9 More Women Just Accused Russell Simmons Of Rape, Violence And Misconduct
Russell Simmons Denies Rape Accusations With #NotMe
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Paris (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday celebrated his birthday at the iconic chateau of King Francois I, a choice denounced by critics as an example of how he is "cut off from the people".
Macron, who turns 40 on Thursday, is spending the weekend with his wife Brigitte and extended family at the chateau of Chambord in France's Loire Valley, local French newspaper La Nouvelle Republique reported.
With its fairy tale facade, elaborately turreted roofline and vast grounds, Chambord is probably the valley's best-known Renaissance chateau, located about 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of Paris.
Macron and his family will stay at one of the cottages on the vast estate, French media said, with a birthday gala to be held Saturday evening in one of the castle's 440 rooms.
The estate has several four-star guest houses which can be rented for 800 to 1,000 euros ($950 to $1,200) per weekend.
The Elysee Palace said Macron and his wife were using private funds to pay for their stay.
But the choice of venue was criticised by several French politicians.
"Why is he celebrating his birthday at Chambord?" asked radical-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, quoted in the newspaper Le Figaro.
"What a strange idea! I am so republican that everything about royal symbols exasperates me, I find it ridiculous," he said.
"While the French suffer from taxes, insecurity, immigration, Macron celebrates his 40th birthday at Chambord," right-wing politician Nicolas Dupont-Aignan said on Twitter.
"Eras go by but the oligarchy remains cut off from the people," he said.
- The 'pharaonic' president -
Commissioned nearly 500 years ago by King Francois I (1494-1547), the immense chateau remains the largest of the Loire grand estates, boasting 365 chimneys and a 5,500-hectare (21-square mile) estate.
It also has boasts the largest enclosed forest park in Europe, a long-time favourite for presidential hunts.
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The chateau, which attracts some two million visitors each year, has been listed as a regional UNESCO World Heritage cultural site.
Macron, a media darling during his campaign, has seen his image as a monarchical or even "pharaonic" leader climb from the night of his election, which featured a theatrical production at the foot of the Louvre pyramid in Paris.
Several newspapers have also expressed unease over the growing concentration of power in the presidency, and critics have said his use of executive orders to ram through landmark reform in September did not help matters.
In July, the cover of the left-wing Liberation newspaper mockingly depicted him as Jupiter, the Roman king of gods, and accused him of failing to share power -- an accusation echoed by Le Monde daily.
Jupiter is now regularly used by Macron's critics who accuse his centrist government of favouring the rich.
- Brigitte visits 'godbear' -
On Saturday, the president also visited Beauval Zoo, home to France's first panda cub, which Brigitte baptised -- becoming the fluffy bear's "godmother" -- earlier in the month.
Macron, his wife and several relatives went to the zoo in the Loir-et-Cher region after having lunch at a restaurant in nearby village Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, an AFP correspondent said.
Brigitte, in one of her most high-profile outings since her husband's election, cooed over the male cub at a ceremony on December 4 before a Chinese minister unveiled his name as Yuan Meng, which means "making a dream come true" in Chinese.
The French first lady became "godmother" during the event, along with her Chinese counterpart Peng Liyuan.
There male cub was the first ever born in France where its mother has been on loan from China since 2012, as part of Beijing's "panda diplomacy".
(Photo: Mario Anzuoni / Reuters)
Matt Damon a man who disclaimed any knowledge of Harvey Weinsteins alleged misdeeds and then admitted he knew the producer had harassed Gwyneth Paltrow has a few opinions about the slew of sexual misconduct scandals rocking Hollywood. And theyre interesting.
The Oscar-winning actor, who got his big break when Weinstein picked up his film Good Will Hunting, spoke with ABC News Peter Travers on Thursday. During their chat, he addressed the allegations against the fallen producer with a certain lack of clarity about what he himself knew.
Nobody who made movies for him knew. Any human being would have put a stop to that, no matter who he was. They wouldve said absolutely not, Damon said.
He added: I knew I wouldnt want him married to anyone close to me. But that was the extent of what we knew, you know? And that wasnt surprising to anybody. So when you hear Harvey this, Harvey that I mean, look at the guy. Of course hes a womanizer. I mean, I dont hang out with him.
Damon also expressed the view that sexual harassment isnt as bad as sexual assault.
I do believe that theres a spectrum of behavior, he said. And were going to have to figure out you know, theres a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right? Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldnt be conflated, right?
But he wasnt done there: All of that behavior needs to be confronted, but there is a continuum. And on this end of the continuum where you have rape and child molestation or whatever, you know, thats prison. Right? And thats what needs to happen. OK? And then we can talk about rehabilitation and everything else. Thats criminal behavior, and it needs to be dealt with that way. The other stuff is just kind of shameful and gross.
Minnie Driver, who co-starred with Damon in Good Will Hunting, had a thought about those comments on Friday:
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During the ABC interview, Damon provided a few examples of what he meant.
In the case of Louis C.K., the 47-year-old actor suggested that the comedian has already paid a price so beyond anything hes been accused of and Damon cant imagine hes going to do those things again. The actor also applauded the way Louis C.K. handled the situation:
When he came out and said, I did this. I did these things. These women are all telling the truth. And I just remember thinking, Well, thats the sign of somebody who well, we can work with that.
In the case of Kevin Spacey, he thinks director Ridley Scott who dropped Spacey from All the Money in the World after he was accused of sexual misconduct made a smart business decision.
Ridley has a big movie coming out and nobody right now is in the mood to see a Kevin Spacey movie, Damon said.
And I dont disagree with his decision to do that, he added. I mean, that movie, I think, will do much better without Kevin in it.
In discussing how he thinks the day of the confidentiality agreement is over, Damon offered this example of how he might have handled a hypothetical accusation of sexual misconduct 10 years ago:
Ten years ago, you made a claim against me and I had a big movie coming out, OK? I have $100 million or I have a movie that is personally important to me coming out, and close to the release of that film, you say, Matt Damon grabbed my butt and stuck his tongue down my throat. We would then go to mediation and organize a settlement. Id go, I dont want this out there. Peters going to go out and talk to the press and run his mouth, and its going to be overshadowing the opening of this movie. How much money do you want? The lawyers would get together, and they do this cost-benefit analysis, and theyd go, Oh, this is what its worth. And I look at the number and go, OK, Ill pay it, but you can never talk about this again. Youre fucking lying about this, but never talk about this again.
If a sexual misconduct allegation were aimed at him, Damon warned he wouldnt sit by quietly.
I dont care if it costs me $10 million to fight this in court with you for 10 years youre not taking my name from me.
The story has been updated with a comment from Minnie Driver.
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By David Alire Garcia MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The front-runner in Mexico's 2018 election has embraced a small, socially conservative party in his bid for the presidency, sparking criticism among progressives that could splinter his support in what is expected to be a tight race. Earlier this week, two-time presidential runner-up Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador entered into a coalition with the Social Encounter Party (PES), a tiny party with religious roots that pushes an anti-gay and anti-abortion agenda. The coalition is led by Lopez Obrador's left-of-center MORENA party and also includes the socialist-leaning Labor Party. Lopez Obrador, who is leading in most polls, has been Mexico's best-known leftist since he served as mayor of the capital a decade ago. In previous elections he favored tie-ups with left-wing parties. Some political analysts said a coalition with social conservatives could provide Lopez Obrador with the margin he needs to prevail in a crowded field of candidates, including first-time independents. But cracks in his progressive base are emerging. "It looks like our rights will have to keep waiting," said Lol Kin Castaneda, a leading gay rights activist who helped push Mexico City's approval of marriage equality in 2010. Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage is lawful. Still, fewer than half of the country's 32 states have laws on the books that permit civil marriage for gays and lesbians, and individual same-sex couples in most states must fight to be recognized, often at great cost. "It's an error for MORENA to join forces with PES... In this alliance, PES wins," Andres Lajous, a left-leaning writer and television pundit, posted on Twitter. Leo Zuckermann, a socially liberal commentator, suggested that Lopez Obrador, popularly known by his initials AMLO, is revealing his true colors by aligning himself with the PES. "People of the left, it's time to recognize that AMLO is a conservative on these issues," he wrote in newspaper Excelsior. Lopez Obrador, like many Latin American leftists, has traditionally focused on fighting poverty and graft, not divisive social issues like gay rights or a woman's right to an abortion. In the past, he has said such issues are not "so important" compared to the fight against corruption. He has also proposed putting same-sex marriage and abortion to a popular vote, which rankles activists like Castaneda. Asked if she might still support Lopez Obrador, Castaneda was quick to answer. "Right now, I haven't made a decision." (Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by David Gregorio)
More than a half of Americans say that Donald Trump should resign from the White House over the almost two dozen counts of sexual harassment claims levelled against him, a new poll has found.
A total of 53 per cent said he should step down compared to just 42 per cent who said he should stay in office despite the sleaze claims made against him.
The Public Policy Polling survey also found that the same number who said he should quit (53 per cent) believed the allegations made against him, while nearly a third (31pc) think his accusers are not telling the truth.
Almost a quarter (22 per cent) of those who identified themselves as Trump supporters said they would approve of the US president sexually harassing women. Nearly a half (45 per cent) did not.
The results came at the end of a week when three women who have accused the US leader of sexual misconduct demanded a congressional inquiry.
Jessica Leeds, Samantha Holvey, and Rachel Crooks accused Mr Trump of groping, fondling, forcibly kissing, humiliating or harassing them.
A former beauty queen, Ms Holvey claimed the 71-year-old ogled her and other Miss USA pageant contestants in their dressing room in 2006. She said his election win had been "heartbreaking".
Ms Leeds alleged that Mr Trump tried to kiss and put his hand up her skirt during a flight in the 1970s, while Rachel Crooks, a former Trump Tower receptionist said the billionaire kissed her on the mouth without consent in 2006
All three called for Congress to put aside party affiliations and investigate Trump's history of sexual misconduct.
As is often the case, Mr Trump took to Twitter to dismiss the claims.
Despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia - so now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I dont know and/or have never met. FAKE NEWS! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2017
Despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia - so now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I dont know and/or have never met. FAKE NEWS!
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A Capitol Hill investigation into Mr Trump's conduct appears unlikely.
The Senate and House Ethics Committees investigate members of Congress, rather than presidents.
The Republican-led committees would also be loath to investigate their own leader on sexual misconduct.
Vienna (AFP) - Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) was in triumphant mood Saturday after agreeing a coalition deal with the conservatives, capping a year of successes for Europe's nationalist movements.
As the parties met to rubber-stamp the accord struck the previous day, Herbert Kickl, the FPOe's secretary general and Austria's next interior minister, said he had "very, very good feeling".
"Nobody has anything to fear," Kickl said, one of six FPOe ministers in the new government including defence and foreign affairs. Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, 48, will be vice-chancellor.
The agreement reached by Sebastian Kurz's People's Party (OeVP) and the FPOe sets Kurz, 31, up to become chancellor and also the world's youngest leader.
Kurz and Strache were to unveil their programme on Saturday afternoon, with the government likely to be sworn in on Monday.
The OeVP came first in October snap elections after Kurz -- who is known as "wunderwuzzi" or "whizz-kid" -- rebranded the formerly staid party as his own personal "movement", promising to get tough on immigration and to lower taxes.
- Economy and security -
"Our aims are quite clear. We want to ease the tax burden for people, we want to strengthen our economy, which will bolster our social system," Kurz said late Friday.
"And first and foremost we want to increase security in our country, including by combatting illegal immigration," Kurz told reporters.
The anti-immigration FPOe came third in the election with 26 percent of the vote, which was double the stunning 13 percent notched up by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in elections the month before.
Both Kurz and Strache stoked concerns about immigration following a record influx in 2015, and also took advantage of voter fatigue with the OeVP's previous "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats (SPOe).
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Their success was mirrored in elections elsewhere in Europe this year.
Geert Wilders' Freedom Party became the second-largest in the Netherlands, France's National Front was in a runoff for the presidency in May and the AfD entered the Bundestag, re-drawing Germany's political map.
- Real power -
But the FPOe is rare in western Europe, having translated its ballot box success into real power. Last year it came close to winning the largely ceremonial presidency.
The last time the FPOe entered government was in 2000 under Joerg Haider, its controversial leader at the time who has since died, in a move which saw Austria briefly ostracised within the European Union.
This time though the reaction is likely to be much more muted with the FPOe seen as having mellowed and with Europe more inured to rightwing parties.
Several different groups including the anti-fascist "Offensive against the Right" have said they plan to stage demonstrations on Monday in Vienna.
The FPOe is also ambivalent about the EU but the joint programme shows that Kurz has managed to ensure the government will be decidedly pro-European, political analyst Thomas Hofer said.
"The European part is very strongly influenced by the OeVP and it is ruled out that there might be a referendum on Austria's membership of the EU or other international organisations," Hofer told AFP.
- 'A clear mandate' -
"The election gave a clear mandate from the Austrian people to take people's concerns seriously in this country, to listen and to avoid a repeat of the mistakes of recent years," Strache said Friday.
"That covers lots of areas -- security, illegal immigration and also the tax cuts that are needed... The main thing is the responsibility to represent the people of this wonderful homeland."
Kurz and Strache's news conference later was to be held atop the Kahlenberg hill overlooking Vienna and the Danube river, a location of major symbolic importance for the FPOe.
There, in 1683, a Polish king launched an attack that broke the Ottoman siege of Vienna. Some of Europe's nationalists liken the 17th-century Ottoman offensive to the immigration of Muslims in recent years.
"They say there is no real relevance but of course at least for the FPOe it has some relevance with 1683," Hofer told AFP. "The pictures up there will be pretty nice."
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By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Sabih al-Masri, Jordan's most influential businessman and the chairman of its largest lender Arab Bank, was detained in Saudi Arabia for questioning after a business trip to Riyadh, family sources and friends said on Saturday. Masri's detention, which follows the biggest purge of the Saudi kingdom's affluent elite in its modern history, has sent shockwaves through business circles in Jordan and the Palestinian territories, where the billionaire has major investments. A Saudi citizen of Palestinian origin, Masri was detained last Tuesday hours before he was planning to leave after he chaired meetings of companies he owns, according to the sources. He is the founder of Saudi Astra Group, which has wide interests in diversified industries ranging from agro-industry to telecommunications, construction and mining across the region. "Masri was heading to the airport and they told him to stay where you are and they picked him up," said a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be named. He canceled a dinner in Amman on Wednesday that he had invited board members of Arab Bank and business associates to attend on his return. The Saudi authorities did not respond to requests for comment, while Masri could not be reached for comment. His confidants had warned him not to travel to the Saudi capital after mass arrests of Saudi royals, ministers and businessmen in early November, the sources said. "He has been answering questions about his business and partners," said a source familiar with the matter who did not elaborate nor confirm he was held. A source close to the family later said that "while Masri is currently restricted from leaving Saudi Arabia, no official charges have been filed against him." POLITICAL MOTIVE Reasons for Masri's detention were not clear but political sources said the Saudis might have used him to put pressure on Jordan's King Abdullah not to attend a Muslim summit last week to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The Jordanian monarch attended the Istanbul summit, however. He is a custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and has been vocal in criticizing Trump over his decision on Jerusalem. Saudi Arabia, whose relations with the United States have warmed with Trump taking a harder line against its arch-rival Iran than his predecessor, appears to have taken a softer line on the decision on Jerusalem, according to analysts. Riyadh sent a junior minister to the Istanbul meeting. Masri, who comes from a prominent merchant family from Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, amassed a fortune from partnering with influential Saudis in a major catering business to supply troops during the U.S.-led military operation to retake Kuwait from Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. Reports of his detention surfaced on Thursday in the local media in Jordan where Masri's multi-billion dollar investments in hotels and banking are a cornerstone of the economy. He was elected chairman of Arab Bank in 2012 after the resignation of Abdel Hamid Shoman whose family had founded the bank in Jerusalem in 1930. The bank, which has earned a reputation of resilience in the face of political upheaval, played a prominent role in supporting former Palestinian leader, the late Yasser Arafat during past Middle East turmoil. Arab Bank, which operates in 30 countries and five continents, has an extensive network in Palestinian territories where it is the largest bank. It also owns 40 percent of Saudi Arabia's Arab National Bank ANB. Masri led consortium of Arab and Jordanian investors who bought a 20 percent stake in Arab Bank Group from Lebanon's Hariri family business empire for $1.12 billion last February. He was also instrumental in agreeing in 2015 to settle litigation brought by hundreds of Americans who accused Arab Bank of providing financial services in the West Bank that facilitated militant attacks in Israel. They had sued Arab Bank under the U.S Anti-Terrorism Act, which permits U.S. citizens to pursue claims arising from international terrorism. Masri is also the leading investor in the Palestinian territories with a large stake in Paltel, a public shareholding company, which is the largest private sector firm in the West Bank. Masri's family ranks among the wealthiest in the Palestinian territories, with majority holdings in real estate, hotels and telecommunications firms set up after a self-rule agreement with Israel in 1993. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Clelia Oziel)
House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks about the Republican tax reform legislation currently before Congress (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
House Speaker Paul Ryan has pushed back against reports saying he has plans to leave Congress after the 2018 elections.
I ain't goin' anywhere, Mr Ryan told reporters when asked about the retirement rumours.
The Wisconsin Republican has reportedly told some of his closest confidants that he would like to serve through Election Day 2018 and retire ahead of the next Congress, according to a Politico report attributed to unidentified sources.
AshLee Strong, Mr Ryans spokeswoman, called the report pure speculation.
As the speaker himself said today, he's not going anywhere any time soon, she said in a statement.
Shortly after the Politico article was published, Brendan Buck, an aide for Mr Ryan, tweeted: tldr - short for too long, didn't read.
The article is not the first to raise questions about how much longer Mr Ryan will remain in office, especially given how Republicans may now succeed in passing a tax code rewrite. Both the House of Representatives and Senate are expected to vote on a final bill next week.
Some of Mr Ryans close friends apparently told CNN that the Speaker has had some soul-searching conversations about his future with them.
But according to people close to him, it is inaccurate to say that Mr Ryan would resign immediately following tax reform because it's all he's ever wanted. Mr Ryan particularly dislikes the toll the job has taken on his family, sources told the outlet.
Lima (AFP) - Peru's Congress voted overwhelmingly on Friday to consider impeaching President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski next week over allegations he received bribes from Brazilian contractor Odebrecht.
Ninety-three of the 118 legislators present supported the proposal to debate impeachment on December 21.
"This decision will be communicated to the president to exercise his right to defense (during the next session) and assist with a lawyer if required," said Luis Galarreta, the head of Peru's single-chamber Congress.
Dismissal of Kuczynski would require support from 87 of the chamber's 130 members.
The rightwing Popular Force party, which controls the legislature, had already warned it would begin impeachment proceedings if the president did not resign by next Thursday.
But Kuczynski has brushed off the ultimatum.
"I am not going to abdicate my honor, my values or my responsibilities as president," Kuczynski said in a televised speech to the nation late on Thursday, backed by his ministers.
"I won't run, I won't hide nor do I have any reason to do so," he said, promising to cooperate with investigations by Congress and the office of the attorney general.
On Wednesday, Odebrecht said it had paid Kuczynski $5 million (4.25 million euros) in consulting fees between 2004 and 2013.
For part of that period, Kuczynski was economy minister and head of cabinet for then-president Alejandro Toledo, whom Odebrecht paid $20 million in kickbacks to win a contract managing a highway project, the company said.
Kuczynski denies any wrongdoing.
He is the third Peruvian president to become embroiled in the Odebrecht affair.
Former president Ollanta Humala is in preventive detention, accused of receiving $3 million from Odebrecht to fund his political campaigns, while Toledo faces an order for his extradition from the United States.
The Odebrecht 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 2016 to pay a record $3.5 billion fine after admitting to paying $788 million in bribes across 12 countries to secure contracts.
Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis will meet Jordan's King Abdullah II at the Vatican next week, the Holy See announced Friday, as Palestinians continue to clash with Israeli forces over US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Demonstrations and violence broke out across the Palestinian territories for the second Friday in a row after the end of weekly Muslim prayers.
Two Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces in clashes along the Gaza-Israel border, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The pope and King Abdullah, the custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem's Old City, are likely to discuss the situation, though the Vatican never indicates topics of discussion for such meetings in advance.
On Sunday the pope called for "respect of the status quo" in Jerusalem and warned against "a new spiral of violence".
Abdullah has denounced the Jerusalem announcement as "a violation of international rights".
Jerusalem, which contains sites considered sacred by Christians, Jews and Muslims, is of huge importance to both Israel and the Palestinians.
Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and his plans to move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv, effectively ignores Palestinian claims on the city and has led to widespread criticism and protest, particularly in the Arab world.
Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognised internationally, and all countries maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv.
The UN has long maintained that the only way to forge peace is to have two states -- Israel and Palestine -- with Jerusalem as the capital of both and the borders returned to their status before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel after the war, but before Trump's announcement it had not been internationally recognised as part of Israel.
By Alexander Winning and Nqobile Dludla JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Jacob Zuma gave his last speech as African National Congress head on Saturday, as the only party in power since the end of apartheid prepared to pick its next leader, and likely future president, in a vote that was too close to call. The election is perhaps the most pivotal moment for the ANC in its 23 years of power. Scandal and corruption allegations have tainted Zuma's presidency and the party that launched black majority rule under Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nelson Mandela is now deeply divided, its image tarnished at home and abroad. The race to succeed the 75-year-old as ANC leader has been dominated by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, 65, generally favored by financial markets, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, 68, an ex-cabinet minister, chairwoman of the African Union Commission and Zuma's ex-wife. Zuma, who is backing Dlamini-Zuma in the race, can remain head of state until 2019. The ANC will announce Zuma's successor on Sunday, concluding a bruising leadership battle that threatens to splinter the 105-year-old liberation movement. A trained lawyer and former union leader, Ramaphosa, 65, has vowed to fight corruption and revitalize an economy that has slowed to a near-standstill under Zuma with 28 percent unemployment and credit rating downgrades. That message has played well with foreign investors and Ramaphosa is expected to be backed by ANC veterans, labor unions and civil society organizations. In contrast, Dlamini-Zuma is seen as a fierce campaigner against racial inequality whose hostility to big business has rattled investors. "She has not made corruption the only pillar of her campaign, because the most critical issue in South Africa is this huge inequality," said Carl Niehaus, a key member of Dlamini-Zuma's campaign. PIVOTAL MOMENT Colin Coleman, managing director of Goldman Sachs in South Africa, said the candidates' distinct positions on the economy made the choice between them a clear one. "This is a pivotal moment. It is a choice between refreshing the ANC and putting South Africa on a course of a modern economy, or the party outlook may move deeper down a patronage path which would lead to a low-growth and high-unemployment outcome for the people of South Africa." In a boost to Ramaphosa, courts ruled that some senior officials from provinces seen as supporting Dlamini-Zuma had been elected illegally and were barred from the conference. The rand currency firmed more than 2 percent after that news on Friday. The ANC's National Executive Committee, a decision-making group of senior leaders, met before the conference began and decided that barred delegates could not vote at the conference. ANC Youth League leader Collen Maine, who backs Dlamini-Zuma, said that meant 122 delegates - out of about 6,000 - would be prevented from voting , something he called "not significant". Asked if barring the delegates helped Ramaphosa, a senior official of Cosatu, South Africa's largest union federation, said: "Definitely. But we are not banking only on that. We have trust that ANC delegates know what the country needs at the moment." John Ashbourne, Africa economist at Capital Economics, said: "Early signs of a win for Cyril Ramaphosa, the more investor-friendly option, have provided support for the rand. "But while Mr. Ramaphosa is popular among party members, the result will be decided by political insiders, who may opt for his leftist opponent, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma." Zuma cracked jokes, sang and danced after reading his last speech as ANC leader. Zuma warned members not to run to the courts to resolve party problems. He did not specifically mention the barring of delegates at the conference by the courts this week. "Factionalism has become the biggest threat to the organization," he said. The president also said allegations against businessmen accused of wielding undue influence over his government would be investigated. The High Court ruled on Wednesday that Zuma must set up a judicial inquiry into state influence-peddling within 30 days. Zuma announced plans to raise subsidies to universities to 1 percent of GDP over the next five years from nearly 0.7 percent at present, a move analysts said was timed to appeal to the more populist members of the party. (Additional reporting by James Macharia, Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Ed Stoddard; Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). (Photo: Alex Wong via Getty Images)
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee may be looking to prematurely shutter the committees investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, a ranking Democrat warned Friday.
In a series of tweets, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) explained why he was becoming increasingly worried that the probe may be nearing a conclusion as soon as the end of December.
Im increasingly worried Republicans will shut down the House Intelligence Committee investigation at the end of the month.
Heres why: Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
Schiff, who is working on the probe, said that Republicans on the committee have not issued any subpoenas or scheduled any further witness interviews past next Friday. The inaction, he added, comes at a time when the panel has made important progress in the nine months of the investigation, which has involved interviewing key witnesses and uncovering new leads.
We have dozens of outstanding witnesses on key aspects of our investigation that they refuse to contact and many document requests they continue to sit on, Schiff wrote.
It appears Republicans want to conduct just enough interviews to give the impression of a serious investigation, he added.
Since March, our investigation has made important progress. Weve interviewed numerous key witnesses behind closed doors, held public hearings, reviewed thousands of documents, identified new leads all to understand and expose Russia's meddling and protect our democracy. Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
Yet, Republicans have scheduled no witnesses after next Friday and none in 2017. We have dozens of outstanding witnesses on key aspects of our investigation that they refuse to contact and many document requests they continue to sit on. Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
It appears Republicans want to conduct just enough interviews to give the impression of a serious investigation. Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
Schiffs warning mirrors a report from The New York Times published Friday suggesting that the House Intelligence Committee is rushing to finish the investigation before Congress breaks for the holidays.
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According to the Times report, some of the panels most important witnesses will be interviewed in New York next week, potentially forcing some House Democrats to choose between voting on the GOPs controversial tax bill and attending depositions for the Russian investigation. Schiff said the witnesses were willing to travel to the capital.
In his tweets, Schiff added that the House will also have to vote on vital government funding bills as well. The time crunch could mean that no Members will be able to ask questions, he wrote.
All this, Schiff said, would be in an effort to squeeze them in before end of year.
Asked about the push to end the investigation, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who is leading the House probe on Russia, told The New York Times, I feel no need to apologize for concluding an investigation.
Next week, they scheduled critical witness interviews out of state, when we are voting on the tax bill and vital government funding bills and no Members will be able to ask questions, in an effort to squeeze them in before end of year.
These witnesses are willing to come to DC. Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
Despite our repeated urging, Majority has declined to issue subpoenas in numerous avenues of the investigation, where there's simply no other way to get the information. Some refusals weve made public, like witnesses hiding behind nonexistent privileges, many others we havent. Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
The responsibility to conduct a thorough investigation, or to prevent one, ultimately falls on @SpeakerRyan. Im concerned he's heeding the calls of Bannon and @POTUS to DO SOMETHING by closing down the Russia investigation & opening up another investigation of Hilary Clinton. Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
Schiff also pointed to recent attacks by Republicans on special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI as evidence that the GOP politicians were working to end the Russia investigation aggressively and soon.
Republicans have taken aim at Muellers investigation into Russia this week after reports revealed that the FBI removed Peter Strzok, a top agent, from the probe. Strzok was found sending text messages that could be seen as critical of President Donald Trump.
During an oversight hearing of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week, Republicans suggested that the public could no longer trust Mueller and the Justice Department to conduct an unbiased investigation, according to NBC News.
I think the public trust in this whole thing is gone, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Wednesday.
Similarly, Trump cast doubt on the FBIs efficacy earlier this month when he tweeted that the bureaus reputation was in tatters and the worst in history under former director James Comey.
On Friday, the president told reporters that people are very, very angry with the FBI and the Justice Department ahead of his trip to the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
In his tweets, Schiff warned the public that attacks on the Justice Department by Republicans and the White House are simply attempts to derail the Russia probe.
We cannot let that happen, the Democrat said.
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Beyond our investigation, heres what has me really concerned: The attacks on Mueller, DOJ and FBI this week make it clear they plan to go after Muellers investigation.
Aggressively and soon. Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
By shutting down the congressional investigations when they continue to discover new and important evidence, the White House can exert tremendous pressure to end or curtail Muellers investigation or cast doubt on it. We cannot let that happen. Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017
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Rex Tillerson speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting concerning North Korea's nuclear ambitions in New York City - Getty Images North America
The US secretary of state came face-to-face with North Koreas ambassador to the UN for the first time in a decade on Friday, as Rex Tillerson confronted Ja Song Nam at a Security Council meeting in New York.
Mr Tillerson offered an olive branch to the North Koreans, telling them that all options remain on the table and urging them to abandon their nuclear programme and return to negotiation.
We do not seek, nor do we want, war with North Korea, he said.
The United States will use all necessary measures to defend itself against North Korean aggression, but our hope remains that diplomacy will produce a resolution.
He said that a sustained cessation of North Koreas threatening behaviour must occur before talks can begin, and added: North Korea must earn its way back to the table. The pressure campaign must, and will, continue until denuclearisation is achieved.
Rex Tillerson speaks during a high level Security Council meeting on the situation in North Korea Credit: Mary Altaffer/AP
We will, in the meantime, keep our channels of communication open.
He also issued a stern rebuke to Russia and China, accusing them of supporting Pyongyang.
Continuing to allow North Korean labourers to toil in slave-like conditions inside Russia in exchange for wages used to fund nuclear weapons programmes calls into question Russias dedication as a partner for peace, he said.
Similarly, as Chinese crude oil flows to North Korean refineries, the United States questions Chinas commitment to solving an issue that has serious implications for the security of its own citizens.
Mr Ja, an elusive figure in New York, responded with a rebuke to the US, saying that they were trying to bully the UN to turn against his country.
North Korea's ambassador to the UN Ja Song-nam speaks during the UN Security Council Ministerial Briefing on Non-Proliferation and the DPRK Credit: MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images
He said his country would not pose a threat to any state, as long as its interests were not infringed upon.
And he described Mr Tillerson's speech as "a desperate measure plotted by the US being terrified by the incredible might of our Republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force."
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Speaking after the session, Mr Tillerson did not reiterate his comments earlier this week that there were no preconditions to talks.
Instead, he emphasised that North Korea must end its provocative behaviour before talks begin.
Militarily we are going to be prepared, should something go wrong, he warned.
His comments came the day after President Donald Trump talked to Vladimir Putin, for the third time in six weeks. The US president said the call was primarily about getting Russias co-operation on North Korea but added that Mr Putin made some very nice comments about his time in office.
File Photo: Soldiers attend a military parade in central Pyongyang, April 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Cheng Dayu)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Are the U.S. top brass' starkly contradictory remarks on possible talks with Pyongyang merely an indication of no fundamental changes in U.S. policies or a clever double-pronged attempt to ease the tense situation on the Korean Peninsula?
Some experts seem to think it's the latter.
TILLERSON'S OLIVE BRANCH
A new note was struck when U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said earlier this month that the United States wishes to engage in unconditional talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), whenever Pyongyang is ready.
"We're ready to have the first meeting without precondition," Tillerson said at a forum. "Let's just meet...we can talk about the weather if you want.... But can we at least sit down and see each other face to face? And then we can begin to lay out a map, a roadmap of what we might be willing to work towards."
However, he did not veer off entirely from the official line, saying it would be difficult to talk if in the middle of the dialogue Pyongyang decided to conduct another nuclear test.
"We've got to have a period of quiet or it's going to be very difficult to have productive discussions," he said.
His comments triggered a response from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, who said U.S. President Donald Trump's views on the DPRK issue have not changed.
Pyongyang is "acting in an unsafe way not only toward Japan, China and South Korea, but the entire world," she said.
White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said Wednesday that denuclearization is "the only viable objective" on the Korean Peninsula and talks with Pyongyang "won't be an end in themselves."
The United States will not relieve any pressure on Pyongyang or cave in to any demands for pay-offs, he said.
GOOD COP, BAD COP?
But some analysts see some alignment in the seemingly contradictory stands.
"At best, the divide between President Trump and Secretary Tillerson reflects a strategy of good cop, bad cop where the State Department and diplomats will continue to pursue peaceful means to resolve the conflict while President Trump's rhetoric steps up the pressure on the DPRK," Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua.
"At worst, it reflects a fundamental disconnect between the President and the U.S. chief diplomat. I imagine that the circumstances are somewhere in between, but closer to the best-case scenario," he said.
Many in the President's national security team understand how destructive a conflict with Pyongyang can be, he added.
Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute, told Xinhua that Tillerson was trying to find a way to engage the DPRK as part of an ongoing effort to find a way to resolve the situation peacefully.
He thought Tillerson was proposing to meet to begin a bilateral dialogue instead of negotiations. "In that sense, Tillerson's proposal is not inconsistent with the White House comments that negotiations need to be about denuclearization," he said.
Speaking of the influence Tillerson's announcement might have, he said the ultimate impact will depend more on Pyongyang's willingness to talk.
The fact that Trump was supportive of the recent trip to Pyongyang by Jeffrey Feltman, UN under-secretary-general for political affairs, indicated he is open to finding a way to resolve the DPRK issue through dialogue, Stangarone said.
MOUNTING CALLS FOR TALKS
Meanwhile, there are growing calls in the U.S. political and academic circles for direct talks with the DPRK, which many say is the only way to solve the nuclear deadlock.
William Perry, a former U.S. defense secretary, said Tillerson's remarks on unconditional talks with the DPRK were very encouraging.
"We must find a way to come to the table in order to de-escalate the volatile situation," he tweeted.
Michael J. Green, a National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration, said some communication and consultation with Pyongyang was appropriate.
The secretary of state omitted his line from earlier in the week on US openness to talks without pre-conditions following a rebuke from the White House
Rex Tillerson speaks at UN Headquarters in New York, New York Friday. Photograph: Lohr-J/Sipa USA/Rex/Shutterstock
Rex Tillerson has said that the US was keeping channels of communication open with North Korea but said Pyongyang would have to earn its way back to the table with a sustained cessation of threatening behaviour.
In his remarks at a ministerial meeting of the UN security council, the US secretary of state appeared to restate an offer of a dialogue following a pause in nuclear and missile testing that he made on Tuesday, but cast it in tougher language following a rebuke from the White House. Tillerson omitted a line restating US openness to talks without pre-conditions that had been in a text of his speech circulated earlier by the state department.
As I said earlier this week, a sustained cessation of North Koreas threatening behavior must occur before talks can begin. North Korea must earn its way back to the table, Tillerson said. The pressure campaign must, and will, continue until denuclearization is achieved. We will, in the meantime, keep our channels of communication open.
Speaking later at the security council meeting, the North Korean envoy Ja Song-nam ignored the US secretary of states call for talks, claiming that the US was terrified by the incredible might of our Republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force.
The UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said that a restoration of dialogue with Pyongyang was urgent.
We must do everything we can to reach that objective and avoid a level of danger that would be unpredictable in its trajectory and catastrophic in its consequences, Guterres said.
On Tuesday, Tillerson told an audience of foreign policy experts: Were ready to talk any time North Korea would like to talk, and were ready to have the first meeting without precondition. He said that the initial dialogue could be about the weather or the shape of the table, but added: Weve got to have a period of quiet or its going to be very difficult to have productive discussions.
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Hours later, however, the White House contradicted him, telling reporters that North Koreas test of an intercontinental missile in November meant that clearly right now is not the time for a dialogue. That was ruled out until Pyongyang fundamentally improves its behaviour.
The mixed messages illuminated a rift between the White House and the state department on North Korea policy. The state department believes an early return to diplomatic contacts is essential to defuse tensions and avoid war by miscalculation, while the White House believes that economic pressure and military threats should be given more time to force Pyongyangs acceptanc that it will ultimately give up its nuclear weapons programme.
Asked about his administrations policy on Friday, Donald Trump made non-committal remarks.
Well, were going to see what happens with North Korea. We have a lot of support, he said. There are a lot of nations that agree with us almost everybody. We cant let that happen. And were going to see what happens with North Korea. We hope it works out.
At the same day, the US special envoy for North Korea policy, Joseph Yun, echoed Tillersons remarks during to a visit to Thailand.
Its very hard to discern what their intent is without, as I said, having a real dialogue, Yun told reporters. We are open to dialogue. And we hope they will agree to have a dialogue,
In his remarks to the security council on Friday, Tillerson appeared to be trying to square the circle between two different policies, said Mira Rapp-Hooper, senior research scholar in the China Centre at Yale Law School.
He may be pressing diplomacy especially hard because he finds the other streams of thought in the administration so horrifying. But his tenure is expected to be extremely short.
Tillerson omitted a section in the draft version of the speech circulated to reporters before delivery that said that apart from a cessation in nuclear or missile tests there are no preconditions for talks, nor will we accept pre-conditions from North Korea or others.
In what has become a pattern, unnamed White House officials were quoted as making derogatory remarks about Tillerson on Friday.
I think our allies know at this point hes not really speaking for the administration, one official told the Washington Post. Both Tillerson and Trump had denied reports that the White House was planning to fire the secretary of state, but the denials have done little to quash rumours of his departure.
Five years have passed since the devastating school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. (Photo: Mike Segar / Reuters)
On the morning of Nov. 14, staff members at Rancho Tehama Elementary School in Corning, California, heard the sound of a single gunshot in the vicinity of the campus.
After two more shots rang out, the school secretary issued a verbal command over the loudspeaker to implement lockdown procedure. The whole school was on lockdown within 47 seconds.
The gunman crashed his truck into the school gate and entered the grounds. After failing to gain entry into any buildings and firing shots from the quad, he left the premises. Only one student was injured. The whole incident lasted around six minutes.
They have no relationship with the school, but this is the kind of swift and effective crisis response that Michele Gay and Alissa Parker like to hear about.
Gay and Parker both lost children on Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 20 students and six teachers. Gays daughter, Josephine, was 7 years old; Parkers daughter, Emilie, was 6.
In the aftermath of this heartbreaking tragedy, the women came together with a common goal: improve school safety and emergency preparedness so that other families dont have to suffer this kind of loss. In 2013, Gay and Parker founded the nonprofit Safe and Sound Schools to help them reach that goal.
We want to make our hindsight the foresight of others, Gay told HuffPost.
Alissa Parker and Michele Gay founded Safe and Sound Schools after their daughters were killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. (Photo: Courtesy of Safe and Sound Schools)
The organization follows a Straight-A Safety Improvement Model with three phases: assess, act and audit. The first phase involves assessing a schools safety and emergency preparedness procedures. The next step is to act on that assessment by developing a new plan or making changes that would solve existing problems. Once the new systems are in place, the third step is to audit the plan by testing and refining it repeatedly.
Weve talked with a lot of security and safety professionals, educators, students, administrators, psychologists, and parents, Gay said. We want to make sure that all of these stakeholders are on the same page and speaking the same language, that were planning and preparing and practicing together.
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FBI investigators process evidence at Rancho Tehama Elementary School on Nov. 14. (Photo: Sacramento Bee via Getty Images)
Seconds Matter
In the case of Rancho Tehama Elementary School, collaborative preparation was the key to saving lives.
Rick Fitzpatrick, the superintendent of the Corning Union Elementary School District, told HuffPost the school had been doing regular lockdown drills for years.
On the morning of the incident, most of the children were playing in the quad. The shots rang out about seven or eight minutes before the bell was due to ring. The school secretary perceived a threat and sprang into action to issue the lockdown, and adults on campus shepherded students into classrooms.
In this situation, seconds saved lives, Fitzpatrick said, noting that both the Sandy Hook shooting and the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 fundamentally changed the way schools think about safety.
Columbine showed us we couldnt take anything for granted, he said. And there was a huge shift in our focus after Sandy Hook. Sandy Hook taught us that we had to look at this issue tactically. A lot of people did things the right way, and people died anyway. So we had to look closely at what we were doing on a school-to-school based on different threats, different circumstances, different points of entry.
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Rancho Tehama Elementary School in Corning, California on Nov. 14. I have no doubt whatsoever that the knowledge from the experience at Sandy Hook informed our response that day, said Rick Fitzpatrick, the superintendent of the Corning Union Elementary School District. (Photo: Sacramento Bee via Getty Images)
Fitzpatrick said he looked at school facilities differently after the Newtown massacre. His office worked with law enforcement to devise procedures based on different locations, times of day and other varying factors in compliance with Californias school safety planning standards. The procedures were implemented at the district level.
I have no doubt whatsoever that the knowledge from the experience at Sandy Hook informed our response that day, Fitzpatrick said.
Making Schools Safer
Safe and Sound Schools is just one of many organizations working to improve school safety in a post-Sandy Hook world.
The Secure Schools Alliance advocates for infrastructure improvements as a way to make schools safer. Robert Boyd, the groups executive director, said such changes are as important as safety drills.
The way we look at Sandy Hook, it wasnt the failure of the school to do preparedness drills but a failure of the facility to be ready, Boyd said. The shooter was able to shoot out a glass window and get in. The classrooms didnt lock from the inside, and even if you wanted to lock them, you needed a key.
The average age of the main building of a public school is about 44 years old, according to a 2014 study by the National Center for Education Statistics. Such schools are generally soft targets for people who want to do harm, Boyd said, so his goal is to turn the buildings into hard targets.
Connecticut State Police Lieutenant Paul Vance addresses a press conference in Newtown on Dec. 15, 2012. (Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND via Getty Images)
Protective measures dont have to be grandiose or expensive, according to Boyd.
Shooters arent brave people, he said. Theyre looking for soft targets with a high probability of mass casualties ... even a locked door can be a deterrent.
Securing a schools perimeter is the first step, he said. He advocates for ballistic-rated glass in windows around the entryways, or shatterproof window film if special glass isnt feasible. Improving security procedures so administrators always know who is on campus can also help, as can limiting who has access to a school building.
School resource officers (SROs) can also play a major role in securing the facilities.
Ultimately, he said, school security decisions depend on the resources available and community culture: Everyone cant afford to put a officer in every school, and it might not always make sense.
But other school safety advocates caution against putting too much emphasis on infrastructure changes.
While physical security measures can play a role in an overall comprehensive school safety program, the first and best line of defense is a well-trained, highly-alert school staff and student body, said Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services.
Trump, who is often called upon for expert witness and litigation consulting on school security incidents, said he has found that most school safety lawsuits involve allegations of failures of people and procedures rather than failures of equipment and hardware.
Kindergarten students in Hawaii lie on the floor during a classroom lockdown drill in 2003. (Photo: Phil Mislinski via Getty Images)
The Shift Post-Sandy Hook
Following the Columbine shooting, school safety programs took a comprehensive approach focused on emergency preparedness, threat assessment, prevention, mental health support, reasonable security measures and personnel like SROs, Trump said.
But he noted that federal funding for school safety programs was repeatedly cut under the Bush and Obama administrations and after the Sandy Hook shooting, he said, no substantive efforts were made to restore those post-Columbine prevention to preparedness programs that had been eliminated.
Instead, the response was politicized.
At the state and federal levels, and in the media, the conversations after almost every school shooting go to gun control-vs.-gun rights issues, extreme and questionable ideas of arming teachers, and other gun-focused conversations, Trump said. Armed teachers are a reality in some states and school districts.
At least 450 school safety-related bills were filed in the months following the Sandy Hook school shooting, according to an Education Week report from April 2013. Of those, 178 were related to school emergency planning.
But codifying standards isnt a foolproof approach. Nearly half of the school districts in Connecticut are violating some aspect of the states safety law that requires them to submit school security information, according to a new investigation from the Hartford Courant. Boyd said its likely that many schools dont have the funds or resources to comply with state legislation.
In April, SSA co-signed a letter to President Donald Trump calling for greater school safety infrastructure funding the group asked that one-third come from the federal government, one-third come from states and one-third come from local districts. Boyd also said the funding should come from homeland security, not education, budgets.
In this file photo from 2003, students in Hawaii participate in a classroom lockdown drill. (Photo: Phil Mislinski via Getty Images)
Following the Newtown massacre, there has been an uptick in the number of schools conducting active shooter drills, as well as in the frequency of such procedures. But Kenneth Trump said not all schools perform these drills in productive ways. In fact, he said, some schools have emotionally driven, high-risk and high-liability training processes that might even harm participants.
He said hes also worried that a tunnel-vision focus on preparing for active shooters has caused administrators and crisis teams to neglect preparations for other incidents that are more likely to occur.
Do active shooters need to be one recognized point on the school safety threat continuum and its corresponding preparedness continuum? Absolutely, he said. But should it be the only point of focus? Absolutely not.
Often school administrators come up to me when I am presenting school safety workshops and they tell me that they have conducted multiple active shooter drills during their school year, he said. My response is, Thats great. When is the last time you did a non-custodial parent drill or your crisis team has discussed places in your school where you are at greater risk of a rape or other sexual assault occurring?
The Bulletproof Backpack Proposal
Amanda Curran, daughter of Bullet Blocker inventor Joe Curran, demonstrates how to use a child's bulletproof backpack in the event of a shooting. (Photo: Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters)
Parker and Gay said a lot of parents have reached out to Safe and Sound Schools to ask about bulletproof backpacks, an item some people have offered as a way to protect kids in the event of a school shooting.
Parker said the backpacks are expensive, not well-tested and likely not appropriate or manageable tools for children to use to protect themselves from danger.
If there is some type of attack, do the children have their backpacks on at that moment? she asked. Whats the likelihood that theyre going to be able to get to that shield and be able to use it as a shield?
Boyd said he wouldnt recommend bulletproof products for children, but noted that lightweight bulletproof panels can be built into walls and doors or placed over windows during crisis situations.
Michele Gay speaks about school security at a luncheon. (Photo: Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The Psychological Toll
Full-scale shooting simulations and other intense lockdown drill procedures have reportedly traumatized both children and teachers.
Mental health experts must be involved in the school safety and emergency preparedness process, said Ben Fernandez, the lead school psychologist for Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia. Hes also the chair of the National Association of School Psychologists school safety and crisis response committee, which has produced a variety of school safety literature, prevention guidelines and recommended best practices.
Fernandez said its important to keep participants histories with trauma in mind, and that educators must be careful in how they present safety procedures to students.
We have to keep our schools safe, but adults perception of threat is so high, its going to come out, he said. Kids are going to feed off the adult reactions, so how they communicate and teach the safety is critical.
The balance [between mental health and school security] is tricky, he added. You want a safe and supportive learning environment, but you dont want a school to be prison-like, with barbed wire and armed guards roaming the hallway.
A kindergarten student during a lockdown drill in 2003. With increased school security comes concerns about the psychological toll on young people. (Photo: Phil Mislinski via Getty Images)
He recommends calmly speaking to students in an age-appropriate way.
With children, you need to give concrete examples of how schools are very safe places with lots of adults focused on keeping kids safe, he said. You can point out doors that lock and school resource officers.
As a parent, Fernandez has found this mindful approach has helped assuage kids paranoia.
To my 14-year-old, a lockdown drill is just a thing. Its just like a fire drill, he said.
The way Gay and Parker see it, school safety is an ongoing process.
Its ever-evolving, and you always have to be working on it, Parker said. Its just part of the living, breathing entity of schools that they have to always be developing, evaluating and improving their systems. Theres no finish line.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Doris Thompson, 74, at her home in Forest, Virginia, cares for her great-granddaughter, Sunnie, 12, who was kicked out of a Christian school at age 8. (Photo: Matt Eich for HuffPost)
LYNCHBURG, Va. Sunnie Kahle used to think that if she promised to be good, she could go back to her old school.
Shed plead with her great-grandmother to let her enroll again at Timberlake Christian Schools, where she had gone since she was 3 years old. Even if teachers were mean to her, even if other kids said bad things about her, she wouldnt be mad. She just wanted her old life back.
Her great-grandmother and guardian, Doris Thompson, 74, didnt know how to tell Sunnie she wasnt allowed back at the school. Administrators didnt want her there. In a 2014 letter to Thompson that essentially expelled Sunnie, the school referenced several passages from the Bible as to why they wouldnt take her back. They suggested Sunnie wasnt acting Christlike by wearing her hair short and preferring pants to skirts.
Sunnie was 8 years old. She wasnt traditionally feminine enough for them.
Timberlake Christian Schools in Virginia is one of over at least 700 religious schools in America currently receiving public money while openly advertising and practicing anti-LGBTQ policies, HuffPost has found in a new investigation.
HuffPost has been examining private schools that receive taxpayer dollars through voucher or tax credit programs. We created a database of more than 7,000 schools in 25 states and the District of Columbia with private school choice programs that give public money to private religious schools.
In the first story of this investigation, which we published earlier in December, we looked at what was being taught. We discovered thousands of schools that used evangelical Christian curricula, largely considered inaccurate and unscientific. In our second article, we singled out a handful of schools that purported to be secular but maintained strong ties to the Church of Scientology. For this story, we researched the number of schools in our database that practice discrimination toward LGBTQ students and staff members.
We visited every website of each school in search of evidence of their attitudes and policies on gender-nonconforming and LGBTQ students. If a school did not advertise a specific policy, we followed up via email or a call. For Catholic schools, we looked for diocese-wide policies on these issues. Often, these schools had policies against heterosexual sex before marriage, as well.
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We found at least 14 percent of religious schools take an active stance against LGBTQ staff and students. Some of these schools have policies on their websites generally broadcasting their opposition to same-sex marriage or even stating their belief that homosexuality is a sin on par with bestiality. Others have harsher policies specifically stating that students can face punishments, like expulsion, for displaying signs of a homosexual lifestyle or alternate gender identity. At least 5 percent of these schools also have explicit policies against hiring or retaining LGBTQ staff.
On the other hand, we also found many schools that have policies specifically protecting students from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Many more of these schools belong to larger churches that preach anti-LGBTQ sentiment. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is opposed to homosexual practices and relationships, per the denominations website. The Roman Catholic Church says marriage can occur only between a man and woman. We did not assume that schools identifying with these groups were hostile places for LGBTQ students. In our count, we included only schools (or dioceses) that had a specific anti-LGBTQ policy. In that way, our numbers represent a bare minimum of schools where LGBTQ students may encounter hostility.
Religious schools are generally exempt from the types of regulations that would protect students and teachers from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Its only in recent years, though, that these schools have received an injection of taxpayer funds with the rise and expansion of state-level private school choice programs.
Since President Donald Trump and his secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, have expressed the desire to use federal dollars to increase private school choice, its worth closely examining which students are served and which are not.
Doris Thompson, 74, Sunnie's guardian, shows a tattoo she got four years ago that says, "Family is forever." (Photo: Matt Eich for HuffPost)
After Sunnie was kicked out of Timberlake, her great-grandma transferred her to public school. Thompson, who is emphatic when she talks about Sunnie, in the way only proud grandmas do, has a tattoo on her wrist that says, Family is forever.
Sitting in her living room, the walls lined with photos of Sunnie, here in this city just a couple of hours from Richmond, the Virginia capital, Thompson explained how she came to be Sunnies guardian. Its a complicated tale of mental illness and addiction, but since Sunnie was 2 months old, Thompson has been her protector.
In February of 2014, when Sunnie was in the second grade, the school principal sent a letter home to Thompson saying that, although Sunnie was a very bright girl, she recommended that Sunnie not re-enroll the next year if she wasnt able to dress and behave accordingly with her God-ordained identity as a female.
Thompson pulled her out of the school immediately.
They pretty much ruined a little girls life, said Thompson, who helps with her husband Carrolls truck repair business.
Sunnie didnt attend Timberlake using a publicly funded scholarship through Virginias tax credit program for low-income students. But the year she was kicked out, other students did. During the fiscal year of 2014, Timberlake received $104,121.57 in scholarships. That number has increased. For the fiscal year of 2017, the school received $237,500, per the Virginia Department of Education.
In Virginia, tax credits are given to individuals and corporations that donate to scholarship programs. These scholarship groups then help low-income students attend private schools. Voucher programs are more direct: Taxpayer funds help provide voucher scholarships for students who meet certain requirements to attend private schools.
A 2016 analysis of voucher program rules conducted by Indiana University professor Suzanne Eckes found that not a single one had protections preventing discrimination for LGBTQ students. Eckes did not include tax credit programs in her research.
So HuffPost conducted a similar analysis including programs that were left out by Eckes. We found the same trend. Only one states program, Marylands, protected students from discrimination based on sexual orientation. While in our research we found a handful of Maryland schools that expressed opposition to same-sex marriage and homosexuality, each stopped short of saying they would deny these students admission.
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See all the schools we could confirm have a discriminatory policy. Download Data
Doris Thompson, Sunnie's great-grandmother, is also her guardian. She's cared for Sunnie since she was a baby. (Photo: Matt Eich for HuffPost)
DeVos has been pressed before on if private schools receiving federal money under a possible voucher program would be required to prohibit anti-LGBTQ discrimination. In June, testifying before a Senate subcommittee, DeVos said that such a program would have to follow federal law.
Indeed, in an email to HuffPost, a spokesperson for DeVos emphasized the fact that there is no federal voucher program and that, if there were, it would have to comply with federal law.
The problem is federal law is murky.
The Obama administration interpreted Title IX the federal law banning sex discrimination in schools to include protections for LGBTQ students. The Trump administration seems to think these decisions should be made at the local level.
Theres no federal protections for LGBTQ students outside of Title IX, said Nathan Smith, director for public policy for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. We still think it covers LGBTQ students, despite the fact that this administration doesnt think so.
Advocates of school choice emphasize that anti-LGBTQ bullying is a problem in all schools, not just private religious ones that participate in voucher programs. They preach the bigger cause of giving parents the ability to choose the most appropriate school for their child. Indeed, voucher programs are typically targeted to low-income families who normally wouldnt be able to afford the private school of their choice.
I abhor discrimination and I would hope that schools would not discriminate against LGBTQ students even if the issue is part of their statements of faith, wrote Robert Enlow, CEO and president of EdChoice, an education reform group, in an email. I also recognize, though, that we live in a pluralistic society that values choice, individual freedom and an abiding respect for all faiths. I trust parents to make the best choices for their kids based on their shared values and goals.
But Thompson hopes leaders at Timberlake know that their interpretation of faith is one without merit.
I feel sorry for them, Thompson said, referring to administrators at Timberlake, if they have to answer and stand before our God one day.
The 74-year-old describes Sunnie as the great love of her life. Even after raising two kids and helping with three grandkids, Sunnie is her ultimate baby. The child has always been fiercely loyal and unfailingly independent, and she has a heart as sweet as apple pie, Thompson said, beaming with pride when asked about Sunnies personality.
But now, at 12, Sunnie is also angry and sad.
Life was never going to be easy for Sunnie. Sunnies mom had her as a teen. Sunnys father has not been a consistent presence, Thompson said.
Doris Thompson's home is filled with pictures of Sunnie, whom she calls the great love of her life. (Photo: Matt Eich for HuffPost)
Sunnies story of being kicked out of Timberlake was largely covered in the media when it first happened in 2014. Headlines screamed outrage. Sunnie was another victim of homophobia, another viral story here today and gone tomorrow.
What wasnt covered is what happened next. Sunnie didnt want to leave Timberlake. From her point of view, it was a place where she was loved and accepted by her friends.
At her new public school, she was teased. The other students would call her it and gay. Sunnie made one friend he used to come over on weekends, and they would play games, Thompson recalled. Then, suddenly, the boys father stopped letting him come over. The father said Sunnie needed to find out her gender before they could hang out again.
Things didnt get better. First, Sunnie faked being sick so often that truancy became a problem.
Sunnie didnt talk to HuffPost for this article for reasons that HuffPost is not reporting to protect the privacy of a minor.
But Thompson wants Sunnies story to be heard.
Being so young, she really doesnt know how she feels. She doesnt know what she wants to be. Or who she wants to be, Thompson said as her eyes welled with tears, reliving the trauma Sunnie experienced.
Sunnie still doesnt talk about feelings she may or may not be having. Shes on the verge of puberty. But Thompson worries about what will happen next.
At the time that Sunnie was kicked out of school, lawyers for Timberlake Christian Schools told the media: Parents and guardians send their children to the School because of our Christian beliefs and standards. We have a duty to create an environment that is supportive of these Christian values.
HuffPost reached out to the school and asked if they had anything further to add about Sunnies situation, years later. They said they did not.
The schools anti-LGBTQ policy remains in place.
Timberlake Christian Schools in Forest, Virginia, continues to have an anti-LGBTQ policy. (Photo: Matt Eich for HuffPost)
Punishable behaviors include, but is not necessarily limited to, living in, condoning or supporting sexual immorality; practicing homosexual lifestyle or alternative gender identity; promoting such practices; or otherwise having the inability to support the moral principles of the school, according to the schools website.
Sunnies story is unusual because of how young she is. She had adult thoughts and projections pushed on her before she was even close to having them herself.
But a similar version of this story plays out around the country regularly.
In 2012, the same year 15,000 Indiana students used vouchers, Warren came out to his family and friends as transgender, he told HuffPost. At the end of his junior year, he informed the principal at his Catholic school that he would be returning as a boy for his senior year.
The bishop from the diocese overseeing Cathedral High School thought this was unacceptable. But instead of kicking Warren out, or telling him not to come back, administrators ignored the way he chose to identify, Warren said.
Teachers were told that if they called Warren by his chosen name, they would face reprisal. Those with whom Warren was close, who wanted to respect his new identity, were afraid to buck the diocese, he said. Some found workarounds by calling him by his last name or initials.
Warren was deeply involved in the school marching band as well as the schools plays. During the marching band performances, they would announce the performers. Warren asked announcers to leave his name out, since he knew only his dead name would be announced. He asked not to be listed in the programs for the school plays.
I was pretty depressed a lot of the time. I had horrible social anxiety, said Warren, whos withholding his last name because his college peers are not aware of his transition.
Even after Warren got his name changed legally that school year, the school refused to accept it. They sent off his high school transcripts to colleges with the wrong name, compelling Warren to explain the confusion to admissions offices, thereby being forced to out himself.
A representative of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis said that it opens its doors to all who are committed to a quality Catholic education, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, socio-economics, religion, learning differences, etc. Our admissions policies and practices at each local site conform to this approach. The high school did not respond to requests for comment on the situation.
The diocese does, however, have a policy against employing staff members in same-sex unions, a representative told HuffPost during data collection.
For Warren and Sunnie, other kids at their private schools were not the problem. They were supportive.
It was the adults.
Thompson only hopes the adults at Timberlake learn to treat children with kindness and empathy.
God wants you to love everybody, she said. Especially his children. He loves his children.
Thompson is attending regular counseling sessions to educate herself on how to be the best parent she can be to her great-granddaughter.
Course, now Im 74 years old, so I dont know that Im going to be around here 10 years, when shell be 22 years old. I hope to God that he will let me stay here until she is grown. But I hope that she will make something of herself. Be somebody, and be proud of who she is.
Data and graphics by Alissa Scheller.
If you have experienced discrimination in schools, email rebecca.klein@huffpost.com.
This is the third story in a HuffPost investigation on the policies and curriculum of schools that participate in private school choice programs. The first story, looking at the curriculum used in evangelical Christian schools, is here. The second story, dealing with schools with strong ties to Scientology, is here.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - Survivors of a blaze that killed 71 people six months ago in the Grenfell Tower social housing block in west London wept during a multi-faith memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral on Thursday attended by members of the royal family. Bereaved relatives held pictures of their loved ones as they commemorated Britain's deadliest fire since World War Two, a tragedy that has profoundly shocked the nation. Fire broke out in the middle of the night on June 14 and quickly gutted the 24-storey building, which was home to a multi-ethnic community living in a poor area within one of London's richest boroughs, Kensington and Chelsea. The disaster highlighted the area's extreme disparities in living conditions between rich and poor and fueled a debate over why safety concerns voiced by tower residents before the fire had been ignored. The service reflected the multi-cultural character of the Grenfell community, with Christian and Muslim prayers and music from Middle Eastern, Caribbean and Western traditions. It also addressed the anger of many survivors over what they perceive as the neglect of their community before and after the fire. A majority of the hundreds of people displaced by the fire are still staying in hotels because suitable permanent homes have not been provided yet. "Today we ask why warnings were not heeded, why a community was left feeling neglected, uncared for, not listened to," Graham Tomlin, Bishop of Kensington, told the congregation. "Today we hold out hope that the public inquiry will get to the truth of all that led up to the fire at Grenfell Tower ... and we trust that the truth will bring justice." Police are investigating the fire and say charges may be brought against individuals or organizations. A separate public inquiry is under way on the causes of the fire and the authorities' response. "REMEMBER ME" Prime Minister Theresa May, opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his sons Prince William and Prince Harry were among those attending the service along with bereaved families and firefighters who took part in the rescue effort on the night. The devastation inside Grenfell Tower was such that it took police and forensic scientists several months to recover and identify all human remains. The final death toll was 53 adults and 18 children. The service began when a white banner bearing a large green heart emblazoned with the word "Grenfell" was carried through the congregation to the pulpit by a Catholic priest and Muslim cleric from the area around the charred tower. Later, a young Syrian musician played a mournful tune on the oud, an instrument commonly played in the Middle East and parts of Africa, where many Grenfell residents had ties. A choir of Muslim schoolgirls performed a song called "Inshallah", and survivor Nadia Jafari, who escaped from the tower but lost her elderly father Ali, read a poem called "Remember Me" by the 13th century Persian poet and scholar Rumi. The service also included a rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" performed by a Caribbean-style steel band, and a performance of "Somewhere" from the musical "West Side Story." Schoolchildren from the Grenfell area scattered green hearts, a symbol of solidarity with the victims and survivors, around the cathedral's altar. (Editing by Stephen Addison)
By Alexander Winning and Mfuneko Toyana JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) expects to announce Jacob Zuma's successor as party leader on Sunday, a spokesman said, concluding a bruising leadership battle that threatens to tear it apart before a 2019 election. The race between Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former cabinet minister and ex-wife of President Zuma, the two frontrunners to replace Zuma, is too close to call. The stakes are high because the ANC's electoral dominance means whoever wins the party's top job is likely to become the next president of South Africa after the next national election. Party spokesman Zizi Kodwa said on Friday that the ANC would aim to announce the new leader and five other top positions during its Dec. 16-20 conference. "On Sunday morning as we arrive we should be able to make an announcement of the top six and take nomination of the rest of the leadership. We need to take out this item from the conference agenda as quickly as possible," he told radio station 702. Political instability, including the question of who will replace Zuma, has been cited by credit rating agencies as a major factor behind their decision to cut South Africa to "junk". Trade has been cautious in the rand and bonds this week, with investors awaiting the outcome of the ANC leadership race. Some analysts say that the bitterness of the contest has increased the chances of the party splitting after the conference. Party officials insist members will accept the outcome and avoid a fallout. The ANC has governed Africa's most industrialised economy since the end of apartheid in 1994 but scandals around its leader have seen its support decline. Disillusioned ANC members have left to form new political groupings on several occasions - the most recent example being the African Democratic Change party founded by former ANC lawmaker Makhosi Khoza this year. As well as electing a new leader, the ANC will choose senior officials such as the secretary general and members of the key National Executive Committee (NEC). The party will also set policy at the meeting, which opens on Saturday in Johannesburg. In the last 18 months, the ANC's executive has been the scene of fierce internal disputes as Zuma's leadership has come under scrutiny, particularly after a cabinet reshuffle in March that saw respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan axed. In August, Zuma narrowly survived another attempt in parliament to force him from office after some members of his party voted with the opposition. Enoch Godongwana, a NEC member who chairs a party committee on economic policy, said there had been interactions between the main opposing party factions to prevent the party splintering. "If the ANC collapses, do you have anything in its place which can hold this country together on a national basis? I would argue that at this stage in time you simply do not have a replacement for the ANC," he told reporters on Thursday. EYES ON 2019 VOTE Ramaphosa is a former trade union leader who became one of South Africa's richest businessmen. He is seen as the most business-friendly candidate, compared with Dlamini-Zuma and the five other contenders. His promises to fight corruption and revitalise the economy have gone down well with foreign investors and ANC members who think Zuma's handling of the economy could cost the party dearly in the 2019 vote. Dlamini-Zuma is associated with a radical brand of wealth redistribution which is popular with poorer ANC voters angry at racial inequality. Ramaphosa edged Dlamini-Zuma by getting the majority of nominations to become leader of the party, but it is far from certain he will become the next party leader and therefore the likely next president. He is expected to be backed by ANC veterans, labour unions and civil society organisations. "If Dlamini-Zuma wins, a split is very likely, because the Ramaphosa camp views itself as the 'old ANC'. This is a last attempt by them to regain control of the party from the Zuma faction," said Darias Jonker, director for Africa at Eurasia Group. Dlamini-Zuma has been backed by President Zuma, as well as by the ANC's influential women's and youth leagues. Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said he thought Dlamini-Zuma would win the leadership, partly because of her strong support in KwaZulu-Natal province, which is sending the most delegates to the conference. (Editing by James Macharia and Andrew Roche)
SpaceX successfully launched and landed its flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket carrying a reused Dragon capsule Friday afternoon from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This marks the 17th successful mission for the commercial spaceflight company this year.
The payload was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) carrying 4,800 pounds of cargo in what was the 13th commercial resupply mission (CRS-13). The Dragon spacecraft was carrying supplies crucial to the operations of the ISS, food and beverages for the crew, and 34 new experiments that will be conducted in the orbital lab.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on schedule at 10:36 a.m Eastern. It put the Dragon into orbit and successfully detached from the capsule at 10:39 a.m, and safely touched back down on Landing Zone 1, in Cape Canaveral Florida at 10:44 a.m.
The Dragon capsule is expected to arrive to the ISS on Sunday. The capsule doesnt go directly to the ISS, as it takes a series of burns to get closer and closer to the orbiting station. Once its close enough, the ISS will use a robotic arm snatch it up and allow it to dock.
This is a historical launch for both SpaceX and NASA as it is the first time both rocket and capsule are recycled from previous missions. The Falcon 9 booster was first used during CRS-11 mission this past June and the Dragon capsule was first used during the CRS-6 mission in April 2015.
The ability to reuse these capsules and rockets will save about $120 million, which is how much itd cost to build another Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft. This launch was a monumental step toward realizing SpaceX founder Elon Musks vision of fully reusable spacecrafts.
Fridays launch comes after the deployment of Koreasat-5A on October 30th. The next launch will take place in January and will use SpaceXs Falcon Heavy booster, most powerful operational rocket.
Photos via Getty Images / Bill Ingalls/NASA
Photos via Getty Images / Bill Ingalls/NASA
Written by Danny Paez
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Liam Allans trial was dramatically halted on Thursday (Facebook)
The trial of a student accused of rape has dramatically collapsed after it was revealed that police had ignored vital evidence.
Liam Allan, 22, was accused of six counts of rape and six sexual assaults and had been on bail for almost two years.
The criminology undergraduate had always claimed that the sex between himself and the alleged victim had been consensual and shocking new evidence supported his claim and caused the trial to collapse.
40,000 messages taken from the womans phone showed that she had pestered Mr Allan for casual sex and told friends that she enjoyed sex with him.
This evidence only came to light when a new prosecution barrister demanded access to the records the day before the trial began.
Scotland Yard is carrying out an urgent assessment after this late disclosure of evidence undermined the case.
The trial was halted at Croydon Crown Court on Thursday, and the judge called for a review of disclosure of evidence by the Metropolitan Police, as well as an inquiry at the Crown Prosecution Service, The Times reported.
The trial was held at Croydon Crown Court (Google Street View)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said they offered no evidence in the case on Thursday, as it was decided there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.
Speaking outside court, Mr Allan told The Times: I cant explain the mental torture of the past two years. I feel betrayed by the system which I had believed would do the right thing the system I want to work in.
Writing in the paper, prosecuting barrister and former Conservative MP Jerry Hayes said: I told the judge that this was the most appalling failure of disclosure that I have ever encountered.
The CPS are under terrible pressure, as are the police. Both work hard but are badly under-resourced.
Crown court trials only work because of the co-operation and goodwill of advocates and the bench but time pressures are making this increasingly difficult.
Because of the swingeing cuts that the Treasury continuously imposes, the system is not just creaking, it is about to croak.
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A Scotland Yard spokesman said: We are aware of this case being dismissed from court and are carrying out an urgent assessment to establish the circumstances which led to this action being taken.
We are working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service and keeping in close contact with the victim whilst this process takes place.
A spokesman for the CPS said: A charge can only be brought if a prosecutor is satisfied that both stages of the Full Code test in the Code for Crown Prosecutors are met, that is, that there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and that a prosecution is required in the public interest.
All prosecutions are kept under continuous review and prosecutors are required to take account of any change in circumstances as the case develops.
In November 2017, the police provided more material in the case of Liam Allan. Upon a review of that material, it was decided that there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.
Therefore we offered no evidence in the case against Liam Allan at a hearing on December 14 2017.
We will now be conducting a management review together with the Metropolitan Police to examine the way in which this case was handled.
File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam Nov. 11, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)
by Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S.-Russia relations will likely remain tense in 2018, experts said, as myriad issues over which the two are at odds show no sign of being resolved next year.
"U.S.-Russia ties remain strained," Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua.
Washington's relationship with Moscow has been sour for some time, amid disagreements involving the war in Syria, the conflict in Ukraine, and the Kremlin's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.
"Congress, as well as many in the Trump administration, remain concerned about the Russian threat to the United States and key allies, and are unconvinced that a rapprochement with Russia could somehow solve issues with Ukraine, Syria, Iran, and North Korea (DPRK)," Mahaffee said.
The sentiment was underscored earlier this week in a speech by H.R. McMaster, U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser, in which he called Russia a "revisionist" power that poses a number of threats to the United States.
"Geopolitics are back and are back with a vengeance after this holiday from history we took in the so-called post-Cold War period," McMaster said Tuesday just a week before the White House is slated to unveil its national security strategy.
Commenting on the heightened rhetoric, Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow on foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, said "what you are seeing is a strong desire to push back against Russian ... assertiveness, and you'll probably see more of this in the national security strategy next week."
"There is a sense among some of the top team ... that Russia ... has been taking advantage of us," O'Hanlon added.
Russia is billed a revisionist power because it is seen as a competitor to U.S. interests and seeks to establish spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, despite the relationships the United States has with allies in the region, said Mahaffee.
Experts said Congress believes the United States cannot work with Russia, despite Trump's hopes several months ago that the two could partner on a number of issues.
U.S. policy on Russia is heading only in one direction, and that is an increasing toughening of the U.S. position, the experts said.
Furthermore, quite a few U.S. agencies have been saying that Moscow had aimed to influence the elections in order to boost Trump's chances of capturing the White House.
Trump has dismissed the accusations of collusion with Moscow as a witch hunt by those who were disappointed that Hillary Clinton lost the elections. Russia also denied the allegations.
A Senate committee as well as Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller are undertaking investigations, which are expected to last into next year.
The Trump administration has cooperated with the investigations, but dismissed them as unimportant.
Trump "may have some good instincts that we should be looking for ways to get along with Russia where we can, but the rest of the team I think is largely preoccupied with what Russia did to our democracy last year," O'Hanlon said, speaking of the Kremlin's alleged meddling in the elections.
Donald Trump sits with FBI Director Christopher Wray during the Bureau's National Academy graduation ceremony on Friday: AP
President Donald Trump hailed graduates of the FBI National Academy just an hour after criticising the principal federal law enforcement agency.
In a speech during the graduate ceremony, Mr Trump lavished praise on local law enforcement and FBI agents even though he has done nothing over the past year to hide his distaste for a federal investigation into his campaigns alleged ties to Russia.
With me as your President, Americas police will have a true friend and loyal champion in the White House more loyal than anyone else can be, Mr Trump said.
The President has often referred to the Russia probe being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as fake news. Mr Mueller was appointed as head of the investigation in May after controversy erupted following Mr Trumps firing of his first FBI Director James Comey, who was originally leading the probe.
Since dismissing Mr Comey, the President has publicly derided the FBIs reputation, as Mr Mueller seeks to determine whether campaign advisers for Mr Trump colluded with the Russian government. Multiple congressional committees are also looking into the matter.
Mr Trump has insisted that there was no collusion.
There is absolutely no collusion. That has been proven, the President told reporters on Friday before heading to Quantico, Virginia, where the FBI National Academy is located.
He also said its a shame whats happened with the FBI.
But were going to rebuild the FBI, he added. It will be bigger and better than ever.
Mr Mueller, who served as FBI director during the George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations, has so far secured multiple indictments and guilty pleas as part of his investigation.
Earlier this month, the probe reached Mr Trumps inner circle, with ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynns admission that he lied to the FBI about his contacts with a senior-level Russian official. Mr Flynns guilty plea indicates he is cooperating with Mr Muellers inquiry and could provide damaging information.
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In Quantico, current FBI Director Christopher Wray welcomed Mr Trump. While testifying before a congressional committee hearing in December, Mr Wray had hit back at a claim by the President that the FBIs reputation was in tatters after the way it handled an investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State.
My experience is that our reputation is quite good, Mr Wray told the committee. There is no finer institution than the FBI and no finer people who work there.
During his turn to speak, Mr Trump congratulated the FBI Academys graduates and made no mention of how he thought the FBI was in tatters.
Instead, he reiterated his tough-on-crime stance and appeared to ramp up his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
We believe criminals who kill police officers should get the death penalty, Mr Trump said.
He also mocked the visa lottery system, describing the system as if it was a lottery draw on television.
They have a lottery. You pick people. Do you think the country is giving us their best people? No, Mr Trump told the crowd, which laughed in response. What kind of a system is that? They come in by lottery. They give us their worst people, they put them in a bin, but in his hand, when hes picking them, is really the worst of the worst. Congratulations, youre going to the United States.
The programme that Mr Trump was referring to, the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, awards up to 50,000 visas per year to people from parts of the world that have relatively few immigrants in the US.
The Trump administration has targeted the system, particularly after the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that a suspect in one of the New York terror attacks this year was admitted to the US in 2010 with a diversity immigrant visa.
President Donald Trump, not known for having a healthful diet, just made life easier for McDonald's. (Photo: Stephen Lovekin via Getty Images)
President Donald Trumps picks for the National Labor Relations Board overturned a major precedent from the Obama years Thursday, delivering a blow to labor unions and a big win to McDonalds and other large corporations.
In a 3-2 ruling, the Republican majority tightened the standards for determining when a company qualifies as a joint employer for the purposes of labor law. As a result, it will be harder for unions and workers to file complaints against fast-food chains or other big companies that rely on franchisees and contractors to oversee work.
The two Democratic members dissented.
Earlier this year, McDonalds was put on trial as a potential joint employer so that it might be held responsible for violating the rights of workers employed by its franchisees. That case has not been ruled on yet, and the change in precedent Thursday could knock a hole in the workers argument.
While business groups cheered the policy change, labor groups and Democrats condemned it as a setback for worker rights.
This shocking and brazen decision to overturn pro-worker precedent is further proof the Trump Administration will stop at nothing to line the pockets of corporations no matter what price workers and their families are forced to pay, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the Senates labor committee, said in a statement after the ruling.
So much for @realDonaldTrump looking out for the working men and women of this country. Just another example of putting corporate interests/wealthy donors before working families. https://t.co/SKZxE80bD1 Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) December 14, 2017
The NLRB is an independent agency that referees disputes between employers and unions, though the policies it sets affect all private-sector workers, whether theyre in unions or not. Trump recently filled two vacancies on the board with Republican picks, flipping the board from liberal to conservative for the first time in eight years.
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The board under President Barack Obama issued a number of decisions that enraged employer groups, the joint employer ruling chief among them. The then-liberal majority said that companies shouldnt be able to dodge their responsibilities to workers by using subcontractors or franchisees. If a company at the top of the contracting chain exerts control over the working conditions at the bottom, they reasoned, then it should qualify as an employer.
The ruling Thursday reverts to an older standard for joint employment that makes it harder to hold the company at the top accountable.
The National Restaurant Association, a leading industry lobby, said Thursday that it applauds the new ruling. Todays decision restores years of established law and brings back clarity for restaurants and small businesses across the country.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
It has not been a pretty week for President Trumps judicial nominees. On Wednesday, two were removed from consideration before the Senate due to past scandalous remarks. (One of them, Jeff Mateer of Texas, once said that transgender children were part of Satans plans; another, Alabamas Brett Talley, was discovered to have blogged in support of the Ku Klux Klan.)
And late Thursday night, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, posted a video to Twitter thats now going viral. Its footage of the Senate Judiciary Committees hearing earlier this week, in which one lawmaker a Republican, no less grills a nominee over basic points of legal doctrine, only for the nominee to confess blusteringly that he doesnt know the answers.
MUST WATCH: Republican @SenJohnKennedy asks one of @realDonaldTrumps US District Judge nominees basic questions of law & he cant answer a single one. Hoo-boy. pic.twitter.com/fphQx2o1rc Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) December 15, 2017
You can just raise your hand on this one, to save a little time, Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, says in the video. Have any of you not tried a case to verdict in a courtroom?
One of the five nominees before the committee, the lawyer Matthew S. Petersen, raised his hand.
Have you ever tried a jury trial? Kennedy asked.
No.
Kennedy then asked him if hed ever tried civil, criminal, or bench trials, or trials in either state or federal court; Petersen confirmed that he had not. Kennedy then moved on to ask him for definitions of certain legal tenets, with no more success.
Do you know what a motion in limine is? Kennedy asked.
Petersens answer was meandering and somewhat evasive. I appreciate this line of questioning . . . but I believe that the path I have taken to be in a decision-making role on, I guess, somewhere between 1,500 to 2,000 enforcement matters, overseeing I dont know how many cases in federal court
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Yessir, Ive read your resume, Kennedy responded. Just for the record, do you know what a motion in limine is?
I would probably not be able to give you a good definition right here at the table, Petersen answered.
The video posted by Whitehouse (Hoo-boy, the senator commented in his tweet) has proven to be catnip for Democrats, who have lambasted Trumps judicial nominees and tried to keep them off the bench. It has been an uphill battle. As the Huffington Post noted Thursday, Trump has so far successfully appointed 12 judges to the nations circuit courts more than any other President in his first year in office since the courts were established 126 years ago. These judges are largely conservative, as is Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, whose appointment to the Supreme Court in April is considered one of Trumps biggest accomplishments to date.
The votes in the Senate to confirm these judges have fallen along party lines Democrats have coalesced to largely vote no every time but as Whitehouses video shows, not every Republican can be swayed. Kennedy is a freshman senator from Louisiana who is regarded among the congressional press corps as a reliable source for a colorful quote (he described the Las Vegas shooter as a perverted idiot and said hed have to be drunk to vote for tax hikes), and while his voting record is conservative, his questioning earlier this week is one more piece of evidence that GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill arent going to line up behind Trump on every issue.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 05:49:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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DAMASCUS, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Friday slammed claims that the Syrian government delegation was responsible for the failure of the latest round of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, state news agency SANA reported.
In a statement, the ministry deplored what it called the "allegations" of the UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and France, which blamed the administration of President Bashar al-Assad for the failure of the eighth round of the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva.
On Thursday, Mistura said the two weeks of talks failed to yield the intended results despite great efforts, which he described as a "missed golden opportunity."
Mistura accused the Syrian government delegation of setting preconditions that he had warned against, saying the government delegation refused to discuss anything other than "terrorism."
French ambassador to the U.S. Gerard Araud also accused Syria of doing nothing to reach a peace agreement.
"The Assad regime never entered into any negotiation since the beginning of the civil war. They don't look for a political compromise but for the eradication of their enemies," Araud said on Twitter.
Alexandre Giorgini, France's deputy foreign ministry spokesman, said the attitude of the Syrian government is deplorable.
"We deplore the attitude of the Syrian regime, which has refused to engage in the discussion. The Syrian regime is responsible for the lack of progress in the negotiations," he said.
Such stances pushed the Syrian Foreign Ministry to condemn the "allegations," saying such remarks are parts of the "campaign of lies and misinformation."
The ministry said the Syrian government has positively made all true efforts to end the crisis, adding that the government delegation positively engaged in the sessions of the recent round of talks in Geneva.
The government team was hoping to reach positive results in this round of talks, blaming the failure of the recent round of talks on the opposition's pre-conditions.
"Everyone should realize that the Geneva process is an intra-Syrian dialogue under a Syrian leadership and the UN special envoy must realize that and work on removing the obstacles and to be objective and impartial in order to reach results that could end the crisis," the ministry said.
The eighth round of the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva ended on Thursday with both negotiating parties holding firm to their own visions.
Ahead of the talks, the Saudi-backed Riyadh Platform opposition group renewed demands for President Bashar al-Assad's departure as a prelude to any political settlement, which gave the government delegation a reason to accuse the opposition of placing pre-conditions for the talks, something that had previously been rejected.
The government, as in previous rounds, wanted to prioritize the counter-terrorism as the top issue to be discussed during the talks.
The opposition also wanted to discuss a transitional period.
Such differences ruled out the positive results at the end of the talks, which disappointed Mistura who was hoping to have both sides talk face-to-face in the eighth round of Geneva.
Robert Mueller has asked for a trove of emails related to Cambridge Analyticas Trump campaign operations: Getty
The investigation into links between Trump campaign officials and Russia has requested documents from a data firm which worked on both the 2016 presidential election and Brexit, said US media.
Robert Mueller, who is leading the federal probe, asked Cambridge Analytica to hand over the emails of any employee who worked to support Donald Trumps 2016 election win, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The special counsels request, which the firm reportedly voluntarily complied with in the autumn, suggests the investigation is now probing the Trump campaigns data operations.
And it could also have repercussions in Britain, and particularly for Leave.EU, a campaign group during the EU referendum, which is under investigation by the Electoral Commission over alleged impermissible services from the data firm.
Robert Mercer, founder of Cambridge Analytica and co-owner of right-wing news organisation Breitbart, allegedly directed the data firm to provide expert advice to Leave.EU, which received prominent support from Nigel Farage.
Leave.EUs communications director, Andy Wigmore, told The Observer Mr Mercer had offered his companys services for free. They were happy to help because Nigel is a good friend of the Mercers, Mr Wigmore said.
In March, Mr Farage thanked Breitbart and Steve Bannon, Mr Trumps former chief strategist and a director at Cambridge Analytica, for hugely helping the vote for Brexit.
The firm reportedly harvested data from UK voters Facebook profiles to help decide how to target them with tailored Brexit campaign messages. Similar methods were employed to help the Trump campaign.
However, Leave.EU failed to inform the electoral commission about the firms work. All services worth more than 7,500 must be declared.
In April, the Electoral Commission said in a statement: The Electoral Commission has begun an investigation into Leave.EUs EU Referendum spending return. This followed an assessment which concluded that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that potential offences under the law may have occurred.
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The investigation is focused on whether one or more donations including of services accepted by Leave.EU was impermissible; and whether Leave.EUs spending return was complete.
Alexander Nix, chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, said in a speech in November he had asked the office that arranges his engagements to contact Julian Assange, founder of whistle-blowing organisation WikiLeaks, in early June 2016.
After reading a newspaper report about WikiLeaks plans to release emails from Hillary Clintons presidential campaign, Mr Nix asked Mr Assange if he might share that information with us. US intelligence agencies later concluded the emails had been stolen by Russian intelligence and handed to the website.
Mr Nixs request came at the same time Cambridge Analytica started working for the Trump campaign, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mr Assange said he denied the request.
Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has said the connection between the data firm and WikiLeaks is of deep interest to the committee, which is also investigating Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election.
Cambridge Analytica has been contacted by The Independent for comment.
President Donald Trump said Friday that Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore should concede this weeks election to Democrat Doug Jones.
Jones was declared the victor in Tuesdays special election, but Moore has yet to concede.
He tried, Trump, who had endorsed Moore, told reporters outside the White House. I want to support, always I want to support the person running. We need the seat. Wed like to have the seat.
Pres. Trump says GOP candidate Roy Moore should concede the Alabama special election. https://t.co/snR9lv6JHQ pic.twitter.com/78wgTppdE5 ABC News (@ABC) December 15, 2017
Jones surprising win marked the first time voters in Alabama elected a Democrat to the Senate in 25 years. It had been assumed the seat vacated by former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R), whom Trump named attorney general, would remain under Republican control. Now, the GOPs Senate majority rests on just one seat.
Moores campaign took what proved an unrecoverable hit after a bombshell Washington Post report published in early November accused the former judge of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl when he was in his 30s. Subsequent reports alleged that Moore had demonstrated a pattern of pursuing teenage girls.
As news outlets began declaring Jones the winner Tuesday night, Moore told supporters that he would seek a recount and wait on God and let this process play out.
When the vote is this close, its not over, he said.
The election results showed Jones with 49.92 percent of the vote, and Moore with 48.38 percent, according to Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill. State law calls for an automatic recount if the margin is 0.5 percentage points or less.
In a tweet Wednesday morning, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee called on the embattled Republican candidate to exit with class.
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Roy Moore wont concede; says will wait on God to speak. God wasnt registered to vote in AL but the ppl who voted did speak and it wasnt close enough for recount. In elections everyone does NOT get a trophy. I know first hand but its best to exit with class. Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) December 13, 2017
But Moore, in a fire-and-brimstone video posted online Wednesday that rambled from abortion to school prayer, thanked supporters and continued his refusal to admit defeat.
I want to thank all of you who have stood with me in this very important battle for the future of our country, Moore, 70, said in the video. We are indeed in a struggle to preserve our republic, our civilization and our religion and to set free a suffering humanity. And the battle rages on.
He continued: In this race, we have not received the final count to include military and provisional ballots. This has been a very close race and we are awaiting certification by the secretary of state.
The Alabama secretary of state told CNN that even if Moore demanded a recount, its highly unlikely the results of the election would change.
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A formal motion noted with sadness the Presidents bigoted attitude towards women and ethnic minorities: Reuters
A London council has called on the Government to revoke its state visit invitation to the bigoted US President after he shared messages from a far-right group.
A motion passed by the Royal Borough of Greenwich vowed that Donald Trump would not be welcome in the area if the engagement goes ahead.
Councillors said they were alarmed by Donald Trumps decision to retweet Islamophobic posts by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First.
Council further notes with sadness the Presidents bigoted attitude towards women and ethnic minorities which has resulted in examples of division and hatred within the US, it continued.
As such, Council calls upon the Government to abandon plans to invite Donald Trump on a state visit to the UK.
Councillors said the huge security costs of the trip should be paid instead to charities that promote peace and understanding, such as the Jo Cox Foundation.
The Labour MP was murdered days before the Brexit referendum last year by a far-right extremist who shouted Britain first during his brutal assault.
Her husband, Brendan Cox, was among those condemning Mr Trumps retweets with the warning: Spreading hatred has consequences.
The Twitter storm sparked calls for reprisals from MPs of all parties who took part in an urgent Commons debate, where many called for the state visit to be stopped.
Theresa Mays spokesperson said it was wrong for the President to share Ms Fransens tweets, sparking a diplomatic spat that saw Mr Trump return to Twitter telling her to concentrate on sorting out radical Islamic terrorism.
But the state visit invitation still stands, as does a separate invite from the US ambassador on a working visit to the UK for the opening of the new London embassy in early 2018.
Downing Street told The Independent it could not confirm when the state visit would take place, adding: The invitation has been extended and accepted, and further details will be announced in due course.
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Mass protests and disruption are expected to greet the visit, with the Speaker of the House of Commons vetoing a presidential address following in the footsteps of Barack Obama.
Greenwich council said the President would not be welcome in the historic borough, which has been the setting for several recent Hollywood films, adding: This boroughs commitment to maintaining a strong and vibrant community is incompatible with the ideology and policies espoused by President Trump.
It also cited his Twitter attack on London mayor Sadiq Khan within hours of the London Bridge terror attack in June among reasons for the refusal.
Chris Kirby, the councillor who presented the motion at a full council meeting on Wednesday, said debate among 270,000 Greenwich residents and across the UK must not be poisoned by Mr Trumps rhetoric.
President Trump has regularly expressed abhorrent and aggressive views and in doing so has enabled the spread of division and hatred, he said.
We have stood up and made our position clear: there is no place for aggressive, bigoted and hateful rhetoric in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
Several councillors in the meeting spoke of memories of racist murders and marches by the far-right British National Party in the early 1990s.
Denise Hyland, leader of the council, said Greenwich works with all communities to celebrate difference and be a welcoming place.
But in the case of President Trump we are willing to make an exception, she added. Diversity enriches our lives on a daily basiswe have no time for people who want to build walls, when we have done so much to break them down.
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights office is "appalled" at the hanging of 38 prisoners in Iraq, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday, a day after the executions at a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya. "We are deeply shocked and appalled at the mass execution," the spokeswoman, Liz Throssell, told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva, adding that the human rights office had "huge concerns" about Iraq's use of the death penalty and - not for the first time - urged the government to halt all executions. "Given the flaws of the Iraqi justice system, it also appears extremely doubtful that strict due process and fair trial guarantees were followed in these 38 cases. This raises the prospect of irreversible miscarriages of justice and violations of the right to life." The 38 male prisoners were convicted by Iraq's judiciary for terrorism-related crimes, she said. She did not have information on their ages or nationalities. In September, Iraq hanged 42 prisoners in a single day, and the U.N. has learned of 106 executions this year, Throssell said. Last year the Ministry of Justice announced 88 executions, but the U.N. believes the number may have been as high as 116. The world body had repeatedly asked the Ministry of Justice for data about prisoners, sentencing and executions but no such information had been provided since 2015, she said. Previously the United Nations had spoken of about 1,200 people being on death row, but it was now impossible to confirm that information, she said. The Justice Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that all those convicted were members of Islamic State. Officials have said all the appeal options available to the condemned had been exhausted, according to the statement. (Reporting by Tom Miles, Editing by William Maclean)
Geneva (AFP) - The failure of Syria peace talks this week has cast doubt over UN efforts to mediate a solution to the country's devastating war, while regime backer Russia has emerged as a key dealmaker, analysts say.
The latest round of Geneva-based talks aimed at ending the nearly seven-year conflict, which has killed more than 340,000 people, ended Thursday in failure.
UN mediator Staffan de Mistura acknowledged that "real negotiations" never took place during the eighth round of talks.
"I am disappointed," he said, blaming the Syrian government for refusing to enter into dialogue and calling the round "a golden opportunity missed".
Seven previous rounds of talks mediated by de Mistura have also gone nowhere -- and under his watch the rival sides have never met for face-to-face negotiations.
The discussions have repeatedly stumbled over the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, and Damascus is refusing to meet the opposition directly until it drops demands that he leave office.
For their part, the opposition and western diplomats are concerned that parallel Moscow-backed talks are an effort to circumvent the UN talks and impose a solution favourable to Assad after major battlefield gains by Russian-backed regime forces.
- 'On life support' -
"The balance of power undeniably favours the Russians," Karim Bitar of the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Affairs told AFP, adding that the Geneva talks appeared to be "on life support".
Bolstered by Russia's intervention in 2015, Damascus has regained the upper hand militarily, retaking large swathes of rebel-held territory.
Russian-backed Syrian forces have also dealt severe blows to the Islamic State group, whose self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria has largely collapsed.
As regime forces advanced on the ground, Moscow, along with fellow Syrian ally Iran as well as rebel-backers Turkey, have organised talks on halting the fighting, which are set to resume next week in Astana, Kazakhstan.
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Those talks have resulted in "de-escalation zones" and ceasefire deals that critics say have been imposed in a manner that largely serves to consolidate regime gains.
Diplomats warned that a meeting organised by Moscow for early next year in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi might further ease the pressure on Assad as well as undermining the Geneva talks.
A European diplomat, who asked not to be identified, said the Sochi meeting could be "a stitch-up and a tendentious attempt to invite the wrong people to discuss the wrong issues (and) create the wrong kind of consensus."
Bitar said the idea was "to legitimise, to consecrate diplomatically, if not to consecrate legally, this balance of power."
- 'Treading water' -
The government and opposition delegations both insisted Thursday that they were committed to the Geneva talks, with de Mistura voicing hope he could convene a ninth round in January.
Nasr al-Hariri, the chief negotiator for the opposition, said the Swiss city remained "the only place to reach a political solution" but warned that with international institutions "held hostage" by the regime and its backers, yet another round would probably be fruitless.
The Syrian government's top negotiator, Bashar al-Jaafari, said that "we don't want the Geneva track to fail", though he denounced the opposition and its backers for sabotaging talks with demands for Assad to step down.
But the European diplomat said the failure of the latest round of talks had raised "profound questions" about the government's commitment to the process.
"I think we are treading water at the moment," he said.
"To some extent we can only tread water so long as the regime feels impunity and no pressure to negotiate."
On Wednesday de Mistura urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to push Damascus to accept new UN-monitored elections.
But his comments sparked a fierce backlash from the Syrian government delegation, which accused him of "undermining" his position as mediator and threatening "the entire Geneva process".
But for Nikolay Kozhanov, a professor at the European University in St Petersburg, Geneva is "not playing a key role at the moment".
"It's more important to reinforce de-escalation zones and local ceasefires and work with the groups that actually affect the situation on the ground, and with the forces that can influence them," he said.
But Kozhanov also questioned how much sway Russia had over the situation.
"Moscow's influence on Assad is limited," he said. "Assad shouldn't be seen as Russia's puppet."
The Hague (AFP) - Anglo-Dutch food and consumer giant Unilever said Friday it had reached a 6.8-billion-euro ($8-billion) deal with US private equity giant KKR to sell its margarines business.
Unilever "has received a binding offer from KKR to purchase its global spreads business for 6.825 billion euros on a cash-free, debt-free basis," the company said in a statement.
After spurning a takeover by US rival Kraft Heinz earlier this year, Unilever announced in April it would spin-off its margarines, which include such brands as Flora, Blue Band and Rama, as part of a restructuring plan.
Unilever chief executive Pol Polman said Friday's announcement "marks a further step in reshaping and sharpening our portfolio for long term growth."
"The consideration recognises the market leading brands and the improved momentum," he added.
The deal is expected to be completed by mid-2018, subject to regulatory approvals.
Unilever owns more than 400 household brands including Dove, Knorr soups, Lipton, Magnum and Marmite.
"There is a positive momentum in the performance of the spreads business and we are excited about continuing this journey with KKR," said Nicolas Liabeuf, the chief executive officer of spreads.
Since the spurned takeover bid, Rotterdam-based Unilever, which employs some 169,000 people around the world has sought to prove to shareholders that it is better off on its own and vowed to boost profitability.
Washington (AFP) - Paul Ryan may be in his final term as speaker of the US House of Representatives and could leave Congress by year end, Politico reported Thursday, in a report that could set off a scramble for a successor.
The news outlet cited several people who know Ryan, including fellow lawmakers, congressional aides, conservative intellectuals and party lobbyists, saying they did not expect him to remain in Congress beyond 2018.
Asked directly after a Thursday press conference whether he would be stepping down soon, Ryan said, "I'm not... no."
A spokeswoman for Ryan's office, AshLee Strong, called the report "pure speculation."
"As the speaker himself said today, he's not going anywhere any time soon," she added.
But the report appeared to heighten the conjecture about the Wisconsin lawmaker's future.
Ryan, 47, made no secret about his hesitation in taking the top congressional job in 2015, after his predecessor John Boehner abruptly announced he was retiring when he faced a revolt from right-wing conservatives.
He also spoke out critically against Donald Trump during the presidential race.
But Ryan has developed a better-than-expected relationship with Trump, and has worked with him on several landmark issues including health care and the current big legislative push, tax reform.
The White House made it clear Trump wants Ryan to stay.
"The president did speak to the speaker not too long ago, and made sure that the speaker knew very clearly, in no uncertain terms, that if the news was true he was very unhappy about it," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
It is not known whether Ryan would run for his congressional seat in next November's mid-term elections. But should he announce his departure well ahead of time, it would dramatically diminish his deal-making leverage and his ability to raise money for the party.
"Ryan's preference has become clear: He would like to serve through Election Day 2018 and retire ahead of the next Congress," Politico reported.
Some Republicans in Congress were already anticipating a leadership battle.
"Brace yourselves for the mother of all barn cleanings," tweeted House conservative Thomas Massie, who has been a thorn in the Republican leadership's side.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 05:54:12|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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LISBON, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Fitch Ratings agency upgraded Portuguese debt to investment grade status on Friday.
Fitch raised its evaluation of Portugal to BBB with a positive outlook from BB+ with a positive outlook. This means it no longer considers Portuguese bonds to be junk.
Two of the big three ratings agencies now rank Portugal as investment grade, which widens Portugal's pool of potential investors considerably.
Some institutional investors can only buy sovereign debt that's rated investment grade by two agencies. With Portugal back in that bracket, borrowing costs will come down.
Fitch was the first agency to downgrade Portugal to junk status back in July 2011. The decision was made shortly after Portugal requested a 78 billion euro bailout package from the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Moody's ratings agencies followed Fitch's example shortly thereafter, further aggravating Portugal's debt problem.
But Portugal exited the European Union Excessive Deficit Procedure program in May this year and in September S&P raised Portugal's credit rating to BBB-. The S&P thus became the first ratings agency to rate Portuguese debt as investment grade since January 2012.
Fitch had been expected to follow suit on Friday, but went one step further, raising Portugal to a BBB rating rather than the anticipated BBB-.
Moody's is likewise predicted to upgrade Portugal when it reports on the country in early 2018.
Moody's upgraded Portugal's outlook from stable to positive in September, but maintained a Ba1 rating, one rung below investment grade.
Yields on Portugal's benchmark 10-year bond fell to 3-year lows in Friday trading in anticipation of Fitch's decision. Further falls can be expected when European markets reopen on Monday.
Washington (AFP) - US regulators voted Thursday to roll back so-called "net neutrality" rules which required internet providers to treat all traffic equally, a move opponents say would curb online freedom.
The Federal Communications Commission, in a three-to-two vote, adopted a proposal by Republican-appointed chairman Ajit Pai, who said his plan would scrap "heavy-handed" rules adopted in 2015 which he argued discouraged investment and innovation.
The vote capped a heated partisan debate and is just the latest in a battle over more than a decade on rules governing internet service providers in the courts and the FCC.
Democratic member Mignon Clyburn, one of the two dissenters, charged that the agency was "handing the keys to the internet" to "a handful of multibillion dollar corporations."
Immediately following the vote, officials from two states and others vowed to challenge the FCC action in court.
Net neutrality activists have staged a series of protests in cities around the US and online, amid fears that dominant broadband providers could change how the internet works.
"Chairman Pai has given internet service providers an explicit license to block, slow, or levy tolls on content," said Ferras Vinh of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a digital rights group.
Vinh said internet providers "will now have even greater power to shape the online experiences of internet users, at the expense of consumers and small companies."
Net neutrality backers have argued that clear rules are needed to prevent internet service providers from blocking or throttling services or websites for competitive reasons.
Some activists fear internet service providers will seek to extract higher fees from services that are heavy data users, like Netflix or other streaming services, with these costs passed on to consumers, but new startups without the resources of major companies would be more likely to feel the pain.
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- Not a water pipe -
Critics of the 2015 net neutrality rule counter that it was based on utility-style regulation designed for 1930s telephone companies, not a dynamic internet market.
Pai said ahead of the vote that his plan would restore "light-touch" rules which allowed the internet to flourish, and promote investments to enable new and emerging services.
"The digital world bears no resemblance to a water pipe or electric line or sewer," Pai said in a session briefly halted over an undisclosed security threat.
"Entrepreneurs and innovators guided the internet far better than the heavy hand of government."
Pai said removing neutrality rules is key to investment to develop newer "next generation" services such as telemedicine or autonomous driving.
"When there's less investment, that means fewer next-generation networks are built," he said. "And that means more Americans are left on the wrong side of the digital divide."
But dissenting FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said: "Net neutrality is internet freedom. I support that freedom," she said.
"This decision puts the Federal Communications Commission on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American public."
Appointed by President Donald Trump, Pai was a fierce critic of the neutrality rules adopted under former president Barack Obama in 2015 and earlier this month unveiled his plan named the "Restoring Internet Freedom" order.
Many Republican lawmakers backed Pai, although a few had urged the FCC to delay the vote to allow Congress time to consider legislation.
- More court challenges -
Within minutes of the vote, the attorneys general of New York State and Washington State vowed to challenge the FCC in court.
"The FCC just gave Big Telecom an early Christmas present, by giving internet service providers yet another way to put corporate profits over consumers," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.
Others planned legal challenges including the consumer activist group Free Press.
"We'll have plenty to say in court about the legal mistakes littered throughout this decision," said Free Press spokesman Matt Wood.
Democratic Senator Ed Markey said he would ask lawmakers for a regulatory review to overturn what he called the FCC's "misguided and partisan decision" in order to "keep the internet in the hands of the people."
Pai and internet firms have maintained that internet users will see no difference once the new rules are implemented.
Commission member Michael O'Rielly dismissed "fear-mongering" by neutrality backers.
"The internet has functioned without net neutrality rules far longer than with them," he said.
Michael Powell, a former FCC chair under Republican president George W. Bush who now heads a lobby group for major internet firms, cautioned against panic.
"Time will prove that the FCC did not destroy the internet, and our digital lives will go on just as they have for years," said Powell of the NCTA - The Internet & Television Association.
But Ed Black of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which represents major tech firms such as Google and Facebook, said internet users should be wary of such promises.
"It's not realistic to think that these companies would spend many millions lobbying for the FCC to agree to abdicate its authority to protect open internet rules -- and then not use their market power to recoup that money from customers," Black said.
New York (AFP) - A US judge on Thursday sentenced two nephews of Venezuela's first lady to 18 years in prison for drug trafficking, damning them as "not the most astute drug traffickers that ever existed."
Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, 31, and Francisco Flores de Freitas, 32, were convicted by a New York jury last year after being arrested in a US sting operation Haiti in 2015.
District Judge Paul Crotty imposed the 18-year jail term in a Manhattan federal court on Thursday and fined each cousin $50,000.
US government prosecutors had requested a 30-year sentence, arguing that they believed they could operate with impunity as members of the most powerful family in Venezuela.
Defense lawyers sought the minimum 10-year penalty and the two cousins apologized in court, Flores de Freitas breaking down into tears at the mention of his nine-year-old son and asking the judge for a chance to repair his mistakes.
"If they were not from Venezuela but from the Dominican Republic or the Bronx this would be a 10-year case," said defense attorney David Rody.
But "they're not the (Venezuelan) president and they should not bear the brunt of the government's ire towards Venezuela," he added.
The judge ruled that the two defendants seemed "more concerned about the impact on the family than on violating the law in the United States."
He noted that "opportunities for visitation from Venezuela will be very limited" given US travel restrictions imposed on many Venezuelans with ties to President Nicolas Maduro's government.
Their arrest and trial fanned tensions in already fraught US-Venezuelan relations, with Washington at loggerheads with Maduro and the South American oil giant mired in economic crisis.
The cousins, who are sons of brothers of First Lady Cilia Flores, were convicted of plotting to smuggle 800 kilos (1,760 pounds) of cocaine into the United States, as well as manufacturing and distribution with the intent to import.
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The Venezuelan government says they were framed.
Lawyers for both defendants argued that they fell into a trap set by the US Drug Enforcement Administration in a sting operation that offered $20 million for the drugs.
US prosecutors say the men believed they were above the law as relatives of Maduro. Their aunt, Cilia Flores, was speaker of the National Assembly from 2006 to 2011.
Santo Domingo (AFP) - Venezuela's government and opposition concluded a new round of talks Friday in an effort to bridge deep and entrenched differences to find a way to end the dire political and economic crisis tearing apart their country.
After eight hours of discussions at the foreign ministry in Santo Domingo, the two sides agreed to resume negotiations on January 11, Dominican President Danilo Medina announced.
It will be followed by a meeting of foreign ministers on January 12.
"There has been significant progress," said Medina, whose country is hosting the second meeting after a first on December 1 and 2 yielded what was similarly termed "significant advances."
"There are six major issues that we are discussing... We cannot announce any of the advances we have had because they are part of a package. As long as agreements are not reached completely, we cannot make an announcement."
Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz expressed hope that an agreement would be "finalized" by January 12.
The parties agreed to designate a spokesperson for each side: Communication Minister Jorge Rodriguez for the government and, for the opposition, Julio Borges, president of the opposition majority parliament.
In addition to the Dominican Republic and Chile, foreign ministers from Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are serving as guarantors of the process, along with former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
- Divided opposition and 'sabotage' -
The Venezuelan government is demanding an end to what it calls economic "sabotage" it claims is being waged by the opposition with support from the United States and Colombia.
The opposition is seeking guarantees that presidential elections next year will be transparent and fair.
The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is feeling politically strengthened after winning local elections last weekend in which the main opposition groups were excluded and after mostly triumphing in October gubernatorial polls.
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However, an opposition advisor, Colette Capriles, said those victories merely showed that Maduro was using the tactics of "contemporary dictatorships."
Despite broad unpopularity at home and stern pressure from most countries in the Americas, Maduro has been able to tighten his grip on power in Venezuela, in large part because of a weak and fractured opposition.
The opposition is divided over the talks. Some in the coalition dismiss them as nothing more than an attempt by Maduro to buy time as he continues to consolidate power.
Over the last three months, his public support has risen from 24 percent to 31 percent, according to surveys by the Venebarometro firm.
The opposition coalition, the United Democratic Roundtable, over the same period saw negativity toward its image increase from 46 percent to 66 percent.
Venezuela, once Latin America's richest country thanks to its vast oil reserves, is on the brink of default after a long slide into penury that has seen supplies of food and medicine become scarce and hundreds of thousands emigrate to survive.
Beijing is ramping up construction work in the South China Sea despite agreeing to establish a code of conduct for the disputed region, new research has showed. Research from the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative , part of U.S. think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies, revealed China has built several facilities around the Spratly and Paracel islands as of late. The permanent projectson which China has completed or started work since the start of 2017 account for 72 acres, or 290,000 square meters, the report issued on Thursday stated."International attention has shifted away from the slow-moving crisis in the South China Sea over the course of 2017, but the situation on the water has not remained static," the center said in a report. "Beijing remains committed to advancing the next phase of its build-up construction of the infrastructure necessary for fully-functioning air and naval bases on the larger outposts." Chinese President Xi Jinping's administration controls much of the Spratly and Paracel areas, relying on a concept known as the nine-dash line to mark territorial claims that extend roughly 1,000 miles from the nation's southern shores. Various Southeast Asian states, including the Philippines and Vietnam , also claim ownership to certain parts. The construction comes as Beijing and Southeast Asian governments, many of them key players in the long-standing territorial dispute, agreed to outline a code of conduct for the strategic waterway earlier this year, a moved designed to prevent further tensions. Last month, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stated his country would "firmly safeguard" the freedom of navigation in the resource-rich zone . Among China's new developments is a radar array at the north end of Fiery Cross Reef, part of the Spratlys, the report said. "This high-frequency radar is situated next to the large communications/sensor array completed earlier in the year," it added.Storage tunnels in the Subi Reef and Mischief Reef, both near the Spratlys, were also recently completed, adding to the network of existing underground structures on each reef, the report noted. China is expected to substantially boost its radar and signals intelligence capabilities at Subi Reef while it has started work on a new communications array on Mischief Reef, the report added.Over in the Paracels, "China has continued construction, though on a smaller scale," such as dredging and reclamation work on Tree Island.Woody Island, Beijing's military and administrative headquarters in the South China Sea, also experienced new activity in the form of two first-time air deployments, the report said.In October, the country deployed Air Force J-11B fighters while large planes that resembled Y-8 transport aircraft were spotted last month, the report said, noting that "their presence at Woody could be a sign of things to come." Beijing is ramping up construction work in the South China Sea despite agreeing to establish a code of conduct for the disputed region, new research has showed. Research from the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative , part of U.S. think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies, revealed China has built several facilities around the Spratly and Paracel islands as of late. The permanent projects on which China has completed or started work since the start of 2017 account for 72 acres, or 290,000 square meters, the report issued on Thursday stated. "International attention has shifted away from the slow-moving crisis in the South China Sea over the course of 2017, but the situation on the water has not remained static," the center said in a report. "Beijing remains committed to advancing the next phase of its build-up construction of the infrastructure necessary for fully-functioning air and naval bases on the larger outposts." Chinese President Xi Jinping's administration controls much of the Spratly and Paracel areas, relying on a concept known as the nine-dash line to mark territorial claims that extend roughly 1,000 miles from the nation's southern shores. Various Southeast Asian states, including the Philippines and Vietnam , also claim ownership to certain parts. The construction comes as Beijing and Southeast Asian governments, many of them key players in the long-standing territorial dispute, agreed to outline a code of conduct for the strategic waterway earlier this year, a moved designed to prevent further tensions. Last month, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stated his country would "firmly safeguard" the freedom of navigation in the resource-rich zone . Among China's new developments is a radar array at the north end of Fiery Cross Reef, part of the Spratlys, the report said. "This high-frequency radar is situated next to the large communications/sensor array completed earlier in the year," it added. Storage tunnels in the Subi Reef and Mischief Reef, both near the Spratlys, were also recently completed, adding to the network of existing underground structures on each reef, the report noted. China is expected to substantially boost its radar and signals intelligence capabilities at Subi Reef while it has started work on a new communications array on Mischief Reef, the report added. Over in the Paracels, "China has continued construction, though on a smaller scale," such as dredging and reclamation work on Tree Island. Woody Island, Beijing's military and administrative headquarters in the South China Sea, also experienced new activity in the form of two first-time air deployments, the report said. In October, the country deployed Air Force J-11B fighters while large planes that resembled Y-8 transport aircraft were spotted last month, the report said, noting that "their presence at Woody could be a sign of things to come."
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By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa told members of his ruling ZANU-PF party on Friday they would have to start fixing the economy if they wanted a chance of winning next year's vote. Mnangagwa spoke at a party congress that drew a line under the rule of ousted veteran leader Robert Mugabe by formally expelling his wife Grace and her allies from the organization and by endorsing Mnangagwa as party chief and candidate. "We will only win at the ballot box if we can show signs that we are reviving our economy and at the same time we will only be able to make economic gains if we can secure re-election," he said. Zimbabwe's economy collapsed in the latter half of Mugabe's rule, especially after violent and chaotic seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms. The southern African nation could hold elections as early as March, Mnangagwa said this week, which would be just five months after the de facto military coup which ended Mugabe's 37-year reign. "Democracy bids that as a political party, ZANU-PF must always compete for office through pitting itself against opposition parties in elections which must be credible, free, fair and transparent," Mnangagwa, 75, told the congress in downtown Harare. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said late last month that financial support for the new government to stabilize its currency system and help it clear World Bank and African Development Bank arrears depended on "democratic progress". In a sign of the military further consolidating its political power, Mnangagwa made three generals members of the party's Russian-styled executive Politburo, the supreme decision-making organ of ZANU-PF. Major General Engelbert Rugeje was appointed political commissar, a job focused on revamping party structures and preparing for elections. Mnangagwa said he would name two deputies in a few days. Defence Forces Commander General Constantino Chiwenga is a strong contender for one of the vice presidency slots as a reward for spearheading the de facto coup that ended Mugabe's rule. Mnangagwa, whose sacking as vice-president set off the chain of events that led to Mugabe's removal, said the ZANU-PF congress should define a new trajectory - which he did not spell out - and put behind it the victimization of members seen in the past. (Editing by James Macharia and Andrew Heavens)
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's new President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Friday the ruling ZANU-PF party should aim to always hold free and fair elections, a day after saying the polls could be held sooner than expected. The international community will be closely watching the next elections in 2018. The vote is due at the end of July in 2018 but there is talk it could be brought forward to as early as March. Mnangagwa, who became leader of the southern African nation last month after the military and ruling ZANU-PF turned against Robert Mugabe who had ruled the country for 37 years, was addressing a special congress in downtown Harare. Mnangagwa is expected to be endorsed by the ruling party as its leader and presidential candidate in elections due in 2018 which the international community will be closely watching. "Democracy bids that as a political party, ZANU-PF must always compete for office through pitting itself against opposition parties in elections which must be credible, free, fair and transparent," he said. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Writing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise; Editing by James Macharia)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 07:04:33|Editor: Lifang
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HELSINKI, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Automated solutions usually require that lane markings of a road are visible, but Finnish vehicle "Martti", developed at the Finnish technical research center VTT, will follow detailed GPS and positioning information on its route.
In the tests this week in Finnish Lapland, the vehicle once ran at 40 kilometers per hour, which was an unofficial world record for automated automobiles on real roads.
Matti Kutila, project manager at VTT, told business daily Kauppalehti that Martti could have been even speedier, but in test driving it is programmed not to exceed the limit of 40 km/h. The aim is to increase it to 60 km/h.
Kutila underlined the development of dedicated maps. VTT has developed the tools for producing maps. Kutila said the system produces a map of a two-kilometer stretch in half an hour.
The record test was carried out in Muonio, northwestern Finland, on an intelligent road. Kutila reminded, however, that the fact that that part of E8 is an intelligent road did not really help Martti a lot. "The road has no beacons, for example, that would have helped Martti to proceed", he said.
Ari Virtanen, who was in charge of building the car, said Martti clearly has a very determined mindset.
Martti was developed on the chassis of Volkswagen Touareg.
While Martti is a Finnish male first name, another automated test vehicle of VTT is named Marilyn. VTT describes the two autos as "a couple".
"Martti has been designed for demanding weather conditions and Marilyn shines as the queen of urban areas," said Kutila.
Both cars are equipped with cameras, antennas, sensors and laser scanners. The number and placement of sensors differs between the vehicles.
Next year, a third individual is to be developed for difficult terrain, off the road conditions.
The purpose of Vladimir Putins surprise visit to the Middle East this week wasnt to celebrate a victory or a political achievement or to give the Americans the finger, as the Russian president likes to do. Putin needed this visit mainly because his efforts to reach a political agreement that would lead to calm in Syria and reinforce the Russian accomplishments in the country have run into unexpected difficulties.
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Putin has found out that although Bashar Assad owes his own survival and his regimes survival to the Russians, the Syrian president doesnt see eye-to-eye with Russia on the day after the civil war. And its not just Assad. The Iranians and Turks too see a completely different political arrangement in Syria than the one Putin wants.
Putin (L) and Assad's meeting at Russia's Hmeymim air base in Syria's Latakia Province (Photo: AP, Presidential TV)
Russia is interested in reaching calm and ending the fighting in each area in Syria separately, and under separate conditions. Assad, on the other hand, is refusing to compromise and demanding exclusive control of all of Syria without any partners in the government from the opposition, the Syrian rebels or the Kurds.
In the transition period, the Russians are interested in reaching a separate calm agreement or armistice in each region according to its own conditions and letting the rebels and the Syrian oppositionas well as the Kurdsplay a part in the civil authority in every region, as well as in the provisional government that will serve under Assad at least until the elections, which will be held in about a year or so.
The Syrian president doesnt see eye-to-eye with Russia on the post-war plans (Photo: AP)
The Russians also see a situation in which the Assad family and the Alawis are not necessarily Syria's only rulers. Assad and the Iranians wont even hear of such an arrangement. As far as theyre concerned, Syria is controlled by Assad in its entirety and his family will remain in power until he makes a different decision.
And then there are the Turks, who wont even hear about an autonomous Kurdish district in northern Syria, near the border. The Russians are actually fond of the Kurds and support them, as long as they distance themselves from the American support, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is firmly opposed and wont have his forces pull out of Syria in a way that would allow the Kurds to unite the areas under their control into an autonomous district (like the district that has existed for decades in northern Iraq).
The two leaders in a meeting with military commanders (Photo: AP)
The Russians disagree with the Iranians on other issues as well. They are refusing, for example, to let the Iranians have part of their own seaport, like the Russian naval facility in Tartus, nor do they want to share the reconstruction of Syria and its oil industry with the Iranians. They want the biggest share for themselves.
The forces Putin will actually pull out
All these disagreements led to the failure of the summit organized by Putin in the Russian resort town of Sochi last month. He met with Assad, Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and spoke on the phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, but to no avail. The Sochi summit ended in disagreement, and as a result, the diplomatic talks the Russians are holding in Astana and the UN-brokered talks in Geneva are currently stuck.
From left to right: Iranian President Rouhani, Russian President Putin and Turkish President Erdogan (Photo: RT website)
Wanting to move things in the direction he sees as desirable, Putin made a surprise visit to Syria on Monday and said he had ordered his forces to prepare to pull out from Syria. We shouldnt get carried away: The Russians are planning to hold onto the Hmeymim air base near the Latakia Province and the Tartus port, where they have access to a considerable part of the platforms where Russian warships and merchant vessels dock. Putin is planning, however, to pull out the rest of the forces, including a large part of the antiaircraft batteries, radar devices and ground forces, as well as the military advisors attached to the Syrian forces all over the country.
Putins statement, which is seemingly aimed at indicating that Russia plans to leave Syria, is actually a direct threat to Assad. Putin is essentially saying: If you dont accept our outline for a political arrangement in your country, youll have to deal with the rebels and with global jihad on your own. We wont be there to help you, as we will significantly reduce the number of Russian fighter jets and attack helicopters that intervene every time your forces face difficulties.
This is a serious threat to Assad. The Iranians, who know Putin is the only one who prevented a decisive Iranian defeat in the Syrian civil war, will have to take him into consideration as well.
Trump is the bad guy, Putin understands Muslims
From Syria, Putin traveled to Egypt, likely in order to enlist President al-Sisis support for the arrangement Russia seeks in Syria, but also to strengthen his relations with Egypt in a way that would establish Russias status as the dominant power in the Middle East, instead of the US. There is no doubt that Putin is using US President Donald Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital as a leverage to bolster his relations with the Arab world and with the Iranians. Trump is the bad guy, and Putin is the one who understands the Muslims and supports them.
Putin and Rouhani at the Sochi summit (Photo: AP)
Putin will likely conceal the fact that only several months ago, Russia explicitly announced that it sees west Jerusalem as Israels capital. But such minor details shouldnt stop Putin from further deepening his relations with the Arabs, in a bid to make them purchase weapons and equipment from the Russian security industries. Russia is already selling weapons and military equipment worth billions in the Middle East, and this is a clear economic interest promoted by Putin on his surprise visit to the Middle East.
As far as Israel is concerned, this isnt necessarily bad news. From an Israeli strategic perspective, the Russian outline for an arrangement in Syria is better than the outline Assad and the Iranians envision. At this point, however, its still hard to judge the move, which has only just begun, and the war in Syria isnt going anywhere yet. It will likely continue for many more months, perhaps even more than a year.
Several months ago, when the European Unions foreign service decided to appoint senior diplomat Emanuele Giaufret as the EU ambassador to Israel. he rushed to inform his wife and their three children. His eldest sons reaction was particularly joyful: Yes! Im going back to my country.
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Although 10-year-old Lorenzo is the son of an Italian-born European diplomat, his reaction was totally genuine. The child was born at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer during his fathers first mission in Israel, when he served as first secretary and a political advisor in the EU mission. My son is a real Sabra, Giaufret laughs.
Since that mission, Giaufrets family has traveled across the world and had two more children: One in New York and the other in Brussels. But Giaufret has a warm spot in his heart for Israel, and he knew he wanted to return. When he was offered the position of senior ambassador, Israel was his top priority.
Giaufret. Well wait for Trumps proposal and then play our role together with others (Photo: Delegation of the European Union to Israel )
Why was it important for you to return to Israel? What did you miss?
I missed several things. I missed the people. I really like the Israeli way of interacting. I think its in a way close to my own country, Italy. People like to be together, they like to spend time outside, they like to engage in conversations. Theyre very welcoming, theyre very direct at the same time, but you always feel an immediate connection with people and you can connect very easily with people you meet. This is something you dont find everywhere in the world, and for a Mediterranean like me its definitely something that I personally very much appreciate.
I have to admit, I also missed the sun. Brussels is not necessarily a good place for sun, and this is much better. Living by the sea in Tel Aviv is also a great thing. I was born in a coastal city in Italy, La Spezia, so Im used to have sea and be able to go and walk by the sea. In Israel, you find a lot of sea, and thats a great thing.
Perhaps the other thing I really like here is history. So many layers of history in this country, and people are so much aware of its importance. Its not even history. Sometimes its just the newspaper headlines. But its true that you have an incredible heritage of events, of presence of culture and civilization that came through this country, and of course the Jewish civilization is an extremely interesting one that brought a lot to the world. Im a historian by training, and when I was a kid, I wanted to become an archaeologist. I never made it, but I have a real passion for historyancient history and modern historyand this is a place where you can basically discover new things on a daily basis.
I think that the food culture is very close to the Italian one and partly to the French one, to the Mediterranean one. To be able to sit at the table, spending time, enjoying food, having a conversation. And the food and restaurant scene in Israel is very good. You have very good restaurants, and the local food is great, and you see all these different inputs from the Jewish Diaspora who came back to Israel with this cuisine from North Africa and Yemen and input from the Jews that came from Eastern Europe. It makes a unique offer of cuisine. I love hummus, and Im discovering sabich.
What has changed in Israel since you left in 2007?
I think what is striking when you arrive in Israel after 10 years, and when you arrive in Tel Aviv in particular and see the skyline of Tel Aviv, is its incredible how things have changed. And you can see that the country in the last 10 years went through an incredible period of economic development, lots of building, a lot of construction that I used to follow when I was away.
One of things that was striking particularly during those years, when in Europe we were focusing on the subprime crisis, and then the budget crisis in the member states, and the economy was doing very badly in Europe those yearsin Israel things were going up and there was always a big plus on the GDP.
Then when we arrived in Tel Aviv again, I came in July for a few days to look at the practical aspects, and you realize that at least Tel Aviv has changed dramatically. And I think theres a sense of confidence that came with this economic success that is very clear. The high-tech industry has continued to grow and has become now a model for everyone. Theres a lot of interest in Europe on that.
Giaufret and Rivlin at the Presidents Residence. He was so nice (Photo: Delegation of the European Union to Israel )
Giaufret believes that although there is still mutual criticism, there has been a favorable improvement in the past decade in the way Israelis perceive Europe.
One thing that is really different is the way people look at Europe and travel to Europe, and this is something that started when I was here, the discussions on the Open Skies agreement . It had an incredible impact on EU-Israeli relations, and I think it had an impact on the Israeli economy, on the European economy, and now the number of Europeans that are coming to Israel is much much higher, but particularly the number of Israeli tourists going to Europe. I think were talking about an additional 3 million visitors since 2012, on both sides, and this is because of Open Skies.
The prices went down by up to 30 percent on average since 2013. The prices are lower and options are higher. Now I think six out of 10 flights are going to or coming from EU destinations. Its a real change, and I think it will help bring much more understanding between Europe and Israel.
Between governments, we have a very good understanding on many areas. We know the position of the Israeli government, and we have our own positions, and I think we respect each other. But theres always a possibility, if you look at bilateral relations, to find solutions, and we hope we will be able to find solutions to move on. Our real interest is to be able to go beyond this and try to exploit the possibilities that we have.
If you take, for example, the programs on scientific research, we call it the Horizon 2020 at the moment, for that program we did find a pragmatic solution which was accepted by all sides, and I think the results speak for themselves. Israel continues to be an extremely successful participant in the program. We had, I believe, more than 600 projects that were awarded to Israeli entities since it was signed, in the last three years, and 460 million euros that they have received from the program.
Nevertheless, there is a sense that when it comes to the normalization of the EU-Israel relationship, it stops here. The EU postponed the Association Committee meeting because of the Regulation Law and the continued construction in the settlements, while Prime Minister Netanyahu had the Lithuanian foreign minister invite him to speak to the EU foreign ministers behind EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherinis back. He also accused Europe of crazily undermining itself by not using Israeli innovation due to political issues.
The High Representative, Ms. Mogherini, is actually committed to have this Association Council meeting, and hopefully well have one soon. On the macro level, there are things that are going on, and actually the interest of the EU to work and benefit from Israeli innovation capabilities has not stopped. I think its very much there, both at the level of the EU and the level of its member states.
At the level of the EU, the Horizon 2020 program is an important indication that from a macro perspective, Israel is part of the family, so much so that Tel Aviv came second as the EU capital for innovation. So Israel, in a way, is an EU capital because Israel is an associated country to the frame of programs. So important things are happening. EU missions come here to start conversations, and this is an indication that this very high level of cooperation we have is going to continue, is there to stay.
"We have a cooperation with the government of Israel on many areas, and we do this through the Twinning project. The EU commissioner for innovation and science was here in the summer, the commissioner for industry was here in September, the commissioner for justice was here in June, and the commissioner for environment and energy was here not long ago and is following very closely the discussions that Israel is having on the gas pipeline. And European Council President Donald Tusk is visiting Israel this month.
We might have disagreements concerning the way weve been dealing with the nuclear program in Iran. We think that the agreement (with Iran) brings an added value. We have a disagreement on how to handle the situation in the Palestinian territories. But its a bit normal to have a disagreement between friends. I think we can have discussions on this, but the foundation, the pillars of the relationship, remain very, very solid. Everyone could hope for more.
I think there are options, so there are untapped potentials in the relationship for sure. But if you look at the facts, we really have a very, very strong relationship, both in terms of government-to-government relationship, in terms of people-to-people contact, in terms of business relationship. We have common values, we have common interests, perhaps a common future development, and these things are really there. Theres a very, very solid foundation.
So youre probably a little bit offended when Israelis say that the Europeans are a little bit naive when it comes to the peace process, when it comes to security and when it comes to you telling us how to do it in those fields.
Well, one of my personal commitments before I came in was to never get offended, otherwise it might draw you to the wrong conclusions. There is in fact, youre right, a perception that perhaps we dont understand the reality in Israel, that we are underestimating the threat, that we are having a different perspective in Europe because life is easier.
First of all, we need to listen to the Israelis, for sure. I think its important that we always keep our ears open and we engage with all the different strands of Israeli society. Israeli society is very complicated and there are a lot of opinions out there, and I think its important that we listen to them all and understand where people are coming from. And the fact that they are sitting in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv, in Kiryat Shmona or on the border with Gaza makes things different. And we need to understand this perception and we need to be able to communicate this perception to Europe and explain why certain decisions are made, explain why certain statements come out and explain why we might have a disagreement on certain things. So engagement and listening and taking people seriously. I think its important that we do and we always did and we have to continue doing it.
What about a dialogue with the settlers, who are now very strong, including in government and in the public opinion?
Well, were doing a dialogue definitely with people that represent them, that are part of the settlement movement, that have a different perspective on how to handle the West Bank. Its a component of Israeli society, and whether we agree or not is another matter. We need to listen to everyone.
Is it legitimate in your eyes that European governments give financial assistance to
Israeli and Palestinian NGOs
, some of which are doing delegitimization to the State of Israel and IDF soldiers, and threatening to put them on trial in the ICC?
We fund many NGOs that are working on different issues. Some of them are working on human rights. We are always very careful that we fund NGOs that, for example, are not supporting or actively engaging in BDS activities, incitement or violence. This is something we dont support. Were very carefully monitoring the programs and the projects we are funding, so were not funding an NGO as such, but were funding an activity of the NGO, a project. We know that there is a lot of controversy in Israel on certain NGOs, but we look at the work they do and its a project-by-project basis.
Belgian prime minister Charles Michel with Breaking the Silence and BTselem representatives. Its important that Israel maintains a vibrant civil society
We think its important that Israel maintains a vibrant civil society panorama. This is one of the greater things that the Europeans recognize in Israelthat you have a very diverse, active and committed civil society working in different areas, and this is I think something Israelis should really keep. Sometimes you might have issues that are difficult or hard, might polarize opinion, but the possibility of having a complete set of NGOS from left to right that are active in issues that are important to the state, its a great thing for Israel and this is something I wish will remain like that.
We also work with NGOs that are supporting other issues that are not directly related to human rights. For example, on social rights like the right to adequate housing, the Ethiopian community, women empowerment in the economic sector, strengthening the safety on construction sites. Its an indication of how wide our work actually is and how wide the interest is, and not only focused on peace politics.
Would you provide funding to a right-wing NGO too?
If a right-wing NGO applies for a project that is in line with our criteria. We dont classify NGOs as left and right when we select them, but on the basis of their projects. We have conversations with right-wing NGOs. We receive them regularly, they come with their own ideas and criticism, and we listen and explain.
What do you have to say to many people in Israel who think the EU is a little bit biased and one-sided and that you are automatically pro-Palestinian?
The EU is not biased. We want to achieve a solution to the conflict that is in the interest of the two sides, and I think one of the reasons we invest so much in this is because we have strong, warm feelings for Israel and for the Israelis. Wed like the Israelis to be able to live in peace, security and enjoy their life. We also think of course that we should find a way to implement the Palestinians' right to self-determination and allow them to live also a life where they enjoy all their rights. We believe that the State of Israel has a legitimate right to develop, to flourish, to become a strong state that brings prosperity to its own citizens. But we think that this can be achieved in full only if we have a peaceful situation in the neighborhood, and Im sure a lot of Israelis would agree with that.
There is a sense that the EU has taken a step back when it comes to the peace process, maybe because you are failing to reach a consensus between the 28 member states after the Brexit, or maybe because you are giving US President Donald Trump a chance to consolidate his peace plan .
Yes, we are there. Youre right that in foreign policy we need to have the agreement of all the 28, and its a process thats sometimes complicated, but there is unanimity among all member states that we see the two-state solution as the way forward for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This is something that we all agree.
I think we understand how hard it is. Its a very hard thing to achieve, and it will take a lot of time, a lot of goodwill, and it will require the convinced commitment of all sides, including the Palestinian side. But we have invested a lot in the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we are continuing to invest a lot. Ms. Mogherini announced in September a review of the modalities of the EU's engagement to support a Palestinian and Israeli positive outcome of the conflict. This is not to do less, but probably to do more.
What happens if Trumps initiative fails? Maybe then you will step in?
I think its difficult to speculate what will happen. We hope it will not fail. We hope he will be successful, and he will bring peace to the region, and then we will be ready to do our part in that. We have already told everyone that whatever solution the two parties would agree on, which will bring peace to the region, there will be a lot of work to be done. Its hard work and this will not come from day one. So there will be a lot of support that will be necessary from the international community, and the EU will want to be ready to do its part, be it in the economic areas, in the confidence-building areas, in other areas. We will certainly be ready to contribute. Well wait for the proposal to come, and then we will play our role together with others to try to help, so that Israelis can live in peace and security in the future.
On the settlements, weve made clear our position and we continue to do so with the government. We dont think it helps anyone. Its a clear obstacle to peace, and its against international law. We have always said this, and we continue to say the same things to the government. The Americans might have other ways to present their own views.
We think that if we undermine the possibility of the two-state solution, its not in the interest of Israel, of the Israelis, and this is a conversation were having, and we will continue to do it. We dont consider that changing position at this point in time will help anyone, but we can do other things at the same time. The fact that we might have a disagreement on certain issues related to the Palestinian conflict doesnt prevent doing the other things were doing at the moment with Israel and trying to build more trust in our bilateral relations, and working also with the region. I mean, theres a lot of things happening around us that are important for Israel and for us.
Are we going to see more steps in the future against settlement building, like we saw in the guidelines that you published for the member states on settlement product labeling ?
At the moment, there are no discussions on any other steps. I think we made those initiatives in the past because we felt there was a legal problem. But there are no other steps being contemplated at the moment.
Was that move a mistake? Because it deepened the chasm between Israel and the EU, and eventually nothing happened.
Yes, that was clearly something that created tensions between the EU and Israel, but its a question of coherence. If we say something, we believe that we recognize Israel along the 67 borders, and we dont recognize the legality of settlement, so the question is why are you providing funding for those. I think the question was very legitimate, and I think it brought clarity, but I think sometimes we lose the big picture a little bit.
The goods coming from the settlements are about 2 percent of the volume of Israeli exports, and the big picture is that Israeli goods are actually welcomed in Europe. Last semester, there was an incredible growth of 14 percent in Israeli exports to the EU, so now 34 percent of Israeli exports are going to Europe.
An Israeli factory beyond the Green Line. Settlement product labelling had no impact on Israeli exports to the EU (Photo: AFP)
The goods that are coming from the settlements can always go to Europe. Its not a boycott. They can export. We dont treat them as Israeli goods, so we dont apply the same tariffs, but they can enter and some people might even want to buy them for ideological reasons. Its a question of the consumer's choice. If the consumer wants to do it, they do it. If they dont want to do it, they know they can choose a different product. So the impact on trade frankly wasnt there. If I look at the figures, the impact on Israeli exports to the EU was even positive. The figures are going up, so theres no boycott of Israeli goods in Europe alone.
Do you see a possibility that Israel will some day become a full member state in the EU?
I think its something that has been talked about for many years. In a way, its a dream for many. Some Europeans have also been promoting the idea. I think for the moment, the EU is in a phase where were trying to consolidate our structure, so thinking of such a far-reaching enlargement is not on the agenda at the moment. But I think we have to look at what is doable, and what is doable is to bring Israel much closer to the EU.
Ambassador Giaufret reveals Israel and the EU are cooperating in the war on terror and exchanging intelligence. We have a counterterrorism coordinator in Europe that comes very frequently to Israel, and a year or two ago we initiated a counterterrorism dialogue between the EU and Israel. We discussed, for example, how you protect essential infrastructure. Israel has a lot of experience in protecting Ben-Gurion Airport, for example, and we also have to protect our infrastructure, because a lot of terrorist attacks took place either in airports or in train lines, etc. So this is a very beneficial discussion, so we can learn from Israel.
We can lend experience on the issue of deradicalization and preventing violent extremism, etc. This is the types of conversations that are taking place at an EU level, and were going to have another dialogue probably in January, so this is something which is ongoing. I think its a two-way street. Were learning and were sharing. Theres the issue of funding to terrorists, and how you prevent terrorist organizations from receiving resources, funding, etc. This is done on the super-national level, and we can share a lot of information, a lot of good practices on these things.
The ambassador confirms that the EU has informed Israel and the Palestinians that it is prepared to return the European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) to Rafah in light of the Palestinian reconciliation
We have indicated that we are ready to contribute to this process of reconciliation, which is a very complicated one with a lot of problems still to be solved, but we want to help the Palestinian Authority come back to Gaza as a sole and legitimate authority, he says. In that context, we are ready to see whether the EUBAM can play a useful role, if the parties request it, and if the conditions allow. So we have already been in consultations with the Palestinians of course, with the Egyptians, but also with the Israeli authorities, to explain a little bit our thinking and to understand what they consider possible, useful and feasible. So the offer is there, and if the parties request we will do it, but only if its a useful thing to do for the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Before concluding the interview, I remind Giaufret of the presentation of his credentials to President Reuven Rivlin. The ceremony received unusual coverage after his three sons were filmed introducing the dabbing dance to the president.
The ambassadors sons show President Rivlin how to do the dab dance
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So he walked up to the president and he asked for a dab, and he got a very good one. They will never forget that day. I will never forget that day. The situation was so open and President Rivlin created such a nice atmosphere that it was perfectly fine to do that, so my son was happy and everyone was happy.
My other two sons really enjoy life here. For them its easy as young kids to adapt. Theyre going to the French school in Neve Tzedek. They started studying Hebrew. When I arrived, my youngest told me: Aba, Aba. I said, It means Daddy in Hebrew. So they perfectly integrated very quickly in the life here and they enjoy the weather. They can spend more time outside, going to the beach, they have their friends. They dont miss Brussels.
Canadian Jewish billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife Honey were found dead in their home in Toronto.
Canadian police said the circumstances of their deaths appeared "suspicious" and is conducting an investigation into the matter.
Sherman founded Canadian pharmaceuticals giant Apotex.
Senior Justice Ministry officials claimed that the Israel Police making suspicions of bribery against Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz public was an attempt by law enforcement to signal they wished to interrogate the minister, prompting the Justice Ministry to make an irregular announcement saying, "The decision to allow a minister to be questioned is not in the hands of the police commissioner."
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It was uncovered in Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth Thursday that state witness Miki Ganor recounted to police the manner in which he received a list of people from David Sharan , Steinitz's chief of staff at the Ministry of Finance, and was asked to transfer money to them so they, in turn, could contribute to the then-finance minister's 2012 Likud primary campaign.
Ganor, a state witness in the investigation into suspected corruption surrounding the purchase of submarines and patrol boats for the Israeli Navy from Germany, also known as Case 3000, said those funds were part of the money he had given to Sharan, with the operative question being whether Minister Steinitz was aware of the transfer.
The Justice ministry said only AG Mandelblit (L) could authorize to question Minister Steinitz (center), mirroring tensions with Commissioner Alsheikh (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, Yoav Dudkevitch, Reuters)
Despite the fact that Steinitz's closest associates have already been questioned several weeks ago, and police's desire to hear the minister's own account, authorization to question him has yet to be received.
Following the suspicions going public, senior Justice Ministry officials suspected unveiling the information was part of a police ploy to force Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's hand to authorize questioning Steinitz.
The Ministry of Justice was also privy to suspicions stemming from Sharan's interrogation and Ganor's testimony, it should be noted, and was also in possession of materials that bring the minister's conduct into question.
State witness Ganor told police in his testimony he provided money to fictitious donors, who donated to Steinitz's 2012 Likud primary campaign (Photo: Raanan Ben Tzur)
The Justice Ministry put out a press release Thursday afternoon mirroring its stance in opposition to the police and its Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, which said, "There has been no change regarding Minister Steinitz as far as the attorney general and State Attorney's Office are concerned. In any event, the decision to authorize the interrogation of a minister is not in the hands of the commissioner, but is under the purview of the attorney general."
Police sources were astonished to learn of the Justice Ministry's announcement, saying it provided further proof of the deteriorating relationship between Mandelblit and Alsheikh, stemming from their differences of opinion on questioning public figures.
"We understand fully what they were trying to accomplish here," said Justice Ministry sources while the police declined comment.
Ganor donated funds to Steinitz's Likud primary campaign about a decade ago. In September, several of Steinitz's close associates were questioned in connection with Case 3000, including businessman Gary Hakim , a Likud activist and relative of the minister, and Aviad Shai , Steinitz's former adviser. Steinitz's political adviser Rami Tayeb, meanwhile, was arrested on suspicion of facilitating bribes.
Sharan, who was Steinitz's former chief of staff at the Finance Ministryand also Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former chief of staffallegedly recruited Ganor to aid in Steinitz's election.
Sharan, former chief of staff to both Steinitz and PM Netanyahu, allegedly received the funds from Ganor and dispersed them among the donors
Sharan was also arrested in September on suspicion of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Police suspect Ganor funded a significant part of Steinitz's November 2012 primary campaign using fake donations transferred via fictitious donors in an effort to bypass funding laws that limit the amount of money one donor can give.
Sharan allegedly recruited these fictitious donors, using them as channels to transfer Ganor's illegal donations to Steinitz's campaign.
Police are investigating whether Ganor received anything in return for his donations.
All suspects have denied the allegations against them. Sharan's attorney declined to comment on Wednesday.
In the past, Steinitz said he was "shocked" by the reports against his close associates and denied having any connection to the affair. On Wednesday, his office said in response: "We have no idea what this is about."
Canadian police said Saturday they were investigating the mysterious deaths of Barry Sherman, the Jewish founder of Canadian pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc, and his wife, Honey, one of the nation's wealthiest couples whose bodies were found in their mansion on Friday.
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"The circumstances of their death appear suspicious and we are treating it that way," said Constable David Hopkinson.
The Shermans recently listed their home for sale for nearly C$7 million ($5.4 million). A real estate agent discovered the bodies in the basement while preparing for an open house, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported, citing a relative.
The deaths of Barry (R) and Honey Sherman are being investigated by police (Photo: Reuters)
Sherman, 75, founded privately held Apotex in 1974, growing it by introducing large numbers of low-cost generic drugs that took market share from branded pharmaceuticals. He stepped down as chief executive in 2012 but remained executive chairman.
Forbes has estimated Sherman's fortune at $3.2 billion.
Police removing the bodies (Photo: Reuters)
Apotex is the world's No. 7 generic drugmaker with 11,000 employees and annual sales of more than C$2 billion in more than 45 countries, according to its website.
The couple was known for their philanthropy, giving tens of millions of dollars to hospitals, universities and Jewish organizations, CBC reported.
Their neighbors, business associates and some of Canada's most powerful politicians said they were saddened by the deaths.
Canadian police near the couple's residence (Photo: Reuters)
"Our condolences to their family & friends, and to everyone touched by their vision & spirit," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said in statement he was "shocked and heartbroken" to learn of the deaths, noting that the couple had made extensive contributions to the city.
Canadian PM Trudeau shared his condolences on Twitter (Photo: AP)
"Toronto Police are investigating, and I hope that investigation will be able to provide answers for all of us who are mourning this tremendous loss," Tory said.
"I am beyond words right now," Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins said in a tweet. "My dear friends Barry and Honey Sherman have been found dead. Wonderful human beings, incredible philanthropists, great leaders in health care. A very, very sad day."
Austrian conservatives led by Sebastian Kurz reached a coalition deal with the anti-immigration Freedom Partywhich is virulently anti-immigration and has anti-Semitic rootson Friday, paving the way for Austria to become the only western European country with a far-right party in government.
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The agreement, two months after a parliamentary election dominated by Europe's migration crisis, ends more than a decade in opposition for the Freedom Party (FPO), which last entered government in 2000 with the People's Party (OVP) that Kurz now leads.
"We can inform you that there is a turquoise-blue agreement," Kurz said in a joint statement to reporters with FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache, referring to their two parties by their colors.
Kurz decided to form a coalition government with far-right Freedom Party (Photo: Getty Images)
"We want to reduce the burden on taxpayers ... and above all we want to ensure greater security in our country, including through the fight against illegal immigration," Kurz said, touching on core issues for both parties.
The People's Party, led by 31-year-old Kurz, won the October election with more than 30 percent of the votes, but since it failed to achieve a parliamentary majority Kurz was forced to form a coalition government with the Freedom Party.
Freedom Party leader Strache will usher his party in government (Photo: AFP)
The hard-line right-wing party was considered a natural partner for Kurz's party due to their similar stances on immigration and the need to curtail it.
"Heinz-Christian Strache's Freedom Party has clear anti-Semitic characteristics despite its attempt at hiding them," Austrian sources declared in a state report obtained by Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth two months ago.
The party was formerly headed by Jorg Haider , the son of Nazi party members who praised Adolf Hitler's employment policies.
Disturbances erupted in several places in east Jerusalem early Saturday with police and Border Police forces arresting several of the protests' main instigators. The riots came following senior officials in President Donald Trump's administration saying the Western Wall will ultimately be declared part of Israel.
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Stones and Molotov cocktails were thrown and fireworks launched at police forces in the east Jerusalem village of Isawiya, near Mount Scopus, with seven people suspected of fomenting discord arrested by forces in the wake of police operations in the village. They were brought in for questioning in the police's Central Unit.
The aftermath of riots in Isawiya
Fireworks were also fired at police in the at-Tur neighborhood, with one man suspected of operating a fireworks launchpad located and arrested.
In the Old City of Jerusalem, meanwhile, a suspect was seen damaging a hanukkiah. With the help of the area's security camera operators, the man was located and arrested in short order.
East Jerusalem protests Friday
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The American statement regarding the Kotel was uttered just before Vice President Mike Pence 's expected visit to Israel and the region next week, and may escalate tensions already running high over the past week and a half in the Arab and Muslim world following the Trump administration's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
President Trump (L) sent VP Pence to the Middle East (Photo: Reuters)
While the selfsame senior officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the ultimate borders of the holy city must be resolved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, they also essentially ruled out any scenario that didn't maintain Israeli control over the holiest site in Judaism.
The issue is sensitive because the wall is beyond Israel's pre-1967 borders and abuts some of the Islamic world's most revered sites.
"We cannot envision any situation under which the Western Wall would not be part of Israel. But as the president said, the specific boundaries of sovereignty of Israel are going to be part of the final status agreement," a senior administration official said.
Another official later added by email, "We note that we cannot imagine Israel would sign a peace agreement that didn't include the Western Wall."
Vice President Pence will be leaving for the Middle East on Tuesday, and meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo on Wednesday. He will then be making his way to Israel.
Suspect arrested near Old City of Jerusalem Friday
A third senior administration official noted that the reaction to the Jerusalem decision involved "a lot of the emotions." The official added Pence's trip to the region was viewed as part of "the ending of that chapter and the beginning of what I would say was the next chapter."
Trump officials said Pence would reinforce Trumps announcement on Jerusalem, but the administration also understands the Palestinians may need a cooling-off period.
(Photo: Getty Images)
The American officials' statements followed in the wake of yet another violent Friday in the territories. Three Palestinians were killed and dozens more wounded in clashes with security forces near the Gaza border and in the West Bank, while a terrorist who stabbed a Border Policeman in West Bank Square near Ramallah was shot and killed. The cop suffered moderate wounds.
According to the IDF, the terrorist was wearing what appeared to be an explosive belt. However, soldiers had no time to confirm whether it was real or not due to the rapid evacuation by the Red Crescent of the terrorist who was said to be in critical condition. Palestinian security officials reported to Ynet that the explosive belt was fake.
The Border Police lauded the policemen's response.
Concurrently, five people who rioted and attacked police in Jerusalem were arrested at the conclusion of Friday prayers in the Old City and near Damascus Gate.
Two other female suspects, arrested near Damascus Gate for attacking a cop and breaking her arm, were arraigned in court. They were remanded for two more days.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the home of Israel's Ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff Friday to light the fourth Hanukkah candle and mark the beginning of the 70th year of Israel's independence. During the event, attended by some 100 guests, Steinmeier apologized for Palestinian protesters burning Israeli flags in the country last week.
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Rallies were held in multiple German cities in the wake of President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. In two demonstrations held in Stuttgart and the German capital of Berlin, Palestinian protesters waved Fatah and Palestinian banners and burned Israeli flags.
German President Steinmeier (L) lighting Hanukkah candles alongside Israeli Ambassador Issacharoff (Photo: EPA)
Anti-Israeli demonstrations in Stuttgart and Berlin
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"We must take responsibility for our history, and learn from the two World Wars and the Holocaust. We have a responsibility towards the State of Israel's security and must combat any form of racism and anti-Semitism," the German president avowed.
An Israeli flag being burned in a Stuttgart demonstration
Ambassador Issacharoff then thanked the president for his attendance and for his country's unwavering commitment to Israel. Issacharoff also noted ties binding Germany and Israel have never been stronger, and hold strategic significance of the highest order for Israel.
Turkish and Palestinian flags in a Berlin protest (Photo: Getty Images)
"This strategic partnership serves the national security interests of both countries, and strengthens their security and the welfare of their two peoples. Just as Germany's role on the international stage has grown more prominent, so has Israel's role in the Middle East in light of regional threats and challenges facing both Israel and its Arab neighbors," the Israeli ambassador said.
"The past few years have proven that what happens in the Middle East does not stay in the Middle East, and can affect Europe's security and complexity deeply. In this respect, my suggestion is to look beyond daily headlines to truly see how Germany and Israel may come together to contribute to our region's moderation and stability," he added.
Elsewhere in Europe, the European Union has adopted a resolution announcing resistance to President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital while affirming the organization's commitment to achieving a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
President of the European Council Donald Tusk noted leaders of all 28 EU member states approved the resolution.
An Iranian blogger granted asylum in Israel has been questioned by Shin Bet on suspicion of illegal communication with Iran, an Israeli official said on Friday.
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Iranian Neda Amin landed in Israel this past August after being permitted to do so by Interior Minister Aryeh Deri. Shin Bet confirmed she was questioned and then released.
Israel admitted Amin, 33, who was previously based in Turkey, on humanitarian grounds in August, saying that she faced forced repatriation to Iran and would be at risk given her writings for an Israeli news site.
Iranian blogger Amin in her Ben Gurion Airport press conference (Photo: AP)
Interior Minister Deri acquiesced to overtures from the Jerusalem Press Association and the national Union of Journalists in Israel to permit Amin to enter the country.
Israeli law bars contact with the military or similar state agencies of its enemy Iran. As home to thousands of Iranian Jewish immigrants, Israel has in the past allowed citizens to visit family in Iran. But it outlawed these trips a decade ago over Shin Bet concerns that Tehran could recruit them as spies.
A Shin Bet statement said that, after moving to Israel, Amin communicated with "Iranian representatives" and was questioned about this by the security service, whose responsibilities include counter-espionage.
Asked by Reuters for clarification, an Israeli security official said only that the people with whom Amin was accused of communicating were not her relatives, and were inside Iran.
Amin later told Reuters she had been questioned for eight days over her contacts with a person she believed was an Israeli intelligence agent, but who her Shin Bet interrogators told her was in fact an Iranian government operative.
Interior Minister Deri irregularly admitted Amin to Israel on humanitarian grounds (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
"They told me I am innocent as I have been in touch with an impostor, without knowing it," she said. "I have spoken to this man, but I have done nothing against Israel's security."
Tehran-born Amin claimed in the past her father was Jewish and her mother a Muslim. "I consider myself Jewish," the Iranian blogger said.
In a Ben Gurion Airport press conference held after touching down in the country, Amin added, "I'm overjoyed and feel as though Israel is my own country. I'm safe now. I was in immense danger and my life was beset by difficulties and persecution, but in the end the State of Israel gave me a chance."
Shin Bet said the Iranian was questioned and then released (Photo: Shin Bet)
The Shin Bet commented on her case, saying, "Amin stayed in Turkey over the past few years. In light of her claim she was being threatened with deportation to Iran, and following her request to come to Israel citing the danger her life will be in should that occur, her admittance to Israel was irregularly approved on humanitarian grounds by the Interior Ministry."
"Amin entered Israel August 10. Several months later and in light of her contact with Iranian figures, she was questioned by Shin Bet. She was later released," the security service's comment concluded.
Fatah deputy leader Mahmoud Aloul said in response to White House officials' declaring the Western Wall will ultimately be part of Israel following Israeli-Palestinian peace that "(Palestinians) are in a constant state of conflict with the occupation."
"We've adopted a policy of popular resistance and the bar has now been raised to a protest. The occupation has responded to the protest with unprecedented violence against the young protesters," Aloul accused.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 07:49:40|Editor: Lifang
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BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Argentina's Navy on Friday said efforts continued to locate the ARA San Juan submarine, which disappeared in the south Atlantic on Nov. 15 with a crew of 44.
"In the these 30 days of uninterrupted search efforts, we have investigated 27 contacts with the seabed with no positive results," the navy said in a statement.
The "contacts" turned out to be "sunken fishing boats, rocky formations" and other random objects, the navy said.
The Argentine Air force joined the search efforts with a Hercules C-130 military aircraft, while the Argentine Army supplied trucks to transport gear and equipment.
Some five countries also contributed specialized personnel, as well as planes, ships and high-tech search and rescue devices, including Brazil, Chile, Russia, the UK and the U.S.
"From day one, a team of psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors, both military and civilian ... has worked to support and aid each of the relatives of our 44-member crew," said the navy.
Relatives of the victims have been pressuring the navy to find the sub and retrieve the bodies of their loved ones.
The families called on sympathizers to protest Friday night in town squares around the country, "peacefully and without political banners," to demand the navy not abandon the search.
The ARA is believed to have sunk about 350 kilometers off the coast of southern Patagonia, following an explosion.
Search vessels have been sweeping the area where the submarine is likely to have sunk, but so far to no avail.
At least two women from Beit Shemesh who appealed to the High Court to have modesty signscalling women to avoid walking on certain sidewalks and dress modestlyremoved, said Friday they received phone calls over the past two days threatening them with Pulsa diNura, a kabbalistic ritual calling for its target's death.
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Posters were also put up in the city with the women's personal details, including the names of their children, their addresses and their phone numbers, along with an appeal to call them and demand they stop their actions against the modesty signs.
The two women lodged a complaint with Beit Shemesh police Friday. An attorney for the Israel Religious Action Center who represented the women in legal proceedings was also threatened.
The lives of women appealing to HCJ to remove Beit Shemesh modesty signs were threatened (Photo: Reuters)
The Supreme Court issued an ultimatum to the Beit Shemesh municipality last week mandating the removal of modesty signs hung in the city's streets that demand women dress modestly by Haredi standards.
The court ordered the Israel Police to ensure new signs were not put up to replace the old ones.
'The 4 Reform women appealing to the Zionist High Court and authorities to take down modesty signs'
"Someone called our house yesterday, claimed to be called Mordechai Cohen and said I was bothering them with the signs. He said they keep the peace in their neighborhoods and that it's part of their tradition," another petitioner, Nili Filim, said.
"I told him I don't intend to have that conversation over the phone and wanted to meet with him in person, so he can get to know me and so we can hold dialogue. I don't think he expected that kind of response, and the conversation ended then and there," she recounted.
Beit Shemesh Mayor Abutbul said the signs were 'ideological' (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
"This morning I received another call, from someone else. He said I was disturbing them, that that's their Judaism. I told him I grew up in a religious home and it wasn't my Judaism. In response he said my name, my address and the names of my children and asked if I knew what Pulsa diNura was. He said next week they'll hold a Pulsa diNura ritual for us," she said.
Responding to Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul's claim the signs were merely ideological", the High Court declared, "Women will not be excluded from the public sphere in Israel."
Students of the Ben Porat Yosef school in Paramus, New Jersey gathered Wednesday in order to create the largest human menorah for the Guinness World Records.
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Almost 20 meters wide and 14 meters long, the record-setting menorah required 579 students and school-staff to complete.
The event was attended by members of Congress and an official representative for the Guinness World Records. All that remains is to submit the paperwork.
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School principal Dr. Chagit Hadar expressed excitement at the sight of the students positioning themselves for the record setting menorah formation "in order to advertise the Hanukkah miracle around the whole world," she told Ynet.
Hadar praised the extraordinary cooperation of the students and teachers, "everybody was so excited," she added.
Largest menorah
BBC, US channel 2 and channel 11 were among some of the major media outlets that came to report on the giant menorah formation. The school's rabbi, Saul Zucker, spoke of the great privilege of being able to enter the world records through "advertising the (Hanukkah) miracle which was a momentous spiritual struggle."
Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, an amputee who lost both of his legs in an IAF strike in Gaza in 2008, was among the three Palestinian rioters buried Saturday after they were killed in clashes with the IDF the previous day.
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Abu Thuraya, killed in the "day of rage" protests on Friday, was one of the regular protesters on the Gaza border. The Palestinians claim he was killed when a "sniper shot him in the head," while IDF officials said soldiers are instructed, according to the rules of engagement, to shoot main instigators only in the lower body area.
Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh attended Abu Thuraya's funeral. "There is no forgiveness to anyone after the killing of Ibrahim Abu Thuraya. This shahid (martyr) is not like all other shahids, and this campaign is not like all other campaigns. News of his death reached all corners of the Earth," Haniyeh said.
Ibrahim Abu Thuraya during the clashes on Friday
"There isn't an entity in the world that could change the truth about Palestine and about Jerusalem, which belongs to the Palestinians only," Haniyeh declared.
"Jerusalem has been a graveyard for plots throughout history," he continued. "There are no concessions on Jerusalem. I'm not just saying east Jerusalem, but the united Jerusalemnot the east nor the west."
Abu Thuraya's funeral (Photo: AFP)
Abu Thuraya, 29 and unmarried, lives with his parents. He hasn't had a steady job since losing his legs in 2008, during an IAF strike east of the Bureij refugee center in the center of the strip.
"He was wounded in 2008 when an Israeli helicopter hit him after he took down the Israeli flag and hoisted the Palestinian flag in its stead near the border," his brother, Samir, claimed. "It didn't stop him from continuing to protest for Jerusalem. He went to the border every day on his own."
Ibrahim Abu Thuraya during the clashes on Friday (Photo: Reuters)
In a video filmed on Friday, Abu Thuraya is seen waving the Palestinian flag and waving a victory sign at IDF soldiers across the border.
"I want to go there," he is heard saying, pointing to the other side of the border, while a number of youths around him are waving the Palestinian flag and throwing stones at IDF soldiers.
Ibrahim Abu Thuraya on the Gaza border
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"This land is our land, we will not give up. America has to withdraw its decision," he says in another video, which was put online following US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Ibrahim Abu Thuraya during the clashes on Friday (Photo: AFP)
A few hours before his death, he climbed an electricity pole to raise the Palestinian flag, eyewitnesses and journalists present told the AFP.
Ibrahim Abu Thuraya during the clashes on Friday (Photo: Reuters)
A 32-year-old Gazan was also killed in clashes on the strip's border on Friday. A Palestinian from 'Anata in the West Bank, who was injured by gunfire and evacuated to a hospital in Ramallah, also succumbed to his wounds.
Ibrahim Abu Thuraya during the clashes on Friday (Photo: Reuters)
The terrorist who stabbed and moderately wounded a Border Policeman on Friday, while carrying a fake explosive belt, also succumbed to his wounds after he was shot by forces on the scene.
The IDF Spokesman's Office said in response: "On Friday, there were clashes in several locations on the strip's border with thousands of Palestinians participating. The rioters threw stones, set fire to tires and tried to sabotage the border fence. Security forces shot toward a number of main instigators, and the army is examining the claim two Palestinians were killed from the gunfire, one of them an amputee."
Over 10,000 protesters marched down Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv towards Habima Square on Saturday night for the third week in a row to demonstrate against government corruption and what they describe as foot-dragging in investigations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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At the beginning of the march, protesters sang a song befitting the Hanukkah holiday, "Sura Choshech" ('Go away, darkness!'). They also held a public lighting of the fifth candle of Hanukkah.
Protesters held up signs saying "Corrupted, we're fed up with you," "Corrupted, go home," "An entire nation held hostage by Amsalem," "Crime minister," and "Sweeping out the corrupted."
(Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, a prominent religious-Zionist activist, was the main speaker at the rally. He was welcomed by calls of "brave man!" from his listeners.
"Corruption is a strategic danger to the society in Israel. Corruption means the exploitation of power by those given power, power that is being used not to the expressed purposes it was given for," Rabbi Cherlow said. "Power is vital, but it is dangerous and could send the country down to the abyss. The prophets warned power-holders from rulers' power." "Corruption is a strategic danger to the society in Israel. Corruption means the exploitation of power by those given power, power that is being used not to the expressed purposes it was given for," Rabbi Cherlow said. "Power is vital, but it is dangerous and could send the country down to the abyss. The prophets warned power-holders from rulers' power."
"We are facing the danger of losing trust in the decision-makers. If we need an economic plan, how would we know it is for the benefit of the people? How are we going to have trust when we need to go to war?" the rabbi wondered. Rabbi Yuval Cherlow (Photo: Meshi Ben Ami) "I call on the Israeli government to stop passing different laws under the guise of governance. They're trying to hurt other authorities," he added. "I call on the Israeli government to stop passing different laws under the guise of governance. They're trying to hurt other authorities," he added.
Protest organizer Meni Naftali said of Rabbi Cherlow, "He's not afraid of a corrupt government, he says his piece with ease and not fear, even when he was told 'this is a leftist protest.'"
Protest organizer Meni Naftali (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Former Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon also spoke at the rally, saying "I came to the square only today because two weeks ago I was bothered by the prime minister's reaction to the protest. Saying that when Israeli flags are being burned around the world, we must unite and not protest against government corruptionthat made it clear to me where I should be."
Finance Minister Kahlon presented as a puppet (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
"I came to tell the prime minister what he doesn't want to understand: Government corruption is more dangerous for Israel than Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran," Ayalon added.
"I've led people into battle for many years, and I learned one simply truth from them: We have the might and power to fight any enemy. The people have the civil strength to grow and prosper during an ongoing struggle, and we've been doing that for many years. But this can only be done if the leadership is clean and uncorrupted," Ayalon continued.
Former Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon (: )
"A corrupt leadership has no moral authority and will not have the power to send our young men and women into battle," he asserted. "A corrupt leadership has no moral authority to sign peace treaties and make concessions. A corrupt leadership has no authority to make laws, because they turn all of us into partners in that corruption. A corrupt leadership cannot lead us, and is a threat to us as a society."
"To those who see us as post-Zionist and haters of Israel, I tell the prime minister: This country is not yours. It is ours, all of the tribes, all of the Israeli society," Ayalon concluded.
Aerial view of the demonstration (Photo: Meni Naftali)
Protest organizer Eldad Yaniv added, "This is the third week and Rothschild Boulevard is filled from end to end. There are thousands of people here. This is our victory picture. Don't be ashamed to show we're winning." He went on to say, "In two weeks, the police commissioner will announce there is a recommendation to indict the prime minister for bribery. He tried to run away... but the struggle that has lasted for 56 weeks, and began in Petah Tikvah, is about to end." He went on to say, "In two weeks, the police commissioner will announce there is a recommendation to indict the prime minister for bribery. He tried to run away... but the struggle that has lasted for 56 weeks, and began in Petah Tikvah, is about to end." Protesters in Tel Aviv (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Some 10 Likud activists held a counter protest, denouncing Naftali and expressing their support of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Likud counter protest, with sign: 'Habibi, there's no one like Bibi' (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Eldad Yaniv and Meni Naftali were able to draw tens of thousands of participants for the last two ralliesthe likes of which have not been seen in Tel Aviv since the 2011 social justice protest.
"Yesterday (Friday), Bibi's (Netanyahu) seventh round of questioning concluded in Case 1000 and Case 2000. There have been NIS 800,000 in bribes given there, this is what Police Commissioner Alsheikh is going to tell the attorney general in two weeks," Yaniv wrote on social media, calling upon the public to come out and protest. "There's a massive drama developing. Bibi is sending AG Mandelblit to start a false and evil fight against Alsheikh to turn him into a 'traitor' and (discredit) the police's recommendations. The only way they understand is by having a boulevard filled with people."
A sign at the protest showing PM Netanyahu and MK David Bitan, with the former saying: 'You can pick a laywer from among them, they're all mine: Shimron, Molcho, Weinroth, Yossi Cohen, Jacques Chen, Rabello, Hadad and even Mandelblit...'
Yaniv also addressed criticism after three participants in last week's rally wore an outfit with the letters BDS on it. "There's no use for all of the BDSers and liars coming to boulevard, they're insane. The protest against corruption has to do with both the Left and the Right. That is why Rabbi Yuval Cherlow is coming to speak. Our victory picture would be the see tens of thousands of people marching on the boulevard."
Protest organizer Eldad Yaniv (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Meanwhile, some 350 people protested government corruption in Jerusalem, marching from Paris Square toward the Prime Minister's Residence. The residence's security, however, blocked access to Balfour Street, where the official residence is located.
Protesters held up signs saying: "Fascism now, anarchy later" and "The public won't remain silent, dictatorship is no laughing matter."
A similar demonstration was also held at the Tzemach Junction in northern Israel.
One of Swedens most notorious criminals appeared in a court in Germany earlier this week, charged with the murder of a Holocaust survivor he is accused of having committed in Frankfurt more than 25 years ago.
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The man, John Ausonius, went on a racially motivated spree in Sweden in 1991 and 1992in which he killed one person and injured 10 others in attacks in the Stockholm areafor which he is currently serving a life sentence in Sweden.
Ausonius in court (Photo: Reuters)
Dubbed the laser man by Swedish media for his use of a laser sight and rifle for some of the shootings, he is thought to have inspired anti-immigrant attacks such as the 2011 massacre by Norwegian Anders Breivik and shootings by Peter Mangs in Sweden.
Ausonius in court (Photo: EPA)
Ausonius, now 64, is suspected of having shot dead a woman in broad daylight in Frankfurt in 1992 and taking her handbag, while on the run from the authorities after the shootings in Sweden.
On February 8, 1992, Ausonius visited a restaurant in Frankfurt. Two weeks later he returned, accusing cloakroom attendant Blanka Zmigrod of having stolen an electronic Casio notebook from his pocket.
An altercation ended with Ausonius shouting we will meet again at Zmigrod as he left the restaurant. The following night, the 68-year-old was shot from close range by a hooded cyclist as she walked home from work.
A new documentary, published last Wednesday by the Swedish Aftonbladet tabloid, reveals for the first time that Zmigrod had been a prisoner at four concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and survived several of the infamous death marches.
Blanka Zmigrod (Photo: Police)
After the war, she met fellow Holocaust survivor Sacha Feldman in Tel Aviv, and in 1960 the couple moved back to Germany to run restaurants and hotels.
Swedish police investigator Stefan Bergquist has said Ausonius smiled and appeared happy when informed during questioning in 1993 that Zmigrod had Jewish ancestry.
Ausonius has confirmed that he used to possess the same type of Browning pistol and ammunition used in the murder, but denies shooting Zmigrod. His lawyer, Joachim Bremer, said there were isolated leads, but no self-sustaining chain (of evidence) which proved Ausonius was responsible for the death.
Ausonius (Photo: EPA)
Although Ausonius denies the killing, he did not objected to being transferred to Germany for the trial on condition he serves any possible jail sentence in Sweden.
After the murder trial ends, he is to be returned to Sweden where a court sentenced him to life in 1995 for the Stockholm shootings as well as a string of bank robberies.
The Canadian police suspect that Jewish billionaire Barry Sherman, who was found dead Friday beside the lifeless body of his wife, killed her and then killed himself, according to the British Daily Mail.
Sherman founded the Canadian pharmaceutical giant Apotex.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction on Saturday called for a massive demonstration next week to protest against a visit to Jerusalem by US Vice President Mike Pence after Washington said it would recognize the holy city as Israel's capital.
"We call for angry protests at the entrances to Jerusalem and in its Old City to coincide with the visit on Wednesday of US Vice President Mike Pence and to protest against Trump's decision," Fatah said in a statement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 07:54:41|Editor: Lifang
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HAVANA, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cuban president, Raul Castro on Friday received his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic where they agreed to increase economic and commercial ties between both countries and highlighted the "high level" of political dialogue.
Castro welcomed Vucic at the presidential palace with military honors and afterwards both leaders held talks with their respective delegations, according to an official government release.
"In fraternal talks, both presidents expressed their mutual satisfaction for the good state of relations and the high level of political dialogue achieved so far," said the statement.
Prior to the official talks, the Serbian dignitary laid a wreath in tribute to Cuban national hero Jose Marti at his memorial located in Havana's Revolution Square.
Vucic will conclude his official three-day visit to Cuba on Friday where he's had a busy agenda that included a meeting with the president of the island's parliament, Estaban Lazo and a keynote address at the University of Havana.
He also visited a photo exhibition dedicated to late Cuban leader, Fidel Castro.
Cuba and Serbia will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of uninterrupted diplomatic relations in 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 08:34:52|Editor: Yang Yi
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by Zhao Qing
HONG KONG, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- It is a consensus in East Asia that ties between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have developed into the most dynamic, substantial and fruitful among ASEAN's dialogue partnerships, bringing great benefit for regional development and setting good example for regional cooperation.
Twenty-six years after China and ASEAN launched dialogue and 14 years after they established strategic partnership, the two sides now see comprehensive strategic cooperation in all three pillars - the political-security, economic and socio-cultural, with bountiful fruits especially in the economic field, as both ASEAN general secretary Le Luong Minh and Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Xu Bu have pointed out.
Looking into the future, the two sides are now eying upgrading the cooperation by formulating a vision for strategic partnership toward the year 2030, hoping to add "more global substance" into their ties and "build a new exemplar for South-South cooperation."
BOUNTIFUL FRUITS IN ALL AREAS OF COOPERATION
Over the years political dialogues between China and ASEAN have been increasingly enhanced. Top leaders of the two sides are in frequent contact and frequently visit each other. Leaders of all 10 ASEAN countries visited China in 2017. With over 10 ministerial-level meeting mechanisms and over 20 senior official-level cooperation mechanisms having been set up, dialogue mechanisms between the two sides in all areas are becoming increasingly mature.
On the 20th ASEAN-China summit held in November in Manila, the two sides announced to start negotiations on the text of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, showing their positive will to jointly maintain the peace and stability of the South China Sea.
Economic and trade cooperation between the two sides have been developing rapidly. China and ASEAN have set up the world's largest free trade agreement (FTA) for developing countries and have finished negotiations on upgrading the FTA. Bilateral trade volume reached 452.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2016.
China has been ASEAN's top trade partner for a consecutive eight years, while ASEAN being China's third largest trade partner for a consecutive six years. Two-way investment has also scored rapid increase.
People-to-people exchanges have become increasingly close. During the past few years, China and ASEAN countries organized the Year of Cooperation in Science and Technology, the Cultural Exchange Year, the Year of Maritime cooperation and the Educational Exchange Year. The year of 2017, designated as the ASEAN-China Year of Tourism Cooperation, witnessed the continuous deepening of bilateral people-to-people exchanges.
BELT AND ROAD PROJECTS BENEFIT ASEAN PEOPLE'S LIVES
China considers ASEAN countries as the priority and primary partners in promoting the Belt and Road Initiative, while ASEAN is also striving to realize interconnectivity to build a seamlessly and comprehensively connected and integrated ASEAN, as envisioned in The ASEAN Community Vision 2025. The two development plans are uniquely complementary to each other and can be integrated and mutually promoted.
The Belt and Road Initiative has yielded remarkable progress in some ASEAN countries. Notably, infrastructure interconnectivity development has been accelerated as flagship projects such as Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Rail, China-Laos Railway and Sino-Thai Railway have been launched.
Many Belt and Road projects have been successfully concluded. Thousands of residents living along the routes have reaped the early benefits, seeing their living environment modernized, jobs and education opportunities turn up.
Under the Belt and Road Initiative, the two sides are also closely pushing forward production capacity cooperation based on industrial parks and rapidly enhancing trade and investment facilitation.
Also under the initiative, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has gained participation and support of all ASEAN countries, which provides a firm guarantee for financial integration.
The Belt and Road Initiative also helped promote cultural exchanges and tourism, leading to increasingly active non-governmental contact between the two sides, laying the social foundation for people-to-people bonds.
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP VISION TOWARD 2030
China-ASEAN relations are not without challenges, including lack of strategic mutual trust, cooperation into a bottleneck and people-to-people exchanges at a low-level. The relations are now at a key turning point and require an upgrade, according to Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Xu Bu.
On the 20th China-ASEAN leaders' meeting held in Manila in November, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang proposed the formulation of a vision for strategic partnership between both sides toward the year 2030 to upgrade their cooperation framework from 2+7 to 3+X.
The "2+7" refers to a cooperation framework proposed by Li in 2013 at a meeting with ASEAN leaders in Brunei, which emphasizes a two-point political consensus enhancing strategic trust and promoting economic cooperation and seven fields of cooperation, including trade facilitation, interconnectivity and security exchanges.
Meanwhile, "3+X", using the letter X in math to represent the unknown, means China and ASEAN will touch many fields while focusing on three pillars political security, economy and trade, and people-to-people exchange.
The proposal is aimed to add "more global substance" into China-ASEAN ties and "build a new exemplar for South-South cooperation," said Li.
During the meeting, the two sides also announced to start consultations on the text of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea. Li reiterated China's stance to firmly maintain relationship with ASEAN in a good neighborly and friendly direction and properly handle sensitive issues through dialogue and consultation as as to always keep bilateral relations on the right track.
Leaders of ASEAN countries responded positively to Li's proposal and pledged to work with China to bring the all-around pragmatic cooperation to a new high and consolidate the positive momentum in the South China Sea.
Amid rising protectionsim and other common challenges such as terrorism and climate change in the world, China and ASEAN have also manifested their shared commitment to open trade and co-ordinated actions. Premier Li's call for efforts to advance the East Asia Economic Community, a trade bloc that aims to integrate East and Southeast Asia's diverse economies into a single market, was also echoed by other leaders at the meeting.
He stressed that due to the rising tide of de-globalization and protectionism, countries in the region have to cooperate more to promote free and fair trade.
In an interview with Xinhua ahead of the Manila ASEAN summit, ASEAN General Secretary Le Luong Minh spoke highly of and expressed optimism about the future of China-ASEAN ties.
"We hope that our shared commitment to open regionalism, to multilateralism can further enhance our coordination and cooperation," Le said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 10:20:07|Editor: Yang Yi
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CHONGQING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- By offering their lands to a herb planting cooperative, more than 400 farming households in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality have received a total of over 200,000 yuan (30,000 U.S. dollars) in dividends so far this year.
The farmers live in Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County and are anticipating more dividends from the cooperative. They are looking forward to the money, and earning more, at the end of the year so that they can celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a history of thousands of years. Despite the controversy in western countries, it is very popular in China and is helping decrease poverty in southwest China.
Shizhu is a mountainous and poverty-stricken place, and more than 70 percent of its population are Tujia people, an ethnic minority in China.
In the village of Huangshan, where the farmers live, there is much poverty, and due to the terrain and poor land quality, there are few crops.
Among the 1,741 people of 510 households in the village, 230 villagers of 73 households live below the national poverty line.
Young people usually leave the village to become migrant workers in cities, leaving the elderly and weak to stay in the village. This leads to a vicious cycle where more farmland is left uncultivated.
The Tujia people have long suffered from poverty.
"There aren't many electric appliances at my home. The old television was bought when I got married in 1995. It hasn't been changed for over twenty years," said Qin Tinglan, a villager.
However, since the beginning of the year there have been positive changes.
A professional TCM cooperative was started, which is closely connected with the TCM planting enterprise.
A total of 416 households provide 62 hectares of farmland for the planting of herbs, and the farmland has been evaluated by a third party on the basis of four classes of fertility. This land was converted into a 775,000-yuan share of the cooperative.
In addition, 500,000 yuan of funds from the village have also been invested as a share of the cooperative.
"Cultivated land is so scattered in the mountainous area. We have to collect them so as to attract enterprises to develop this place," said Huang Wanneng, deputy head of Daxie Township.
"To develop TCM planting and produce in the village was not a hasty decision," Huang said. "Experts came to the village and carried out several rounds of surveys and finally confirmed that Huangshan Village was able to plant herbs and develop the TCM industry."
"The environment, weather and vegetation coverage here are fit for herb planting. The quality of medicines produced here is leading in the country. Since my company has already had mature industrial chains and advanced technology, many large-scale pharmaceutical factories come to purchase our products," said He Zengfeng, president of the cooperative.
He said that so far they had planted and harvested Bai He (Lily Bulb), Jiang Huang (Turmeric) and Qian Hu (Hogfennel Root), which all have a stable market.
Pharmaceutical factories from Beijing, and provinces of Hebei, Anhui, Zhejiang and Sichuan have ordered many of the herbs.
After the cooperative was founded, householders gained a fixed income as their land would be given dividends every year depending on the fertility category of the land.p Moreover, the cooperative has created many jobs for local villagers. Those who cannot do heavy farm work can do other work, such as weeding, clearing insects and washing herbs. Each can be paid 60 to 100 yuan every day.
Ran Chongfang, 52, gave 5,000 square meters of land to the cooperative, which she also works for.
"We can get more than 20,000 yuan this year. Before we joined the cooperative, the highest income of my family was around 4,000 yuan a year," Ran said.
Qin Zongzhen, 68, also bought into and works in the cooperative. Her children left the village, and only her husband, who is very ill, lives with her in the village.
"We could make a living from the government's minimum living allowances. But now, we have TCM industry in our village and I have become a shareholder. Our family income is expected to increase," Qin said.
"Each household could have their income increased by at least 5,000 yuan this year, while the village collective can also gain nearly 50,000 yuan," Huang said.
"Developing the TCM industry in the village leads to a multi-win situation. Left-over lands are reused, impoverished households see their income increasing, left-behind elders have job opportunities, while the village collective has economic income," according to Huang.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 10:35:11|Editor: Yang Yi
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YINCHUAN, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Fan Lei, 32, cannot wait to get her first human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, after a fretful three-month wait.
"I asked for leave immediately after the call from the community health service center," she said.
The HPV vaccine Fan received in the city of Yinchuan in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, was developed by U.S.- based Merck & Co, and approved by the China Food and Drug Administration to enter the market in May. The first batch reached Chinese consumers a month ago.
The introduction of the new vaccine came after a good response from Chinese women to GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix, the first HPV vaccine licensed for use in China, earlier in the year.
But Cervarix has an age cap of 25, while the Merck product is available for anyone from 20 to 45.
"In fact, I intended to get the Cervarix vaccination, but was told I was too old," Fan told Xinhua.
The younger generation in China, especially middle-class women Fan's age or younger, now have a much greater health consciousness. In just a month, the center Fan visited received more than 910 reservations for the new HPV vaccination, but only 280 vaccines were available, according to Gao Xiaoyan of the center.
The popularity of HPV vaccines in Yinchuan mirrors the strong demand nationwide.
According to the report "Cancer Statistics in China 2015" published by CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, more than 30,000 patients died of cervical cancers, and over 98,900 new cervical cancer cases were reported in China in 2015. In other words, three Chinese women were killed by cervical cancer every hour.
But cervical cancer, by far the most common HPV-related disease, can largely be prevented.
According to the WHO, nearly all cases of cervical cancer, the fourth most frequent cancer in women, can be attributed to HPV. It can take 15 to 20 years for cervical cancer to develop in women with normal immune systems, and the symptoms tend to appear only after the cancer has reached an advanced stage, making it important to take precautions in advance.
The two HPV vaccines currently available on the market can protect against both HPV 16 and 18, which cause at least 70 percent of cervical cancers, according to the WHO. The vaccines may also offer cross-protection against other less common HPV types that cause cervical cancer.
But for some time, HPV vaccines were not greenlit on the Chinese mainland due to safety concerns, and many had to travel to Hong Kong to get a shot.
A complete HPV vaccination requires three shots in six months, which meant patients had to travel to Hong Kong three times during this period, at high cost.
"Some of my friends went to Hong Kong to get the vaccination, but it's too troublesome to go from Yinchuan. Now we have it at home, it's much easier," Fan said.
Though one shot of the vaccine costs over 800 yuan (121 U.S. dollars), Fan and her friends believe it is worth the money.
"It is pricey. But compared with the economic and mental burden of the disease, it is nothing," she said.
China is also developing its own HPV vaccine. Clinical testing of a second-generation HPV vaccine, led by the National Institute of Diagnostics and Vaccine Development in Infectious Diseases, was approved by the China Food and Drug Administration in late November. It is expected to enter the market in 2022.
"HPV vaccination can prevent most types of cervical cancer, but a regular health check is still necessary," said Zhou Liwei, vice chairman of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control in Ningxia.
"Cervical cancer patients are getting younger. We should care more about our health through regular health checkups and proper vaccinations," Fan said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 12:15:28|Editor: Lifang
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HAVANA, Dec. 15 (Xinhua)-- Cuba reiterated on Friday its willingness to continue normalizing ties with Washington, despite setbacks caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's position on the issue.
The current U.S. administration has returned to a pattern featuring hostile rhetoric against Cuba, similar to previous periods of confrontation between the two sides, said Josefina Vidal, director general for U.S. affairs in the Cuban Foreign Ministry, at the closing ceremony of an academic workshop on Cuba-U.S. relations.
Vidal referred to the measures implemented by Washington after Trump's decision in June to roll back the historic opening and process of normalization of ties initiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
"These measures strengthen the blockade, generate confusion as to what is allowed or not, and have, therefore, an intimidating and dissuasive effect. They have only confirmed a serious setback that has taken place in the links between both countries," she said.
The new regulations prohibit U.S. companies from having commercial exchanges with 179 Cuban holdings and firms associated with the armed forces or security and intelligence agencies.
Americans will not be able to stay in 83 hotels operated by Gaviota, a hotel chain affiliated to the Cuban armed forces.
Washington's new regulations prohibit individual visits by U.S. citizens to the island under 12 categories of "people-to-people" exchanges.
The U.S. Treasury Department also imposed restrictions on educational and academic trips, which can only be done under U.S. supervision.
"These measures not only harm the Cuban economy... but also American citizens, whose right to travel to Cuba is further restricted, and its businessmen, who are deprived of interesting business opportunities," said the diplomat.
The official added that due to the cumulative effects of the first months of this year, trips from the United States to Cuba still show a significant increase compared with the same period in 2016.
"Between January and November of this year, 579,288 Americans have visited Cuba, representing a 248.7-percent growth compared with 2016, while 386,388 Cubans living in the United States have traveled to the country, an increase of 140 percent," she said.
However, she said, in recent weeks there has been a noticeable slowdown, due to the combined impact of a State Department warning urging U.S. citizens not to visit the island.
Vidal indicated that all these steps have been accompanied by "repeated disrespectful and offensive pronouncements towards Cuba" by Trump and other senior officials "that add an additional negative component to bilateral links."
Vidal revealed that the Cuban government has written to the U.S. State Department with seven plans for implementing signed cooperation agreements in hydrography and geodesy, protected terrestrial areas, seismology, meteorology, cancer control, animal health and plant, and preservation of national parks.
"We have also reiterated the proposals for bilateral cooperation in confronting human trafficking, terrorism, migratory fraud and money laundering, as well as aid for navigation and topographic mapping," she said.
According to the official, Havana still awaits a response from Washington regarding these issues of common interest.
In December 2014, leaders of both countries announced that they decided to end more than half a century of enmity and began to normalize their political and economic relations.
Diplomatic links were formally re-established months later and the two countries opened their respective embassies.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 12:15:29|Editor: Zhou Xin
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (C, front) attends aUnited NationsSecurity Council meeting on the situation on the Korean Peninsula at the UN headquarters in New York, on Dec. 15, 2017. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday expressed concern over risk of military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula and warned against any military action. (Xinhua/Han Fang)
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- UN chief Antonio Guterres and several representatives of the UN Security Council on Friday expressed concern about the risk of military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula.
"Any military action would have devastating and unpredictable consequences," said the UN secretary-general.
"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is the most tense and dangerous peace and security issue in the world today. I am deeply concerned by the risk of military confrontation, including as a result of unintended escalation or miscalculation," said Guterres.
While all concerned seek to avoid an accidental escalation that may lead to conflict, the risk is being multiplied by "misplaced over-confidence," dangerous narratives and rhetoric, and the lack of communication channels, he warned.
"It is time to immediately re-establish and strengthen communication channels, including inter-Korean and military-to-military channels. This is critical to lower the risk of miscalculation or misunderstanding and reduce tensions in the region."
Diplomatic engagement is the only pathway to sustainable peace and de-nuclearization, said Guterres.
"We must do everything we can to reach that objective -- and avoid a level of danger that would be unpredictable in its trajectory and catastrophic in its consequences."
In 2017, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted activities related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs "at an alarming and accelerated pace," said Guterres.
Security Council Resolution 2375, adopted in September 2017, includes the strongest sanctions ever imposed on the DPRK.
"I reiterate my call on the DPRK leadership to comply with the relevant Security Council resolutions and allow space for the resumption of dialogue on de-nuclearization and sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula."
He vowed to push for dialogue to defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula.
"I believe the United Nations Secretariat adds strategic value in three key areas. First, impartiality. Second, the voice and norms, values and principles for peaceful and diplomatic solutions, in line with international law. Third, offering channels of communication with all parties."
Representatives of several countries also expressed concern about possible escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said "peace in this region is subject to serious threat and the threat of the increase in or transition in the confrontation to a hotspot is very great."
"Military rhetoric accompanied by a test of strength by the participants has led to a situation where around the world people have begun to wonder whether there will be war or not."
He questioned a slew of recent actions by the United States, including an "unscheduled and unprecedented" joint airforce exercise with South Korea and the decision to relist Pyongyang as a "state sponsor of terrorism."
"All of these steps force us to wonder about the sincerity of statements that suggest that there is a preference for a peaceful approach to resolving the crisis" by the United States, Nebenzia said.
Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN,highlighted China's consistent efforts to promote dialogue and denuclearization, saying that resorting to force can only bring disastrous consequences.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson echoed the idea that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is "the most tense and dangerous peace and security issue in the world today."
However, he clearly backtracked from previous remarks about beginning talks with the DPRK "without any preconditions."
"A sustained cessation of North Korea's threatening behavior must occur before talks can begin," he said, adding that the DPRK "must earn its way back to the table."
South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, who also spoke at the session, said that the DPRK is "indeed in the final stages of nuclear weaponization."
He urged the international community to "grasp the gravity and urgency of the North Korean threat" and find ways to halt its nuclear program and bring it back to the path of denuclearization.
In the face of repeated expressions of concern over the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the DPRK's UN representative Ja Song Nam reiterated in an angry tone that the country's possession of nuclear weapons "was an inevitable self-defensive measure" to counter the U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail.
He called the meeting "a desperate measure plotted by the U.S. being terrified by the incredible might of our republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 12:45:33|Editor: Lifang
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WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said Friday that he did not believe the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) newly developed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) posed a "capable threat" to the United States.
"It is not yet shown to be a capable threat against us right now," said Mattis at a briefing in Pentagon.
The United States is still examining the forensics, which will "take a while," Mattis added.
Also on Friday, U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson told the UN Security Council that the United States will continue its "pressure campaign," mainly in the form of economic sanctions, until denuclearization is achieved on the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S. top diplomat also asked for "a sustained cessation" of the DPRK's weapons testing before "talks can begin" between the two countries, a rhetoric seemingly different from his remarks on Tuesday, which stated that the United States was ready to talk with the DPRK "without preconditions."
Pyongyang successfully test-fired a newly developed ICBM in late November, drawing strong condemnation from the international community.
The latest launch by the DPRK came a week after the United States redesignated the DPRK as a "state sponsor of terrorism" and slapped a new round of sanctions against the Asian country.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 13:05:36|Editor: Yang Yi
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LONDON, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Japan has sought closer ties with Britain out of fear that the U.S. Trump administration will give the Asia-Pacific region a lower priority, a leading British academic said Friday.
Professor Ian Neary, a Japan expert at Oxford University, told Xinhua that the three-year defense cooperation plan signed by Britain and Japan Thursday serves the interests of both sides.
"There is a feeling in Japan that the present U.S. administration, and possibly future ones, do not and will not give the Asia Pacific region priority. Meanwhile the UK is reassessing its options as it goes through the process of leaving the European Union (EU). Thus this agreement serves the interests of both sides," said the expert.
Britain's newly appointed Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said here Thursday that the year 2018 will see British and Japanese military forces work even more closely together.
Williamson and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson met their Japanese counterparts at Greenwich Naval College to strengthen security and defense cooperation between the two countries.
At the meeting, Williamson described Japan as one of Britain's closest allies in the Asia Pacific region, adding that as tension grows on the Korean Peninsula, that relationship is vitally important.
Neary said the agreement is the logical consequence of a process that started last year between Japan and Britain. What is now being seen is more specific things added to the outline the two sides reached in 2016.
"The agreement is significant in that Britain and Japan are seeing themselves as allies, or semi-allies... In the context of collective defense, Japan may now come to the assistance of its ally, which is something that previously would not have been permitted," said the Oxford professor.
As a signal of the closer ties, Britain will next year send 45 army personnel to train with Japanese soldiers, the first time British troops will exercise on Japanese soil.
With plans already agreed on to send two Royal Navy warships to visit Japan in 2018 and the Royal Air Force working with the Japanese Self-Defense Air Force, British military forces will be at the forefront of the close relationship between Britain and its one-time adversary Japan.
"It is responding to the changing circumstances," said Neary, "Japan is responding to that by having closer multi-lateral ties with Australia and India, and now with France and Britain."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 13:10:37|Editor: Chengcheng
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JAKARTA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- An Indonesian senior minister has said that Bali in general has returned to normal, safe for tourism activities, as more closure on its only airport was unlikely in the future based on scientific simulation and weather forecast made by government agencies.
Citing the results of simulation and scientific analysis made by government agencies, Indonesia Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan said that Bali is safe for those spending yearend holiday there as volcanic impacts from Mount Agung volcano will not affect tourism spots.
The status of Mount Agung was still set at highest alert, but it was only affecting a radius of 10 km from the volcano summit. The remaining larger part of Bali is normal, the senior minister said.
Based on the projections conveyed by Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the minister said that the wind would blow to east direction, securing Bali airport from being affected by ashes emitted by the volcano.
"The ashes would no longer affecting Bali airport," he said in the meeting held in his office on Friday.
The volcanic ashes from the volcano's latest eruption late last month had prompted the authorities to close down the airport for several days, disrupting international flights.
The airport was located in south part of Bali around 85 km from the volcano, which is located in northeastern part of the island.
According to the senior minister, results of simulations carried out by Indonesia's Center of Vulcanology and Mitigation of Geological Disaster (PVMBG), tourism spots in Bali have little risk from impacts of possible volcano eruption.
"The PVMBG has made simulations on Mount Agung eruption with various scenarios, including impacts from volcanic materials emitted by the volcano in various volumes of 2.5, 5 and 20 million meter cubic," he said.
He added that results from the simulations, which also analyzing the flows of volcanic materials from the summit, showing that tourism spots located out of 10 km red zones were safe and secure.
The escalating of volcanic activities in the volcano since September has severely battered tourism in Bali which contributes 40 percent to Indonesia's foreign tourist arrivals.
The event would make Indonesia miss its foreign tourist arrival target initially set at 15 million ones this year, Indonesia Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said recently.
The volcanic events in Bali had also prompted 5 countries that supplied the most tourists to Indonesia to issue travel advisories for their nationals planning to visit Bali.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 13:45:43|Editor: Chengcheng
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NEW DELHI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- A policeman in central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh was suspended after he "suspiciously" picked up his service rifle and pointing it towards Congress party leader Kamal Nath, officials said Saturday.
The policeman was quickly overpowered by his fellow colleagues and pushed aside.
The incident took place Friday evening at a small airport in Chhindwara, about 320 km southeast of Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh.
"Kamal Nath was flying out of the Imli Khera airstrip when a police constable, identified as Ratnesh Pawar, who was deployed there for security picked his rifle in a suspicious manner and pointed it towards the plane," a police officer said. "Two policemen who were standing close to the constable, quickly stopped him and pushed him away."
The policeman was immediately detained and later questioned by senior police officers.
According to officials the policeman has been suspended.
Reports said the policeman denied acting suspiciously and said he did not remember anything.
Vivek Tankha, a Congress party lawmaker, condemned the incident.
Nath is a senior Congress party lawmaker and has served as India's minister of Urban Development.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 14:20:48|Editor: Chengcheng
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HOUSTON, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Bilateral economic cooperation between the United States and China was emphasized by officials and businessmen at a business gathering on Friday here.
More than 280 officials and business executives of both Chinese and American companies attended the second annual gala and award ceremony of the China General Chamber of Commerce-Houston (CGCC-Houston).
Delivering a speech, Chinese Consul General in Houston Li Qiangmin said undoubtedly an open and prosperous China is important to Sino-U.S. relations.
He hoped the business community in Houston "will continue to play an active and positive role in the China-U.S. relations, tell the true stories of China-U.S. win-win cooperation, and safeguard the important foundation for the smooth development of bilateral relations."
Efrain Gonzalez, associate director of minority business development agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, said at the gathering that the minority business development agency is committed to providing unmatched business development assistance to U.S. minority businesses.
"We are seeking strategic partners such as CGCC to collaborate support for minority businesses," said Gonzalez.
"Since 2015, we have acquired 81 members, and CGCC-Houston has now become the commercial service organization for Chinese and U.S. companies in Houston and eight other states in the southern U.S.," said Li Shaolin, chairman of CGCC-Houston and president of PetroChina America, Inc.
At the gala, Air China won the Outstanding Member Award.h Founded in 2005, CGCC has been recognized as the largest and most influential non-profit organization representing Chinese enterprises in the United States.
CGCC is headquartered in New York and has six branches in the United States, including the one in Houston which held its first such gala in December last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 14:30:50|Editor: Chengcheng
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BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's innovation in core technologies has helped manufacturing enterprises become more competitive.
Guan Xiyou, chairman of Shenyang Machine Tool (Group), has played a role in such innovation, with the company developing the "i5OS" intelligent control system.
"Core technologies cannot be bought," Guan said.
Debuting in November at the 19th China International Industry Fair in Shanghai, the "i5OS" is a smart operating system for industry.
"The i5 is actually five 'i,' standing for five English words, industry, information, Internet, intelligent and integrate." Guan said. "We spent 10 years and 1.5 billion yuan (about 23 million U.S. dollars) to develop the i5 system. We have complete intellectual property rights."
Thanks to the core technology with multiple patents, i5 smart machine tools have received over 20,000 orders. Over 50 agreements have been signed to build smart factories nationwide. The company plans to establish more than 30 intelligent manufacturing valleys with local governments within the next three years.
China is speeding up the integration of information technology with the manufacturing sector and the development of the "industrial Internet."
The Made in China 2025 strategy and the Internet Plus Initiative are both vital for economic restructuring and the digital economy, according to a decision made by a State Council executive meeting in October.
The industrial Internet usually refers to the convergence of the industrial system with Internet-based technology, such as cloud computing and advanced analytics.
China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation reported on the development of its aerospace cloud network, saying that more than one million companies have registered on the network as of Oct. 20, including over 6,600 foreign companies.
More than 97 billion yuan worth of deals have been sealed on the cloud network where business opportunities and production material can be shared.
"The sharing economy is providing new growth momentum for the country's manufacturing industry, while sharing of production material will be an important development trend," said Ding Minglei, analyst with the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.
"Industrial companies should build cloud platforms that enable greater interconnectivity both within firms and among the entire industrial chain," according to the State Council meeting. "A favorable environment for the industrial Internet will be created, with streamlined administration and fiscal support. Specifically, market access for products and services in the field will be widened, while companies are encouraged to raise funds through social capital and innovative financial services."
"China's economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development," according to the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October.
"This is a pivotal stage for transforming our growth model, improving our economic structure, and fostering new drivers of growth ... We need to...accelerate the building of an industrial system that promotes coordinated development of the real economy with technological innovation, modern finance, and human resources," according to the report.
During an inspection tour in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, President Xi Jinping said China should ramp up investment and channel more energy into research and development to spur the development of the equipment manufacturing sector, noting that "many core technologies cannot be bought."
"Innovation is the source of business core competitiveness," Xi said at Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG), a leading domestic manufacturer. Thanks to self-developed heavy-duty machines, XCMG is swiftly increasing its share in the global market.
Xi urged a shift from "Made in China" to "Created in China," stressing more emphasis on quality rather than speed.
More foreign investors look at the country's industrial upgrading as an opportunity and have increased their investment. In the first 11 months, 60.15 billion yuan of foreign direct investment flowed into the high-tech manufacturing sector, an increase of 9.9 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 15:26:00|Editor: Zhou Xin
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HOUSTON, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Texas Bullet Train made a big push forward Friday as federal regulators outlined a preferred route between Houston and Dallas, both major cities in the southern U.S. state of Texas.X According to a news release from the Texas Central, the developer of the high-speed train project, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), has completed the Draft Environmental Impact Statement after nearly four years of work, providing a path for the planning, design and pre-construction phases, which also ensures the safety and environmental well-being of counties and communities along the 380 km route.
The FRA's assessment is the latest major advancement in planning the train route. The FRA said the train would "alleviate the strain" on the state's existing infrastructure and "is needed to accommodate growing demand."
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the private rail company Texas Central.
The memo allows city leaders to begin gathering details about the project and makes preparations for council members to vote on items related to it.
The proposed high-speed train project is expected to generate 36 billion U.S. dollars in direct economic activity over the next 25 years, create more than 10,000 direct jobs per year during construction and up to 1,000 jobs permanently when operational.
In addition, the FRA report said, "Every permanent job from the HSR (high-speed rail) system would indirectly spur two to four jobs in supporting industries."
Driving from Houston to Dallas takes about four hours right now, but the planned bullet train would make the trip in 90 minutes.
The construction of the line is expected to start late next year or early 2019 and end in four to five years, company officials said. The cost is expected to be at least 12 billion dollars.
Texas Central said it would not fund the project with public grants, but might seek government-backed loans available to private companies.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 15:36:02|Editor: ZD
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Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and vice premier, gives a congratulatory speech on behalf of the CPC Central Committee at the opening meeting of the 11th National Congress of the China National Democratic Construction Association (CNDCA), one of China's eight non-communist political parties, in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 16, 2017. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)
BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The China National Democratic Construction Association (CNDCA), one of China's eight non-communist political parties, will elect a new leadership at its 11th National Congress, which opened Saturday.
Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and vice premier, met with the congress delegates and gave a congratulatory speech on behalf of the CPC Central Committee.
Wang said that the CNDCA had played a constructive role as a think tank in the past five years in the fields of urbanization, financial risks control and development of the Yangtze River economic belt.
"The CPC will uphold and improve the system of CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation in accordance with the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress," Wang said. "In handling its relationships with other political parties, the CPC will adhere to "the principles of long-term coexistence, mutual supervision, sincere treatment with each other, and sharing the rough times and the smooth."
"The CPC would support these parties in performing their duties in accordance with the requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics for their participation in state affairs, and consolidate and develop the broadest possible patriotic united front," he said.
Wang called on the CNDCA members to "implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, fully understand the historic significance and rich connotation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, bring their close connection with business circle into full play and advise on key economic issues."
Chen Changzhi, executive chairperson of the congress presidium, called on CNDCA members "to learn the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress earnestly, implement new development concepts and contribute to the country's development," while delivering a work report on behalf of the 10th CNDCA Central Committee at the opening session.
At the congress, delegates will also hear and deliberate the work report of the party's 10th Central Committee, as well as review and approve an amendment to its constitution.
Chen Zhu, vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee and chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, also delivered a congratulatory speech, on behalf of other non-communist parties and All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.
The CNDCA was founded by patriotic industrialists, businessmen and intellectuals in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Dec. 16, 1945.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 16:11:08|Editor: Zhou Xin
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by Farid Behbud
SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group has been continuing recruiting from the youth in the strategically important Darzab and neighboring Qush Tepa districts of northern Afghanistan's Jawzjan province, local officials said Saturday.
"During the winter it has been difficult to fight in Afghanistan as it is a mountainous country, but in the harsh winter, the militants remarkably step up efforts to recruit locals. The IS militants, in Darzab and Qush Tepa as well, is trying to enroll more people before the next spring and summer, known as fighting season," a local security official told Xinhua.
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the IS has been working on a plan to capture more areas in the two important districts laying in southwestern of provincial capital Shiberghan city.
"Our latest findings on situation in Darzab and Qush Tepa showed that about 300 children and youth are receiving religious and military training by extremist IS fighters in hideouts in the two districts," Halima Sadat, a member of provincial council, told Xinhua recently.
However, Reza Ghafori, provincial government spokesman, confirmed to Xinhua the presence of 50 to 60 youth in IS training centers in the two mentioned districts.
Before winter, the IS fighters ran over several villages after fighting the rival Taliban insurgents and government security forces in Darzab.
"Nowadays, the Taliban lost all territory in Darzab and have no presence there. Only central parts and surrounding areas of the district headquarters in Darzab is controlled by the government forces and most parts of the district are under IS control," Sadat noted.
"We have frequently warned the government, to launch military operations and kick out IS militants in Darzab and Qush Tepa but the government did not respond to our demands and failed to control the districts form IS presence," Sadat said.
However, spokesman Ghafori stated that the Afghan security forces have continued to press the militants in Jawzjan. On Dec. 6, five IS militants were killed and 10 injured after Afghan air force struck an IS hideout in Darzab, he said.
The exact number of IS militants in Jawzjan and across Afghanistan remained unknown and no official figures about members of the terrorist group has been shared with media.
"Our intelligence found there have been dozens of foreign fighters from France, Germany, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan as well as Pakistan and Arab countries alongside the IS in Jawzjan. They are fighting government forces and rival Taliban insurgents recently to capture more territory," the security source said.
"The foreign IS fighters have been involved in training and advising local militias and new recruits," he said, adding, "The situation is critical and several Jawzjan districts are under threat."
Jawzjan province with Shiberghan as its capital, 390 km north of Kabul, has been the scene of IS activities over the past one year.
However, local observers said that kidnapping of more areas in Darzab and Qush Tepa by IS fighters would pave the way for the hardliner group to influence in the neighboring Sari Pul and Faryab provinces, and IS would further expand its grips in the area.
The IS group emerged in eastern Nangarhar province in early 2015 but the group has spread to and been found foothold in several Afghan provinces, including Jawzjan and southern Helmand and Zabul provinces.
Since earlier this month, the security forces have been clashing with IS militants in Khogyani district of Nangarhar. The clashes have forced hundreds of villagers to flee.
Five IS militants were killed, four injured by the security forces in Khogyani within the past 24 hours, Shirin Aga, an army press officer in the region told Xinhua Saturday.
Commander of army corps in eastern region has also expressed concerns over recruiting from the people in eastern Paktia province, Tolo News reported on Saturday.
Latest IS terrorist activities have worried the neighboring countries.
Scores of civilians have been killed or injured during the fightings between security forces, IS militants and Taliban insurgents in Darzab and Qush Tepa over the past one year but the exact number of casualties has yet to be determined, according to Halima.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 17:21:25|Editor: Zhou Xin
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KAMPALA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- A court in Uganda has declined to issue an interim order restraining legislators to vote on a controversial constitutional amendment bill that seeks to scrap the presidential age limit of 75 years, a judiciary spokesperson said here Saturday.
Ugandan Judiciary Senior Communication Officer Solomon Muyita told Xinhua by telephone that Joy Kabagye, the High Court's assistant registrar, late on Friday dismissed an opposition petition to block the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to table its report before Parliament and allow the legislators to vote to amend Article 102 (b) to scrap the presidential age limit of 75 years without consulting citizens through a referendum.
"The Registrar ruled that it would be unfair to issue an order to stop Parliament and legislators to exercise their duties to make and amend laws," Muyita said.
Three Opposition leaders Asuman Basalirwa, Abed Bwanika and Ken Lukyamuzi last week filed an application with the High Court in the capital of Kampala against the Attorney General and Parliament in a bid to stop legislators from debating and voting on the bill without first consulting Ugandans through a referendum.
Kabagye in her Friday ruling said that Parliament is an independent institution, which is mandated to make new laws and amend the Constitution.
She said the Parliament had not violated any law or rule of procedure in deciding to amend Article 102 (b) of the Constitution since its core role is to make laws for the country.
The ruling allows the legislators to start the process to vote on the controversial bill, which is expected to start on Monday next week.
Opposition and campaigners are opposed to the bill, arguing that the move by the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party is intended to allow incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, now 73, to run in the 2021 elections when he will be over 75.
NRM legislators on the parliamentary legal committee have recommended a constitutional amendment to scrap the 75-year-old age limit for presidents.
They also recommend extending the presidential and parliamentary term of office from the current five to seven years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 17:36:28|Editor: ZD
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by Mahmoud Darwesh
TRIPOLI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- A recent CNN report about markets of African migrant slave has drown regional and international criticism, which might eventually lead to the international community intervening in Libya to protect the rights of stranded migrants.
"The migration of Africans through Libya cannot be eradicated. It can only be managed and its negative effects can be treated," Col. Zayed Arhoumah, a former associate of the Libyan anti-illegal immigration department, told Xinhua.
European and African leaders decided to make "emergency deportations from Libya" for migrants, who are victims of human trafficking, to their countries of origin.
Arhoumah said the Europeans opposed a plan to forcibly deport migrants from Libya. "They even demanded Libya not to forcibly deport migrants," pointing out a "great contradiction" that the actual process showed deportation of migrants "forcibly, not voluntarily."
"The international community is completely untrue in its intentions," he said.
According to the plan announced by French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the Euro-African summit in Abidjan in November, work will also be on dismantling smuggling networks and freezing bank accounts of smugglers, provided that the African Union will set up a committee to investigate allegations of migrants slave markets in Libya.
The plan adopted by France did not specify the timing and mechanisms for the evacuation.
Ayob Qassem, spokesman of the Libyan navy, said the French plan was suspicious and might lead to military intervention under the pretext of protecting migrants.
"We are afraid of any international action or intervention, even if limited. France was supposed to support international organizations to deport them, protect Libya's southern borders, and close borders of Libya's neighboring countries such as Chad and Niger, especially with its military presence in these countries," Qassem said.
"Any international initiatives that do not pressure Libya's neighboring countries, which are the basis of immigration to us, should be rejected. Frankly, France has a suspicious role in Africa, especially as immigrants depart publicly from Chad and Niger, where it has the necessary military force to stop their flow to us," Qassem added.
France has tried to reduce fears of military action in Libya, but stressed that an African force should carry out the task of deporting migrants.
"There will be no French military intervention," French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said in a press statement last week, stressing the importance of an African military force capable of intervening, for which France and the European Union would provide intelligence and technical support.
"Libya is in a state of chaos, and there is a responsibility," Griveaux said. "Today, people are dying. These initiatives should have been taken in European context."
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, confirmed that there was no military branch of the working group formed on the sidelines of the Euro-African summit on Libya. She pointed out that the group's mission was only to carry out rapid evacuations of a large number of migrants abused in Libya.
Fears still exist despite the European Union's words, as Libya worries that the French president's plan to deport migrants might escalate to a military intervention.
Jalal Al-Fituri, a law professor in Libya, said any process of deporting migrants from Libya will face "logistical and military challenges, which should not be overlooked at all."
"The French plan is very complex. Practically, no part of it can be implemented, because Europe will face a significant challenge on what forces would implement the plan within the politically divided Libya," Al-Fituri said.
"In best case scenario, no Libyan force will be able to confront smuggling networks that have more weapons than an entire army. Therefore, Europe and France in particular will consider sending special units to facilitate access to immigration detention centers outside the control of authorities," Al-Fituri explained.
Khalid Turjuman, chairman of the Libyan National Action Group, questioned the France's intentions and abilities to implement such a plan, describing it as a "maneuver between European parties."
France has a foothold in southern Libya, and any movement there is predictable and not excluded, Turjuman said.
He described the French desire to move in Libya as an "attempt to take advantage of the political stalemate and to place Paris in as important figure in Europe."
"I wonder how a migrant from Africa can afford their risky trip, which costs about 3,000 U.S. dollars," Turjuman asked, saying that this amount can already earn them a decent life in their countries of origins.
"Who enabled smuggling gangs to fund their activities in Libya, to finance their operations in favor of foreign intelligence, after the gangs' sources of their funding from the treasury of the Libyan state was cut?" he said.
CNN published a report recently of auctions in different parts of Libya, where stranded African migrants were sold as slaves for as little as 400 U.S. dollars.
The alleged slave trade in Libya was condemned regionally and internationally. International organizations expressed concern for the violations against migrants in Libya.
Turjuman said the solution to illegal migration is to "support the Libyan army to eliminate, or at least limit the flow of illegal immigration."
Arhoumah believes that solutions are possible, beginning with a solid security initiative and plan, and unification of anti-illegal immigration agencies in the east and west of Libya, in order unite all possibilities available to help deport migrants.
"Between 1992 and 1994, we were repatriating migrants to Algeria via Ghadames border. We did not allow them to come back. They were quickly brought from the country they entered from as soon as they arrived in Libyan territory. Therefore, control over our southern borders must be strengthened. As long as our doors are open to immigrants, they will not stop coming," Arhoumah said.
Nevertheless, it is viewed that regardless of the type and form of international intervention in Libya to resolve the crisis of stranded migrants, the way to carry out any humanitarian or military action will face great challenges, as Libya is politically divided.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 17:36:29|Editor: ZD
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NEW DELHI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- A special court in the Indian capital Saturday sentenced four people, including a former chief minister of Jharkhand state, to three years imprisonment in the 2012 multi-billion-U.S. dollar coal scam case.
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, two retired bureaucrats - including former Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta - and another serving civil servant were convicted of criminal conspiracy in the case by special court judge Bharat Parashar Wednesday.
"After two days of arguments, the four convicts were sentenced to three years in jail. But they have not been taken into custody as the court has granted statutory bail for two months to enable them to challenge their conviction in the Delhi High Court," a lawyer said.
This is one of the several cases in the coal mining scandal that rocked the country in 2012 after government auditors pointed out that India had lost 33 billion U.S. dollars as coalfield rights were sold off cheaply, mostly to private firms, between 2004 and 2010.
In this case, the country's premier probe agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, had claimed in its charge sheet that the accused colluded to give mining rights of a state-owned coal block in Rajhara North to a private firm in 2007 and that was illegal.
Gupta, who was then the chairman of a screening committee, had concealed facts from then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had also been heading the Coal Ministry at the time, the probe agency said in its charge sheet.
The court had earlier rejected a plea of Koda to include Singh as an accused in the case.
In September 2014, India's Supreme Court cancelled almost all of the more than 200 coal mining licences awarded by the country's government since 1993, saying that they were illegal. Singh's Congress party was in charge when most of the licences were allocated.
India is one of the largest producers of coal in the world.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 17:51:31|Editor: ZD
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SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Facebook, the world's top social media giant, acknowledged Friday that spending excessive time on its website without interacting with friends and family members may hurt social relations offline.
In a blog post on the company's official website, David Ginsberg, Facebook's director of research, and Moira Burke, a researcher at the tech firm, said people who just passively consume information on its website with no interaction with other people may feel worse afterward.
They cited an experiment conducted by the University of Michigan in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions in the northern United States, in which students randomly assigned to read Facebook for 10 minutes were in a worse mood at the end of the day than their peers assigned to post or talk to friends on Facebook.
"Just like in person, interacting with people you care about can be beneficial, while simply watching others from the sidelines may make you feel worse," Ginsberg wrote in the blog.
Other research also shows that users who interact with people by sharing messages, posts or comments improved their well-being.
"A person's health and happiness relies heavily on the strength of their relationships," according to the two Facebook researchers.
They said the top reason that attracts people to Facebook is the ability to connect with their relatives, classmates and colleagues.
"Staying in touch with these friends and loved ones brings us joy and strengthens our sense of community," they added.
"We want Facebook to be a place for meaningful interactions with your friends and family -- enhancing your relationships offline, not detracting from them," Ginsberg and Burke wrote.
Facebook has been under mounting pressure in recent months as many people, including its former executives and employees, criticized that social media could be ripping society apart.
Chamath Palihapitiya, who was Facebook's vice president for user growth until 2011, said in a lecture at the Stanford Graduate School of Business last month that the company created tools that are "ripping apart the social fabric of how society works."
In order to quell such criticism, Facebook has released a few tools that help its users behave more rationally on its website, such as a snooze feature that lets users unfollow a person, page or group for 30 days.
Facebook currently has about 2 billion monthly active users worldwide.
A general wiev of Ukraine's highest court at the start of the sittings in Kiev 17 April, 2007. (Xinhua/AFP)
KIEV, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine on Friday has launched a renovated Supreme Court as a part of the efforts to advance its comprehensive judicial reform, the Ukrainian Presidential Administration press service said in a statement.
The inauguration of the Supreme Court, which will terminate the old structure consisting of four other high courts, is aimed at rooting out corruption in the East European country.
"The old corrupt, inefficient and unfair judicial system should become a thing of the past," said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, while commenting on the establishment of the Supreme Court.
The next step in the Ukrainian judicial reform would be the launch of an Anti-corruption Court, Poroshenko said, adding that he plans to submit to parliament a bill on the establishment of the court next week.
As a part of its judicial reform, in July this year, Ukraine has revamped its Constitutional Court, allowing legal entities and individuals to directly apply to the court if their constitutional rights are violated.
Previously, only the president and the parliament members had the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (R) meets with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan at presidential palace in Tehran, capital of Iran, on Aug. 6, 2017. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz)
YEREVAN, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Armenia on Friday officially launched a free economic zone (FEZ) with Iran in its southernmost city of Meghri bordering the Islamic republic, state-run Armenpress reported.
Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan attended the opening ceremony with Minister of Economic Development and Investments Suren Karayan, with presence of the Iranian ambassador, as well as officials and businessmen from both countries.
According to Karayan, the free economic zone should be developed into two phases.
"At the first stage, the minimum necessary infrastructures and preconditions have been set up," Karayan said, adding that in the second phase 70 hectares of territories would be added to create preconditions for profitable business.
The minister envisages 50 to 70 companies' involvement in the coming years, which would bring about 100-130 million U.S. dollar and create 1,500 new jobs, as well as export goods and services up to 250 million U.S. dollar.
The businesses operating in the zone will be exempt from income tax, value added tax, excise tax and custom duties, according to the minister.
In August, 2017, a memorandum of cooperation between free economic zones 'Meghri'(Armenia) and 'Aras'(Iran) were signed by both governments.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 18:36:38|Editor: Zhou Xin
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KAMPALA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Doctors working in public health facilities in Uganda have called off their planned resumption to strike over low pay, a top official said Saturday.
Ekwaro Obuku, president of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA), told Xinhua by telephone that following the government's commitment to increase their salaries and respond to their issues, the association executives on Friday voted to suspend the nationwide strike set to resume on Saturday.
The government on Monday announced plans to increase the salaries of all public servants in the East African country.
"We have opted to suspend the resumption of the industrial action following the constructive progress and commitment made by government to address our issues," said Obuku.
During their UMA extra-ordinary meeting held in the capital Kampala on Nov. 26, the doctors voted to suspend their strike for three weeks and resume it on Dec. 16 if the government did not keep its promise to increase their salaries and improve the working conditions in public hospitals.
The government announcement to increase the salaries has seen nurses and midwives as well as judicial officers suspending their strikes.
The doctors' nationwide strike paralyzed operations in public hospitals and other health facilities, leaving many patients stranded.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 18:36:38|Editor: Jiaxin
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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond who is attending the 9th economic and financial dialogue between China and Britain in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Li Tao)
BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond Friday afternoon, pledging to strengthen political trust and cooperate in a number of key areas, such as trade and investment.
"This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level between China and Britain," Li said, noting that bilateral ties would develop on the basis of mutual respect and equality.
He said Britain was a highly open economy, and China would advance its opening up.
He called on the two sides to make use of London's advantage as a global financial center to enhance financial cooperation.
Hammond, who is attending the 9th economic and financial dialogue between China and Britain in Beijing, said both countries were facing new opportunities for cooperation.
He said Britain was willing to work with China to cooperate more on trade, investment, finance and nuclear energy, to create a "golden era" in bilateral ties.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 18:46:39|Editor: Zhou Xin
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JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Sixteen insurgents of Taliban and Islamic State (IS) group were killed in two eastern Afghan provinces, authorities said Saturday.
Two Tajikistani militants of IS terrorist group were killed after a NATO-led coalition forces' drone struck Langari Kando locality of Haska Mina district of Nangarhar province at around midday Saturday, a provincial government spokesman, Attahullah Khogyani, told Xinhua.
In addition, four Taliban militants were killed and eight militants, including a local Taliban senior commander, were arrested after Afghan Special Forces raided a compound in neighboring Khogyani district overnight, he said.
The arrested militants were shifted to an army camp for questioning.
In neighboring Kunar province, Afghan army killed 10 Taliban militants and detained three others after soldiers fought back a Taliban attack in Ghazi Abad district Friday night, an army source, Mirwais Safi told Xinhua.
Afghan security forces and the coalition troops have beefed up security operations and airstrikes against militants as the war-weary people are facing upsurges in attacks by Taliban and IS militants across the country.
The militant groups have yet to make comments on the report.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a session at the parliament in Tehran, Iran, on Dec. 10, 2017. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that Iran could restore its relations with Saudi Arabia should the kingdom end its "friendship" with Israel. (Xinhua Photo)
by Xinhua writer Zuo Chang
CAIRO, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iran, long regarded as a thorn in the eye of the United States, has witnessed probably the hardest-fought wrestle with the superpower in 2017, during which their relations hit yet another historic low amid incessant mutual accusations and threats.
It all started with the inauguration of Donald Trump, a former real estate magnate who had no public office experience, as the new U.S. president in January. Since then, the tensions between Tehran and Washington have flared up over the 2015 nuclear deal and Iran's ballistic missile program. The U.S. infuriated Iran by reimposing some sanctions against the Islamic republic.
In face of Washington's tightening sanctions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the leader of reformist moderates, vowed more interaction with other parts of the world after his successful re-election for a second term by an overwhelming margin in May.
WRANGLE OVER 2015 NUKE DEAL
In July 2015, after a decade of strenuous negotiations, Iran and the six world powers, namely China, Russia, Britain, France, the United States and Germany, struck the final agreement on Iran's controversial nuclear program, in which the West promises to relieve sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt in Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.
However, as one of the most significant diplomatic legacies of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, the hard-won nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has been running the gauntlet of Trump on his campaign trail and since he became president.
Criticizing the deal as a pact of "disaster" and "embarrassment" for the U.S., Trump has repeatedly threatened to scrap the accord if it is not renegotiated in the interests of his country.
Trump saved his harshest words for the deal at the annual United Nations General Assembly in September, where he blasted it as "one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into" since the deal "provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program."
In response, Iran has firmly ruled out the possibility of reviewing the JCPOA, and warned of "high costs" for any violation. Calling the U.S. an "unreliable" state and Trump's anti-Iran remarks "spiteful and ignorant," the Islamic republic also said it would mull exit from the deal if the U.S. insists on stronger sanctions.
The dispute between Washington and Tehran culminated in Trump's decision to decertify the nuclear deal in October.
Although the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the monitor of Iran's commitment to the nuclear deal, has again confirmed the country's adherence to the pact, Trump refused to recertify Iran's compliance, citing, among others, Tehran's rejection to the U.S. demand for UN inspection of its military sites.
"In the event we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies in regards to Iran, then the agreement will be terminated," Trump said, leaving the Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose nuclear-related economic sanctions on Iran.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Congress punted the tricky question back to Trump, who has not yet announced any final decision on it. The fate of the nuclear deal continues to hang in the balance.
IRANIAN MISSILE PROGRAM UNDER SPOTLIGHT
Citing its concern about regional and international security, the Trump administration has slapped several rounds of sanctions on entities and individuals involved in Iran's missile program and other non-nuclear activities since the beginning of this year.
Washington also said Iran's missile and rocket launches constitute threats to U.S. interests in the Middle East and beyond, as they contravene both the spirit and the letter of the UN resolution that endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal.
The mounting pressure from Washington, however, has only made Tehran more staunch in asserting its "inalienable right" to develop "defensive" and "deterrent" capabilities for national security.
Iranian officials said the country's ballistic missile activities fall outside the purview of the UN-backed nuclear deal since none of the missiles is designed to carry nuclear warhead.
In July, the Iranian parliament even adopted a motion to reciprocate U.S. "hostile and malicious" polices, which envisages measures to support Iranian armed and security forces as well as Iranian citizens affected by the U.S. sanctions.
Tehran even unveiled a new long-range ballistic missile, which has a range of 2,000 km, during a military parade in late September. In November, on the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran displayed another 2,000-km-range ballistic missile near the old site.
At the core of the issue of Iran's missile program, nonetheless, lies the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), a branch of the country's armed forces which is believed to be the main executor of its ballistic missile tests.
Washington has, more than once, threatened to blacklist it as a terrorist organization, while Tehran, already cornered by U.S. unrelenting sanctions, has vowed "firm, decisive and crushing" retaliation against the potential "strategic mistake."
SILVER LININGS IN IRAN-U.S. TENSIONS
By ruthlessly lashing at the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and its ballistic missile program, the Trump administration has obviously treated the Islamic republic as its primary antagonist in the Middle East.
From the counter-terrorism war in Iraq to the Syrian civil war, and then to Yemen's Shiite Houthi insurgency, Iran is dubbed by the U.S. as the "leading state sponsor" of terrorism.
Iran has created obstacles in almost every way of Washington's exercising its influence in one of the most complicated regions in the world.
But moderate Rouhani's landslide win against hardliners in Iran's presidential election this year offered hope for the easing of the spiralling tension.
By raising the banner of reforms during his campaign, Rouhani garnered 57 percent of the votes, which reflected Iranians' ardent desire for change, better livelihood and peace with their neighbors and other countries.
Iran's closer economic engagement with European countries after the implementation of the 2015 nuclear deal also helped calm down the tensions.
Despite the concern over Iran's missile tests and human rights record, the European Union (EU), a traditional ally of the United States, has validated Tehran's commitment to the nuclear deal on several occasions, while seeking to regain its position as the largest trading partner of the Islamic republic.
Encouraged by the EU support and its close ties with Russia and Turkey, Iran said in September that it intends to stay in the nuclear deal even if the U.S. pulls out.
Russia is also suffering from U.S. sanctions after its takeover of Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in early 2014, while Turkey is a NATO member that is at loggerheads with Washington over the 2016 failed coup.
Iran even extended overtures to Saudi Arabia, its Sunni arch rival in the Gulf. Despite lukewarm responses from the Saudis, who severed their diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016 due to the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Iran has said it is seeking to alleviate tensions and ready for rapprochement with the kingdom.
Trump's astounding declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel early the month, if anything, has also struck a positive note for Iran's endeavors to save the nuclear deal.
Jerusalem, revered as the third holiest site in Islam by Muslims and the holiest site by Jews, is one of a few issues that can rally all Islamic countries, including Iran, against the U.S. despite their differences and disputes.
Meanwhile, Trump has placed Washington on the opposite side of the international community, which largely does not recognize Israel's unilateral move to declare Jerusalem as its capital.
More than two years after the nuclear deal came into effect, Iran is still on a bumpy road to realize its full integration into the world.
Apparently, Iran's tensions with the Trump administration have further complicated its bid to seek economic development and expand its regional influence in the Middle East.
The growing rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen has also raised fears about more conflicts between the two regional powers.
The U.S.-Iran wrestle over the nuclear deal and Tehran's missile program has so far shown few signs of easing. The best hope should be that it will not deteriorate into a full-blown crisis that will further shake the already instable and chaotic region.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 19:16:47|Editor: Zhou Xin
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ISLAMABAD, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday vowed to remember Dec. 16, 2014 as a black day when around 150 people, including over 130 children were killed in a terrorist attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Pakistan's northwestern Peshawar city.
On the third anniversary of the attack, the prime minister said the day will be remembered as a black day in the history of the world when inhumane terrorists attacked innocent children.
Abbasi said that the sacrifices rendered by the Pakistani nation in war against terror are unmatched, adding "extremism is the tree from which the poisonous fruit of terrorism grows. The nation gave the sacrifice of life and property in the war against terrorism."
A group of terrorists affiliated with Pakistani Taliban stormed the APS and killed around 150 children and teachers indiscriminately, leaving over 100 others injured. The carnage came to an end when commandoes of Pakistani army killed the attackers and rescued a number of children.
The brutal attack changed the perception of Pakistani nation against terrorism and they raised voices for a uniformed action against all types of militants.
Following the attack, Pakistani political parties and the country's security departments sat together and formed a National Action Plan to stem extremism and terrorism.
Later, Pakistani parliament unanimously approved the formation of military courts for speedy trials of the hardcore terrorists.
According to local reports, since the APS attack, at least 1,584 terrorists were arrested and sent to jails for trial. Apart from it 167 high profile terrorists with head money were also detained or killed during encounters with security forces.
Under the National Action Plan, police and security forces searched over 1 million houses and registered 36,000 cases against those who rented houses illegally. The practice of illegal house renting emerged as the main element which facilitated terrorists to hide in the urban areas of the country.
At least 600,000 suspects were arrested during 39,000 search operations conducted in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province since the APS attack, the reports said.
At least 35,000 Afghan nationals living illegally in Pakistan were arrested and deported as Pakistani security agencies claimed that Afghan nationals were found involved in most of the terrorist attacks in Pakistan in the past.
To mark the anniversary, a number of events are being held across the country. The main ceremony was held at the APS, which was attended by senior civilians, military and government officials, and the parents of the deceased children.
A memorial of the victims constructed in Peshawar was inaugurated on Saturday.
On the anniversary, people from all walks of life and political leaders condemned the brutal attack, while local televisions ran special programs to pay tribute to the victims.
"we must ensure this can never happen again so our future generations can be nurtured safely to follow their dreams," said Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari paid special tribute to the victims and the grieving families.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 19:16:47|Editor: Yamei
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Palestinians participate in a protest against U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, near Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City, on Dec. 11, 2017. (Xinhua/Muammar Awad)
BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Experts on the Middle East have called on the United States to stop adding fuel to the fire in the conflict-stricken region, and made some suggestions on how the relationship with Palestine could be improved.
On U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel, Wu Sike, China's former special envoy to the Middle East, said the Middle East region has been suffering from conflicts, turbulence and instability for several years, referring to Libya, Syria and Iraq.
The United States needs to do something conducive to easing tensions between Palestinians and Israel and play a responsible role in the region, he told Xinhua at an event held on Friday in Peking University to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
The observance, organized by the United Nations, is held annually on Nov. 29 to draw international attention to the unresolved Palestinian cause.
Some U.S. scholars see more severity in Trump's move. Brookings Institution senior fellow Darrell West has told Xinhua recently that "His (Trump's) action complicates relationships with Islamic countries in many places around the world. They think the United States is being one-sided and is not a fair arbiter of Mid-Eastern policy."
"If the president only recognizes Israel's claim to the city ... his decision will be universally condemned in the region and globally," Dalia Dassa Kaye, director of the Rand Center for Middle East Public Policy, told Xinhua.
China's new thinking on the Middle East issue -- promoting peace through development -- was clearly reflected in China's new moves on the Palestine-Israel issue, Wu said.
Palestinian Ambassador to China Fariz Mehdawi, who attend the observance, spoke highly of a four-point proposition which was put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in July during a meeting with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing.
The four-point proposition was mentioned by Xi for the first time in a speech delivered at the headquarters of the Arab League in Egypt in January 2016, Wu said, adding Abbas' visit made this new thinking clearer.
The Belt and Road Initiative could help regional development and would dovetail with Arab countries' development strategies, namely the 2030 economic visions of Saudi Arabia, Lin Fengmin, vice director of the Center for African Studies with Peking University, told Xinhua on Friday at the observance.
He hoped Palestine could take advantage of China's development and achieve its own progress in economy, society and infrastructure.
Mehdawi had a similar opinion. He expressed the hope to expand cooperation with China in such areas as economy, investment and tourism, and to learn from China's experience in sustainable development.
Wu said Palestine and other Arab countries are situated along the Belt and Road, and thus they are natural cooperation partners for China. "There is great cooperation potential in infrastructure, industrialization and employment," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 19:16:47|Editor: Zhou Xin
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ABUJA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian government forces have captured 220 Boko Haram fighters in recent clearance operations on the terror group's enclaves, a spokesman for the army said on Saturday.
The troops captured 167 terrorists after raiding their enclaves in Lake Chad Basin, while 53 others were captured in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, said Onyema Nwachukwu, the army spokesman.
Nwachukwu said the troops also extricated 67 women and 173 children, who were family members of the insurgents.
According to the official, an arrangement was underway to hand over the women and children to authorities of Internally Displaced Persons' camps, after completing preliminary investigations.
The government forces have intensified their operations to clear remnants of the terror group in the region, he said, noting the clearance operations so far had yielded positive results.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 19:26:51|Editor: Zhou Xin
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SARI PUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- At least five Afghan civilians were killed and eight others wounded during armed clashes in a strategic valley in the country's northern province of Sari Pul, a local official said Saturday.
"Afghan National Defense and Security Forces launched an operation Saturday morning, to drive Taliban out from Tabar valley, Sangcharak district. The operation is tactically ongoing to avoid civilian casualties," Sayyed Sarwar Housaini, spokesman of 707 Pamir Police Zone based in the region, told Xinhua.
Since early this week, the valley has been the scene of heavy clashes between government security forces, backed by the local pro-government militiamen, and Taliban insurgents. Taliban overran several villages in the valley after local militia forces pulled back from their security posts after clashes erupted.
Local residents claimed that five civilians were killed and eight others injured within the past 24 hours in Tabar, bringing to 23 the number of villagers killed in the mountainous valley in past six days.
Zabihullah Amani, governor spokesman, confirmed the operation, saying eight Taliban insurgents were killed and 10 others wounded in the retaking incident. The spokesman said two civilians were killed, four civilians and four soldiers wounded in the fresh fightings.
Over 5,000 families have been displaced as Taliban's upsurge resulted in controlling Tabar valley of Sangcharak district over the period.
Refugee children studying at Old Kampala Primary School perform during the celebration to mark World Refugee Day in Kampala, capital of Uganda, June 20, 2012. As the world commemorated World Refugee Day on Wednesday, the Ugandan government announced that it is discussing a possibility of naturalizing refugees as a measure in solving the refugee crisis in the region. (Xinhua/Yuan Qing)
KAMPALA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- China has contributed 5 million U.S. dollars to the UN World Food Program (WFP) school feeding program in the semi-arid Karamoja region in northeastern Uganda.
WFP Country Director El-Khidir Daloum on Friday said the donation from China will boost the school feeding program, which helps boost enrolment, enable children to finish school and make learning easier in the region.
The contribution will also fill major funding gaps in a program that treats acute malnutrition and another that prevents stunting.
"WFP has faced major funding shortfalls for its work in Karamoja in recent years, which forced the organization to reduce rations in school feeding every now and then and to completely stop the asset-creation program mid this year. However, China recently made a generous contribution of 5 million dollars," said Daloum.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 19:56:55|Editor: Jiaxin
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by Han Liang, Zhang Wei
BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Britain and China should seize golden opportunities to forge a closer global partnership in the post-Brexit era, British Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Greg Clark has said.
The official, who was in Beijing for the ninth round of China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD), told Xinhua recently that the two countries could further enhance their cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, clean energy, and others to jointly face global challenges.
Being optimistic about the ongoing Brexit negotiations between Britain and the European Union, Clark said there was "great will" on both sides to have a strong and special relationship. Meanwhile, Britain is willing to renew its enthusiasm for international relationships, especially with China.
"In the world after Brexit, Britain will continue to be a place that trades wholeheartedly with the rest of the European Union. For a lot of Chinese companies and investors being based in Britain, it is still a good place to be part of the European system," he said.
Clark said Britain's relationship with China is a good example of its internationalism, which has entered a new phase in the "golden era."
In its recently released industrial strategy, the British government identified energy transition as one of the key global challenges. "The best solution to these challenges is when countries could work together," Clark said, adding that Britain and China have built a strong foundation for working together on this issue.
"The Hinkley Point C project is not only the largest energy investment in the UK, but also the largest infrastructure investment project in Europe," said the official, adding that this is a good example of how clean energy cooperation can function as a pillar of international partnership.
The 14-billion-GBP (18-billion-U.S.-dollar) project, with one third invested by China, has been described by local media as "Britain's first new nuclear power station in a generation."
Clark said that through the Paris Agreement, both Britain and China have made very significant commitments on climate change. "One of the challenges is to make sure we can meet our commitment at an affordable cost," he said.
Part of Clark's purpose to attend the Energy Dialogue under the EFD scheme is to look for opportunities for renewable energy cooperation in a broad range, including offshore wind energy, he explained.
Britain has established a leading position in this field, and the energy cost has been effectively reduced with the application of offshore wind technology, he said.
"I hope that clean energy is affordable for both consumers and businesses, we have a joint ambition in bringing down the cost of energy," he said.
Clark was also interested in the Made in China 2025 initiative. According to him, the world has witnessed "massive and exciting" changes taking place where major revolutions of technology have been transforming almost every sector of the economy as well as people's lives.
He was delighted to see that the two countries have identical views on global trends, such as the aging population, and that both countries have come up with action plans on developing artificial intelligence, data analysis, as well as other sectors, to embrace technological changes and build economic strengths.
"The best way to make progress is to have a whole-hearted enthusiastic international collaboration and I think we have a golden opportunity in part of this 'golden era' to work together on these global challenges," Clark said.
People gather around a special Christmas tree made up with milk tins and other food products in the center of Athens, Greece, on Dec. 15, 2017. The tins of milk and packages of rice, beans, sugar, olive oil and other canned food products Athenians donated throughout the day will be distributed to thousands of households in need across Greece during the holiday season. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
ATHENS, Dec. 15 (Xinhua)-- For the eight consecutive year a different Christmas tree made up with milk tins and other food products was erected in the center of Athens on Friday.
The Christmas tree of the local NGO "Doctors of the World" has a short life span - adorns the yard of the historic building of the Athens University for just one day each year - but a major mission.
The tins of milk and packages of rice, beans, sugar, olive oil and other canned food products Athenians donated throughout the day will be distributed to thousands of households in need across Greece during the holiday season.
The initiative was launched after a young patient in one of the clinics run by the NGO made a simple question to doctors treating her which revealed the pain and agony of children living in poverty.
"Eight years ago a little girl who was a patient at the clinics run by the "Doctors of the World" asked us whether Santa Claus brings milk as a present. I do not know whether he does, but all these years there are several people who do," Nikitas Kanakis, the NGO's President told Xinhua on Friday.
"This is a Christmas celebration and it is also a way to recall and remind the beauty of solidarity and teach it to our children," he said.
The first year the "milk tree" was set up, the NGO counted 5,000 cans. In coming years, as more and more people heard about the initiative, the "Doctors of the World" collected on average more than 55,000 cans of milk and more than four tons of other food products.
With the support of thousands of citizens who stopped by the university's yard on Friday, as well as central squares in other three cities, the "Doctors of the World" hope to break a new record this year sending a loud message of solidarity and hope.
A woman holding her son lights candles for a special Christmas treemade up with milk tins and other food products in the center of Athens, Greece, on Dec. 15, 2017. The tins of milk and packages of rice, beans, sugar, olive oil and other canned food products Athenians donated throughout the day will be distributed to thousands of households in need across Greece during the holiday season. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
Vassilis A. was among Athenians who donated a bag with milk tins and canned food.
"I came here today to join the "Doctors of the World", because I believe that in particular in harsh times we must remain human beings," he told Xinhua.
"The festive season has started and we know that each year the Doctors of the World are organizing this charity event so we came here to support this work," Dimitra G. added.
The debt crisis which has hit hard Greece since 2009 has fuelled poverty rates and NGOs support state efforts to offer a helping hand to people in need.
The goal is that nobody will be left without a basic meal in particular during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
A picture taken on July 23, 2013 in Flensburg shows sex toys displayed on shelves at a shop of the pioneering German sex shop chain Beate Uhse. The pioneering German sex shop chain Beate Uhse said on December 15, 2017 that it had gone bankrupt, falling victim to the rise of the internet and erotic e-commerce. (AFP photo/ dpa / Malte Christians)
BERLIN, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Beate Uhse AG, has filed for insolvency on Friday after failing to agree on a debt restructuring plan with its creditors.
Founded by famous female pilot and entrepreneur Beate Uhse, the namesake company opened the world's first ever sex-shop in Germany in 1946. In subsequent years, Beate Uhse expanded into one of Europe's largest erotica chains with a network of branches and a mail-order business. In 1999, the company became the first of its kind listed on a national stock market.
Beate Uhse's management stressed on Friday that only the holding company was being declared bankrupt while its subsidiaries based in Germany and the Netherlands would continue to operate without any impediments.
Beate Uhse's commercial woes have been widely-publicized in German media. Despite having an online presence, the company has been suffering from growing e-Commerce competition and was hence forced to close many of its branches.
The company has repeatedly delayed publication of its earnings figures for 2016 and recently downgraded its revenue and profit outlook again. The publication of its latest figures was last scheduled for Friday.
Germany's financial services watchdog BaFin has already threatened to fine Beate Uhse 220,000 euros (258,700 U.S. dollars) for falling foul of its obligations as a publicly-listed firm to inform its shareholders about the state of its financial health.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 21:02:04|Editor: Zhou Xin
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DHAKA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh celebrated its 47th victory day on Saturday with due solemnity and rich tributes paid to the martyrs of the Liberation War of 1971.
The official victory day programs commenced with a 31-gun salute followed by rich tributes of President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at National Mausoleum in Savar on the outskirts of capital Dhaka in the early hours.
President Hamid later attended a colorful parade at the National Parade Square as the chief guest while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was also present at the parade.
The national flag is hoisted atop all government and private buildings while the government and semi-government buildings and other public places were illuminated and roads and islands decorated with flags and festoons in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.
Imbued with the spirit of independence, government, political, social and cultural organizations drew up elaborate programs, including discussions, rallies, processions, dramas and Jatra (folk theater), photo exhibitions, painting competitions and cultural events to celebrate the victory of the nine-month war.
The day is a public holiday.
Special prayers are being offered in mosques, temples, pagodas and other places of worship for the departed souls and country's peace, progress and prosperity.
Newspapers have published special supplements marking the day while televisions and radio stations aired special programmes.
The president in his message extended his sincere felicitations and warm congratulations to all Bangladeshis in home and abroad.
In her message, Hasina said her government was working for Bangladesh's development and will build a poverty-free and peaceful middle-income Bangladesh by 2021 and a developed and prosperous one by 2041.
On Dec. 16, 1971, the then East Pakistan under the leadership of founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won its emancipation and emerged as an independent state, Bangladesh.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 21:07:07|Editor: Zhou Xin
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LAGOS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has commenced an intensive bombardment of logistics bases used by Boko Haram militants in their Sambisa forest hideouts in northeast part of the country.
NAF Spokesperson Olatokunbo Adesanya said in a statement reaching Xinhua in Lagos on Saturday that the targeted insurgents' structures were destroyed and engulfed in fire, killing the terrorists hiding in them.
The attacks resulted in a large part of the settlement being engulfed in fire, destroying the insurgents' structures and neutralizing the fleeing ones, the spokesperson added.
According to him, four NAF fighter aircraft took turns to attack structures occupied by insurgents' elements in the settlement.
Adesanya said in the statement that the force component of operation "LAFIA DOLE" conducted an air interdiction mission on insurgents' hideout in Kolaram, 37 kilometer East of Monguno area of the state.
He said previous Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions by the force platforms had revealed Kolaram to be an active Boko Haram Terrorists' location from where the terrorists had launched attacks on government surface forces in Northern Borno.
Nigeria has made considerable gains against the terror group, dislodging its fighters from the Sambisa Forest, the group's largest training camp in the country, early this year.
Boko Haram has been blamed for the death of more than 20,000 people and displacing of 2.3 million others in Nigeria since 2009.
Nigerian soldiers participate in an operation in Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno, March 16, 2016. Nigerian soldiers on Wednesday participated in an operation of destroying Boko Haram terrorists camps at Bulasari area of Borno State. Nigerian troops recovered armored carrier from the terrorists. (Xinhua/Wale Salau)
LAGOS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has commenced an intensive bombardment of logistics bases used by Boko Haram militants in their Sambisa forest hideouts in northeast part of the country.
NAF Spokesperson Olatokunbo Adesanya said in a statement reaching Xinhua in Lagos on Saturday that the targeted insurgents' structures were destroyed and engulfed in fire, killing the terrorists hiding in them.
According to him, four NAF fighter aircraft took turns to attack structures occupied by insurgents' elements in the settlement.
Meanwhile, army spokesman Onyema Nwachukwu said government forces have captured 220 Boko Haram fighters in recent clearance operations on the terror group's enclaves.
The troops captured 167 terrorists after raiding their enclaves in Lake Chad Basin, while 53 others were captured in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno.
Nwachukwu said the troops also extricated 67 women and 173 children, who were family members of the insurgents.
Nigeria has made considerable gains against the terror group, dislodging its fighters from the Sambisa Forest, the group's largest training camp in the country, early this year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 21:27:11|Editor: Zhou Xin
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LAGOS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The 52nd Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government summit opened in Abuja, capital of Nigeria on Saturday as leaders discuss Morocco's membership of the bloc and the security situation in Guinea Bissau.
Morocco had made its request to be a member of ECOWAS while Tunisia requested to be an observer country.
The 51st Ordinary Session held in Monrovia, Liberia in June agreed in principle to Morocco's membership of the sub-regional bloc and directed the commission to consider the implications of the country's membership.
The commission confirmed that study on the impact of Morocco's membership was carried out and the outcome would be submitted to the Authority.
Morocco was, however, not invited for the 52nd summit. Its Foreign Ministry reportedly said the country had to wait until the first quarter of 2018 to know the decision of the ECOWAS Heads of State which would be announced at an extraordinary session.
Tunisia has, however, been granted an observer status by the authority and the commission has been further directed to take necessary measures to ensure all procedures relating to an observer status are implemented.
The commission also confirmed that the authority called on Mauritania to submit its request for readmission to ECOWAS.
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and Tunisian President Beji Essebsi are scheduled to make presentations as special guests at the opening session of the summit.
The summit would also discuss the political and security situation in Guinea Bissau.
The ECOWAS recently said its mission in Guinea Bissau had taken an "excruciating toll" on the financial resources of the sub-region.
The ECOWAS Mission in Guinea Bissau (ECOMIB) made up of troops from Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Togo and Niger was deployed in May 2012 following a military coup in April 2012.
ECOMIB helped to establish a civilian-led transitional government, which ended with the election of President Jose Mario Vaz in a run-off in May 2014 for a five-year term.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 21:47:16|Editor: Zhou Xin
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LAGOS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has called for accountability and good neighborliness in the sub-region and on the African continent.
The Nigerian leader made the call in a statement issued on Saturday after he met with the Economic Community of West African States President Marcel A. De Souza in Abuja, capital of Nigeria.
He commended the leadership of ECOWAS Commission for demanding accountability from its headquarters staff, which made it to invite Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to look into its books.
Nigeria would continue to fulfill its obligations to the sub-regional body, Buhari said.
Nigeria hosts the 52nd Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government on Dec. 16.
Buhari said he expected a formal report on the situation in Guinea Bissau at the meeting.
"We need our troops back home and I hope the President of that country will accept a constitutional way to resolve the situation there," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 22:12:19|Editor: Jiaxin
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HANGZHOU, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Xiamen Airlines, a subsidiary of China Southern Airlines, launched a direct service from Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province to Melbourne on Saturday.
This is the first non-stop service linking the two cities. A Boeing 787 will operate two round trip flights a week. The flights take about 10 hours 30 minutes each way, slashing the travel time by three to five hours compared with previous connecting flights by way of Guangzhou or Hong Kong.
The launch of the intercontinental air route coincides with the 45th anniversary of the establishment of China-Australia diplomatic relations as well as the "China-Australia Year of Tourism 2017," which brings east China and Oceania closer, said Che Shanglun, chairman of the airline.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 22:22:21|Editor: Zhou Xin
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BAGHDAD, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces launched an operation on Saturday to hunt down remnants of Islamic State (IS) militants at rugged rural area in northern central Iraq, the Iraqi military said.
On Saturday morning, the troops backed by paramilitary Hashd Shaabi brigades advanced from three directions to clear Mteibijah area near the border between the provinces of Salahudin and Diyala, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a brief statement.
At the end of the day, the troops searched 14 villages scattered in the area and managed to destroy an IS hideout and detonated nine roadside bombs, the JOC said in a separate statement.
The troops will continue the operation in the coming days until they clear the whole the sprawling rugged area that extend from western part of Diyala to Himreen mountainous area and nearby Mteibijah area in the neighboring Salahudin province.
Dozens of IS militants fled their former bases in Salahudin province and Hawijah area in west of Kirkuk after the Iraqi forces cleared these areas from the extremist militants during anti-IS offensives in the past few months.
On Dec. 9, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.
However, small groups of IS militants resorted to deserts and rugged areas looking for safe havens but the security forces are hunting them down from time to time.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 22:37:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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WARSAW, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- A unique exhibition "Tri-colored glazed pottery of the Tang dynasty in Luoyang, China" kicked off in Lublin, eastern Poland on Saturday.
This is a result of the cooperation between Polish Lublin Voivodeship and Henan province in central China.
"The 70 pieces of tri-colored glazed pottery of the Tang dynasty from Luoyang exhibited today have gone through time and space and finally arrived in Poland, to tell the local people the amazing history of the Silk Road", said Tian Kai, head of the Department of Culture of Henan province, during the opening ceremony held on Friday.
The exceptional ceramic figurines and utensils from Luoyang, a prefecture-level city in Henan province, shown to the Polish audience would help them get closer to the great culture of ancient China.
The three-colored, or "Sancai", pottery is a famous type of Chinese pottery, made with the use of glaze. Among the artifacts, there are figures of people, animals and beasts reminiscent of the legendary Chinese dragons, dated back to the Tang dynasty (year 618-907).
Such events help promote the knowledge about China. Cai Lian, a cultural counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Poland, told Xinhua reporters: "In recent years, the exchange activities in the cultural field between China and Poland have been very abundant ... the two sides have further promoted mutual understanding through folk customs and cultural relics exhibitions."
This is the first time the Tang dynasty objects are shown in Poland. The exhibition is open to the public between Dec. 16 to March 10, 2018 in Hieronim Lopacinski Voivodeship Public Library in Lublin.
Lublin and Henan have established friendly cooperation relations since 2008.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 22:47:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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TEHRAN, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iran will put its largest oil field, Azadegan, on tender to finalize a deal for its development study by summer 2018, Financial Tribune daily quoted Iran's Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh as saying on Saturday.
"A deal will be concluded by summer next year if the tender goes as planned," said Zanganeh on the sidelines of signing a gas deal with Russia's Gazprom in Tehran.
Ali Kardor, the chief executive officer of Iran's state oil company, NIOC, said Friday that Japan's INPEX, China's CNPC, Royal Dutch Shell and France's Total have presented their proposals on Azadegan.
"Other companies have requested more time to submit their technical surveys," Kardor said without providing details.
Malaysia's Petronas is also interested in the project, having presented its findings on the oilfield, according to the report.
Azadegan is shared with Iraq, and Iran is in a race with its neighbor to develop the reservoir. Iran's share of the field amounts to some 33 billion barrels of crude in place.
Dutch Shell has developed the Iraqi stretch of the reservoir, known as Majnoon oil field in the southern city of Basra. Majnoon came into production in 2014.
Iran has split Azadegan to the northern and southern sections to speed up development. The field's output is around 80,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Iraq is pumping between 220,000 and 230,000 bpd from Majnoon, nearly three times over the Azadegan output.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 22:47:27|Editor: liuxin
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Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond co-chair the Ninth China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 16, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)
BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- China is ready to work with Britain to provide new impetus to the development of "Golden Era" of Sino-British relations, said Vice Premier Ma Kai on Saturday.
Ma made the remarks when co-chairing the ninth China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) with British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond in Beijing.
Seventy-two policy outcomes were reached after the two sides held fruitful discussions on macro-economy, trade and investment, industrial strategies, financial reforms and development, as well as cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road construction.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Britain, which ushers in new opportunities for deepening China-Britain pragmatic cooperation, said Ma.
This dialogue is the first China-UK EFD held after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which shoulders the important task of fulfilling the consensus reached by both leaders and expanding economic and financial cooperation between the two countries, he said.
Ma suggested both sides seize the strategic opportunity and continuously deepen cooperation in areas such as energy, infrastructure, trade and investment.
He expressed the hope that the two countries could expand industrial and innovative cooperation, promote the alignment of "Made in China 2025" strategy and UK's industrial strategy, and strengthen cooperation within the framework of Belt and Road construction.
The vice premier also called on both sides to steadily push forward cooperation in financial service and RMB internalization, beef up coordination in international affairs and jointly promote the recovery of world economy.
Hammond said the 19th CPC National Congress has set a grand plan for the future development of China.
He said Britain supports the Belt and Road Initiative and hopes to work with China to deepen all-round pragmatic cooperation, so as to boost the development of "Golden Era" of Britain-China relations.
After the dialogue, Ma and Hammond met with the press together.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 23:17:33|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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ABUJA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Four abducted Chinese nationals have been rescued in southern Nigeria following a gunfight between their abductors and the military, an army spokesman confirmed on Saturday.
The Chinese nationals were kidnapped Friday by suspected sea pirates in a riverine area of Nigeria's southwestern state of Ondo, said Ojo Adelegan, the army spokesman.
Adelegan said some of the Chinese were hurt by their kidnappers and are receiving treatment in a local hospital.
They were traveling to Ondo from the nation's commercial hub Lagos when they were kidnapped.
The military official said one of the abductors has been arrested, while the rest fled with bullet wounds.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 23:22:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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RABAT, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Morocco has elaborated a draft bill with the aim to expand liquified natural gas (LNG) supply and boost gas sector in the north African kingdom.
The draft bill, which was submitted by the government for consultation earlier this week, aims at the establishment of an adequate organization for the natural gas sector and an appropriate tariff system for a natural gas market still embryonic in the country.
The law aims also to give a strong signal incentive to investors, especially foreigners, to develop the infrastructure for transmission and distribution networks that are very underdeveloped today.
Under this draft bill, the country envisages granting concessions private companies after call for competition.
The licensed company will hold a monopoly over the entire Moroccan territory and will provide the gas transmission business.
This draft law comes as Morocco strives to relieve energy dependency and to respond to the country's growing need for electricity in the long run.
Morocco imports over 90 percent of its energy needs whether in the form of coal, oil or electricity, while its needs grow by nearly 6 percent yearly.
Apart from investing in renewable energy to cover 50 percent of its energy needs by 2030, Morocco is planning to increase the share of natural gas in its energy mix.
Morocco aims to set up an integrated "Gas To Power" project, including a multi-billion U.S. dollars worth Jorf Lasfar onshore LNG terminal, near the coastal city of El Jadida.
The site will house storage facilities for at least 5 billion cubic meters of LNG per year, bringing the share of LNG to 13 percent of Morocco's energy mix by 2025.
Recently, British Sound Energy made breakthrough with several exploitable gas discoveries in eastern and northern Morocco.
The company said that the kingdom will become a key player in the global gas map by 2019.
Morocco has also launched a joint venture with Africa's gas giant Nigeria to construct a major gas pipeline linking West African countries.
The Gazoduc pipeline project, which will pass through several West African countries and may stretch to Europe, was finalized during the visit of Morocco's King Mohammed VI to Nigeria in December, 2016.
Given the great opportunities laying ahead in Morocco's LNG sector, major gas companies have shown their interest in taking part in Morocco's gas projects.
Last September, Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Russian companies are interested in Morocco's gas projects, particularly the liquefied gas terminal in Jorf Lasfar and the Moroccan-Nigerian gas pipeline.
The Russian minister revealed that negotiations are underway between Gazprom and Novatek and Morocco to secure LNG supply from Russia.
For its part, Qatar is also well placed to take part in the supply of the Jorf Lasfar gas terminal.
The new draft law on natural gas sector comes to provide the necessary legislative and regulatory framework to ensure the harmonious development of the sector in the country.
The text seeks to regulate and control these activities in terms of safety and environmental protection.
Moreover, a regulatory body under the name of the National Energy Regulatory Authority will be set up to ensure the regulation of the sector.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 23:22:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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ABUJA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Scores of artworks were destroyed after a wildfire gutted the Abuja Arts and Craft Village, the biggest of its kind in Nigeria, local officials confirmed on Saturday.
Dozens of shops were also consumed by the fire late Friday in the Nigerian capital, said Kanayo Chimezie, president of the African Arts and Cultural Heritage Association.
Chimezie said the cause of the late night fire was yet to be ascertained.
According to him, artworks and shops worth more than 1.1 million U.S. dollars were lost in the incident due to the late arrival of fire fighters.
Most of the artworks were newly made, particularly for yuletide sales, the arts and cultural association chief said.
Kennedy Idowu, one of the shop owners in the arts and craft village, said he lost all his wares to the fire.
Early September, the Abuja Arts and Craft Village hosted Africa's largest arts and craft exhibition.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 23:52:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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MOSCOW, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin Saturday sent a congratulatory message to his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev on the occasion of Kazakhstan's Independence Day, highlighting the Central Asian country's achievements in recent years.
Putin hailed Kazakhstan's achievements in the economy, society, science and technology, as well as its contribution to addressing global issues, the Kremlin said in a statement.
He also spoke highly of the relations between Russia and Kazakhstan based on mutual respect, saying it has contributed to the development of the Eurasian integration process and international security and stability.
Russia will continue to strengthen its strategic partnership with Kazakhstan, Putin added.
Kazakhstan, the last Soviet republic to declare independence in 1991, celebrates its Independence Day on Dec. 16.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 23:57:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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TRIPOLI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Libyan navy has rescued 437 illegal immigrants in three separate operations off Libya coast during the past 24 hours, an Libyan official told Xinhua on Saturday.
"Libyan navy successfully rescued 280 illegal immigrants of different Arab and African nationalities," Al-Hadi Mohamed, an official of the Coast Guard and Port Security Agency, told Xinhua.
Mohamed said the rescue was done off the coast of the western towns of Garrabuli and Zliten, adding the migrants were aboard two rubber boats and they were transferred to an immigrant reception shelter in Tripoli.
Media and Information office of the Libyan navy said that 157 illegal African migrants, including women and children, were rescued in two operations off western Libyan coast.
The office said that the rescued migrants were provided with medical and humanitarian assistance by the International Medical Corps and the Libyan Red Crescent.
Libya is a major departure point for illegal migrants wanting to cross the Mediterranean towards European shores, due to the insecurity and chaos in the North African nation.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Libya said that about 17,000 illegal immigrants were voluntarily deported from Libya to their countries of origin this year so far.
A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jet takes part in a joint aerial drills called 'Vigilant Ace' between the United States and South Korea at the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek on December 6, 2017. (Xinhua/AFP PHOTO)
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- UN chief Antonio Guterres and several representatives of the UN Security Council on Friday expressed concern about the risk of military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula.
"Any military action would have devastating and unpredictable consequences," said the UN secretary-general.
"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is the most tense and dangerous peace and security issue in the world today. I am deeply concerned by the risk of military confrontation, including as a result of unintended escalation or miscalculation," said Guterres.
While all concerned seek to avoid an accidental escalation that may lead to conflict, the risk is being multiplied by "misplaced over-confidence," dangerous narratives and rhetoric, and the lack of communication channels, he warned.
"It is time to immediately re-establish and strengthen communication channels, including inter-Korean and military-to-military channels. This is critical to lower the risk of miscalculation or misunderstanding and reduce tensions in the region."
Diplomatic engagement is the only pathway to sustainable peace and de-nuclearization, said Guterres.
"We must do everything we can to reach that objective -- and avoid a level of danger that would be unpredictable in its trajectory and catastrophic in its consequences."
In 2017, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted activities related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs "at an alarming and accelerated pace," said Guterres.
Security Council Resolution 2375, adopted in September 2017, includes the strongest sanctions ever imposed on the DPRK.
"I reiterate my call on the DPRK leadership to comply with the relevant Security Council resolutions and allow space for the resumption of dialogue on de-nuclearization and sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula."
He vowed to push for dialogue to defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula.
"I believe the United Nations Secretariat adds strategic value in three key areas. First, impartiality. Second, the voice and norms, values and principles for peaceful and diplomatic solutions, in line with international law. Third, offering channels of communication with all parties."
Representatives of several countries also expressed concern about possible escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said "peace in this region is subject to serious threat and the threat of the increase in or transition in the confrontation to a hotspot is very great."
"Military rhetoric accompanied by a test of strength by the participants has led to a situation where around the world people have begun to wonder whether there will be war or not."
He questioned a slew of recent actions by the United States, including an "unscheduled and unprecedented" joint airforce exercise with South Korea and the decision to relist Pyongyang as a "state sponsor of terrorism."
"All of these steps force us to wonder about the sincerity of statements that suggest that there is a preference for a peaceful approach to resolving the crisis" by the United States, Nebenzia said.
Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN,highlighted China's consistent efforts to promote dialogue and denuclearization, saying that resorting to force can only bring disastrous consequences.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson echoed the idea that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is "the most tense and dangerous peace and security issue in the world today."
However, he clearly backtracked from previous remarks about beginning talks with the DPRK "without any preconditions."
"A sustained cessation of North Korea's threatening behavior must occur before talks can begin," he said, adding that the DPRK "must earn its way back to the table."
South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, who also spoke at the session, said that the DPRK is "indeed in the final stages of nuclear weaponization."
He urged the international community to "grasp the gravity and urgency of the North Korean threat" and find ways to halt its nuclear program and bring it back to the path of denuclearization.
In the face of repeated expressions of concern over the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the DPRK's UN representative Ja Song Nam reiterated in an angry tone that the country's possession of nuclear weapons "was an inevitable self-defensive measure" to counter the U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail.
He called the meeting "a desperate measure plotted by the U.S. being terrified by the incredible might of our republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 00:37:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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MOGADISHU, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Several senior Al-Shabaab militants were killed in a drone strike on the outskirts of the coastal city of Kismayo in southern Somalia.
A military official who prefers not to be named said several strikes hit an Al-Shabaab base in Berhani location, some 60 km south of Kismayo, killing several senior militants.
Residents of Berhani location said there were huge explosions early hours of Saturday.
"We heard huge explosions and the earth was shaking. We are told Al-Shabaab base was hit by American drones," a resident said.
"The strike hit the base where the militants were meeting leading to several casualties," the military officer from the Somalia National Army said but did not indicate any figures.
There is no official confirmation from the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) yet. Africom, which has been using drones to attack Al-Shabaab and the Islamic State (IS), carried out at least ten strikes in southern and northern Somalia in November.
The strike came barely a week after another hit a minivan suspected to be ferrying explosives in Lower Shabelle region.
Somalia's defense minister Mohamed Ali Haga told journalists on Friday the country needed more U.S. drone strikes to counter the militant groups in the country as African Union forces begin to exit the country this month.
"The Somali security sector is still disorganized. And we need more drone strikes because a drone can strike the snake in the head."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 01:12:50|Editor: Yurou
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TEHRAN, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday dismissed as "baseless" the U.S. allegations that Tehran supplies missiles to Yemeni Shiite Houthis, Press TV reported.
"In an attempt to cover up its presence in the region and its measures which can mostly amount to war crimes, the United States raises baseless allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran by displaying a piece of metal," Zarif told reporters on Saturday.
On Thursday, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley appeared standing before parts of a ballistic missile that she claimed Iran delivered to Houthis, which was fired at Saudi Arabia's Riyadh airport last month.
Zarif said such claims aimed to deflect attention from U.S. complicity in the crimes committed in the Middle East, particularly in Yemen, and from U.S. President Donald Trump's "very dangerous move" to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Washington has made such allegations against Iran while it provided Saudi Arabia with cluster bombs that kill Yemeni civilians, and supported the Saudi's blockade on the impoverished country, Zarif was quoted as saying.
What is clear is that American bombs are being dropped on the Yemeni people and "this is a fact that no one can conceal," he added.
Also, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri on Saturday denounced as "absurd" the remarks made by Haley about Iran's missile support for Yemen.
"This person's comments have their roots in her lack of understanding of military issues," Jazayeri said.
"If the Americans had been informed of the high level of the Yemeni resistance's missile technology, they would have refused to make such absurd comments," he was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.
The chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said in November that the Islamic republic provides "advisory assistance" for Yemeni Houthi militants.
Tehran has denied arming Iranian-allied Shiite Houthis against the Saudi-led coalition which seeks to restore President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was ousted by Houthis in September 2014.
The Saudi-led coalition has said in a statement that Iran was to blame for a recent Yemeni missile strike on Riyadh, which Iran dismissed categorically.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 01:32:52|Editor: Yurou
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TRIPOLI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Libya's eastern-based House of Representatives (Parliament) member Abu-Bakr Saeed said Saturday the parliament's next session will face obstacles to amend political agreement.
The parliament decided to hold an official session on Tuesday to discuss the UN-proposed amendment of the political agreement and appointment of a new governor to the Central Bank.
The inclusion of political agreement into the constitutional declaration faces dispute and may not receive the required majority voting, Saeed posted in his official Facebook page on Saturday.
Saeed said that choosing a new governor for the Central Bank will also face obstacles.
"Some believe it is necessary for the appointment mechanism to be according to the political agreement. However, others see that voting on a new governor can be done, as the political agreement is still subject to dispute," he said.
Saeed added that there are logistic issues that could hinder the scheduled session "as more than 50 members were not issued travel tickets to Tubrug (the Parliament's headquarter) from Tripoli. The Parliament is still trying to solve this problem."
The UN Mission has recently sponsored dialogue meetings in Tunisia between representatives of the Libyan political parties in order to amend the political agreement.
The first stage of an action plan proposed by the UN envoy to Libya in September aimed at ending the political division in the country.
Following the uprising of 2011 that toppled former Gaddafi's regime, Libya has been struggling to make a democratic transition amid political division, insecurity and chaos.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 01:32:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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by Olatunji Saliu
ABUJA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Leaving the city of Benin where he had lived all his life in southern Nigeria last year to seek greener pasture, Harrison Okotie had a strong conviction that wealth and opportunities were waiting for him at his destination in Europe.
Okotie left behind everything he had, including his wife and two kids, harboring the hope of returning home with enough money to take care of his family.
His dangerous dream saw him traveling through Agadez, where the desert journey from Africa to Europe usually begins, without food and water.
Soon as he arrived Libya, reality dawned on him and other travelers who trekked to the north African country, seen as a gateway for illegal migrants to enter Europe.
"We were greeted with inhuman treatments. I realized very quickly that there's no place like home," Okotie told reporters upon arrival in Nigeria, as he rued his "hellish experience" in Libya.
"I will never in my life think of leaving my country again. Whether there is work or no work, I will stay here and manage with my family."
The 35 years old is one of the thousands of Nigerians who voluntarily returned home recently with the assistance from the Nigerian government and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN agency, following exposure of harsh conditions in detention camps where African migrants had been held in Libya.
Scores of Nigerians travel to Libya daily with the hope of landing in Europe on often deadly boat trips through the Mediterranean.
Though some made their ways to Italy, many are trapped in Libya and even sold as slaves, according to recent media reports that sent shockwaves across Africa.
Thousands of Nigerians are still stranded in Libya, living in terrible conditions in detention camps, with many desirous of the opportunity to return home.
Not a few of the returnees have alleged that they were sold at the Libya slave auction market.
Reuben Obi, one of the lucky returnees, said he made the decision to leave Nigeria early this year when he had no one to sponsor him to school.
Narrating his experience, Obi recounted how he had escaped death in the Mediterranean and spent six months in a Libyan prison.
"Before leaving Nigeria, my mother, who could have helped me, died due to a stomach problem. I had no other means and I decided to use the little money I saved to travel through the land. I left with no place in mind; I was looking at Germany or Italy to do any work that comes my way."
"There is plenty of stress and disaster while traveling to Libya by road. In addition to this, my boat capsized and many people were carried away by water. I was one of the people rescued by local fishermen and was later arrested. I was in prison for six months in Libya before being taken to a deportation camp," he said.
For most of the migrants, their ordeals began with local travel agents who often led them through the desert before handing them over to their Libyan collaborators in exchange for money.
Alex Otoide, another Nigerian returnee from Libya, told Xinhua he witnessed how 25 Nigerians, who were ferried from Nigeria to Libya by a trafficker, perished in the Sahara Desert.
Otoide said seven members of the group he traveled with also died inside a Libyan jail, noting there were 55 in the group.
"Those seven people died from hunger and thirst inside the prison," he said. "They (the traffickers) sold about 20 girls in the night. I saw it all," he said.
Earlier last month, Nigerian officials confirmed 26 Nigerian citizens dead in the Mediterranean while traveling to Italy from Libya. Two suspects, an Egyptian and a Libyan, were immediately arrested by Italian investigators.
Last week, the Nigerian government said it had identified 2,778 of its citizens languishing in detention camps in Libya.
As the identification exercise continues, those that were already identified were issued emergency travel certificates, the Nigerian foreign ministry said. The Nigerian government has vowed to make the repatriation a continuous exercise.
Meanwhile, the IOM said many Nigeria returnees from Libya had psychiatric issues.
Noting up to 4,500 irregular Nigerian migrants had returned from Libya between January and November, head of the global organization in Nigeria, Enira Krdzalic, said the number of deaths and those suffering exploitation and abuse along the central Mediterranean migration route is at an alarming rate.
"Crossing the Mediterranean is by far the deadliest route, with one death recorded for 35 arrivals. European statistics show that the amount of migrants from West Africa in migration flows to Europe have continued to increase, despite the perilous conditions of making the journey irregularly," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 02:12:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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KHARTOUM, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Saturday held joint talks in Khartoum on the sidelines of the NCP's Annual Conference of Thought which kicked off sessions here Saturday.
Kamal-Eddin Ismail, chairman of the NCP's external relations department, chaired his party side to the talks, while Vice-Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Li Jun, chaired the CPC party's side.
"We have reviewed the means for developing the joint cooperation relations between the two parties," Ismail told reporters following the talks.
"We have agreed on all the proposed issues at all levels together with the future projects at the political and economic frameworks and others," he noted.
Vice-Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Li Jun told reporters that "the talks summarized the valuable experiences in the relations of the two parties since their establishment more than 15 years ago."
"We have exchanged viewpoints on the future cooperation between the two parties and next year's program," Li added.
He went on saying that "I think the NCP and the CPC, as ruling parties, must reactivate the cooperation and exchange of experiences to play the role of the political leadership to enhance the official ties between the two countries as well as the cooperation in all fields."
Li is leading the CPC delegation to the annual conference, which opened in Khartoum ON Saturday with participation of representatives of China, Vietnam, Tunisia, Morocco and Ethiopia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 02:38:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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VALLETTA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Malta's government on Saturday denied local media reports claiming involvement of officials in facilitating the smuggling the allegedly Europe-wide operation.
The government issued a statement to deny Times of Malta's report, which is entitled "Maltese authorities may have helped traffickers".
It said that after weeks of police investigations with the assistance of Identity Malta, which uncovered this case of human trafficking, the government can confirm there were no public officials involved.
It is to be noted that Ukrainian nationals do not need a visa to travel to Malta and therefore they did not need any help from local authorities to conduct their illegal activities.
"The results obtained in this investigation show that Maltese authorities are functioning well and responding in a timely manner to any abuse of the system," the government said in the statement.
People wear chains and shout slogans during a demonstration against the slave trade and human trafficking in Libya on Dec. 12, 2017. (AFP photo)
TRIPOLI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- A recent CNN report about markets of African migrant slave has drown regional and international criticism, which might eventually lead to the international community intervening in Libya to protect the rights of stranded migrants.
"The migration of Africans through Libya cannot be eradicated. It can only be managed and its negative effects can be treated," Col. Zayed Arhoumah, a former associate of the Libyan anti-illegal immigration department, told Xinhua.
European and African leaders decided to make "emergency deportations from Libya" for migrants, who are victims of human trafficking, to their countries of origin.
Arhoumah said the Europeans opposed a plan to forcibly deport migrants from Libya. "They even demanded Libya not to forcibly deport migrants," pointing out a "great contradiction" that the actual process showed deportation of migrants "forcibly, not voluntarily."
"The international community is completely untrue in its intentions," he said.
According to the plan announced by French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the Euro-African summit in Abidjan in November, work will also be on dismantling smuggling networks and freezing bank accounts of smugglers, provided that the African Union will set up a committee to investigate allegations of migrants slave markets in Libya.
The plan adopted by France did not specify the timing and mechanisms for the evacuation.
Ayob Qassem, spokesman of the Libyan navy, said the French plan was suspicious and might lead to military intervention under the pretext of protecting migrants.
"We are afraid of any international action or intervention, even if limited. France was supposed to support international organizations to deport them, protect Libya's southern borders, and close borders of Libya's neighboring countries such as Chad and Niger, especially with its military presence in these countries," Qassem said.
"Any international initiatives that do not pressure Libya's neighboring countries, which are the basis of immigration to us, should be rejected. Frankly, France has a suspicious role in Africa, especially as immigrants depart publicly from Chad and Niger, where it has the necessary military force to stop their flow to us," Qassem added.
France has tried to reduce fears of military action in Libya, but stressed that an African force should carry out the task of deporting migrants.
"There will be no French military intervention," French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said in a press statement last week, stressing the importance of an African military force capable of intervening, for which France and the European Union would provide intelligence and technical support.
"Libya is in a state of chaos, and there is a responsibility," Griveaux said. "Today, people are dying. These initiatives should have been taken in European context."
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, confirmed that there was no military branch of the working group formed on the sidelines of the Euro-African summit on Libya. She pointed out that the group's mission was only to carry out rapid evacuations of a large number of migrants abused in Libya.
Fears still exist despite the European Union's words, as Libya worries that the French president's plan to deport migrants might escalate to a military intervention.
Jalal Al-Fituri, a law professor in Libya, said any process of deporting migrants from Libya will face "logistical and military challenges, which should not be overlooked at all."
"The French plan is very complex. Practically, no part of it can be implemented, because Europe will face a significant challenge on what forces would implement the plan within the politically divided Libya," Al-Fituri said.
"In best case scenario, no Libyan force will be able to confront smuggling networks that have more weapons than an entire army. Therefore, Europe and France in particular will consider sending special units to facilitate access to immigration detention centers outside the control of authorities," Al-Fituri explained.
Khalid Turjuman, chairman of the Libyan National Action Group, questioned the France's intentions and abilities to implement such a plan, describing it as a "maneuver between European parties."
France has a foothold in southern Libya, and any movement there is predictable and not excluded, Turjuman said.
He described the French desire to move in Libya as an "attempt to take advantage of the political stalemate and to place Paris in as important figure in Europe."
"I wonder how a migrant from Africa can afford their risky trip, which costs about 3,000 U.S. dollars," Turjuman asked, saying that this amount can already earn them a decent life in their countries of origins.
"Who enabled smuggling gangs to fund their activities in Libya, to finance their operations in favor of foreign intelligence, after the gangs' sources of their funding from the treasury of the Libyan state was cut?" he said.
CNN published a report recently of auctions in different parts of Libya, where stranded African migrants were sold as slaves for as little as 400 U.S. dollars.
The alleged slave trade in Libya was condemned regionally and internationally. International organizations expressed concern for the violations against migrants in Libya.
Turjuman said the solution to illegal migration is to "support the Libyan army to eliminate, or at least limit the flow of illegal immigration."
Arhoumah believes that solutions are possible, beginning with a solid security initiative and plan, and unification of anti-illegal immigration agencies in the east and west of Libya, in order unite all possibilities available to help deport migrants.
"Between 1992 and 1994, we were repatriating migrants to Algeria via Ghadames border. We did not allow them to come back. They were quickly brought from the country they entered from as soon as they arrived in Libyan territory. Therefore, control over our southern borders must be strengthened. As long as our doors are open to immigrants, they will not stop coming," Arhoumah said.
Nevertheless, it is viewed that regardless of the type and form of international intervention in Libya to resolve the crisis of stranded migrants, the way to carry out any humanitarian or military action will face great challenges, as Libya is politically divided.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 03:33:09|Editor: Yurou
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French President Emmanuel Macron (C, Front) reacts with the panda cub Yuan Meng at Beauval zoo in Saint-Aignan, central France, on Dec. 16, 2017. French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday visited Yuan Meng, the country's first-ever panda cub, while he was celebrating his 40th birthday with family at Beauval zoo, the zoo said in a statement. (Xinhua/Beauval zoo)
PARIS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday visited Yuan Meng, the country's first-ever panda cub, while he was celebrating his 40th birthday with family at Beauval zoo in central France, the zoo said in a statement.
"The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron came to celebrate his 40th birthday at the ZooParc de Beauval, with his family, during a private visit ... to Yuan Meng, the baby panda godson of Brigitte Macron," the zoo added.
During a naming ceremony on Dec. 4, French First Lady, new panda's godmother, announced with Chinese officials that the four-month-old cub's name was Yuan Meng which means "dream comes true" in Chinese.
Born on Aug. 4, the baby panda had been called as "Mini Yuan Zi", referring to his father Yuan Zi, who arrived with his female partner Huan Huan in central France's Beauval zoo in January 2012.
The panda baby, who will return home at the age of three, can be seen by visitors to the zoo as of Jan. 13.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 03:58:12|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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DOHA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Qatar has achieved great developments in the manufacturing sector in spite of the ongoing blockade by its Gulf neighbors, said a minister on Saturday.
Qatar's Minister of Energy and Industry Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada made the remarks on the sidelines of the industrial exhibition known as "Made in Qatar."
Qatar has witnessed a large amount of investment in its manufacturing sector, indicating the Gulf country's balanced and sustainable industrial development amid the ongoing crisis in the region, the minister said.
The latest statistics showed that the manufacturing sector increased by 1.2 percent year on year during the second quarter of 2017.
"The manufacturing sector has become one of the most attractive investment opportunities in Qatar following the new legislation which facilitates the process and provides investors with more incentives," Sada said.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates imposed a blockade on Qatar on June 5, and severed diplomatic and transport links, accusing the country of supporting extremist groups and Iranian-backed Shiite militants. Qatar denies the charge.
Ever since the economic blockade, Doha has adjusted its economic strategy, especially in its industrial sector, in an attempt to make it self-sufficient and self-reliant.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 04:18:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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KIGALI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame was on Saturday re-elected as chairperson of the ruling party Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) for the next five-year term.
Party delegates from within and outside the country elected RPF's National Executive Committee, the party's leadership, which includes chairman, vice chairman, secretary general and 22 commissioners, on the last day of the three-day RPF national congress.
Kagame garnered 2,340 out of 2,342 total votes after two voters abstained during the congress held in RPF's headquarters in Kigali, capital of Rwanda.
RPF's current vice chairperson Christophe Bazivamo and its Secretary General Francois Ngarambe were also re-elected.
After being re-elected, Kagame thanked delegates for their trust.
The congress has been an occasion for the party to recommit to attaining the country's transformation agenda, said Kagame.
He said those elected come from different age brackets, especially the young ones.
"We are empowering our youth by charging them with more responsibilities. Their contribution should define the history of our country for more decades to come," he said.
Secretary General Ngarambe outlined RPF's program for the next two years during last day's congress.
Ngarambe said more effort will be put in the fight against poverty, establishment of basic infrastructure in industrial areas, promotion of tourism, accessibility of fertilizers and affordable housing.
The three-day national congress that kicked off Thursday also saw a panel discussion on shaping Rwanda for global challenges and opportunities, reviewing party's achievements and revising party statute.
The congress is part of the activities to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the RPF.
Formed in 1979 by Rwandan refugees in exile, the Rwandese Alliance for National Unity became the RPF in 1987. In 1994, RPF took power and ended the Rwandan genocide, which claimed about 1 million lives.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 05:48:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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TRIPOLI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Libya and Morocco on Saturday signed an agreement to deport 236 illegal Moroccan immigrants who were on a hunger strike, an official said.
"Representatives of the Moroccan embassy to Libya visited a reception center in the capital Tripoli today and completed official procedures for the migrants at the center to be deported to Morocco next week," Husni Abu-Ayana, head of the media office of Tripoli's anti-illegal immigration department, told Xinhua.
"The delay of the procedures does not concern the Libyan side. Security checks by the Moroccan authorities were taken because a large number of Moroccans were involved in terrorist operations in the cities of Sirte and Sabratha," Abu-Ayana added.
The deportation process will be part of the voluntary return program of the International Organization for Migration, Abu-Ayana revealed.
The Moroccan immigrants started a hunger strike in November in protest over delayed repatriation to Morocco.
Libya is a major departure point for illegal migrants wanting to cross the Mediterranean towards European shores, due to the insecurity and chaos in the North African nation.
The International Organization for Migration in Libya said that about 17,000 illegal immigrants were voluntarily deported from Libya to their countries of origin this year so far.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 05:48:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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TRIPOLI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- National Council on U.S.-Libya Relations on Saturday delivered demining equipment to the eastern city of Benghazi which is suffering from landmines planted by extremist groups.
"The municipality of Benghazi on Saturday received a number of demining equipment presented by the National Council on U.S.-Libya Relations. The equipment were immediately handed over to Benghazi's representative of the military engineering department," the municipal council of Benghazi said in a statement.
"This comes under the agreement signed in August by Chancellor Abdulrahman Alabbar, mayor of Benghazi, with the National Council on U.S.-Libya Relations regarding providing necessary assistance of equipment used in landmine detection, in order to reduce the risk and damage of mines in the city," the statement added.
Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and the birthplace of the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi, has witnessed a three-year war between the army led by General Khalifa Haftar and extremist groups.
Haftar announced earlier in June taking over the entire city of Benghazi and defeating the rival armed groups, however, some militants still remain in the city and mainly use landmines.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-17 05:58:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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SANTIAGO, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- At least two people died and another eight were missing after a landslide hit near the city of Chaiten in southern Chile, the government said Saturday.
"There are two dead people, a 35-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman, and eight missing people, a policeman and seven civilians, as a result of the landslide," said deputy minister of the interior, Mahmud Aleuy.
He added that three others were hurt in the incident and that they were being treated at hospitals in Chaiten.
The tragedy happened on Saturday morning in the small village of Villa Santa Lucia, with 160 inhabitants, around 90 km from Chaiten.
Aleuy said that due to intense rains, a landslide happened at 9:10 a.m. on the side of a hill, hitting about 20 homes.
"Excessive rain, 122 millimeters in 12 hours, with unusually high temperatures. There was no river flooding, what happened was excessive rain," added the minister.
The Chilean airforce has dispatched two helicopters to search for signs of the disappeared.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet expressed her concern about the tragedy and said that rescue efforts were under way.
"I am very worried by the situation...in Villa Santa Lucia. The government, through emergency protocols and organizations, is already working to attend to those affected," Bachelet said on Twitter.
300 Nigerian doctors left the country in 2016, the national president also of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Mike Ogirima, has revealed.
He said more doctors have joined the migration train this year. He did not give any statistics, although 500 doctors sat for qualifying foreign medical examination preparing to move out.
Mr. Ogirima made this revelation at the associations National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held on Thursday in Lagos.
An estimated 35,000 Nigerian doctors are practising abroad, out of the 72,000 registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.
The United Kingdom and the United States are the top destinations of the migrant doctors.
In August, an official of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Abimbola Olajide, revealed that no fewer than 2,500 doctors would leave the country this year.
Nigeria is using her resources to train doctors and professionals at the advantage of foreign countries.What are those things attracting these professionals outside? Can we duplicate those things here? Mr. Ogirima asked.
The NMA president said the responsibility to check the migration lies with the government, the people and professionals to provide good working environment.
Mr. Ogirima said, The government should provide adequate remuneration. We are not saying we should pay so much, but pay them for the job they are doing as at when due.
We, on our part as professionals should look inward to change our attitude to patients. We should make patients as the Centre focus of why we are called doctors.
He said the National Health Act of 2014 has not been fully implemented despite warnings of legal action and its implications from the NMA.
According to him, the act holds the key to revolutionising the health industry.
It will encourage provision of additional fund to the system and ensure care of the vulnerable in the society.
The present provision of only three to four per cent of our annual budget to health sector is not helping the development of our system.
Some African countries who have voted up to 15 per cent or more to their health systems are witnessing gradual improvement in their health sector.
Nigerians are now patronising health facilities in our neighbouring countries, he said. (NAN)
Also, the Commissioner for Housing, Lagos State, Gbolahan Lawal, urged NMA to create sustainable policies that would make major economic impact on Nigerians.
Mr. Lawal said, If we consider informal housing, that is, houses that do not have the approval of government and located in slum areas, and the consequences, it has a lot to do with health.
The government already has building code that does not allow for houses not good for human habitat, he said.
The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) commended Morocco for its sound macroeconomic policies and reforms while stressing the need for structural reform efforts.
Executive Directors commended the authorities for the sound macroeconomic policies and reform implementation that have helped improve the resilience of the Moroccan economy, upgrade the fiscal and financial policy frameworks, and increase economic diversification, the IMF said in a statement at the end of the 2017 Article IV Consultation with Morocco.
To consolidate the gains achieved and promote higher and more inclusive growth, Directors underscored the need to maintain sound fiscal and monetary policies and to step up structural reform efforts, supported by measures to strengthen the social safety net, the statement said.
The directors also welcomed the resumption of fiscal consolidation to ensure debt sustainability, supported efforts to control spending on wages and goods and services and agreed that continued fiscal consolidation should benefit from a comprehensive approach to tax reforms, aiming to broaden the tax base and promote greater equity and simplicity.
They also highlighted that Moroccos banking sector remains sound and well capitalized, but stressed the need to remain vigilant.
The IMF directors commended Bank Al Maghrebs continued efforts to increase supervisory capacity in line with 2015 Financial Sector Assessment Program recommendations, including more risk based and forward looking supervision and tighter provisioning requirements.
The Fund noted that economic growth has picked up in 2017 and is expected to reach 4.4 percent, mostly driven by a significant rebound in agricultural activity while non-agricultural activity remains subdued, adding that Moroccos medium-term prospects remain favorable, with growth expected to reach 4.5 percent by 2021.
The IMF also highlighted Moroccos continued efforts to improve the business environment, strengthen good governance, and increase womens participation in the labor force, the statement concluded.
US has lifted a ban on citrus fruits originating from the fields of the eastern Moroccan region of Berkane, which was imposed on December 23, 2016, the National Food Safety Authority (ONSSA) said.
The resumption of US imports of Berkanes citrus was based on the results of an inspection conducted by US experts from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) last October 16-20.
The inspection showed an improvement of the production conditions of Berkanes citrus, including tangerine, clementine, mandarin, and sweet orange fruits.
The suspension of imports of citrus shipments from Berkane was taken in December 2016 due to the detection by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of live Medfly on commercial consignments of clementines (Citrus reticulata).
Exports of Berkanes clementine until December 7, 2017 hit 13,585 tons to Russia, 10,600 tons to Europe, 3.443 tons to Canada and 312 tons to other destinations, i.e. a total of 27,930 tons.
Moroccan authorities continued their unabated crackdown on terrorists in 2017 with the busting of nine terror cells and the arrest of 189 extremists and 20 returning foreign fighters.
These figures were revealed by the chief of Moroccos counter-terrorism agency, the Central Bureau for Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), Abdelhak Khiame who said that the total number of terrorist cells dismantled in Morocco since the creation of the BCIJ in 2015 amounted to 49 cells plotting to carry out attacks across the Kingdom.
The Moroccan counter-terrorism success story is largely ascribed to a comprehensive approach, Khiame said in an interview with the Moroccan news agency.
Speaking in a global context marked by the defeat of IS in Iraq and Syria, Khiame warned of the threats posed by returning battle-hardened foreign fighters, noting that Morocco has since 2015 arrested 92 Moroccans who went for Jihad outside Moroccan borders, notably in the Middle East conflict zones and Libya.
Khiame also underscored the transborder character of terrorism, which requires close regional cooperation. In this regards, he said that Morocco cooperates with countries in Europe and the region to the exception of Algeria, which remains unwilling to collaborate regardless of the common-challenges threatening regional peace and stability.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley playing one of Americas greatest hits on Thursday. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
When U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday presented what she claimed was irrefutable evidence that Iran had supplied a missile launched at the Saudi Arabian capital by Houthi rebels in Yemen last month, it was hard not to recall the last time an American diplomat stood before the U.N. with evidence that a rogue Middle Eastern state was engaged in proliferation of dangerous weapons.
As it turned out, thensecretary of State Colin Powells 2003 speech explaining the Bush administrations rationale for going to war with Iraq was based on lies and fabrications, and, of course, Iran says Haleys evidence is fabricated as well. Irans proxy relationship with the Houthis is well-known, but the U.N. itself is not as sure as the U.S. seems to be that the two short-range ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis were Iranian-made, while some experts suspect Saudi Arabia of overstating Irans meddling in Yemen, the better to justify its own.
For missiles that (as Haley put it) might as well have Made in Iran stickers on them to literally fall into Saudi Arabias lap is mighty convenient for Saudi Arabias efforts to paint Iran as Mideast menace No. 1. Are we sure were not letting ourselves get dragged into an ill-advised Saudi scheme for a decisive confrontation with their regional rival? Haleys claim that Iran is violating U.N. resolutions via its Yemeni proxy is a good deal more credible than Powells yarn about Saddam Hussein buying yellowcake uranium from Niger. Nonetheless, the conspiracy theory that the Saudis made the whole thing up will find an audience in the Middle Easts already-weaponized fake news environment.
Also complicating Haleys claim that Iranian weapons are turning up in war zones across the region or at least the moral authority of the United States to complain about that is that our weapons and those of our allies tend to do the same, both intentionally and otherwise. It is a little hypocritical to demagogue against Iran for backing its preferred factions in the Yemeni civil war while Saudi Arabia besieges and bombs that country with Washingtons backing, the weapons the U.S. dumps in Syria and Iraq keep ending up in the hands of extremists, and private Saudi money funds at least as many jihadists across the Middle East as Irans Revolutionary Guard does.
But what really makes Haleys speech reminiscent of Powells is that the latter was a crucial step toward war, whereas the former, well, could be.
With the support of their Cold War allies, Saudi Arabia and Iran have been engaged in a regional cold war of their own for some time, which has had few benefits for either side but has resulted in a tremendous amount of death and suffering throughout the Middle East. Lately, Saudi Arabia and its frenemy Israel have been ramping up their rhetoric on the threat Iran poses to the region, suggesting (but not quite saying) that it might be time to turn this cold war hot. Haley said the U.S. intended to build a coalition to really push back against Iran but is it a coalition of the willing?
On its own, Haleys presentation might read as an argument for renegotiating the agreement over Irans nuclear program or reinforcing international sanctions against the country, but taken with everything that has gone on in the past few months, it is not outside the realm of possibility that the Trump administration is gearing up for a direct military engagement with Iran, with the U.S. serving as a bridge for awkward partners Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was an outspoken critic of the Iran deal and the Obama administrations overall effort at rapprochement with Iran, and has long advocated for an international coalition to deprive Iran of the means of producing a nuclear weapon, by force if necessary. Israeli right-wingers like Naftali Bennett are loudly complaining of Iranian aggression through proxies like Hezbollah and its presence in Syria. Now that ISIS is on the retreat in Iraq, U.S. diplomacy there is shifting toward a new priority: containing Iranian influence. Saudi Arabia has been vying with Iran for influence in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Palestine for many years now, and recently has taken to planting anti-Iran propaganda in publications as prestigious as The Atlantic, along with stunts like having Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri fly to Saudi Arabia to resign his office, citing Iranian threats on his life, then later withdraw his resignation. Even Frances foreign minister says Iran is trying to create an axis of influence from its western border to the Mediterranean Sea.
This all sounds a bit like a group of countries laying the groundwork for war with Iran. Compounding the suspicion that a U.S.Iran conflict is in the cards is that the administration has identified checking Iranian expansionism as a goal of its Middle East policy. President Donald Trump decertified the nuclear deal in October, opening the door for Congress to either fix it, rescind it, or kick the can right back to him. Preoccupied with robbing the poor to pay the rich, Congress chose the third option and let its deadline pass. The ball is now back in Trumps court, where he may effectively cancel the agreement at any time by re-imposing sanctions. The increasing marginalization of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has been trying to uphold the agreement, may show which way the wind is blowing.
Trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and reaffirm plans to move the U.S. embassy there was also seen as a sign that the regional coalition against Iran has already formed up. Even though critics of the move rightly observed that it would make it more politically challenging for Arab leaders to join an American-Israeli alliance against Iran, the cynical (and, unfortunately, probably correct) view is that these leaders will voice outrage at Trumps provocation but do little else, and will fall in line with U.S. policy priorities when the time comes.
Little wonder, then, that the International Crisis Group is warning of a high risk that the U.S. and Iran come to blows over the Yemen conflict. Its not entirely clear how the Trump administration would juggle full-scale wars with both Iran and North Korea. Nor can we predict exactly how Russia, other regional actors like Turkey, or the various non-state actors and terrorist groups of the Middle East would respond to a march toward war with Iran. Hell, we dont even know if the Trump administration is gunning for that outcome, but it sure looks like it.
Ed Murray. Photo: Wyoming Secretary of States Office
When Ed Murray, Wyomings secretary of state, was a young lawyer at a Cheyenne law firm he sexually assaulted a teenage intern, the woman claimed in a Facebook post this week.
A Republican weighing a run for governor, Murray denied the allegations, which he called baseless and unequivocally false. In a statement released Thursday night, he said, There is no basis to this falsehood whatsoever and it is deeply hurtful to me and to my family, as well as to everyone I serve.
Tatiana Maxwell says she was just out of high school when she met Murray, whos five years her senior. In a Facebook post detailing the alleged assault, Maxwell writes that Murray invited her to hang out after-hours at the law office one night. He made a pass at her and she rejected him, but Murray, she said, told her he couldnt resist. Ed wrestled me down to the carpet in front of the receptionist desk, opened his pants, lifted up my blouse and ejaculated on my stomach, Maxwell writes.
#MeToo For over 35 years, Ive had this on my mind. I told close friends about the incident at the time and my then... Posted by Tatiana Maxwell on Monday, December 11, 2017
She adds that Murray brought up the incident at their 10- and 20-year high-school reunions, both times apologizing but also suggesting that Maxwell was irresistible and he couldnt control himself.
Maxwell writes that she had previously only told friends and her husband about Murrays assault. Its hard to find the moment, she said in an interview with the Jackson Hole News & Guide. Thats why you maybe only share it with your closest friends. And it feels icky. All those uncomfortable traumatic feelings come back. So thats what makes it difficult.
Murray is considered a front-runner for the Republican nomination for governor in Wyoming despite winning his first election just three years ago. And though Maxwell is a frequent donor to Democratic causes, she now lives in Colorado and told the Casper Star Tribune that she didnt know Murray was considering higher office until reporters told her.
It supersedes politics, she told the paper. Its about human behavior. Its about right and wrong, and its about standing up for women.
Photo: CBS
Its time to look back, folks. To look back on all of the memes we Googled because we thought they were funny, or sad, or heard a young person talking about them and had no clue what was going on during 2017. Google Trends rolled out its annual data report this week. Here are the top ten most-Googled memes of 2017.
10: Hot Dog Meme
Snapchats best and most infamous filter of the year. Its a hot dog, wearing headphones, who break-dances to a catchy little tune. Honestly, Im not sure why you people were even Googling this. Its that simple to explain. Hot dog. Headphones. Break-dancing.
9: Game of Thrones Meme
This could be so many things, and I could probably tell you more about them if I actually watched Game of Thrones. But based on Googles related-queries data, it seems like the most popular of the Thrones memes of 2017 involved a cameo appearance from one Ed Sheeran.
Ed Sheeran on #GoTS7...
The club isn't the best place to find a lover, so the Riverlands is where I go..." pic.twitter.com/0EvQHRODnN Aoife Mairead (@TriggerHippieTV) July 17, 2017
8: Joe Biden Meme
After Trump won the election, a new meme popped up involving imagined conversations between Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Biden wanted to prank the incoming administration, while Obama would, kindly, admonish him. Good for a laugh during a particularly grim time.
Biden: Ok here's the plan: have you seen Home Alone
Obama: Joe, no
Biden: Just one booby trap
Obama: Joe pic.twitter.com/IDTc2L1sKF Dean E. S. Richard (@deanfortythree) November 11, 2016
7: It Meme
Stephen Kings terrifying novel It got the big-screen treatment this year, but the meme winner wasnt from the 2017 version of the story. Instead, a screenshot of Its Pennywise the Clown in a sewer from the 1990 made-for-TV mini-series adaptation got a new life as a viral, nightmare-inducing joke.
6: Romper Meme
A Kickstarter for a romper for men, a.k.a. a RompHim pause here to gag had a hot viral moment back in May. The campaign was a success and raised over $350,000. Also, there were approximately 350,000 memes.
5: SpongeBob Mocking Meme
This meme involves a still from a 2012 episode entitled Little Yellow Book, in which SpongeBob SquarePants acts like a chicken any time he sees something plaid. Five years later, and a whole lot of weird internet later, the clip became the ideal way to mock somebody.
the absolute most trash meme of 2k17 pic.twitter.com/AniwJCzYbU Ovais Sheikh (@OvaisBowss) May 8, 2017
4: What in Tarnation Meme
A combination of a reference to My Little Pony, the cast of which includes a pony named Applejack, whose catchphrase is What in tarnation, and a picture of a Shiba Inu wearing a cowboy hat, which circulated Tumblr at the beginning of 2017. The joke was easy: Just put a cowboy hat on something and caption it What in tarnation. Bonus points for wordplay.
WHAT IN STANDARD DEVIATION pic.twitter.com/lcmMmZYqyt Drew (@drew_gustafson) February 25, 2017
3: Elf on the Shelf Meme
Elf on the Shelf is a horrifying childrens toy that parents can position around their house during the holiday season under the guise that the elf is always watching. Thus, kids should behave. Its creepy. This meme played on the Elf on the Shelf rhyme scheme. Shrek on a deck. Cat on a mat. You get the idea.
Youve heard of Elf on the Shelf,
now get ready for pic.twitter.com/kY7JGnS42d A Ward (@crosswardpuzzle) September 14, 2017
2: United Airlines Meme
After crew members violently dragged a passenger off of an overbooked flight when he refused to give up his seat, United Airlines doubled down and acted like everything was fine. The companys CEO referred to the incident as a passenger re-accommodation, and defended the crews reaction on the plane in a letter to employees. Twitter, however, didnt see it the same way.
1: Cash Me Outside Meme
If you dont know Danielle Bregoli and her infamous catchphrase Cash me outside, howbowdah by now what rock have you been living under, and can I join you there? The teen made a name for herself when she and her mother appeared on Dr. Phil to discuss the teens out of control behavior. (The episode was originally shown in 2016, but didnt reach peak virality until it was re-aired this year.) From there, Bregoli was everywhere. A record deal with Atlantic. Owning David Spade on Instagram. Pleading guilty to marijuana possession, grand theft, and filing a false police report.
Medics have recommended that presidential candidates as well as other leaders be subjected to full mental and physical examinations to ascertain their level of thinking, recognition of challenges and planning abilities to lead.
According to the medics under Uganda Medical Association (UMA), as an association, they are ready to offer the medical tests at no cost.
UMA was consulted by the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee to give their views on whether a 75-year-old person is physically and mentally fit enough to perform leadership roles.
This was in relation to the age limit bill expected to be tabled for the second and third reading in Parliament next week. The bill seeks to scrap presidential age limits currently capped between 35 and 75 years.
Speaker Rebecca Kadaga meeting with members of the Uganda Medical Association
Led by the UMA president Dr Anthony Obuku Ekwaro, the doctors said they had presented their report to the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee chairperson Jacob Oboth Oboth and a copy to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga as well.
The doctors met Kadaga at Parliament yesterday over unfulfilled commitments made by government last month in a trade-off for the doctors to call off their strike.
In their report, the doctors argue that subjecting leaders to mental and physical examination gives voters confidence on how well their leaders will reason and perform their tasks.
We are making an important recommendation that anybody who intends to lead this country and leadership anywhere should be mentally assessed as well as physical assessed and this should serve to all other leaders and we are ready to provide this service free of charge, Obuku said.
Obuku however said that as doctors, they do not have the authority to answer a political question like whether at 75 years, someone has the capacity to still perform effectively.
For us as scientists we are unlikely to have authority to answer such a political question and as we know, age is a spectrum, Obuku said.
We looked at the speed of information processing as one grows old, which reflects the efficiency of cognitive operations, attention as one grows old, the capacity for processing information with issues to do with memory and the executive functions like regulation of behavior among others, Obuku added.
Obuku noted that their role as doctors was to answer to a scientific question meant to empower parliamentarians to make a decision in regard to the age, but not giving a political answer on whether President Museveni at 75 years can or cannot lead.
In their report, Obuku said they also focused on reasoning abilities, language function, and intelligence among other things.
We have however concluded that following the scientific evidences available, people aspiring for highest office in the land should be subjected to tests, he said.
Uganda Medical Association meets Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to brief her about the recent #DoctorsStrike and pending issues ? @bamulanzeki pic.twitter.com/96JcJSYGiC The Observer (@observerug) December 14, 2017
namuloki16@gmail.com
The Trump administration is considering revoking an Obama-era rule that extends work authorisation to the spouses of H-1B visa holders, a move that could affect thousands of Indian workers and their families.
Since 2015, the spouses of H-1B, or high-skilled, visa holders waiting for green cards have been eligible to work in the US on H-4 dependent visas, under a rule introduced by the previous Obama administration.
In 2016, more than 41,000 of H-4 visa holders were issued work authorisation. This year till June more than 36,000 H-4 visa holders were issued work authorisation.
The H-1B programme attracts foreign specialised workers to come to the United States for employment, many of them from India and China.
"DHS is proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorisation," said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a latest regulation.
According to the notice, the changes is being made in light of President Trump's 'Buy American and Hire American' order issued earlier this year.
According to CNN, while changing the rule wouldn't prevent spouses of H-1B holders from pursuing other avenues for work authorisation, it could deter a number of high-skilled immigrants from staying in the US if their spouses can't easily find work.
The Wall Street Journal said such a proposal dismayed supporters of the programme.
"This announcement places into jeopardy thousands of hardworking, contributing individuals who have started their own businesses and often have US citizen children who will needlessly be forced to revert to a status of inactivity," Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney who worked for the Obama administration, told the daily.
As well as dropping the rule allowing spouses to work, the Department of Homeland Security statement mentioned plans for other changes to the H-1B visa program.
They include revising the definition of what occupations are eligible for the program "to increase focus on truly obtaining the best and brightest foreign nationals", CNN said.
That would be a standard potentially far above what is currently understood under the law.
The Obama-era rule allowing spouses to work already faces a legal challenge. A group called Save Jobs USA filed a lawsuit in April 2015 arguing that it threatens American jobs.
The Trump administration's plans to overhaul the H-1B program has caused particular alarm in India, which accounts for 70 per cent of all H-1B workers.
The H-1B is a common visa route for highly skilled foreigners to find work at companies in the U.S. It's valid for three years, and can be renewed for another three years.
It's a program that's particularly popular in the tech community, with many engineers vying for one of the programme's 85,000 visas each year.
Imran Khan in-Jahangir Tareen out 16 December, 2017
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Hand Wash and Toiletries in Pakistan And the Role of DUPAS in Reshaping the Industry
Woke Bingo ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday partially rejected the petition of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi as it declared Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan cleared but disqualified Secretary General Jahangir Khan Tareen.
A three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Faisal Arab announced the verdict reserved on November 14, 2017, in a packed courtroom.
The court had to announce the verdict at 2:00 pm. However it was announced at 3:22 pm. Before announcing the verdict, the chief justice apologised for the delay, explaining that due to a mistake on one page, we had to go through the entire 250-page document.
The detailed verdict authored and read by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar held that Imran Khan was not liable to declare Niazi Services Ltd (NSL) in his 2013 nomination papers as he was not its shareholder. The verdict stated that Khan had submitted all the information sought by the court, however only a small amount from the money trail sent by Jemima Khan remained unaccounted for. With regard to Bani Gala property, the judgment states that Khan had purchased the land for his family.
The court ruled that Imran Khan was not disqualified as a parliamentarian as the petitioner was not directly affected in the foreign funding case. The verdict sates that Imran Khan was not bound to declare his offshore company as he had declared his London flat in an amnesty scheme and that his former spouse Jemima gave him (Imran) the funds for buying the Bani Gala property.
The verdict stresses the need for having honest leaders in the country. The states which are not governed by honest and upright people are bound to suffer and lag behind the developed nations of the world.
The court ruled that the ECP will impartially investigate the foreign funding claims against the PTI chief by scrutinising accounts of the last five years.
The verdict rejected the objection that the petition was filed by Abbasi in retaliation to the petition filed by Imran Khan against Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers case. We on the basis of the material on the record are not persuaded to hold that the petition is a counterblast to a similar kind of a petition filed by Imran Khan against Nawaz Sharif, or this is a proxy petition filed for the benefit of someone else, and it is tainted with mala fide and has been filed with ulterior motives, the judgment noted.
With regard to Tareen, the court stated that he had made a blatant misstatement before the highest judicial forum of the country by claiming that he had no beneficial interest in the trust arrangement which holds the SVL and the Hyde House while he was in fact a discretionary lifetime beneficiary along with his spouse. Thus, he is declared not to be an honest person in terms of the constitutional provisions and the provisions of ROPA.
In his concise statement Tareen in unequivocal, clear and unambiguous terms stated that he has no beneficial interest in the trust arrangement which holds the SVL and the Hyde House, however from the trust deed dated 5.5.2011, on which reliance has been placed by the respondent himself, he is the discretionary lifetime beneficiary along with his spouse and, therefore, this is a blatant misstatement on the part of the respondent made before the highest judicial forum of the country which is not a trait of an honest person. Consequently, on both the counts mentioned above, the respondent is declared not to be an honest person in terms of the constitutional provisions and the provisions of ROPA, therefore, he ceases to be the member of the Parliament having incurred the disqualification, the verdict held.
The verdict stated that Tareen had pleaded guilty to insider trading, adding that he used suspicious terms in his statements before the court. The judgment also stated that the court was not announcing its decision on Tareens agriculture land in the matter.
The verdict stated that Tareen had purchased shares in the name of his driver and cook Haji Khan and Allah Yar respectively, and thus, violated the provisions of Section 15-A of the Ordinance, 1969, the Ordinance, 1984 and other laws on the subject.
The verdict states that a persons honesty prior to his becoming a member of the national or a provincial assembly can be called in question only if he has accumulated wealth through fraud, embezzlement, bribery or tax evasion and has been so declared by a competent court of law.
And as far as his dishonesty with regard to the assets acquired after becoming a member of the National Assembly or a provincial assembly is concerned, the same can be scrutinized by the court in the proceedings in the nature of quo warranto which will determine whether a case for acquisition of assets beyond known sources of income is made out.
With regard to the petitioners allegations that PTI was a foreign aided party, the verdict held that it was the responsibility of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to look at the foreign funding case in detail. The court held that the ECP has a right to look into the foreign funds of any party over the span of last five years.
The petition was filed by PML-N MNA Hanif Abbasi in November 2016, accusing the PTI chairman and secretary general of not declaring their assets and offshore companies to the ECP and sought their disqualification based on alleged violations of the Income Tax Ordinance, 1979 and Representation of Peoples Act 1974, besides claiming that PTI was a foreign aided party.
According to estimates, the lawyers of the petitioner and the respondents had presented their arguments for about 102 hours in 52 hearings of the case.
Before announcement of the verdict, PTI members and supporters gathered outside the court to show solidarity with their party leaders. However neither Imran Khan nor Jahangir Tareen came to the court.
Petitioner Hanif Abbasi, State Minister for Information Maryam Aurangzeb and State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry and other members of PML-N were present in the courtroom.
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...
Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the American Authors Association
Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the Military Writers Society of America.
FORT EDWARD After Washington County nearly dropped its property insurance carrier, it got a deal it could not refuse: New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal offered a 16 percent reduction in the 2018 premium.
The supervisors accepted the new contract with NYMIR on Friday.
It will save the county $85,000, for a total premium of $432,000 next year.
It is the resolution to a controversy that began in February.
Hartford officials were stunned to learn then that they would not get the insurance coverage they had paid for on their most expensive vehicles.
Their big trucks last decades with good care, and so municipalities routinely insured them for the cost of replacing them. That way, in the wake of a fire or bad accident, they would be able to buy a new plow or dump truck.
But it turns out NYMIR accepted those cost-of-replacement payments without any intention of actually replacing old vehicles. They only cover the current market value of vehicles that are more than 10 years old.
In Hartford, that meant a 1993 plow that the town has rebuilt many times was not actually insured for $76,000, although thats the amount of coverage the town had bought for decades. If that truck were totaled tomorrow, NYMIR would write a check for about $2,500, said Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff.
He was furious when his highway superintendent who had been repeatedly asking NYMIR about the coverage found out that NYMIR has a 10-year replacement rule. The rule did not appear to be clearly explained to many officials in Washington County, who were all told by the same insurance broker that they could choose how much coverage they wanted to buy for each vehicle.
Officials said that when NYMIRs underwriters studied each new contract, they should have flagged the high payments. The difference in insurance cost for just one vehicle, the Hartford plow, was $268 per year versus $7.50 per year.
A month later, NYMIR offered to refund last years overpayments as a credit for the next year. The company gave Hartford a refund for the past five years of overpayments.
But supervisors were not appeased. NYMIR officials met with the board again in August, begging the county not to switch to a different insurance carrier. Washington County was one of the original founds of NYMIR. It started 25 years ago with Washington and Fulton counties, and Washington County supervisors sit on the NYMIR board.
Still, supervisors voted to go out to bid and entered into serious negotiations with another carrier. In the end, NYMIR was by far the lower bidder.
Thats what happens when you go out to bid sometimes, said Hebron Supervisor and Budget Officer Brian Campbell.
But Haff said NYMIR clearly offered a lower premium because of the overcharging controversy.
Who would voluntarily say, Guess what, you guys, were going to offer you a big discount? Haff said. Maybe they got a little nervous. We did look seriously at someone else.
Honda's all new electrified car, the Clarity Plug-in Hybrid, is making its debut at Zimmerman Honda in Moline.
The dealership's first model, launched last spring at the New York Auto Show, arrived earlier this week.
"It's going to be a niche market, but we believe there is a market for it," said Randy Hill, a sales and leasing associate for Zimmerman.
The new Honda Clarity is the first vehicle series to offer customers three electrified vehicle choices including hydrogen fuel cell, battery electric and the plug-in hybrid powertrain.
Zimmerman has the plug-in hybrid version available for sale, Hill said.
According to Hill, the cars come standard with a 110-volt charger that consumers can simply plug in at home to charge the car in 12 hours. "They can upgrade to a 220-volt charging system that will charge in 2 hours," he said.
When driven solely on the electric mode, the car has a range of 47 miles, he said. But if driven on a combination of electric and gas-powered, the range is 340 miles.
The Moline dealership already has one vehicle pre-sold and is awaiting the arrival of it as well as two or three more for its inventory.
The Clarity series is Honda's commitment to addressing the growing concerns about energy and the environment. The car manufacturer expects significant growth in the sales of electrified vehicles. By 2030, it anticipates that two-thirds of its global sales will come from electrified vehicles.
Also by 2030, Honda hopes to offer a full hybrid version in all its car models, Hill said.
The Clarity series features include advanced technologies such as Display Autdio with Android Auto and Apple Car Play as well as standard Honda Sensing safety and driver-assistive technologies. Some of its other features include seven airbags and full LED headlights and tail lights.
Hill said buyers will pay more for the new hybrid with the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid Touring starting at $37,688.
JOHNSTON, Iowa A cigarette tax hike that would provide resources for a variety of public health programs may get some discussion but is unlikely to be approved in an election-year session of the Iowa Legislature, according to one lawmaker who supports a $1.50-a-pack increase.
Ive always been against cigarette smoking, Rep. John Forbes, D-Urbandale, said. Whenever we can put a tax on something that will hopefully reduce usage, especially on cigarettes, Im in favor of that.
However, Forbes, who sits on the Human Resources and Health Policy Oversight committees, doubts lawmakers will support a tax hike in 2018.
Forbes made his comment during taping of Iowa Press, which can be seen at 7:30 p.m. Friday and noon Sunday on Iowa Public Television and at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on IPTV World. It also will be available at IPTV.org.
Forbes and Gerd Clabaugh, director for the Iowa Department of Public Health, were reacting to a proposal by a coalition of 19 groups to more than double the cigarette tax from $1.36 a pack to $2.86 to generate more than $106 million for health and tobacco cessation efforts. Eleven years ago, raising the tax by $1 a pack won bipartisan support.
In calling for the increase, supporters said it could keep 19,000 youth from becoming smokers and help 22,000 adults quit while also helping address the $1.2 billion Iowa spends yearly on smoking-related health issues and an estimated $1.21 billion in lost productivity.
As the administrator of state public health programs, Im going to tell you theres always need for resources, Clabaugh said. However, raising the tax is not his call, but a question for Forbes and other policymakers, he said.
Among the areas where resources are needed are funding the states fledgling medical cannabis program and reducing opioid and substance abuse problems, Clabaugh and Forbes said.
The medical cannabis program that is supposed to make the drug available to Iowans by Dec. 1, 2018, may need an appropriation of $500,000 to $1 million, Forbes said.
Under an expanded medical cannabis law, Iowans diagnosed with cancer, Parkinsons disease, multiple sclerosis, seizures, Crohns disease, ALS, AIDS, HIV or most terminal illnesses now may possess approved marijuana products.
We want to avoid pricing ourselves out of the market by overburdening companies that are going to get into this business with fees, said Forbes, a pharmacist who was involved on the legislative debate earlier this year. When we do that, theyre going to have to pass those costs back on to consumers who are going to purchases medical cannabis.
To combat the states opioid epidemic, Clabaugh said the public health department wants to expand its efforts to promote community and individual resiliency. It is working with community-based organizations on education and early intervention as well as increasing the availability and access to naloxone, as countermeasures to opioid-related overdoses.
Last year, the state said 180 Iowans died from opioid abuse and that number is expected to exceed 200 this year. Iowa emergency services providers reported administering 691 doses of naloxone in the first 10 months of this year just 20 fewer than in all of 2016.
Terrorists, as you know, do things to cause terror in communities. We think of the many unwarranted killings of blacks by police officers recently in the news. Surely, this causes terror among our black brothers and sisters.
We need to think too of the communities of immigrants who come here to work and make a life for themselves. Their ancestors were here way before any of our ancestors were. Mexico, for example, included, not too long ago, the states of California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Now, descendants of those who lived there are treated like criminals for "coming home."
When a person is picked up for being accused of shoplifting and promptly turned over to ICE to be deported, aren't we dealing with terrorism? No due process is required. No legal counsel is required.
We should be able to do better from president on down, if we want to be decent neighbors to those next to us on this God's good earth.
Rev. Ed O'Melia
Davenport
Custer State Park staff are concerned about the fate of three burros that are still unaccounted for following the Legion Lake Fire.
Six of the nine burros that live in the park had been found as of Thursday afternoon. "We will continue to look for the remainder of the burro herd, but at this time, it is believed they did not survive the extreme fire growth from Tuesday night," the park said in a Facebook post.
The park is still in the process of locating wildlife, and those efforts will likely continue for several weeks, said Kobee Stalder, visitor services program manager. All of the park's resources were initially used to fight the wildfire, which started Monday morning in the area of Wilson's Corner, one mile northeast of Legion Lake.
Fanned by high winds, the fire later spread beyond the park's boundaries. Investigators from the South Dakota Wildland Fire Division suspect a downed power line sparked the fire, which has grown to 53,875 acres, or 84 square miles. It's now 80 percent contained. The park remains closed.
The search for animals has primarily been confined to Wildlife Loop Road. The interior roads are still inaccessible because of the fire, Stalder said.
Officials located the park's bison herd by Thursday afternoon, and every animal found so far was alive, he said. Staff will conduct an "impromptu roundup" to assess the herd of roughly 860 bison and likely give them pneumonia immunizations because of the wildfire.
"Custer State Park is known for their herd of bison," Stalder said. "Every other question any time we post on social media is, you know, 'Are the bison OK?' 'Is the wildlife OK?' 'Are the burros OK?'"
The wildfire is the third-largest recorded in the Black Hills. There have been no human injuries, and main park buildings have been spared from the blaze, officials said. Well-wishers have posted online with concerns for firefighters but also for animals like the bison, the captivating national mammal.
There are nearly 400,000 bison in North America, many on private ranches and farms, according to the National Bison Association. Executive Director Dave Carter said there are as many as 20,000 buffalo in public herds, with Custer State Park's ranking among the larger ones in the U.S.
As firefighters have been able to hold the blaze it's now 80 percent contained park officials have been able to dedicate resources toward assessing wildlife and getting more information, Stalder said.
He said officials also have found the park's southern elk herd but are still searching for another group of elk and most of the pronghorn. Stalder said park staff plans to examine every herd in the park.
Becky Kienzle, a massage therapist from Dickeyville, Wis., said she's been following the fire this week and worrying about wildlife in the park. The 59-year-old has been to the last eight of the fall buffalo roundups, and Kienzle said she plans on going to the park again next year.
"I've been enjoying this park for my entire 50th decade," Kienzle said. "I'm praying for most of my animals to still be there."
Stalder said staff was able to go through early Tuesday and unlock the gates within the park boundary to allow animals to escape the fire.
"We went through and gave them the best opportunity to get out of the way of danger," he said. "They're naturally smart enough to do that."
Karen Conley, executive director of the Dakota Territory Buffalo Association, said the challenge will be wildlife including buffalo in the park having enough food sources to sustain them until regrowth occurs. She said the group has been inundated with offers to help from members of the "buffalo family."
Texas resident Rhonda Price Mokerski can't count the number of times she's been to Custer State Park. The 56-year-old outdoor product wholesaler who grew up in western South Dakota said she's been worried for people and wildlife.
"We are just always bringing people to the Black Hills to experience it," said Mokerski, whose favorite park animals are buffalo and burros. "One of the 'must dos' is to go through this park."
PIERRE | Three hunting licenses for bighorn sheep in a Black Hills unit might be available in South Dakota for 2018 and again in 2019.
The state Game, Fish & Parks Commission formally proposed on Friday raising the number to three for the next two seasons.
The licenses would be for the Custer County unit commonly known as Elk Mountain.
Two sheep licenses were drawn there this year.
A public hearing will be scheduled for 2 p.m. on Jan. 11 in Pierre.
South Dakota and Wyoming wildlife officials jointly manage the bighorn herd that crisscrosses the border between the states.
Tom Kirschenmann is South Dakotas chief of terrestrial resources. He said Wyoming likewise would offer three licenses.
The bighorn license that South Dakota typically gives the Wild Sheep Foundation to auction would come South Dakotas three, according to Kirschenmann.
He said the foundations Midwest chapter was the only applicant for the right to auction one of the South Dakota licenses.
The auction would occur in the Twin Cities-area in March. The auction proceeds would come back to South Dakota for bighorn sheep activities, Kirschenmann said.
We would work the logistics with them to carry that out, he said.
For the 43rd year, the Bitterroot Valley Kiwanis - a service organization with a focus on children - will distribute Christmas food boxes to families in the Bitterroot Valley.
The process began months ago and culminated with the filling of boxes by Kiwanis, community volunteers, and student organizations that branch from Kiwanis.
This Christmas food box project started in 1974 by Kiwanis founding member Bill Delaney and has grown. On Saturday. they will distribute 600 boxes to 300 hungry families.
Kiwanis food box coordinator Christina Dunbar said the distribution is important because it is Christmas - a time to share and give and show love for each other.
Winter is a time that bills go up and families struggle to keep up with paying for increased energy/heating costs, providing food, heat, winter clothing, and gifts is difficult, Dunbar said. I think it is important that as a community we pull together to help each other and care for people in need.
Families signed up to receive boxes at Ravalli Head Start, Haven House (Hamiltons food pantry), and Darby Bread Box (Darbys food pantry). Kiwanis provide two boxes to each family who has signed up from Darby to just south of Victor Crossing.
Gathering the boxes began in June, soliciting for bids began in October, and asking community members for donations began in November.
A friendly competition between the classes at Hamilton High School for collecting food was organized by the student eouncil. The senior class won and the total weight of food gathered weighed nearly 7,000 pounds.
School Student Council adviser Seeley Mickelson said students brought items from home and stood outside of local grocery stores to gather donations from the community.
They ... worked hard, and food was constantly coming in throughout the competition, Nov. 27 through Dec. 13, Mickelson said.
The food was then bused to Hamilton Middle School for filling boxes, which had been done for years in the Hamilton High School lobby. Dunbar said the Kiwanis program began in the cafeteria at the middle school.
The smaller space is a little bit more of a challenge, she said. It is kind of nice to be back where it all started.
More food than what the student council could gather was added to the boxes, including items from low-bid local grocery stores Hamilton Market Place and Albertsons.
The filling process began with labeling each box with the name of the client, the number of people in the home, and specifics like food allergies. Each box also received a ham or a chicken, potatoes, oatmeal, sugar, flour, soups, vegetables, fruits, cheese, hot chocolate, pancake mix, and basic essentials.
People dont usually get toiletry items at local food banks, Dunbar said. Toilet paper and paper towels tend to be a luxury item, so people get pretty excited about that.
Key Club is the high school version of Kiwanis and HHS has nearly 75 active members. Morgan Kellar, Key Club reporter, said the food drive was successful, but she mostly enjoys putting the boxes together.
You get to work with Kiwanis members and the community, Kellar said. I enjoy seeing where the food is going and how it all gets put together.
On Friday, 48 volunteers, five Key Club members, and 35 Builders Club students assembled the boxes.
Builders Club is the Kiwanis International Middle School Program, a service organization for middle school students ages 12 to 14. The program has been in Hamilton for 10 years, has 50 students, and advisoes are Hamilton Middle School educator Owen Burch and Principal Marlin Lewis.
Builders Club is awesome because it gives kids an opportunity to help people in the valley, Burch said. Im just watching them glow with excitement.
Burch said the club also raises funds for families to have food at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
We give flowers on May Day to older community members and we do Valentines to old folks home. We wash fire trucks, and shovel snow, Burch said. We do a variety of things but this event gives them the opportunity to interact with Kiwanis, who do a lot of good for the youth of the valley.
Alexes Brenneman, a seventh-grade student in Builders Club said she is eager to help to give people food who dont have it all the time.
Teryn Searles was helping out because it's a nice thing to do for those who don't have food, and Jordan Triplett said he is doing it out of personal knowledge.
I had a friend in Georgia who didnt have a lot of money and couldnt afford all his food for Christmas, Triplett said. He got stuff like this and I remember he was extremely happy when he did.
Hamilton residents receiving boxes should go to the Hamilton Middle School. In Darby, families pick up their boxes from a local church coordinated by the Darby Bread Box. Some boxes are delivered to homes.
Pantry Partners, Stevensvilles food pantry, distributes food to its clients' on Tuesday, Dec. 19, covering the north end of the Valley.
Bitterroot Valley Kiwanis President Jaime Tadvick said the Christmas box service project is the main reason most members belong to Kiwanis.
It is neat to see the community really support this, he said. Key Club and Builders Clubs get them involved in Kiwanis early and their help really gets this project done. Tomorrow is the best when we distribute the boxes, see a lot of smiles and receive a lot of grateful hugs.
Hamilton Christian Academy, the private school southeast of Hamilton, received many awards at the 52nd Annual 2017 Montana Model United Nations event in Missoula, Nov. 20 and 21, including Outstanding Small School.
Ten small and 10 large schools were at the competition. Tanya Sharpe Horat, the team's adviser, said her seven students put in many hours of hard work studying other countries in preparation for the event.
One of the things that I really love is watching students develop in their understanding of the expansiveness of the world, and then figuring out they have to meet and negotiate with other students, Horat said. It is great to watch them grow and realize they can make contacts with students theyve never met before. It becomes amplified when I to look at the students who started three years ago; as an educator, I see their growth as very satisfying.
At Model United Nations, students study other countries their current political positions, exports, and events, and write papers summarizing their countries positions. They also practice conference skills such as public speaking, resolution writing, and parliamentary procedure.
Horat teaches Model United Nations as a class and all her students are required to write a position paper.
It is not an easy class, but they rise to the challenge, she said.
At MUN, the students, like real-world diplomats, represent the countries they have researched in committees such as the General Assembly and Security Council. They write, negotiate, and vote on resolutions while learning to examine international affairs and cooperating to solve to real-world problems.
In addition to Hamilton Christian Academys Outstanding Small School award, the competitors won individuals awards.
Isaiah Stoltzfus, representing South Africa, received an award for Honorable Delegation.
Ben Holtzen and Sam Holtzen, representing South Africa, received awards for Honorable Delegation and Distinguished Position Paper.
Johnny Holtzen, representing Sweden, received awards for Outstanding Delegation, Outstanding Delegate, Honorable Position Paper, and Top Five Seniors.
Logan Tomlinson, representing Sweden, received awards for Outstanding Delegation, Distinguished Delegate, and Top 20 Seniors.
John Shupert, representing Sweden, received awards for Outstanding Delegation, Outstanding Delegate, and Honorable Position Paper.
Lucky Segura ,representing Sweden, received awards for Outstanding Delegation, and Honorable Delegate.
Sam Holtzen said Model United Nations improved his skills of working with a team.
It also expanded my mind to think on a more international level and it was super entertaining, he said.
Stoltzfus called MUN was a great experience.
I learned so much about how the United Nations works and what the process is in writing resolutions, he said. I am very glad I joined the Model UN team."
Richard Holtzen said Model UN has helped him to grow intellectually and relationally.
I have grown a certain confidence leading and cooperating with disparate individuals that I feel has largely derived from Model UN, that I definitely did not have three years ago, he said. In my opinion, that has been one of the most valuable parts of MUN, not even mentioning the improvements in my writing and critical thinking."
Logan Tomlinson and John Shupert are homeschool students who attend HCA part-time and participated in the event.
"Model UN has been a highly stimulating experience that allowed me to both learn about foreign countries and international relations as well as play the part of a delegate to the United Nations for the past two years, Tomlinson said. As someone that enjoys speaking and acting, Model UN was a perfect fit for me and I only wish that I had begun doing it sooner."
Shupert said MUN has had a big impact on his life.
"Model UN is one of my favorite events I have ever competed in, Shupert said. The camaraderie and high-stake competition gives me a rush, energy to compete, and a will to win."
In the fall of 2016, shortly after the publication of "Angels on a School Bus," the story of the Camp Husky dog rescue in Butte, I was contacted by a young teacher named Christine Wirth Kimmet. Christine wanted me to know that one of the puppies the Camp Husky volunteers saved in the winter of 2008-2009 helped her to survive the worst crisis of her life
In January 2009, Christine Wirth was a 19-year-old student at Montana State University. When Christina told her parents in Bigfork how very homesick she was, they encouraged her to adopt a dog. Soon her father came to visit her in Bozeman and accompanied her to the Heart of the Valley Animal Shelter where they found a very affectionate and playful little puppy from the Camp Husky rescue. Christine placed her name on a waiting list to adopt the white German shepherd/husky mix.
Christine had been feeling unwell for several months and had undergone medical tests shortly before deciding to adopt a dog. The day after she applied to adopt her dog, Christine received the shocking news that she had a heart condition that would kill her unless she agreed to risky surgeries.
After the doctor gave me the bad news about my heart and the surgeries I needed, I was feeling terrified and depressed. And I didnt think I had a chance of getting that cute puppy either because four other people had applied for him before I did. Then I got a phone call from the shelter, and they said that the puppy was mine and I could pick him up the next morning. I remember dropping to the floor and saying thank you. I immediately phoned my dad, and when he picked up, I screamed, 'I GOT THE DOG! I GOT THE DOG!'
Christine named her puppy Toby. Although he was only about six months of age, Toby was exceptionally calm, gentle, and well-behaved, and his happy disposition lifted Christines spirits immediately. Then just one week after she adopted him, Toby stopped eating. A veterinarian told Christine that Toby had some serious stomach problems and suggested that she euthanize her puppy. As Christine listened to that veterinarian, she had a very strong premonition that if her puppy did not survive, she would not survive either. Christine determined then and there that she would find a different doctor for Toby and do whatever it might take to save her source of unconditional love.
Toby and I both endured multiple surgeries in our first two years together, but he was always there for me when I came home from the hospital, and I was there for him when he woke up after his surgeries.
Toby played a key role in providing the emotional support that Christine needed to cope with the intense fear she had to face before her surgeries. Once when I was in the hospital in Salt Lake City and feeling very anxious, my mother talked the night nurse into allowing Toby to sneak into my room. I needed comfort that only Toby could give me. When the doctor came into my room to check on me, my smart puppy hid in the bathroom without making a sound. I needed Tobys love and affection to make it through that scary time before surgery, and he needed me to care for him and help him get well. We saved each other.
Eight years later, Christine and Toby are living in Eureka, Montana, and both enjoying good health. Christine is happily married, and in August 2017, she and her husband were blessed with their first child. Christina says that Toby seemed to know that something important was going to happen long before the new family member arrived.
Now Toby loves and protects our baby girl just as he has always loved and protected me. The bond I have with Toby is stronger than ever. Without Toby I would not have lived long enough to graduate from college, fall in love, marry, and give birth to my precious child. I owe this dog and the volunteers in Butte who rescued him so very much.
Guwahati: The city based Apollo Hospitals Information Centre today (16 December 2017) conducted the weekly health camp for scribes along with their family members at Guwahati Press Club. Altogether 65 participants gave blood samples for testing haemoglobin, blood sugar, uric acid and creatinine, reports of which will be available by Wednesday noon at the press club office.
The camp was supervised by SN Farid, the proprietor of the centre, with the help of Sibananda Borah, Fakhruddin Ahmed, Gautam Barman, Bipul Deka, Jaya Das and Tasaraf Hussain.
The participants along with them, who participated in 25 November and 9 December OPD clinics of Dispur Hospital for thyroid tests under the Evening with a Doctor series, can consult with the concerned doctors on 23 December media clinic (3pm to 5 pm) at press club premises.
Guwahati, December 16 : After Gujarat assembly poll, Prime Minister Narendra has started his day long maiden visit to North East India.
On Saturday morning at around 9 am, PM Modi had arrived at Aizawl's Lengpui Airport and he will be dedicating the Tuirial Hydropower Project to the nation.
Modi will also address a public rally after inaugurate the hydel power project.
Modi will also visit the poll bound Meghalaya today and he will address a public rally at polo ground in Shillong.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati, December 16 : Security forces had arrested a senior NSCN(IM) militant in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday night, officials said on Saturday.
Kohima based Defence PRO Colonel Chiranjeet Konwer said that, based on intelligence input about a militant trying to terrorize and extort money at Khonsa town, the troops of Assam Rifles Khonsa battalion had launched operation at the area and nabbed the militant identified as Yangle Kongkang, Self Styled Major of the Naga outfit.
Security personnel had recovered a Pistol, ammunition, 30 gms of Opium, Rs 10,200 of extortion money and other incriminating evidence in possession from him.
Khonsa battalion of the security forces under DAO DIVISION has been carrying out unabated operations in south Arunachal Pradesh to keep the area peaceful and out of clutches of insurgents, this apprehension will go a long way in creating fear among the anti national elements in the area.
Post spot interrogation the nabbed militant admitted to being actively involved in the outfit after being recruited in NSCN(K) in Jan 1999 and had undergone training at NSCN(K) training camp.
The militant defected to NSCN(R) in 2015 and was promoted to rank of Self Styled Major thereafter. In 2016 he defected to NSCN(IM) and has been involved in extortion activities in Khonsa for the banned outfit, the Defence PRO said.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati, December 16 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced Rs 90,000 crore for improving roads and National Highways in the North Eastern region for better connectivity.
Addressing a public meeting held at Polo ground in Meghalayas capital city Shillong after inaugurating 261 km long 2-Laning of Shillong-Nongstoin Section of NH 106 and Nongstoin- Rongjeng Section of NH 127-B, Modi said that, the Union government had already sanctioned around 4,000 km of National Highways in the NE region, for an amount of over Rs 32,000 crore.
Modi said that, the new road will serve as an east-west corridor and will boost economic activity in the state and establish a direct link between Shillong and Tura.
Our motto is 'Transformation by transportation and overall development in the NE region is one of our top priorities. The Centre was executing 15 New Rail Line projects of nearly 1400 km length which would cost around Rs 47,000 crore rupees and boost rail infrastructure in the NE Region, Modi said.
Highlighting several welfare measures undertaken by the NDA government for welfare of people in the NE region, Modi said that, the North East council which was set up in 1972 and it was only Morarji Desai who chaired the meeting of NE Council.
After him, I got the opportunity to chair its meeting when our Government revived the council in last year, Modi said.
Modi also said that, his government wants to make Meghalaya a top tourist destination.
During my last visit to Meghalaya in May 2016, I had talked about promotion of tourism in the state. We want to make Meghalaya a top tourist destination. The Union government has sanctioned around Rs 100 crore for development of tourist destinations in the state, Modi said.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati, December 16 : At least two suspected militants belonging to banned outfit NDFB-S were killed during a fierce gun fight with security forces in Assam's Dima Hasao district along with Assam-Meghalaya border on Friday night, while security personnel had launched operation at the remote bordering area to rescue a businessman, officials said on Saturday.
According to the reports, based on intelligence input, troops of Assam Rifles, Dima Hasao police and Meghalaya police had jointly launched operation at Garampani area in the hills district to rescue the abducted businessman named Mahendra Rai hailing from Meghalaya, who was kidnapped by suspected NDFB-S militants.
When the troops reached the remote area, militants had fired and bullets were exchanged from both sides.
During the gun battle two militants were killed on spot and two others had managed to flee from the area with advantage of darkness.
Later security personnel had safely rescued the abducted businessman.
Security personnel had recovered a 9mm pistol and several rounds ammunition from the encounter place.
A top police official said that, the man was abducted by the suspected NDFB-S militants from East Jaintia Hills on December 4, who later demanded a ransom of amounting Rs 2 crore from the businessman family.
The slain militants are yet to be identified.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli
Kathmandu, Nepal: The CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli, who is considered as the new Prime Minister of to be formed government, seems hurry to fom a new government.
Oli urged the Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba to step down from the government to pave the way for the formation of a new government.
The Prime Minister must respect the election results and step down without trying to extend his term in the Office, UML chair Oli said while speaking with the media on Saturday.
During the interaction with the media persons he also accused the incumbent government of forwarding a non-constitutional ordinance to the Office of the President regarding the formation of National Assembly.
Remarkable story of jury sentencing, jury actions and a victim's response from Virginia | Main | A light dusting of holiday season highlights from Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform
The title of this post is the headline of this recent FoxNews commentary authored by Mike Jandernoa. Here are excerpts:
In the past, many employers would often not consider hiring people who had even minor criminal records. But as the former CEO of a 10,000-employee organization, I have one message for America: we can no longer exclude this vital component of our workforce.
An estimated one in three American adults has a criminal record of some kind. And about 600,000 people leave our nations prisons every year, looking to rejoin the workforce. While individuals in this group of workers wont be right for every job, the right job is out there for everyone.
The benefits of boosting employment for those with criminal records are significant. First, opening up opportunities to this population will make our country safer. Right now, almost 60 percent of individuals remain unemployed a year after being released from incarceration. Its in our collective self-interest for them to get jobs, because steady employment is one of the best ways to ensure that individuals lead productive, crime-free lives. In one study of 6,000 returning citizens, employment cut the rate of those who committed a new crime in half.
Second, employers all across the country are suffering from a dearth of skilled labor. Every year, one major national bank surveys small businesses across this country. This year the survey found incredible optimism: 80 percent of employers said their business is stronger than ever; 40 percent said they plan to make a capital expenditure to grow their companies; and a quarter of those surveyed said they plan to hire more workers. In West Michigan, most of the business leaders I know plan to expand their workforces. The downside? The businesses cant find enough workers....
Our region is almost at full employment, so we must look for alternatives. We have a very strong manufacturing base, and these businesses are looking for people who will show up on time and test negative for drugs thats it. This opens the door for people who were formerly incarcerated and who are serious about turning their lives around. It is not unheard of for employers to send vans to pick up workers who are in residential community corrections programs because the employers are so desperate for workers.
Some of our countrys largest employers are making second-chance hiring their official policy. Target and Home Depot have banned the box in their employment practices. Ban the box delays inquiry into an applicants criminal history until late in the hiring process, ensuring that those with criminal records arent tossed aside before having an opportunity to detail their skills, training and qualifications. This policy also allows these individuals to explain the circumstances of their offense, and show potential employers how they have turned their lives around....
Reforms to seal or erase records of criminal convictions are also a priority for job creators. These policies seal minor criminal records after a certain crime-free period. Research shows that low-level offenders who have remained crime-free for three to five years are no more likely to commit a crime than anyone else. And in many states, when minor criminal records are sealed, law enforcement and judicial officers still have access to these records, ensuring that public safety continues to be a priority.
Almost all states have some mechanism through which certain criminal records can be erased or sealed, but erasing records at the federal level is virtually impossible. Fortunately, the issue is gaining traction in Congress. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is spearheading the REDEEM Act, with bipartisan support. And Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., introduced the Renew Act with Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.
Occupational licensing reform is another issue important to the business community. Today one in four occupations requires a government license but a criminal history often bars an individual from the licensing process. Ironically, such restrictions make us less safe. One study showed that states with more burdensome licensing laws saw an average 9 percent increase in recidivism, while those with the lowest burdens had a recidivism reduction of 2.5 percent.
States as diverse as Illinois, Arizona, and Louisiana have already begun peeling back the layers of government-issued permission slips to work. At the federal level, the New HOPE Act, introduced by Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and similar legislation sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, would allow states to use federal funding to identify and reduce unnecessary licensing barriers within their regulations and statutes.
Elected officials should look to job creators for sound public policy. I urge my fellow employers to beat the drum even louder and make their voices heard at the local, state and federal level. We can improve public safety, strengthen the economy and broaden our pool of skilled labor through commonsense criminal justice reforms and offering second chances for those who have earned them. I dont know a good businessperson who would turn down that deal.
The chandelier, once a common and popular fixture in the home, is now making a comeback. Whether for function or aesthetics, chandeliers can help make an instant statement.
ENTRYWAYS
The entryway is a common location for a chandelier. The visual impact of placing a chandelier there can help set the tone and introduce guests to what is to come.
DINING AREAS
Chandeliers can be used to define rooms, especially dining areas. Often the selection of the dining table as far as its shape, style and even location is dictated by the location and style of the chandelier placed above it. Typically dining areas have an air of formality, and the style of chandelier can reflect this or a more casual feel.
OTHER ROOMS OF THE HOME
From living rooms to kitchens and even bedrooms, these days few design rules apply. One way to make an impact in any room is through lighting. A chandelier can be used to add illumination, define a particular area or infuse a particular style or aesthetic.
DO'S AND DON'TS FOR CHOOSING A CHANDELIER:
Do choose a chandelier that is the appropriate size and scale. A chandelier that is too big or too small can look out of place.
Do select a chandelier that makes a bold statement.
Do pay attention to style and color. A chandelier should complement your decor .
Don't forget that not all chandelier have to be overly fancy. Consider a chandelier that may be simpler if it fits your lifestyle.
Don't hang your chandelier too high or too low. The bottom of the chandelier should allow for ample headroom, without being too close to the ceiling. The entire chandelier should ideally be visible from the entry point into the space.
Don't purchase a chandelier that is overly trendy. A chandelier should be an investment, kept over time, as opposed to a temporary lighting solution.
Cathy Hobbs, based in New York City, is an Emmy Award-winning television host and a nationally known interior design and home staging expert with offices in New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C. Contact her at info@cathyhobbs.com or visit her website at www.cathyhobbs.com .
(c)2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
AMES, Iowa The office space is smaller. The staff is nearly non-existent. There are no contracts going out for new research projects. But despite all that, the work continues at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.
It has been almost eight months since the Iowa legislature shocked many sustainable farming advocates by suddenly eliminating all state funding for the Leopold Center. Gov. Terry Branstad did use his veto power to cut language that would have made sure the center ceased to exist, but he did not restore the funding.
And so the staff who remain have spent the past half a year shutting down some operations, transferring many research projects and trying to determine where things go from here.
I would hope they would just leave us alone now, says center director Mark Rasmussen, an animal scientist who has headed operations since 2012.
Some center supporters would like to push the legislature to reinstate funding. Undoubtedly, some critics would like to finish the job of closing it down, Rasmussen says.
But he says that since no state money is going to the center and closing it would mean the university would likely not be able to use the income from its approximately $5.2 million endowment, such a move wouldnt make much economic sense.
It would be a matter of pure vengeance, he says.
For Rasmussen, the year has been a bit surreal. Twelve months ago he headed a nationally lauded center on campus that was nearing its 30th anniversary. Created as part of land-mark legislation in 1987, the center began operations in 1988.
Over the years, it conducted early groundbreaking research in such areas as cover crops and hoop buildings. But some critics attacked it as nothing more than a use of agribusiness-generated funds to support organic farming or anti-commodity agriculture goals.
Rasmussen says only a small amount of the research done here had much to do with organic farming.
There was a degree of misinformation out there, he says.
Since lawmakers pushed the measure through the legislature in April, the office space has been reduced and most of the staff laid off or transferred to other jobs at the university. Rasmussen remains on staff as director, largely because he is a tenured member of the faculty. He also still teaches. Former director Fred Kirschenmann remains on a part-time basis as a distinguished fellow.
Many of the research projects have been transferred. Meetings have been held as the center looks to determine what its future should be.
I have my points of optimism, Rasmussen says, explaining that the centers advisory board is working to re-focus the smaller organization that Rasmussen describes as being unshackled from past constraints. That may free the center to take more of a long-term outlook to focus on Iowa agriculture 20 or 30 years down the road.
The organization gets a little bit of annual funding from its endowment, and it may look at ways of partnering or fundraising to expand that financial base, he says. But the rules regarding the endowment mean they can only use the income from it, not the total cash amount, so the legislative argument that the center didnt require state funding for the work it had been doing simply wasnt true, he says.
As for the research projects that were on-going, Rasmussen says many were transferred to the Iowa Nutrient Research Center at ISU. Several projects were already scheduled to end this year. New projects that had not yet begun were canceled.
One or two projects were continued by the center. Several projects that were not completed were canceled. And several were deemed important enough to be funded either through the center or through other places at ISU.
There were a number of items considered when making those project-by-project determinations, Rasmussen says. Some were deemed important and come under the umbrella of the nutrient program. Others came with legal obligations.
Service of the Longest Night
Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2915 Glenn Ave., will be holding "Service of the Longest Night: A Time of Prayer and Music for People who Grieve at Christmas" at 7 p.m. Thursday. Join other midwinter mourners in a service of music and prayer exploring hope hidden in the dark side of the Christmas story.
Blue Christmas
A Blue Christmas worship experience will be offered in the Grace United Methodist Church chapel, 1735 Morningside Ave., at 3 p.m. Saturday. Those experiencing a time of loneliness, sadness, loss of a loved one and more can find a sacred space offering healing and hope in the compassionate love of God.
Carol Sing
Central Baptist Church, 4001 Indian Hills Drive, in Sioux City will host a Christmas Carol Sing at 6 p.m. Sunday in the rehearsal room.
Advent service
Redeemer Lutheran Church, 3204 S. Lakeport, invites the public to the third Advent service on Wednesday. Traditional service will be at 11:30 a.m. Special Cantata, with men's ensemble, instrumental and hand bells, will be held at 7 p.m. Refreshments served afterward.
All is Well
Morningside Lutheran Church, 700 S. Martha St., invites the public to its Choir and Orchestra Christmas Program at 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.
SIOUX CITY | The fourth annual Iowa Women Lead Change (IWLC) Leadership Conference will be held Feb. 15 at the Sioux City Convention Center.
The theme of this year's conference, which is sponsored by Mercy Medical Center, is Siouxland Women (And Men) Lead Change: Better Together.
IWLC considers 2018 an important year to move the conversation forward around issues facing women and men in the workplace. IWLC chief executive officer Tiffany O'Donnell said in a statement, "IWLC remains laser focused on leadership development for women. We realize we have male allies who want to help us achieve that mission. They must be part of this conversation and, hopefully, attend the conference."
The conference will offer three speakers who educate, challenge and inspire. Iowa Economic Development Authority director Debi Durham, a former president of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce, will return to Siouxland to open the conference with a keynote. Prior to her presentation, she will appear at a sponsor-only breakfast reception. Other speakers include nationally known inclusion and diversity expert Dr. Steve Robbins and extreme athlete, Athena Award winner and CNN Hero Robyn Benincasa.
Visit iwlcleads.org for a schedule of events, ticket pricing information and to register.
SIOUX CITY | Some metro area schools received top marks while others showed room for improvement, according to the latest Iowa School Report Card.
The grading system, run by the Iowa Department of Education, evaluates and rates each elementary, middle and high school on a six-tier scale based on test scores and other standardized measurements. The system was developed to meet a state legislative requirement, so parents, school officials and others can gauge success and academic growth of K-12 public schools.
No metro school reached the top-tier, Exceptional, while one, Hunt Elementary School in Sioux City, placed in the lowest level, Priority, for the 2016-17 year. The Sergeant Bluff-Luton High School was the only metro school in the second-highest tier, High-Performing, while three Sioux City public schools -- Irving Elementary, North High, West High and West Middle -- were placed in the second-lowest tier, Needs Improving.
The remainder fell into the Commendable or Acceptable categories, or the district was unable to rate the school for reasons such as newly-opened buildings.
Compared with the previous year, five Sioux City schools improved, while ratings for two schools fell. North High and Irving moved up one spot from the Priority category last year, Liberty Elementary advanced from Needs Improvement to Acceptable and Bryant Elementary and Sunnyside Elementary both improved from Acceptable to Commendable.
Compared to 2015-16, Spalding Park Elementary moved down one spot from Commendable to Acceptable, and West Middle went from Acceptable to Needs Improvement.
Crescent Park, East High, East Middle, Leeds Elementary, Liberty Elementary, North Middle and Riverside Elementary remained at the Acceptable level in 2016-17. Loess Hills Elementary, which could not be rated the previous school year, also received an Acceptable score.
The rest of the Sioux City School District schools to be scored were put at the Acceptable spot: East High, East Middle, North Middle and the elementary schools of Liberty, Loess Hills, Riverside, Unity and Spalding Park.
State officials were not able to rate Loess Hills Elementary, Morningside Elementary and Nodland Elementary, according to the report.
Superintendent Paul Gausman said the report card is one tool that will help the district continue to identify areas where schools can improve, but added that the district also has its own metrics to measure success.
"These improvements demonstrate the work our schools and district are doing under the Focus 2022 Strategic Plan for the Sioux City Community School District. Focus 2022 concentrates on many of the same indicators as the rating system, such as academic growth, graduation rates, staff retention, student attendance, and college and career readiness," Gausman said in a statement Thursday to The Journal.
Compared to the 2015-16 school year, Sergeant Bluff-Luton High School's rating rose one spot from Commendable to High-Performing. SB-L Middle School dropped from Commendable to Acceptable while the SB-L Elementary School's rating remained at Acceptable.
For the 2016-17 school year, the Woodbury Central Elementary School in Moville, and Westwood High School in Sloan were rated High-Performing.
The Westwood Elementary School was placed in the Needs Improvement tier, however. The Woodbury Central Elementary was rated Commendable and the Middle School was Acceptable.
The River Valley School District elementary, middle and high schools in Correctionville and Washta also were in the Acceptable Category.
The Lawton-Bronson Elementary scored a Commendable mark while the middle and high schools were rated Acceptable.
Ratings were based on attendance, graduation rate, annual expected student growth, college and career readiness and related growth, closing achievement gaps, proficiency and staff retention.
Gausman said it is important to remember student achievement is measured in many ways, and the Iowa Department of Education report card is one such summary.
"The challenge I see with the rating system is that most of the data from the ratings is focused on the Iowa assessments," he said of the standardized tests. "The Iowa assessments do not currently measure curriculum and instruction aligned to the Iowa Standards. So, as a community, lets remember the many data points that indicate school performance and achievement."
Sheryl McGowan of Sioux City was nominated to the U.S. Air Force Academy; Kyle Puttmann of Orange City was nominated to the U.S. Naval Academy; and Robert Phillips of Sioux City was nominated to the U.S. Military Academy.
I am proud to nominate these deserving Iowa students for admittance to our U.S. Service Academies, Ernst said. This nomination is a critical part of the admissions process, and it is my honor to assist them in achieving their goal of serving our great nation. These exemplary young Iowans have exhibited leadership skills, dedication to academics, and commitment to their communities, and I look forward to seeing all they will accomplish.
SIOUX CITY | Arson is suspected as the cause of a house fire in the 2500 block of McFaul Street Friday night.
Sioux City Fire Rescue was called to the scene at 8:38 p.m. Friday. Assistant Chief Dan Cougill said by the time the department go to the fire, the residents had managed to largely extinguish it.
A propane grill was believed to have been used to start the fire.
"The grill did not have a propane tank on it, and it was up against the house, and wood was put in there intentionally and started. At this point it's being investigated as an arson," Cougill said. "Light damage to the house."
The siding on the rear of the house, where the fire was started, had been partly melted and burned off from the fire, and scorch marks appeared to be visible along a window frame. Cougill estimated the damage at "a couple thousand dollars."
The house remains inhabitable for the residents.
Fortunately, the residents were awake and able to act quickly when they noticed the fire.
"They were inside the home and noticed smoke, and came out and got some buckets of water from inside and started throwing it on it," he said.
Cougill said the fire department is working with the Sioux City Police Department on an investigation.
Todays top picks from our online calendar. Find more events at siouxcityjournal.com/calendar.
The Living Nativity: A Christmas Gift for Siouxland
See the Christmas story come to life with live actors, animals, lights and music 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Faith United Presbyterian Church, 4327 Morningside Ave. Enjoy six scenes from the comfort of your vehicle. Freewill offerings accepted for The Warming Shelter in Sioux City. Call 712-276-3121 for more information.
Auditions for the Le Mars Community Theater
Auditions being held for Neil Simon's hilarious contemporary comic classic, the female version of The Odd Couple. Six women and two men will be cast 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today and 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at The Postal Playhouse, 105-1st Street NE, Le Mars, Iowa. Visit Lemarscommtheatre.org or call 712-546-5788 for more information.
Hinton Show Choir Last Stop Gift Shop Craft & Vendor Event
Help support some amazing kids by attending this free event with more than 40 home craft vendors 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Hinton Community Center, 205 W. Main St. in Hinton, Iowa. Hinton Show Choir will be having a free will donation wrapping station available to wrap your gifts.
Two special elections this week in conservative strongholds --- one in western Iowa, another in Americas deep South --- have given Iowa Democrats more reason to be excited about the 2018 elections.
As politicos and prognosticators continue to wonder whether a blue wave looms in next years elections, Iowa Democrats this week received a double shot of evidence to bolster their hopes.
Although at least one of those election results comes with a caveat.
In a closely watched and highly contested special election for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, the Democrat Doug Jones upset Republican Roy Moore, becoming the first Democrat in 25 years elected to represent Alabama in the Senate.
Jones victory has Democrats soaring and believing it is yet another signal that their party is poised to make great gains in the 2018 elections, that voters are rejecting Republican policies and the actions and statements of GOP President Donald Trump.
Democrats feel they are starting to stack success. They won contested gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, and now won a Senate seat in a deep red state.
But the latest victory, just like those in Virginia and New Jersey, comes with a disclaimer.
Moore was supported by the national party and Trump, so Democrats see their victory as a rejection of Trump and national GOP policies. While that may be true to a certain extent, Moore also was a fatally flawed candidate: He has been accused by multiple women of having an inappropriate romantic relationship with them when they were underage.
While Democrats were able to motivate and turn out voters, its also true that Moore did not solidify full support of Alabama Republicans. Nearly 23,000 write-in votes were cast, according to data on the Alabama Secretary of State website. That number is larger than the margin by which Jones defeated Moore.
So while Democrats are justified in celebrating their success in Alabama, the quality of Moores candidacy clearly impacted this race. The result may not necessarily be a predictor of election results to come.
Iowa Democrats also this week were excited by a special election for a seat in the Iowa Senate, even though the partys candidate lost to the Republican.
In northwest Iowa, Republican Jim Carlin defeated Democrat Todd Wendt. But it was the margin that encouraged Iowa Democrats: in a Senate district were Republican active voters outnumber Democrats by 22.6 percentage points and Trump won in 2016 by 41 points, the GOP candidate in this weeks special election won by just 9.1 points.
While we came up short (in the special election), Democrats made considerable gains and demonstrated that we can and will fight for every district, every county, and every precinct in Iowa and elect more representatives who will put people first and respect Iowa values, Iowa Democratic Party chairman Troy Price said in a statement.
Whether these actual and moral victories portend big things for Democrats in 2018, as has been written here before, remains to be seen. But as the success begins to stack, Democrats grow more hopeful that a blue wave is rolling in.
Trump's approval in Iowa drops
A new Iowa Poll, published this past week by the Des Moines Register, shows Trumps job approval numbers slipping.
Sixty percent of Iowans said the country is headed in the wrong direction, and 60 percent disapprove of Trumps job performance, according to poll results published by the Register.
Those are big numbers in a state that Trump won in 2016.
And Trumps approval numbers are getting worse. From the Iowa Poll in July to the new poll published this past week, Trumps job approval in Iowa went from 43 percent to 35 percent, and disapproval went from 52 percent to 60 percent, the Register reported.
The new poll also contained one number that had to be concerning for Republicans in Iowas Congressional delegation: 40 percent of Iowans said they would prefer to elect a Democrat to Congress vs. 34 percent who said they would prefer a Republican. Those numbers surely grabbed the attention of campaign staff in Iowas 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts, which historically have been competitive.
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.
The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.
By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.
Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.
My favorite autographs SpaceRef
Today would have been Sir Arthur C. Clarkes 100th birthday. Arthur C. Clarke has had more influence on me as a writer than just about anyone else has and it started at a very early age.
In 1998 I was working as a NASA contractor in Washington, DC. my friend and collaborator Mitch Hobish was travelling to Sri Lanka to do some computer system requests at the request of his mentor Cyril Ponnamperuma. Ponnamperuma was a long time associate of Arthur C. Clarke. While there Mitch had hoped to meet Clarke so I gave him a letter of introduction and the old ragged paperback that I had first read in 1968 and re-read many times since. In that letter I promised that when (not if) I flew in space that this old paperback would be in my pocket.
As it happened while Mitch was in Sri Lanka, Clarke was in the U.S. for his annual physical at Johns Hopkins. So the book was sent back to Sri Lanka where Clarke signed it and somehow it got back to Mitch and then to me. The book made two trips from the U.S. to Sri Lanka as best as I can tell.
It was signed To Keith Cowing: Hope you make it into space Best Wishes Arthur C.Clarke
In the early 1990s I was a NASA employee and served as Payload Accommodations Manager for the 2.5 meter Centrifuge Facility that we planned to attach to Space Station Freedom (you call it ISS now). Eventually it was dropped by the program. At every possible opportunity I would sneak in gag charts showing the crew of Discovery from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey inside the 25 meter centrifuge and then say oops, wrong chart.
When I lived at Everest Base Camp for a month in 2009 I had an electronic version of the book with me on my iPhone. I also carried in my pocket when I had suborbital scientist astronaut training in a centrifuge at NASTAR and when I did several weightless parabolic flights on ZeroG Corporations aircraft. I am not a big autograph collector with one exception. In the ensuing years I managed to get actor Keir Dullea and Clarke collaborators Fred Ordway and Frederick Durant to sign this old paperback as well.
In 2002 my business partner Marc Boucher and I donated and constructed a greenhouse on Devon Island that we called the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse. In 1998 Marc had a chance to visit with Clarke at his home in Sri Lanka where they talked about space elevators- one of Marcs favorite topics. The greenhouse was inspired in part by the film Silent Running made by Douglas Trumbull, the special effects supervisor for 2001. A few years ago I showed him a picture of the greenhouse on my iPhone and he smiled. I also told him that the graphics inside the NASTAR suborbital trainer were eerily similar to the earth orbit scenes from 2001 and that I doubted that this was not purely coincidental.
Im not certain if I will ever actually fly into space since that is going to be an expensive trip for may years to come that will always be beyond my means. But If I do fly .
Updated Monday, December 18, 8:15 a.m. EST: Corrected the year from 2003 to 1998 when Marc Boucher visited Sir Arthur C. Clarke.
Standardbred Canada, a member of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA), is pleased to see that Finance Canada has considered the feedback contributed by CFA with regard to the Tax Fairness proposals, and has proposed changes that have addressed a number of the key concerns identified by Canadian farm businesses.
Since the government announced these proposed rules, Standardbred Canada through CFA has raised continued concerns with potential consequences to intergenerational farm transfers, and is pleased to see that capital gains from qualified farm property would be excluded from Tax on Split Income. We are also pleased to see further clarification and definition on the contributions required for both capital and labour, and look forward to further dialogue with government officials to ensure the diverse contributions of farm family members are adequately accounted for.
"This announcement provides greater clarity on Income Sprinkling and, through CFA, we look forward to continued engagement with Finance Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency to ensure application of the rules is streamlined," said Standardbred Canada President and CEO Dan Gall.
"The progress we've seen on this since the initial announcement in July shows that collaboration and communication are critical for effective policy-making. We believe these changes are important for shaping Canada's tax policy to enable the continued success of family farms in Canada, including the next generation of young farmers, and thank CFA for all their efforts in making this progress," added Gall.
CFA is now awaiting draft legislation and will fully analyze the proposed changes once a bill is introduced in Parliament. CFA and Standardbred Canada maintains concerns that the implementation timelines are very tight and don't give businesses much time to adapt. Farm leaders look forward to working with Finance Canada to ensure any remaining issues are adequately addressed.
"The Canadian government has set a huge goal of increasing agriculture exports to $75 billion by 2025. We need to ensure we get policies right to meet these ambitious growth targets. By continuing to work together, we can make Canada and Canadian food a true powerhouse in terms of feeding to the world's growing population," said CFA President Ron Bonnett.
Standardbred Canada looks forward to continued dialogue through the CFA with Finance Canada to clarify these issues, and ensure further proposals align with the government's ambitious growth agenda for the sector.
According to The Journal News of White Plains, N.Y., the owners of Yonkers Raceway are considering options for development of the 100-acre site of Empire City Casino, including talks of relocating the racing operations to Belmont Park or elsewhere in the state.
"We have discussed it at some length, and were actually advocating such a maneuver because it would free up the land for Yonkers. It would free up Aqueduct for a convention center that the governor has been advocating for for some time," Joe Faraldo, president of the Standardbred Owners Association of New York, told The Journal News.
"Both of these properties would be shovel ready for expansion, and our concept was that the revenue stream that comes from the casinos that go to racing would follow us over to Belmont Park."
Empire City, which houses 5,222 video lottery terminals (VLTs), is just 25 kilometres from midtown Manhattan.
To read the full report, follow this link.
(with files from The Journal News)
The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) conducted its regular meeting Thursday, Dec. 14, at Los Alamitos Race Course.
Chairman Chuck Winner presided. Vice Chairman Madeline Auerbach and Commissioners Jesse Choper, Fred Maas, Araceli Ruano and Alex Solis also were in attendance.
The audio of this entire Board meeting is available on the CHRB website (www.chrb.ca.gov) under the Webcast link. In brief:
Chairman Winner began the meeting by honouring the equine and human victims of the December 7 fire at San Luis Rey (SLR) training center and all those who rushed to their aid and later contributed to relief efforts. Vice Chairman Auerbach elaborated on the generosity of thousands who donated cash, services and supplies in the aftermath of the tragedy, and she was followed by Alan Balch, executive director of the California Thoroughbred Trainers; Cliff Goodrich, executive director of the California Thoroughbred Horsemens Foundation; and Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of The Stronach Group, which owns SLR and Santa Anita Park. Among their key points:
Chairman Winner said we witnessed both the horror of what happened at San Luis Rey and the overwhelming response. He honored those who risked their lives to save horses, specifically Martine Bellocq, Joe Herrick and Les Baker, who were injured in the process. So many heroes who worked at the racetrack, instead of caring for their own lives, their own safety, leapt to try to save those wonderful animals that we all care so much about.
Vice Chairman Auerbach, acknowledging $650,000 in cash donations from thousands of contributors through a GoFundMe account sponsored by the Stronach Group and the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, said the money is being handled by a committee of people that we feel is in the best possible position not only to be aware of the problems but to handle (the money) appropriately, including Nate Newby, vice president of marketing at Santa Anita; Rick Hammerle, Vice President of Racing at Santa Anita; David Jerkens, racing secretary at Del Mar, Balch, and herself. Our main objective and the objective of the people who gave this money is to get it into the hands of the people who need it the most (including) every single groom who worked at San Luis Rey.
Balch, noting the CTT is responsible for the health and welfare of everyone in the backstretch community, said there are dozens if not hundreds of backstretch personnel who were so brave and who have been affected, and we owe them all our deepest, deepest sympathy and support, our gratitude for having performed, and we are concerned of course about their health going forwardwe are doing everything we can (to) have the money flowing, and to make it count, every last dollar.
Goodrich said that by consensus the CTHF has taken the lead in the distribution of funds to victims. He noted that because CTHF is a non-profit (501c3) organization that provides financial assistance, medical, dental and other services to racetrack workers, CTHF has the ability to distribute badly needed money in a hurry to victims of the fire in consultation with those who helped organize the collection of funds, chiefly the Stronach Group, Del Mar, and Los Alamitos Race Course.
Ritvo expressed a loss for words to adequately express The Stronach Groups sorrow for the victims and appreciation for the bravery of those who helped save the trapped horses. "We will do everything on our part to continue to try to make life better for the people who have lost so much. He promised fast and swift reaction in the construction of barns to replace the 225 stalls lost at SLR, roughly half its capacity, both at SLR and Santa Anita. He said there will be a memorial service for the victims on opening day (December 26) of the Santa Anita winter meet.
The Board adopted a regulatory amendment requiring all those riding in jog carts during harness horse training to wear approved safety vests and safety helmets.
The Board adopted a regulatory amendment requiring the scratch of any horse whose true sex is not reported to the racing office prior to the opening of wagering for that race, which in most cases for Thoroughbred racing would be 8 a.m. for early bird wagering.
The Board approved for public notice a proposed regulatory amendment to treat net purse earnings by trainers and jockeys the same as has been the case for owners in that 0.3 percent shall be automatically deducted for horse welfare through the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA). There is an opt-out provision for all participants. Vice Chair Auerbach recused herself from this discussion and approval due to her heavy involvement in CARMA.
The Board authorized a continuing deduction from advance deposit wagering (ADW) revenue for the vanning and stabling program.
Executive Director Rick Baedeker reported that handle increased by nearly 10 percent in November from the previous year, largely due to wagering on the Breeders Cup. This raised total 2017 handle throughout the state to slightly more than 2016 wagering through November.
Baedeker also reported that staff counsel Phillip Laird will be leaving the CHRB in January to become Deputy General Counsel in the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency.
(CHRB)
Three Continents in 60 Days: The Luis Palau Association Completes Two-Month-Long Global Initiative as Andrew Palau Returns from China
Contact: Chelsea Miller, Luis Palau Association , 503-614-1500PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 15, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- Evangelist Andrew Palau just returned from Beijing and Huai'an City, China, serving local churches to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the region through special Christmas events. Working directly with local churches and approval from authorities, Palau was met with great openness and joy as he shared the clear message of hope through Jesus Christ with thousands of individuals and distributed 9,000 copies of his Gospel-centered book What is Christmas?.This final 2017 campaign wrapped up an intense 60-day season of ministry for Palau across three continents, including festival outreaches in Africa, South America, and Asia."It's been an immense blessing to experience so many different cultures in such a short amount of time," Andrew Palau says. "The beauty of the Church is the diversity and uniqueness of expressions coupled with the unwavering source of Truth that runs through each community of believers. It was wonderful to see the creativity of God in so many ways these past two months and it's been a tremendous honor for us."The last weekend of October brought 65,000 people together in the nation of Cote d'Ivoire (West Africa) for the Love Cote d'Ivoire Festival which was held in the nation's capital city of Yamoussoukro. The festival was preceded by a week of outreach events throughout the city where Palau shared the Good News with thousands of school children, prisoners, and local businessmen and women. Friends from the Palau Association's Next Generation Alliance served the city of San Pedro in a parallel festival in the week following.Two weeks later in November, Palau headed up two festivals in the cities of La Matanza and Las Malvinas, Argentina, where 47,500 people gathered for multiple evangelistic events, once again reaching all levels of society. During the week of events, Palau met with several political leaders throughout the region, including Veronica Magario, mayor of La Matanza, who welcomed him as an honored visitor to the city, and Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, mayor of Buenos Aires. These two festivals marked the 6th and 7th festivals for Palau in Argentina in the last two years.One short week after returning from Latin America, Palau and his team headed once again to China for his yearly Christmas outreach to the nation. Events in Beijing and Huai'an City brought more than 8,000 people together where Palau shared the Good News of Jesus and distributed the book What is Christmas?. Following in his father's footsteps, Palau made it a point to meet with regional and national government leaders, sharing his love for China and passion for preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ openly. These meetings included China's State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) and the China Christian Council (CCC). This visit saw particularly encouraging confirmation in relationships with many church and government leaders Palau and his team have continued to foster and develop through the years.Going forward, the Luis Palau Association will be launching a massive, 3-year initiative called 2020: Blessing the Nations, which aims to expand ministry efforts on all levels.For more information about 2020: Blessing the Nations or other aspects of the Palau Association, visit www.palau.org or email info@palau.org
The Labour Party is establishing a permanent and very visible presence in their Tauranga heartland.
The party, which now boasts four MPs across the Bay of Plenty region, is opening an office beside Countdown on Cameron Road on the fringe of the Greerton Village shopping precinct.
Because Greerton has a vibrancy, says new Labour list MP Jan Tinetti. Its an amazingly go-ahead place and we wanted to be part of it.
The 90-square metre office at 1356 Cameron Road will be the full-time electorate base for Jan. She will share the space with another Labour list MP, Angie Warren-Clark, who will also work out of Rotorua.
And it will be a part-time base for Tamati Coffey, who won the Waiariki seat off the Maori Party.
We wanted to be away from the city centre be more accessible for people and be more visible, says Jan. Being on Cameron Road, I think we will achieve that.
Its also a nod to the suburb which pitched in for Labour at the election. We took two Greerton booths and went very close in a couple of others. We did very well out here. And obviously, we wanted to be close to those people. We are now happy to be here for them.
Its something quite big for the party and for the Bay of Plenty according to Jan. That was the whole aim - by putting candidates high on the list in the first place, the party wanted a presence, not just in the Bay of Plenty, but in Tauranga.
Now, she says, the party has four MPs across the region including Kiritapu Allan in Whakatane. And it has visibility.
The team had to jump through some hoops first. The facility had to be inspected by the Parliamentary Services security team to ensure it met standards.
The new Greerton office will require some reconfiguration, with a reception area, offices and a consultation space being built before MPs and support staff move in.
Its also an opportunity for us to make a connection with the many interest groups out this way thats another reason for us being here the social service groups, education groups and other groups that we need to be connecting with and hearing their stories.
So its a perfect setting for the Labour Party.
For the last six years the party in Tauranga has operated from an office in the Historic Village.
U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler has co-sponsored a bill shielding fishing boats and small vessels from a federal rule regulating sewage discharge set to expire Dec. 18.
The Southwest Washington congresswoman introduced the legislation Thursday with Democratic Rep. Derek Kilmer of Washingtons 6th District.
Their bill would extend an exemption from the Environmental Protection Agencys discharge regulations by three years.
The protection has long-standing bipartisan support, Herrera Beutlers office said in a press release. Sen. Maria Cantwell has introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
Fishermen, shellfish growers and small vessel operators are key economic contributors to our Pacific County communities; their livelihoods represent thousands of paychecks, Herrera Beutler said.
These requirements were only ever meant for larger vessels, but if Congress doesn't act soon, the small boats will take a serious hit. I'm hopeful this bipartisan solution will be included in any end-of-year legislation to give our fishing businesses relief and certainty."
Breanne Leigh turned to Brent Luyster the man who killed her significant other and shot her in the face, leaving her for dead and held up photos of her young daughters.
I should not be the one looking them in their face and telling them why their dad is not here. That should be your job. How could you take their dad, Brent? Why did you take their dad from them? I want to know why, why execution style, kill the people you call your friends and family? Leigh said through tears at Luysters sentencing Friday afternoon.
Youre so ridiculously selfish, she added. You know what you did. You choose not to own up to it, though, and hurt everybody as much as you can. Everyone you ever come in contact with you damage, you hurt, you ruin, you wreck everything.
Luyster appeared to show little reaction as Leigh read her statement. But he furrowed his brow as the judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of release, bringing the saga of one of Clark Countys most notorious murder cases to an end.
Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis sentenced Luyster to three life sentences without possibility of parole on three counts of first-degree aggravated murder, 471 months on attempted first-degree murder, 116 months on first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and 60 months on second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, all to run consecutively.
A jury found him guilty on all counts last month.
Luyster fatally shot his best friend Zachary David Thompson, 36; friend Joseph Mark LaMar, 38; and LaMars partner, Janell Renee Knight, 43, on July 15, 2016, at LaMars home southeast of Woodland. Thompsons partner, Leigh, then 32, was wounded but lived to testify against Luyster.
He maintains his innocence, however.
I hear everybody asking, Why did this happen? How could you do something like this? I dont know how I was convicted of this, Luyster told the court.
He argued that prosecutors didnt produce any compelling motive for the murders, and Leighs statements about him being the shooter which he said were taken by former Clark County sheriffs Detective Kevin Harper, who resigned in February following allegations of misconduct were all they had. No one saw him shoot anyone, he said.
There was no blood, or DNA or gunpowder or murder weapon or motive, Luyster said.
The family of the victims have every right to believe it was me, because thats what the state is telling them. But its simply not the case, he said. Zach and Joe were good men. They were excellent fathers. And they loved their family and friends. On the other side of the coin, and I say this without trying to take anything away from them or diminish what happened to them, they were hard men, and they were men of violence. They had a lot of enemies. They were felons, just like I.
Luyster has filed a notice of appeal.
Earlier in the hearing, the defense moved for Luyster to receive a new trial based on a juror who was allegedly unduly influenced when, at the end of Luysters trial, he shaved his head and revealed Nazi tattoos on his scalp.
Lewis said its not clear to him that a defendants appearance in open court is basis for a new trial. And in this particular circumstance, the juror reportedly said what he saw and how it factored into his decision. Lewis said that is exactly the sort of thing the Supreme Court says not to inquire into, and he ordered the sentencing to proceed.
Family members and friends of Luysters victims testified in an emotional hearing that lasted about 30 minutes.
The sister of LaMar, Abia Nunn, showed photos of her brother to the court and gallery.
Everybody had seen my family dead. I want the court to see my brother as he was alive beautiful, happy and alive nothing like what was shown in the courtroom, she said.
Words cannot express the pain and anguish our family and friends have endured since their murders. The defendants decision to take the life of a human being with no regard to the effects it may have on others is unimaginable, Nunn said, later adding, This man, this evil man has no compassion for human life nor does he blink an eye when taking one.
She asked the judge to show no leniency or mercy, because Luyster showed none to his victims.
LaMars mother, Danette Anderson, told Luyster there is a special place in Hell for him.
Victim advocate Mary Todd also read statements on behalf of Thompsons sister and mother.
Both described him as a happy and loving person. They said he had some problems in life, but he was finally getting his life on track for his family.
Nunn said after the hearing that she is happy about the outcome of the case.
Were done this time. There is no coming back, she told media. We never have to see him again.
Deputy Prosecutor James Smith said in a phone interview after the hearing that the prosecution is pleased with the outcome.
We didnt believe there was any basis for a new trial, and we are glad the victims were able to see justice from the court handing down the sentence, he said.
Efforts to reach Luysters counsel, Chuck Buckley and Steve Rucker, after the hearing were unsuccessful.
Monday marks a big day for train riders in Western Washington with the culmination of a $800 million high-speed rail project that state rail officials say will make train travel faster, convenient and reliable.
Three new developments are starting nearly simultaneously:
On Monday, two additional Amtrak Cascades trains daily will start serving the Portland-Seattle corridor on Monday. This means that travelers departing or arriving in Kelso will have a choice of seven northbound and seven southbound trains daily to get to Portland or Seattle. One will be especially helpful to businesspeople: The earliest northbound train will leave Kelso at 7:11 a.m. and arrive at Seattles King Street Station at 9:40 a.m. Up until now, the earlier Seattle-bound train left Kelso at about 9:15 a.m. and didnt arrive until about noon. (See sidebar for new Kelso departure times)
Also starting Monday, Amtrak trains in the Portland-to Seattle route will use the Point Defiance Bypass track instead of the scenic route along Puget Sound that crosses under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The bypass line parallels Interstate 5 north of Olympia and Joint Base Lewis McCord. It will mean a 10-minute savings in the passage from Seattle to Kelso, according to state transportation officials.
Amtrak/Cascade trains are being pulled by eight new, state-of-the-art Charger locomotives. The 4,400-horsepower engines are 42,000 pounds, 8 foot tall and meet new, stringent emission standards, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation rail division. The new locomotives were delivered in the summer and started going into service late last month after testing and training. WSDOT said the American-made engines are quieter, lighter and accelerate faster, though theyll be limited to the 79 mph speed limit in the Seattle-to-Portland rail corridor. Theyre equipped with positive train control systems, which can automatically stop a train when its headed for trouble, once the system is activated later next year.
WSDOT used $58.3 million from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to purchase the locomotives. The engines were part of nearly $800 million investment in passenger train service in Washington funded through that stimulus package. WSDOT oversaw 20 federally funded projects throughout Washington, including the addition of a third rail between Kelso and Woodland, construction of the Point Defiance Bypass route and a new station in Tacoma that opens Dec. 18.
Annual ridership on Amtrak Cascades corridor from Vancouver, British Columbia to Eugene, Ore., has increased threefold between 1996 and the early part of this decade. In 1996 the Cascades trains handled about 305,000 passengers, but by 2011 that rose to 850,000 annual passengers (entire route). The most significant growth in ridership occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
According to WSDOT, the growth occurred consistently with the addition of new equipment and additional service along the route. The state has been looking to train travel to reduce congesion and green house gas emissions. A WSDOT report says that, on a passenger-mile basis, passenger cars emit more than three times as much carbon dioxide as passenger trains.
If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs.
CAIRO Over the course of roughly a decade, from 2004 to 2015, when James Wilson and Martha Franklin were in leadership roles at the Alexander County Housing Authority, 13 children living in ACHA properties tested with elevated blood lead levels of at least double and in some cases triple or almost quadruple the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions recommended public health intervention level, according to data provided to the newspaper by Southern Seven Health Department.
Of those cases, each representing a unique child, 11 of the children were residing at the time at Elmwood or McBride, family public housing complexes in Cairo that Housing and Urban Development has slated for demolition. Two of the children were residing in the family public housing complex in Thebes known as Mary Alice Meadows.
The data obtained by The Southern Illinoisan only represent cases where the testing was conducted by Southern Seven Health Department, the local health department that provides services in the states lower seven counties, including Alexander. Other children may have been tested during that time frame by their family physician or in another health care setting. Duplicate cases, where a childs blood lead levels were elevated on consecutive tests, are not included, according to the local health department.
As well, the data do not reflect cases of children that may have tested between 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood the CDC's recommended intervention level and 10 micrograms per deciliter, the state's intervention level, which results in case management for the child, and potentially an environmental investigation of his or her environment.
Lead exposure, particularly in very young children, can stunt development and lead to irreversible and lifelong health and social challenges. That's true even in low doses, particularly if the exposure occurs over a long period of time.
HUD: Ex-director falsified compliance
In a civil complaint filed late last month against Wilson and Franklin, in which the federal government is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil penalties and assessments under the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act of 1986, HUD claimed, among other things, that Wilson and Franklin failed to follow the federal housing agencys lead safe housing regulations, and that Wilson falsified compliance.
The complaint only cites one case, from 2003, of a child living at Elmwood and McBride testing with an elevated blood lead level. HUD spokesman Jereon Brown said the federal agency was unaware of the data obtained and reviewed by The Southern indicating there have been at least 14 additional cases since then (13 of the 14 cases were during the time Franklin and/or Wilson were associated with the ACHA, and one after) of children testing with elevated blood lead levels in ACHA properties.
In addition to the 2003 case, Brown said HUD was aware of only one other case, which was of a child testing with an elevated blood lead level earlier this year. According to Southern Seven Health Department's data, a child tested with an elevated blood lead level between 20 and 29 micrograms per deciliter some time in 2017.
According to HUD officials and other experts on lead exposure in government assisted housing, the civil complaint against Wilson and Franklin marks the first time in recent history that HUD has sought civil penalties against housing authority managers for alleged failure to comply with the agencys Lead Safe Housing Rule and/or Lead Disclosure Rule, which both apply to federally owned or subsidized family housing constructed prior to 1978. Much of the ACHAs housing stock was built pre-1978, the year the federal government phased out consumer uses of lead-containing paint.
The allegation is among many in the complaint that seeks hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and assessments against the two, but is one of the most serious because it directly concerns the health and safety of children. It also raises a number of questions about HUD's ability to compel compliance with its lead safe housing rules and regulations.
HUDs civil complaint states that between 1991 and 1995, the ACHA conducted testing to identify lead-based paint, which concluded that it was present with in the ACHA units and common areas.
Although the ACHA conducted some abatement work on door frames, interior window frames, wood bathroom accessory rails and stairway rail caps in 1993 and 1994, lead-based paint remained on other sources within common areas and units, the complaint states. In September 2003, it was discovered that a child residing in an AHCA complex had an elevated blood lead level, which prompted the Illinois Department of Public Health to send a licensed lead inspector/risk assessor to conduct a lead investigation at the property.
In a letter dated Sept. 26, 2003, IDPH advised the ACHA that the risers, baseboard and tread at the complex (the name of the complex is redacted in the complaint) were determined to be lead-bearing substances that must be monitored and maintained, the complaint states.
In 2017, a year after placing the ACHA in administrative receivership, HUD conducted a lead-based paint inspection at Elmwood and McBride, both of which were built in the early 1940s. The inspection confirmed that lead-based paint was present on stair risers and stair stringers throughout both properties, the complaint states.
A labyrinth of lead safe housing laws, rules
What the complaint doesnt mention is that the IDPH note to the ACHA also stated there were no lead hazards found during the state health agencys environmental investigation that year. According to IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold, there have been five environmental investigations conducted at either Elmwood or McBride since 2000. Two were conducted between 2000 and 2005; one between 2006 and 2010; and two between 2011 and 2017, she said.
Arnold said that during each of those five environmental investigations, lead-based paint was found, but did not pose an immediate health hazard to people. Therefore, it needed to be monitored and have ongoing maintenance, Arnold said, in an emailed response. If it were considered an immediate health hazard, remediation would have been required."
Kert McAfee, lead program manager for IDPH, said that the health department was not able to trace the source of the lead exposure to the living environment of the children in any of the five cases. Water and soil also would have been tested for lead, he said. Generally speaking, where lead-containing paint is identified but intact, state laws and regulations do not demand immediate remediation action but direct the landlord to closely monitor those items for chipping and peeling paint, he said.
While lead-containing paint is among the most common sources of childhood lead exposure, other sources include water, soil and consumer products. Children could be exposed in their homes, or in another environment they frequent often, such as day care centers, schools or relatives' homes.
Still, according to Southern Seven Health Departments data reviewed by the newspaper, roughly one in three cases of tests revealing elevated blood lead levels in Alexander County between 2004 and Oct. 30, 2017, were of children living in the ACHAs Elmwood and McBride properties. The state has designated the Cairo area a high-risk zip code for childhood lead exposure, based on a number of factors including poverty levels and the age of the housing stock. There has not been any new single-home residential construction in Cairo in at least 40 years.
Between 2004 and Oct. 30, 2017, there were 85 cases of cases of children testing with elevated blood lead levels in Alexander County as defined by the state's intervention level of 10 micrograms per deciliter or greater with 28 of those cases being found in children living in public housing in Cairo (26 cases) or Thebes (2 cases). Of note, these numbers are different and higher than the ones cited above because they include duplicate cases, where a child tested with an elevated blood lead level in one or more consecutive tests beyond the initial elevated case.
Despite the test results showing at least a dozen individual children with elevated blood lead levels living at Elmwood and McBride over about a decade, this never prompted a complex-wide assessment of lead hazards at Elmwood or McBride. Though HUD now claims that Wilson and Franklin failed to follow lead safe housing rules and regulations, the federal oversight agency did not compel further lead testing until this year, as the developments were targeted for demolition and a transition plan finalized. The state also did not flag this as a potential development-wide concern.
Until recently, the complexes were home to more than 400 residents, about half of them children. The complexes have almost exclusively housed African-American families for years. On April 10, HUD officials announced they would begin relocating residents from Elmwood and McBride, and to date, about 95 of 185 families have moved, according to Brown.
According to Brown, only verified blood-lead levels, confirmed with a venous blood test versus a finger prick, are reported to HUD, and HUD would not require lead hazard control if there was no finding of lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards. The Southern only cited cases provided by Southern Seven Health Department that were confirmed by a venous blood draw.
The data show that one or more unique cases of children tested with elevated blood lead levels (defined by Illinois's intervention level of 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood or greater) in 2004 (two children), 2005 (two children), 2008 (one child), 2011 (two children), 2012 (3 children), 2014 (1 child) and 2017 (1 child) according to the Southern Seven data provided to The Southern.
The reason why situations such as this fall through the cracks may be, at least in part, to blame on the hodgepodge of complex laws and regulations governing reporting of elevated blood lead levels, and what triggers intervention activities at the federal, state and local levels, and among different agencies at various governmental levels. There also have been numerous changes in recent years to these laws, rules and regulations.
At the state level, an environmental investigation, which is intended to identify the source of the lead exposure, is triggered if a child age 6 or younger has an elevated blood lead level at or above 20 micrograms per deciliter. (Prior to 2008, it was 25 micrograms per deciliter). As well, an environmental investigation is conducted if a child has three consecutive test results between 15 and 19 micrograms per deciliter. However, if any test result dips below 15, the process starts over and three more consecutive tests of 15 to 19 micrograms per deciliter are needed to mandate an environmental investigation.
The rules are different if the child is between the ages of 0 and 2. In those cases, an environmental investigation is conducted for toddlers testing at 10 or greater micrograms per deciliter. Any child age 6 and younger with an elevated blood lead level of 10 micrograms per deciliter or greater is assigned a case manager from a local health department, but the environmental investigation is only prompted by any of the above scenarios, or by the special request of a physician.
It is convoluted. I will give you that, and we are attempting to simplify the regulations, McAfee said.
HUD amends its Lead Safe Housing Rule
It gets even more confusing when various federal regulations come in to play. While the states intervention level is 10 micrograms per deciliter for children age 6 and younger or children through age 7 in places the state has designated high-risk zip codes the CDCs is 5 micrograms per deciliter for children under age 6.
For years, HUDs intervention standard was a child living in a public housing complex with test results of 20 micrograms per deciliter or greater. That changed on Feb. 13, when HUD amended its Lead Safe Housing Rule to match the CDCs intervention standards.
Under the old rule, public housing authority managers were supposed to report elevated blood lead level cases to their respective HUD regional office, but there was no time frame specified in the rule by which they must comply.
Public housing authority directors are also required to attest by signature that they followed all of HUD's lead safe rules and regulations as part of the agreement for receiving their annual capital funds. It's an agreement based largely on the honor system, and it's what HUD claims that Wilson falsified compliance with by signing forms that stated he had complied with lead safe housing rules and regulations, among numerous other unrelated HUD regulations.
The amendments to the rule, which the agency began enforcing this summer, is an attempt to tighten HUDs ability to provide effective oversight of its lead safe housing rules and regulations. It says housing authorities must notify both their respective HUD regional office and HUD Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control Office within five days of learning of a child testing with an elevated blood lead level of 5 micrograms per deciliter or greater, and also follow up with proof that required mitigation activities were undertaken in the short- and long-term.
According to Brown, of HUD, the public agencys reporting requirement timeline is triggered by its being notified of an elevated blood lead level case, not by when the medical health care professional determines that the childs blood lead level is elevated. "In its rulemaking, HUD recognized that it does not control when medical health care professionals notify public housing agencies of case information," Brown said.
And therein lies the rub, at least where it concerns housing authorities in Illinois.
Sharing health data an issue
Except when a convoluted set of particular circumstances are met, as described above, or a specific request is made, property managers may never be notified by a respective local health department or the Illinois Department of Public Health. The state only notifies landlords of cases of elevated blood lead levels when an environmental investigation is prompted by one of the above scenarios.
That means landlords are not notified when a child tests with an elevated lead level of greater than 5 but less than 20 micrograms per deciliter, unless the child is ages 0 to 2. McAfee said that notification to landlords when an environmental investigation is not triggered could amount to a violation of health care privacy laws. It's a fine line to walk between ferreting out environmental sources of lead and patient privacy, he said.
Therefore, HUD may never be notified either, at least where it concerns children in Illinois living in federally owned and subsidized housing, with the exception of the city of Chicago, which has adopted a more aggressive intervention standard. That makes it rather difficult for the federal agency to ensure local housing authorities are complying with lead safe housing rules and regulations, despite recent changes and the mass amount of effort that went into them.
Brown acknowledged that "challenges to adequate oversight" include a lack of reporting of cases of elevated blood lead levels to public housing authorities by parents, landlords, health departments and other sources.
So does the confusing labyrinth of laws, rules and regulations; whats described in this article is far from the unabridged version. That means while theres little shortage of guidance on the state and federal books, targeted enforcement and intervention is a much more difficult task.
In Cairo, theres also no definitive proof that the children testing with elevated blood lead levels were exposed through lead-containing paint.
HUD also tested the drinking water at Elmwood and McBride this March, and more than half of the 22 units from which water samples were taken tested at or above the Environmental Protection Agencys action level of 15 parts per billion. Water filters were then installed throughout all of the ACHAs properties. HUD did not take this action until a year after it took over the housing authority, only after announcing the relocation plan that includes giving vouchers to all residents of Elmwood and McBride, and requiring they move out. A move-out deadline has not been set.
HUD also had the drinking water at Elmwood and McBride tested for lead the previous spring, not long after taking over the ACHA. HUD officials said that in the earlier test results, all came back favorable except one. HUD officials have said they cannot explain the reason for the change in results. The citys water, which is supplied by American Water Co., did not test positive for lead, leading officials to believe the cause could be the joints of the copper water pipes.
14 years later
The civil complaint against Wilson and Franklin comes 14 years after the 2003 case HUD cites in that complaint of a child testing with an elevated blood lead level.
The two were cited for allegedly failing to disclose to tenants all known lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards at the property; failing to provide tenants with all records or reports available concerning lead paint hazards; failing to conduct risk assessments; failing to abate lead-based paint or conduct interim controls; failing to conduct visual assessments; and failing to conduct reevaluations of lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards, all of which were required of housing authority managers administering public housing programs with federal dollars.
Wilsons only comment in response to the civil complaint filed against him was that he wanted to wish everybody a Merry Christmas. The newspaper has never been successful in reaching Franklin.
The data and reporting concerns and the fact that there was not intervention sooner to determine the source of lead exposure for children living at the Alexander County Housing Authority, a relatively small housing authority compared to the roughly 3,800 nationwide, illustrates how difficult it is for HUD to get a handle on compelling compliance with its lead safety rules and how easy it is for life-threatening hazards in federally owned or subsidized housing to potentially go unaddressed for years.
The data and reporting requirements are nuanced and painstaking to follow, gather and analyze. The consequences for not doing so at the federal, state and local levels are potentially dire and lifelong for the children whose hazardous environments go unaddressed. Emily Benfer, one of the nations leading legal experts on the prevalence of childhood lead poisoning in government-subsidized housing, said that HUDs ability to compel compliance with its lead safety rules is a major issue.
Benfer, a distinguished visiting scholar and senior fellow at Yale Law Schools Solomon Center for Health Law & Policy, said the case in Cairo and others making headlines across the country in recent months and years are exposing these shortcomings on a broader scale.
HUD's Brown said the agency believes that its new rule on lead safety, which had a compliance date of July 13, will result in improvements in HUDs ability to provide better monitoring and oversight of lead safety concerns at public housing authority and subsidized multifamily properties. Lead exposure in HUD-assisted housing is lower than in unsubsidized housing, Brown noted.
But Benfer questioned whether the new rule goes far enough to protect millions of vulnerable children living in government-supported housing in the United States.
MARION If Franklin or Williamson counties were faced with a public health emergency and vaccines had to be dispensed, some 107,000 people in those areas would need the medicine.
Single-file, they would create a line of people stretching all the way from John A. Logan College in Carterville to Shawneetown, near the Ohio River, in Gallatin County.
That'd be a line of people each taking up about a foot of space stretching 52 miles long, according to one calculation.
To help fulfill a mandate to provide vaccines or other treatments to people in a public health emergency, one local health provider is recruiting local churches to serve as distributors of medicines for their congregations.
The program is Operation Noah's Ark, which is scheduled to roll out next fall, according to Ronda Koch, director of emergency preparedness for the Franklin/Williamson Bi-County Health Department. The new Franklin/Williamson County program is called a POD for Point Of Distribution of the necessary medicines.
A program overview and planning meeting is set for 6 p.m. Jan. 30.
Koch says she already has 36 organizations enrolled in the program, nine of which are churches, Though the program is not scheduled to get underway until almost a year from now, it could offer various related workshops and services to churches that signal their interest before then, Koch said.
For instance, outreach planned for early next year in Franklin County will likely include life-saving information on opioid use, abuse and treatment, she said.
"This program is health- and life-saving," Koch said of Operation Noah's Ark. "We're targeting churches through Operation Noah's Ark, but it's open to any organization interested in protecting the health and the lives of the staff and any other people there in their organization."
How the church outreach would work
If there is public health emergency, such as one declared after a bio-terrorism attack, like from anthrax, or a flu pandemic, the health department is under mandate to provide the vaccines within 24 hours of declaration of the emergency.
The biggest problem facing the Franklin/Williamson Bi-County Health Department is the personnel to complete such an operation, hence Koch's desire to solicit churches and their members to help. Each participating church would be allotted a certain amount of vaccines or medicines for its church population, she said, helping to take a load off the public health workers who would be busily caring for others in the population, she said.
She noted that she has enjoyed good support from church community members in the past; she announced the Operation Noah's Ark program during a recent Church Security Workshop that she partnered with the Williamson County Sheriff's Department recently to host.
Those who are not part of the participating churches will be directed to health department offices and affiliated sites for a dispensing of the medicines, she said.
"Many health departments across Illinois offer this program," Koch said. Those who are curious should contact their local health department to see if it does, she suggested.
"It's a health- and life-saving program in severe public health emergencies," she said. "Organizations, churches, businesses, long-term care facilities and others who are interested in joining this program can be proactive in having the ability to receive emergency medicine in a public health emergency, directly at your facility, instead of having people come to in our two counties a 52-mile-long line."
One of the local health departments that does not yet have a church-focused POD is the Jackson County Health Department, although it is open to the possibility, a representative said.
Jackson County Health Department's Closed Point of Dispensing locations are focused primarily on healthcare providers, so they can get critical medications quickly to the healthcare workforce in a disease outbreak situation and continue to serve the public at large, according to Bart Hagston, director of environmental health and emergency preparedness for the Jackson County Health Department.
"However, that is not to say we wouldnt be interested in working with Jackson County churches on such a program," Hagston said.
CHARLESTON Christina Stephen described it as "historical."
It was a crime that happened years ago but something she always heard about, almost legendary, with ghost stories going along with the grisly truth.
Stephen helped finally solve it, but she credited her colleagues, her predecessor and, largely, a sister of the victim for finally ending a nearly four-decade-old mystery.
In Coles County, it's always been called the Airtight Bridge murder because of the bridge where, on Oct. 19, 1980, the body of a nude woman with her head, hands and feet missing was found in the Embarras River.
A dozen years later, with the advent of DNA testing and the sister's concern, the body was identified as that of a woman from Bradley in Kankakee County, Diane Marie Riordan Small.
Now a lieutenant and the chief detective with the Coles County Sheriff's Office, Stephen said several "dynamics" of the case led to its reopening and, ultimately, solving.
"There were a lot of things that put up red flags for me," she said.
Years ago, now-retired sheriff's Detective Art Beier "put so much time and effort into that case," Stephen said.
After Small was identified as the victim, Beier's investigation included interviews with her husband, Thomas Small, who came close to confessing before asking for an attorney.
Five years ago, then-Sheriff Darrell Cox who was a patrol officer in 1980 and the first at the scene of the body's discovery thought there was a need and the time for reopening old cases, Stephen said.
Stephen said after the body was identified, Kankakee County authorities didn't search the home where Thomas and Diane Small had lived. Thomas Small's story was that they fought and "she probably ran off with another guy," so he didn't file a formal missing person's report.
"As a loved one, why would you not be concerned about that?" Stephen said.
Thomas Small no longer lived in the house in 2012 when Illinois State Police agreed to do a crime scene investigation. Blood was found, but ultimately not enough for conclusive tests, and Stephen said Bradley police wanted to wait on the results before questioning Thomas Small.
All the time, Stephen said, she spent "hours on the phone" with Ginger Williams, Diane Small's sister. It was Williams who filed a formal missing person's report in 1992, providing a description of her sister that resembled that of the Airtight Bridge body and leading to the DNA testing.
Stephen called Williams "the key" to the entire investigation, as she told stories of the family's background and related how Thomas Small "always took care of people," but his life declined after Diane's death.
Late last year, Stephen said, she got the go-head from current Sheriff Jimmy Rankin to travel to Kankakee County and try to question Thomas Small, 70 years old by then.
"We just did not feel that we had a lot of time left to have that conversation with Tom," Stephen said.
She said she wanted Tyler Heleine, a sheriff's office lieutenant and head of its patrol division, to go with her for the questioning.
She praised his interviewing skills and said she thought it would help to have a man who, like Small, had a military background take part. It was a decision that eventually paid off.
They went to Kankakee County on March 1. Stephen said Bradley police didn't join them but officers with Kankakee police did, and they located Small at the apartment building where he lived.
"He wasn't overly excited to see us," Stephen said. "We told him we'd reopened the case and we thought he might fill in some blanks."
As it ended up, Small and Heleine shared not only a military background but also a love for the Chicago Cubs. Heleine said Small was "standoffish at first" but they soon built a rapport.
Stephen said that day's conversation ended with them telling Small they'd return the next day and talk more. She said they wanted to try to find another relative, though he couldn't be located, and talk with Small again to check consistencies.
On that next day, Stephen said, she brought up things such as how Ginger Williams told them of the odor in Thomas Small's car, which he owned at the time of Diane's death but sold once her body was identified.
"I finally just threw it out there," Stephen said, and asked Small if he would take a computer voice stress test. She said he was "very hesitant at first" but eventually agreed and "failed it, miserably."
During the questioning that followed, Stephen said they told Small they "knew he was a good guy and it had to be eating him alive." Heleine noted Small's sparsely furnished apartment and other signs of self neglect.
"You could tell he hadn't put it in his past," Heleine said. "He finally gave it up."
It was then that Small told about problems with the marriage and how he took Diane back after, he claimed, she cheated on him. She "started acting weird" and at one point "started swinging at me," Small said.
During the interview, Small said he got a coal poker from an old furnace in the house and kept it handy in case Diane tried to hit him again. That's what happened, and "I swung back and hit her in the head," he said.
"I might have hit her more than once," Small told Stephen and Heleine. He said he almost called for help, but his first thought was how his young daughter, asleep in another room at the time, would react, "so the lies started."
Small said he first took Diane's body to the house's attic and left it there for a few days until until the smell became too much. He put the body in his car and took his daughter along, as she was too young to leave alone.
"I didn't know where I was going to take her," Small said.
There's some indication that Small might have been to Coles County before. But he said he drove randomly until finally turning onto the dirt road to the bridge about four miles northeast of Charleston, one of the most remote areas in the county.
"I tried to find a place where nobody was at," Small said during the questioning. "I could have dropped her any place between Kankakee and there."
Though Heleine said he had "a hard time believing" Small "just stumbled onto the place," he also said Small "stuck to" that story.
The bank of the river is where Small said he dismembered the body. While Stephen said she has a "hard time" believing that, she said photos of the scene taken in 1980 did show something like tool marks on the ground.
Small then said he continued to "make it hard to identify her" and took the body parts back to his home, later burning them and throwing the remains in the Vermilion River. He said the ax he used to dismember the body went into a park lake; it and the body parts were never found.
Small's concern for his daughter's feelings eventually included a trip with her to Mound Cemetery near Charleston where Diane Small is buried, Stephen said.
"He really showed no emotion about Diane's murder," she said. "The only time he showed emotion was when he thought about his daughter."
Small said he didn't want his daughter to know who killed her mother while he was alive. He said his only thought about confessing earlier was to write a letter telling what he did and have it kept in a safe deposit box until he died.
Stephen also said they asked Small if he became worried after the body was identified in 1992. He replied that "in the back of my mind I was worried all the time."
After the interview, Bradley police were notified and arrested Small. Eight months later, he pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Stephen and Heleine said they were willing to talk about their investigation once Small's court case concluded but wanted to wait until after the 30-day deadline for post-conviction motions.
Now, Stephen said she's grateful for all the circumstances that help lead to the case being solved.
She noted that the pathologist who did the autopsy removed and saved a bruised area on Diane Small's body, which ended up being the only source of her DNA for testing.
And when Beier learned about what was then a new investigation tool, he worked to help locate Diane's parents to get DNA samples for comparison.
In September, Stephen and Heleine visited Diane's grave along with her sister, Ginger Williams, who Stephen said "always knew in her heart who was responsible."
After the body was identified, there was a local effort to replace the "Jane Doe" headstone at Diane's grave with one bearing her real name. Noting the interest in the case, Heleine said it was good to have "closure for this area."
The Smalls' daughter, Vanessa LaGesse, recently told the Kankakee Daily Journal newspaper that she loves Thomas Small for raising her but "I hate him for taking my mom."
Still, it might be a small comfort for LaGesse to finally know what happened, Stephen said.
"At least she got her answer maybe not the answer she wanted to hear."
Local legislators expressed their appreciation and offered well wishes to retiring South Carolina Carolina State University Board Chairman Charlie Way.
"Charlie came in under very troubling circumstances," Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews, said Thursday afternoon upon hearing of Way's announcement. "I think he has done a great job of leading us out of the dark times and hopefully putting us on the path to a brighter future."
Way announced during SCSU's regularly scheduled board meeting Thursday he was retiring from the board effective immediately.
Way said retirement comes ahead of his 80th birthday on Dec. 18. His family wants him to "slow down a bit."
Trustee Milton Irvin will assume the chairmanship of the board.
Ott praised Way's ability, and the rest of the board's, to turn the university around over the past two years.
Ott says Way in particular brought unity to the board.
"From what I have been able to see, Charlie is a consensus builder and he listens to his other board members," Ott said. "He maximizes everyone's strengths and he is able to pull from all of his board members. I believe we are on the right path at this particular point."
Ott said Way has left the new chairman "a lot more to work with."
"He led the university and worked with the president and very tough decisions were made, but they were decisions that had to be made if the future of South Carolina State had to be viable," Ott said. "He has given plenty to the university and to the state. I wish him well in his retirement."
Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman, said he was aware the announcement was coming.
"I want to thank him for his service to the institution and to the state," Matthews said. "I think he did a good job and I wish the best for him in the future."
Matthews said Way helped bring the institution through a difficult time.
"I hope his replacement will be as effective as he has been and will support the institution and continue to help move this institution forward," Matthews said.
Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, thanked Way "to the heights for all the hard work he has put in."
"He has provided real leadership to South Carolina State in this period of time," Hutto said. "They made great progress under his leadership. The finances are up and the enrollment is up."
"He is a native of Orangeburg and it was wonderful for him to step up when we called upon him to come back to the community and provide a public service for his hometown," Hutto said. "He did that cheerfully and we can see the results of that. It is much better than it was when he took over."
Rep. Jerry N. Govan Jr., D-Orangeburg, said, "Mr. Way has been a key figure in terms of ... helping to stabilize the board and working with the university to get us back to the point where we are.
"His services and leadership are going to be missed. Certainly we appreciate all that he has done and wish him well in his future endeavors."
Govan praised the "business acumen" that Way brought to the board from the private sector as well as the connections he was able to make on the state level as the former secretary of commerce.
"Those attributes were an asset to the university and to the State of South Carolina," Govan said.
Way's retirement comes as the process for selecting a new board begins according to state statute.
Way has publicly expressed his displeasure with the new board application process (calling it too political) and frequently has said he enjoyed working with the current board.
Way was appointed by Senate President Pro Tem Hugh Leatherman in 2015 when the university was in turmoil.
Lawmakers created the seven-member interim board to oversee S.C. State.
Members were appointed by state leaders, not elected by the General Assembly using the standard process.
That board is scheduled to end its work in June 2018 when it is replaced by a new 13-member board elected by members of the General Assembly.
The law creating the interim board states the temporary trustees shall serve until June 30, 2018, or until a full new board of trustees is elected and qualified.
Matthews and other lawmakers have discussed phasing in a new board of trustees rather than having the General Assembly elect an entirely new board next year. That would allow some current board members to remain.
Other lawmakers such as Govan and Ott have gone on record saying they are not overly concerned about an entirely new board.
As Way retires, the General Assembly's College and University Trustee Screening Commission is currently seeking letters of intent in order to begin the screening and qualifying process for those interested in filling the 12 open board seats at the university.
The governor also makes an appointment.
Due to the lack of response for the first round of filing -- only one individual filed for a seat -- filing reopened in November
Dr. Wilbur B. Shuler was the only candidate to file for S.C. States new board.
The new filing period has been extended through noon Tuesday, Dec. 19.
An individual in Sen. Harvey S. Peeler's office Thursday said there is no information to release on the number or names of applicants.
Peeler serves as chairman of the S.C. College and University Trustee Screening Commission.
Lawmakers will elect college trustees next spring.
Anyone seeking a board position must notify the Screening Commission in writing of their intent to offer for a specific seat. For seats designated as congressional district seats, candidates must reside in that district.
Original letters of intent must be hand delivered to the Screening Commission office at 213 Gressette Building in Columbia no later than noon Dec. 19.
The letter must contain the candidates full name, home address, telephone number, email address and seat for which the candidate is filing.
Incomplete, non-original letters will not be accepted. Questions can be addressed to either Martha Casto or Julie Price at 803-212-6430.
Upon a letters receipt, an application packet will be given to the prospective candidate. Application packets must be hand delivered to the Screening Commission office no later than noon Wednesday, Jan. 17.
The Orangeburg Branch NAACP has been awarded a grant from the Tides Foundation to raise awareness about dialysis initiatives for access, choice and equity.
The funds will be used to support the dissemination of information and resources among constituents within the tri-county area about kidney disease prevention, treatment and dialysis options.
In Orangeburg and adjoining counties, we have an alarming rate of people afflicted with kidney-related problems, stated Barbara Johnson-Williams, president of the Orangeburg Branch NAACP.
The branch will be working with other NAACP branches, health institutions, colleges, social services agencies, Cooperative Church Ministry organizations, the legislative delegation, Bamberg/Calhoun Health Coalition, sororities and other social groups. We are proposing to advocate through websites, Facebook and Twitter, local newspapers, radio stations and word of mouth, she said.
Further announcements will be made as the project moves forward within the next two months.
The door of Edisto Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Roshonda Frazier's class is adorned with a smiley face and two thumbs up with the message, "I make awesome."
Frazier said part of making her students awesome is instilling a spirit of giving, particularly at Christmastime. It is with that spirit that her class initiated a project through which they collected more than 100 pairs of warm socks for Orangeburg-area nursing homes -- and more socks are still coming in.
"We called the four major convalescent homes in the Orangeburg area and got how many senior citizens they had. We made a goal to collect 275 pairs of socks -- preferably slip-proof socks -- here at Edisto Elementary School," Frazier said.
"The whole school is involved. It was going to be my class when it started off but when I told the principal, she made an announcement. So not only is the school involved, but I've gotten socks from Connecticut, she said.
My family has mailed socks to the school, my outside mentors are mailing socks to the schools. It's like the whole community. We're getting random pairs of socks just dropped off at the front office. So it's going really good," Frazier said.
The project started about two weeks ago when Frazier was talking to her class about giving back to the community during the holiday.
"It was then that someone said, 'My grandmother is in a nursing home and sometimes during Christmas we don't get to visit her. So maybe we should do something for the elderly.' So I said, 'That's a great idea. Why don't we do socks?' and they said, 'That would be great,'" Frazier said.
One of her students pointed out that the socks should be slip-proof for the safety of the seniors.
Fourth-grade students Keriannah Black, 10, and Jacoby Thomas, 9, said it felt good to be able to make seniors both happy and safe.
"I feel like our whole school pitching in and us thinking this was a really good idea is a good thing," Black said.
"I feel like once we give the socks to them, it will make them feel like we actually do care," she said.
Thomas said he liked being able to help seniors with the giving project.
"I feel like the floor is always too slippery and there's too many people out there falling on the floor. That's one thing, but I think it's just really kind of us to give seniors the socks. Weve got random strangers giving us socks to help these seniors. So far, we have a lot of socks," he said.
Frazier said, "Students are going to make handmade cards during their writing block for every single pair of socks. We're going to attach the cards and box the socks for the facilities. I'm actually going to hand deliver them.
"We hope that we're going to collect all the socks that we need. We don't want anyone to forget about our seniors during the holidays because they need love, too.
Edisto Elementary Principal Rhonda Simmons said she hopes her students realize the importance of giving through their donations.
"We want them to know that it's not all about them getting something, but to help someone else if they can. We're trying to build that character trait in them that they can do for others," Simmons said.
WASHINGTON -- The phrase "self-radicalization" seems to be emerging as a regular part of the national discourse. Every vicious nobody who wants to blaze his name into eternity by planting a bomb somewhere to kill Americans is now described as "self-radicalized" -- and that is supposed to make immediate sense of it.
The miscreant doesn't do it, we are told, because he's a classic killer who just likes to see people blown up. And he certainly doesn't do it because when he came here, he carried with him in that hidden satchel of his soul a cultural basis different from the American.
No, 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, who was almost blown up by his own bomb in Manhattang, had been self-radicalized! The New York police again immediately announced this. But in fact, the entire concept would be just silly, were it not so deadly serious.
To self-radicalize would actually mean to realize the truth of your inner self and find you are at one with the heinous teachings of a group called ISIS half a world away. If you are taught hatred or bomb-making by TV or social media, that simply amounts to radical teachings by outside forces.
But then, what actually WAS the problem? Akayed Ullah was from Bangladesh, one of the poorest and most miserable countries on Earth.
As of this writing, we know that this unlikely young immigrant received the most wondrous gifts that any highly developed, rich society could offer. The boy from Bangladesh was the winner of not one, but two of the greatest blessings of our unhinged immigration policies.
First, a member of his family had won the infamous American immigration "lottery," which puts citizenship up for win or lose as though we were one big bingo game. Second, Ullah was able to come to America six years ago because of the policy of "chain migration" or "family reunification," in which immigrants already here legally can bring numerous relatives to America.
Most of these policies came out of the immigration reform of 1965 based essentially on the idea that human beings are interchangeable. Don't bother about culture; just change the scenery. Centuries of family or religious tradition? Unimportant! Men and women from anywhere will come here and automatically be "American."
IF we kept the numbers of immigrants to a reasonable percentage of the population, IF we had civic education programs in the schools for immigrants and citizens alike, and IF we were truly serious about assimilating newcomers -- well, then there might be a chance that none of them would radicalize.
But we don't have any of those things.
In fact, chain migration today accounts for a massive 70 percent of legal immigrants to America, so there is simply no space or time in our immigration policies for admitting others on merit.
Meanwhile, the immigration debate takes two extreme left-right positions: the Trumpian position, which tends toward "Keep them all out!" and the sentimentalist liberal position that says, in effect, that a boy cultivated by the Islam of Bangladesh is exactly the same as a boy from Copenhagen or Prague and will respond to America in the same manner.
There is one predominant problem in the world today, and it is the massive movement of either deeply dissatisfied or downright desperate peoples.
From Berlin to Ohio and from Hungary to West Virginia, the Western world is struggling to define and defend its identity against outsiders. That is Brexit, and that is Angela Merkel's problem in Germany, and that is Donald J. Trump's election.
Now, you may not like President Trump. But the immigration/identity question is so crucial to stability in today's world that Democrats and liberals would be smart to co-opt this issue instead of criticizing Trump over it, because it will not go away. Any intelligent policy would start by abolishing chain immigration and our self-imposed humiliation of visa lotteries.
An unemotional, intelligent analysis of the world would acknowledge that this country was formed based on the Judeo-Christian heritage, mostly Protestantism. And while we have utmost respect for those great periods of Islam like Al-Andalus and the Ottoman and Seljuq empires, we can afford to absorb, and we should only take, an appropriate number of Muslim immigrants, given the extreme differences in modern-day beliefs between them and us.
Maybe I've become self-radicalized myself on this issue; or maybe I'm just pushing for a reasonable, moderate and workable immigration policy in America so we don't have any more bombs going off in our streets. And maybe I'm just wondering: Hey, why don't we all get to work?
Alstom, a world leader in integrated railway systems, has signed an agreement with Iraqi government for the development of urban transport in the country.
The MoU covers two major projects - a 20-km elevated train in Baghdad and development of a metro system in Basra, said senior officials after signing the deal at the Franco-Iraqi meeting in the presence of Dr Sami Al Araji, the head of National Investment Committee of Iraq and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, French Secretary of State.
The first project will cover the implementation of the supply of rolling stock, electromechanical systems, tracks and associated civil works for the Iraqi capital. The light rail system would link areas of Al Mustansirya, Al Shab, Al Wazyria, Alsarafia Al Etafia bridge, Al Khadumia, Al Muthana airport and Al Alawi, they stated.
The second one will focus on the development of the metro system in Basra, which consists of two elevated lines of 30km each, 15 stations and one depot for each line from North to South, from Zubair to Shat Alarab and from East to West, from Karma to the Desert.
These projects would significantly contribute to the development of the countrys urban infrastructure and national economy, said a top Alstom official.
"We appreciate the opportunity to develop industrial cooperation with the Republic of Iraq, in order to better address the countrys needs for urban transportation," remarked Bernard Peille, the managing director of Alstom in Western and Central Asia.
"Alstom is ready to bring its innovative technologies and sees the signature of this MoU as a first step towards the development of a long-term partnership with Iraq," Peille added.
A major player in the region, Alstom is already well established in the Middle East & Africa with more than 3,800 employees and 1,800 suppliers. It is present in more than 15 countries in the region with offices and joint-ventures in Algeria, Morocco, South Africa and Kazakhstan.-TradeArabia News Service
Ducab, a leading manufacturer of high-quality cables and cabling products, revealed it is the platinum sponsor for Tekno 2017 under the industrial sector of Wire and Cable Arabia, to be held next week in Dubai, UAE.
The event will take place from December 17 to 19, at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC). Additionally, Scarab of Egypt has also extended its support to the event as a diamond sponsor.
Organised by Al Fajer Information and Services, Tekno 2017 is the regions only international industrial trade show exclusively for the manufacturing, technology and solutions, featuring specialised sectors viz. Tube Middle East, Metal Middle East, Wire and Cable Arabia and Welding and Cutting Middle East.
Satish Khanna, general manager of Al Fajer Information & Services, organisers of the show, said: We are thrilled to have Ducab and Scarab of Egypt as sponsors under the subject Wire and Cable Arabia.
The event is a strategic platform that not only facilitates dialogue amongst industry professionals, but also gives an opportunity to showcase latest products. As one of the leading international forums for wire and cables, we are glad that the two major players of the industry will participate in this instrumental event, he added.
Since its founding in 1979 by the government of Dubai as a joint venture with BICC cables, Ducab have supplied cables and wires for a number of landmark projects within the UAE and internationally.
Some of its biggest projects in the UAE include Burj Khalifa, Dubai Metro, Emirates Palace, Burj Al Arab, Atlantis, The Palm and Yas Marina Circuit. Scarab of Egypt will oversee co-exhibitors like Maillefer (Finland), Niehoff (Germany), Esteves (Spain), IVA (France), MAG (Austria) and Windak (Austria) to participate at the event.
This years trade fair is set to become the worlds leading exhibition offering industry players latest developments in markets, materials, testing and regulation, process and applications.
The industry focused event will look in details and provide the latest commercial and technological developments in this highly innovative industry. Targeted to host more than 100 international and regional brands from over 19 countries, the exclusive trade show will provide an ideal opportunity to network with like-minded professionals and find out about the latest material, technology and business trends and their potential impact on business.
Rupashree Singh, exhibition manager, said: Wire and Cable Arabia is one of the most important components of the event. With Ducab and Scarab of Egypt sponsoring this segment, we are confident that the event will serve as a great forum to network and build cross-market relationships and discuss the best practices and trends of the industry.
Wire and Cable Arabia has garnered a lot of interest from industry professionals, and we are positive that the segment this year will propel its growth further, he added.
Featuring various sectors in the manufacturing industry, the event is set to bring together a wide array of innovative and cutting edge technologies, smart machinery and material technologies, it added. TradeArabia News Service
National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri), a leader in logistics and transportation, has appointed Abdullah Aldubaikhi as its new chief executive officer, effective January 1.
In his new role, Aldubaikhi will be responsible for setting and overseeing the implementation of Bahris core strategic direction to further cement its global leadership position in the maritime industry, and lead the companys expansion into new growth markets while seeking new revenue streams, said a statement from the company.
He will also be at the helm of the Bahris ongoing endeavours to integrate innovation into its business model, it said.
A Saudi national, Aldubaikhi joins Bahri from Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (Salic), where he served in the same role for six years.
During his career spanning three decades, he has held various senior management roles at a number of firms including Afwaf Investment, Awalnet, and DowLog Technology Company, which he co-founded in 1993.
Aldubaikhi is a member of the joint business councils between Saudi Arabia and the nations of Canada, Russia and France, and sits on the board of directors of several local and global companies, including Bank Alkhair, Alessa Industries, Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros. Co, G3 Global Grain Group (G3), and United Farmers Holding Company (UFHC).
He holds an Executive MBA from the University of Oxford in the UK, and a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia.
Abdulrahman M Al Mofadhi, chairman of Bahri, said: Aldubaikhis appointment as new CEO comes at a time when the company is gearing to enter a new phase of expansion and development on the back of our phenomenal growth over the past few months.
By leveraging our unmatched technical and human resources capabilities, we have reinforced our strong foothold in the global maritime sector, and now are looking to the future with a renewed commitment to playing an even bigger role in strengthening the kingdoms position as a unique regional logistics gateway, he said.
Aldubaikhis extensive experience across diverse sectors, deep understanding of the evolving business landscape, and strong leadership credentials make him a natural choice to achieve our long-term business goals and align our strategy with Saudi Vision 2030 objectives, he added.
Commenting on his appointment, Aldubaikhi said: It is a great honour and privilege to be named CEO of a company that is recognised the world over as a transportation and logistics success story.
My immediate priority will be charting short and long-term goals for Bahri while strengthening the companys commitment to the Saudi Vision 2030 and ensuring a positive impact on the continued growth of the global maritime sector through ambition and innovation, he added. TradeArabia News Service
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has received an international patent for its One-Way Data System, which was designed and implemented internally to ensure the security of data transmission from power and desalination stations to a shared platform.
This builds a knowledge base for decision-makers, enabling them to access data through smart devices. Receiving the patent adds a new achievement to Dewa's roster of global achievements in creativity and innovation.
Developing and producing the system internally saved a lot of money for Dewa, compared to similar systems in the market. It has also enhanced the capacity and efficiency of Dewas staff to innovate and develop modern systems that address work requirements, and enhance the infrastructure for cyber security and network reliability and safety.
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dewa, said that the One-Way Data System, developed by Dewa employees, supports the central information system for smart stations. It automatically and securely collects data from the power and water stations control systems in real time.
It provides a comprehensive and integrated view of the state of operations and equipment, allowing accurate data analysis, which in turn supports quick decision-making to improve performance. Users can easily receive results anytime, anywhere, using smart devices, he added.
The One-Way Data System meets the increasing need to connect control systems to create integrated central information systems, or communicate externally with equipment manufacturers to access remote services.
The system ensures a one-way data flow from control systems to networks connected to the Internet, to protect the control system against cyber-attacks. The system managed to separate between the two networks, using software that was developed by Dewa internally. The system is characterised by high flexibility and can be used in various industrial control networks and to protect all types of information. TradeArabia News Service
State oil giant Saudi Aramco said it has awarded Schlumberger, one of the world's leading oil services company, two lump sum contracts for drilling rigs and services for oil and gas wells.
Under the contracts, Schlumberger Integrated Drilling Services (IDS) will provide drilling rigs and services for up to 146 gas wells and up to 128 oil wells over three years.
The contracts are designed to provide an integrated service to deliver wells, which will increase efficiency levels and improve cost-effectiveness, while maintaining the highest safety standards, it stated.
In developing the agreements, Saudi Aramco and Schlumberger focused on enhanced processes and the latest technology to ensure safe and efficient operations at all times, remarked Mohammed Qahtani, the senior VP for Upstream at Saudi Aramco after signing the deal with Paal Kibsgaard, the chairman and CEO of Schlumberger on the sidelines of Saudi Aramcos In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) Forum held in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
The signing ceremony was attended by Khalid Al Falih, Saudi Arabias Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources and chairman of the Saudi Aramco board of directors along with Prince Saud bin Nayef Al Saud, Emir of the Eastern Province; Amin Nasser, the president and CEO of Saudi Aramco and other officials.
Qahtani pointed out that both Saudi Aramco and Schlumberger were key partners who, under these contracts, will be able to bring innovative technologies to the field, and deploy them in its large-scale operations.
"We have a great history of success with Schlumberger throughout our 75 year partnership in Saudi Arabia, and we have now set the scene for even greater achievements in the future," he stated.
On the contract win Kibsgaard said: "Schlumberger is proud and humble to be trusted with delivering lump sum gas and oil wells within the kingdom."
"Through our committed teams, advanced technology and Integrated Drilling Services we are looking forward to working in close collaboration with Saudi Aramco to successfully deliver these oil and gas wells," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Dubai-based low-cost carrier flydubai said it has become the first UAE airline to provide direct air links to the Tanzanian city of Kilimanjaro, thus expanding its network in Africa to 12 destinations with 14 flights a week.
With this launch, the Dubai budget airline is offering six flights a week to the Tanzanian city, three of which are via a stop in the capital, Dar es Salaam.
The inaugural flight of flydubai touched down yesterday (December 15) landed in Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) at 7.45am (local time) carrying a delegation led by Sudhir Sreedharan, the senior VP, Commercial Operations (GCC, Subcontinent and Africa) for flydubai.
It was met on arrival by Prof Makame Mbarawa MB, Minister for Works, Transport and Communication, Gregory George Teu, Chairman of the Board of Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (KADCO), the Board of Directors of the Kadco, the Regional Commissioners for Kilimanjaro and Arusha, representatives of the District Commissioners, Members of Parliament, Tanzania Tourist Board, together with representatives of the local tourism industry.
As part of the inaugural programme, flydubai showcased its brand new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, which had been unveiled for the first time at the Dubai Airshow in November.
The service to Kilimanjaro sees the total number of flydubais destinations in Tanzania increase to three, along with Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, said the statement from flydubai.
The carrier began operations to Tanzania in 2014 and has become increasingly popular among travellers from Dubai and the GCC as a tourist destination, and is seeing a steady growth in passenger numbers, it stated.
The airport is located in Northern Tanzania and is a major gateway to the Kilimanjaro region, a main international tourism destination that includes Mount Kilimanjaro, Arusha National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park.
Only a few international carriers operate to Kilimanjaro and flydubai will be the first airline to provide direct air links from the UAE.
CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith said: "With our debut service to Kilimanjaro, we are responding to a growing demand for travel between the UAE and Tanzania. flydubai is the first UAE airline to offer direct air links to Kilimanjaro with the aim to connect this market to Dubai and beyond, and offer travellers more choice and flexibility."
"Passengers will have the opportunity to connect from Dubai onwards to more than 250 destinations" he added.
Lauding the new operations, Makame said: "I am very glad to welcome flydubai to our Gateway to Africas Wildlife Heritage. On behalf of the Government and the Kadco Management we would like to thank you for working tirelessly together to make this new service possible and no doubt this route will be a success.
On the debut flight, Sreedharan said: This marks our 12th destination in our network in Africa and the third point in Tanzania. Our service to Kilimanjaro follows an increase in passenger demand and reflects flydubais commitment to open up underserved markets."
"We look forward to offering six weekly flights on this route and to connecting travellers from across flydubais network with the Kilimanjaro region and vice versa," he noted.
Emirates will codeshare on this route and as part of the Emirates flydubai partnership, passengers will have greater choice for onward travel from Dubai to hundreds of destinations across the world.
Presently flydubai operates flights to twelve destinations in Africa, including Addis Ababa, Alexandria, Asmara, Djibouti, Entebbe, Hargeisa, Juba, Khartoum and Port Sudan, as well as Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.-TradeArabia News Service
Meet award-winning artisans and buy their products at Kerala Arts and Crafts Village
An economic development organization in Casper that annually receives about $400,000 in public funds presented its budget information at a recent Casper City Council meeting, but some council members said they still need more details about how the money is used.
A one-page document outlining the organizations budget for financial year 2018 was passed out to council members by Charles Walsh, the president and CEO of the Casper Area Economic Development Alliance.
Out of the 47 line items, the highest expenses were staff salaries and office rent. CAEDA has budgeted $318,225 on salaries for its four employees, $50,107 on office rent and parking, $26,466 on health insurance, $20,890 on marketing and $15,200 on public community events, according to the document.
Organizations that receive public funding are routinely required to present council with information about how it is spent, but council members complained at a meeting in July that CAEDA is not forthcoming with this information.
The development alliance, which is supervised by the Economic Development Joint Powers Board, works to attract new businesses to Casper and help existing businesses improve their profitably. Public funding is directly given to the joint powers board and then trickles down to CAEDA.
Walsh told council in July that CAEDA solicits private funds to use for investments in amounts that dwarf the public contribution. CAEDA officials are therefore concerned that fully opening the groups books would sink confidential negotiations to recruit businesses to Casper.
Councilman Dallas Laird told Walsh on Tuesday that the document was a step in the right direction, but said he expected a more detailed breakdown of the expenses. Instead of listing one figure for staff salaries, Laird explained that he wanted to know exact salaries for each employee.
Walsh said that his salary is $132,000, but explained discussing his staffs salaries would be an invasion of privacy.
I dont compare one salary to another and I think its counter intuitive to a high-performing functional team, he said.
The CEO then explained that he needed to speak to the organizations board before he could offer any additional data.
Walsh said Thursday that CAEDAs board of directors met that morning to discuss the possibility of providing council with more information. He is unsure what the board decided, but said they will be in touch with council this week.
Although the organization is very appreciative of the public funding it receives, Walsh said he is unsure why some council members want additional information.
We gave them a full detailed listing of our budget, he said.
Some council members agree with Walsh.
I think Charles Walsh gave us a detailed review of their budget and their expenses...As far as Im concerned [the matter is] complete, said Councilman Charlie Powell on Thursday.
Although Powell said transparency is important, the councilman is concerned that this discussion is overshadowing CAEDAs accomplishments.
Pointing out that the organization obtained funds to extend sewer services out to businesses along Highway 20/26 all the way to the airport, Powell said CAEDA deserves credit for working to drive Caspers economy.
Vice Mayor Ray Pacheco said Wednesday that he also considers the budget information provided by CAEDA to be sufficient.
In addition to budget information, Walsh gave council members a document listing some of CAEDAs recent achievements, which included hosting site visits with prospective businesses, promoting Casper during the Wyoming Eclipse Festival and facilitating the creation of a pharmacy residency program in Casper.
But Laird said Thursday that he still expects CAEDA to return to council with more information.
People have to be responsible with city money, he said. You shouldnt give anybody 10 cents of city money unless they tell you exactly what theyre going to do with and how its going to benefit the taxpayers.
Councilwoman Amanda Huckabay said Thursday that she agrees with Laird.
Other organizations that receive public funding provide more detailed reports about its usage to council, she said, adding that said it is unacceptable that CAEDA does not.
I think [CAEDA] better take us seriously or there is going to be repercussions, she remarked.
Wyoming will have a new Supreme Court Justice in the new year.
Governor Matt Mead announced Friday that he had appointed Lynne Boomgaarden to replace William U. Hill. Hills retirement will become effective Feb. 17.
Boomgaarden is a partner in Crowley Fleck law firm and has been in private practice in Cheyenne since 2010, according to a governors office news release. She has previously served as a career clerk on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, as an assistant law professor at the University of Wyoming and as director of the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments.
I appreciate the importance of Governor Meads decision and am honored to accept his appointment as the next Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court, Boomgaarden said in the news release. I will work extremely hard in service to the Court and Wyoming citizens.
Lynne Boomgaarden has worked with the best, including Judge Brorby and Governor Freudenthal, Mead said in the release. She will serve Wyoming and its citizens well on the Supreme Court.
Republican legislators appear to have dropped a proposal to tax graduate student waivers from Congress sweeping tax reform legislation.
House and Senate Republican leaders forged an agreement Wednesday on what would be the most sweeping overhaul of the nations tax laws in more than 30 years. The package would give generous tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest tax cuts to low- and middle-income families.
In the original House version of the bill, the tuition waivers that many graduate students receive would be taxed as income. It also would have eliminated a deduction for interest paid on student loans.
The provisions had sparked an outcry across the higher education world; Chris Boswell, the University of Wyomings vice president for community and governmental affairs, told the Star-Tribune last week that it would be a real hardship on students.
But the updated version seemed to eliminate both of those proposals: It reportedly leaves in place the deduction for interest on student loans, according to two congressional aides. The new bill also would no longer start taxing graduate-school tuition waivers.
Boswell did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday afternoon, but UW spokesman Chad Baldwin said the university was pleased that the legislation would preserve these important provisions for higher education.
Sen. John Barrasso, who voted in favor of the Senates version of the tax bill, told the Star-Tribune last week that he supported keeping tuition waivers untaxed and the student loan deduction.
Through his spokesman, Sen. Mike Enzi, who was on the conference committee that negotiated the final bill, previously declined to comment on specific parts of the bill. A spokeswoman for Rep. Liz Cheney, who supported the House bill, did not respond when asked if the congresswoman supported the higher education tax changes.
Wyomings two U.S. senators both insisted on delaying a vote on President Barack Obamas Supreme Court nominee for roughly one year, until after a new president was elected last year. But Sen. John Barrasso and Mike Enzi say theres no need to delay a vote on the GOP tax bill until newly-elected Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, is seated.
Democrats are calling on Republicans to hold off voting until Jones is sworn in. While it appears the tax plan would have enough votes to pass regardless of whether Jones is in Congress, a closer margin would give more influence to moderate Republican senators who are sympathetic to some Democratic concerns about the legislation.
Senator Enzi believes the Senate has a lot to do and should continue its work as it normally would, spokeswoman Max DOnofrio said in an email. During a traditional election year, Congress doesnt stop its work in November.
But Enzi opposed holding a vote on Obamas nominee, Merrick Garland, before a new president was elected.
GOP tax plan backed by Cheney could imperil Wyoming first-time homebuyer program A provision in one version of the federal Republican tax plan could imperil a major affordab
The presidential election was an opportunity for the American people to have a say in who chooses the next Supreme Court justice, Enzi said in the press release following the confirmation of President Donald Trumps supreme court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, last spring.
Barrasso, too, argued that the Senate needed to wait until after the presidential election to vote on a supreme court pick. But he believes there is no need to hold off voting on the tax legislation.
We are on the same timeline weve always been on the end of the year to deliver relief to taxpayers starting in the new year, Barrasso said in a statement.
While Barrasso spokeswoman Laura Mengelkamp did not address the senators opposition to a Supreme Court vote before last years presidential election, she did argue that the circumstances surrounding the tax bill were different than the Affordable Care Act.
Barrasso has previously criticized the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 as rushed and unfair. But following a Senate special election in Massachusetts in which the Democrats lost their super-majority, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that final votes on the health care bill would not take place until the new Republican senator was seated.
Bottom line: Brown won in large part because of Obamacare, Mengelkamp said in an email. Jones election had very little to do with tax.
Jones beat Republican candidate Roy Moore in what was supposed to be a safe Republican seat following a campaign rocked by accusations that Moore had molested teenage girls when he was in his 30s.
Plan settled on
Wyomings all-Republican congressional delegation has strongly backed the GOP tax plan, a final version of which was unveiled late Friday along with announcements of support from previously reluctant senators that all but guarantee approval next week, in time to give President Donald Trump the Christmas legislative triumph hes been aching for.
The legislation would slash tax rates for big business and lower levies on the richest Americans in a massive $1.5 trillion bill that the GOP plans to muscle through Congress next week. Benefits for most other taxpayers would be smaller.
According to a summary of the measure circulating among lobbyists, todays 35 percent rate on corporations would fall to 21 percent, the crown jewel of the measure for many Republicans. Trump and GOP leaders had set 20 percent as their goal, but added a point to free money for other tax cuts and that won over wavering lawmakers in final talks.
Its the widest-ranging reshaping of the tax code in three decades and is expected to add to the nations $20 trillion debt. The debt is expected to soar by at least $1 trillion more than it would without the tax measure, according to projections.
Democrats are expected to oppose the legislation unanimously.
The bill would drop todays 39.6 percent top rate on individuals to 37 percent. The standard deduction used by around two-thirds of households would be nearly doubled.
Those who itemize their taxes face mixed results. The $1,000 per child tax deduction would grow to $2,000, with up to $1,400 available in IRS refunds for families who owe little or no taxes.
But the deduction that millions use in connection with state and local income, property and sales taxes would be capped at $10,000. Deductions for medical expenses that lawmakers once considered eliminating would be retained.
The benefits for individuals would expire at the end of the current 10-year budget cycle, but the tax cuts for corporations would be permanent.
Polls show the plan is deeply unpopular among Americans, including Republicans.
Wyoming impact
In Wyoming, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated that under the plan, 66,800 residents would pay more income tax in 2027 than they do today. About 71 percent of the tax cuts in the bill would go to the richest 1 percent of Wyoming residents, who would pay $180,000 less annually while the bottom 80 percent of the states population would receive cuts of $100 to $1,000, according to an ITEP estimate from earlier this year.
GOP tax plan backed by Cheney could imperil Wyoming first-time homebuyer program A provision in one version of the federal Republican tax plan could imperil a major affordab
Enzi, who served on the committee that reconciled the House and Senate versions of the legislation, hailed the final version of the tax bill in a press release Friday.
After years of tax reform debate and months of negotiating, Congress is closer than ever to passing meaningful tax reform that will let folks in Wyoming and across the country keep more of their hard-earned money, Enzi said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some Dec. 16 papers in history. With a subscription to newspapers.com you can search the Arizona Daily Star and many other newspapers using keywords or dates, and download articles or pages.
One of this years hottest holiday gifts has privacy advocates worried.
In Tucson and elsewhere, sales of home DNA testing kits are soaring, spurred by discount pricing and ubiquitous TV ads that promise users insights into their family heritage.
But the saliva tests can also reveal propensities for diseases, and critics fear users may be putting their medical privacy at risk by providing genetic information to companies that cant guarantee it will remain anonymous.
It worries me that something as sensitive as a genetic test is being marketed as a stocking stuffer. This is not a parlor game, says Peter Pitts, a former associate commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, now president of the New York City-based Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
These companies say Dont worry, your data is anonymized. They can promise that, and do their best, but that doesnt make it so, he adds.
Pitts points to studies done at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which showed that even when DNA data was stripped of personal identifiers, researchers often were able to trace it back to named donors by cross-referencing it with voter registration lists and other information available online.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer recently called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the privacy policies of companies that sell the home tests to ensure they are clear, transparent and fair to consumers.
There are good things that can come from this kind of at-home testing that relate to genetic research, the New York Democrat said in a news release, but it is clear more must be done to protect consumer privacy.
There is no point to learning about your family tree if your privacy gets chopped down in the process.
Locally, the Pima County Genealogy Society is among those promoting the tests. Some of the groups 160 or so members have already taken one, including its president Amy Urman, who has also purchased the test kits for several members of her family.
Urman, a private investigator whos been researching her roots since the 1980s, says she isnt worried about the security of her familys genetic information, which now sits in databases with that of millions of others worldwide who have taken home tests.
The top home DNA testing firms have a huge financial incentive to stay on top of data security, she says, because if they mess up they will lose much of their business.
Spokesmen for two of the top firms said they take great pains to safeguard customer privacy and do not share DNA data with outside researchers without customer consent.
We have industry standard security measures that secure our customers sensitive genetic information and privacy, said Eric Heath, chief privacy officer at AncestryDNA, which recently announced record-breaking holiday sales of its test kits.
Scott Hadley of 23andMe said the company has a comprehensive security program that, among other things, includes data segmentation, multi-layer encryption and strict limits on who can access test results.
Privacy experts say anyone considering a home DNA test should first read the fine print something Maribel Alvarez wishes she had done before taking an AncestryDNA test 18 months ago.
Alvarez, executive program director of the Southwest Folklife Alliance and an organizer of the popular Tucson Meet Yourself festival, said she took the test on a whim at a time when privacy concerns were not as widely publicized as they are now.
The results she received seemed very silly, very commercialized a list of names of 18 potential distant relatives and a percentage breakdown that said her forebears were Iberian, Native American, West African and Irish.
I didnt read the fine print. I probably should have, she says. I thought it would be entertaining, like reading a horoscope.
When I saw the results it almost made me wish I didnt take the test.
UPDATED
After extensive negotiations, a congressional conference committee has agreed to a final tax reform bill that could impact state and local funding and teachers pocketbooks, as well as school choice. The legislation still needs to be passed by both the House and Senate and be signed into law by President Donald Trump, who wants a tax bill to sign before Christmas. Here are a few key details we know about it:
State and Local Tax Deductions
The final legislation allow taxpayers to deduct up to $10,000 in either a combination of property and income taxes, or property and sales taxes. (See page 81 of the bills joint explanatory statement at the link above.) Both the bills previously passed by the House and Senate would have allowed people to deduct up to $10,000 in property taxes, but not income or sales taxes.
Reducing the amount of state and local taxes people can deduct could exert significant pressure on some states and communities to reduce their own taxes, and therefore reduce revenue available for funding for schools. We discussed this on a recent episode of Education Writers Association radio .
We lost a policy fight. Our schools and students lose more, said Noelle Ellerson Ng, the associate executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association, which along with other state and local groups sought to keep the current deductibility of state and local taxes.
Teacher Tax Deduction
The final bill also maintains the current $250 deduction teachers and principals can take for spending their own money on buying supplies for their classrooms. (See page 106 of the explanatory statement.) The legislation previously passed by the House would have eliminated the deduction entirely, while the Senate bill would have doubled it to $500.
The $250 deduction doesnt necessarily have a huge impact on educators federal tax burden. But they see it as at least a symbolic recognition from Washington that, unlike many employees, they have to spend their own money to support their work. More on the teacher tax deduction is here. And more broadly, a joint congressional report on the bill also details the impact of new income tax brackets .
Notwithstanding all the other terrible provisions in this bill theres a little comfort in the fact that Congress did hear the outcry from educators and others when the House tried to eliminate this very small deduction that educators have been allowed to claim on their taxes, said Marc Egan, the director of government relations for the National Education Association.
Otherwise, Egan called the bill rotten to the core and said the entire process behind the tax bill pretty much a sham.
More Savings for School Choice
The final GOP tax bill also allows current 529 college savings plans to be used for up to $10,000 in annual K-12 expenses, including private school tuition. (See page 63 of the explanatory statement.)
The proposal represents the first step by Congress to expand school choice since President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVosboth big backers of parental choicetook office. Its not a new school choice program per se, and some are concerned that it only helps wealthier people who can afford to use 529 savings plans, many of whom might already be sending their children to private schools.
Is this a big giant school choice plan? I think this is good policy, said Jonathan Butcher, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, which backs private school choice. So long as we have an extremely complicated tax code, if the choice is to do nothing, or give families more optionsthen I would opt for that.
Other Details
The legislation would also put an end to qualified school construction bonds and Qualified Zone Academy Bonds.
The latter is important to the charter school community, which says the zone academy bonds help charter schools find facilities and amenities .
The issue with charter school facilities is one of the biggest issues to charter school growth. They dont have access to the same financing that traditional schools do, said Christy Wolfe, a senior policy advisor for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Assistant Editor Liana Heitin Loewus and Staff Writer Arianna Prothero contributed to this story.
Photo: President Donald Trump, flanked by Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, left, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, right, speaks during a bicameral meeting with lawmakers working on the tax cuts in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Dec. 13. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
The discovery of endangered Gila topminnows in the Santa Cruz River near Tucson puts the tiny native fish a step closer to recovery, a federal biologist said Friday.
Dozens of the imperiled minnows were captured as part of a fish survey on the Lower Santa Cruz in early November, said Doug Duncan, a fish biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It was the first time the endangered minnow has been seen in the Santa Cruz near Tucson since 1943.
Finding these fish in this stretch of river is probably the most significant conservation discovery for the topminnow since it was listed in 1967 as endangered, Duncan said. The fish were found Nov. 9 downstream of the Aqua Nueva sewage treatment plant near Sweetwater Drive. It was one of four locations where fish surveys were conducted.
The fishs return to the Santa Cruz comes two years after the topminnows were found for the first time in decades in the Upper Santa Cruz in the Tubac area south of Tucson.
These discoveries are generally credited to the cleanup of long-polluting sewage-treatment plants in Nogales and Tucson. Sewage effluent has been the only year-round water source in the river since groundwater pumping dried up fresh water in the river back in the 1940s.
The topminnows were found in the latest of the annual Living River surveys sponsored by the Sonoran Institute conservation group and joined by a host of other state and federal agencies and other entities.
Any fish in a river is a really good sign of a rivers health, said Claire Zugmeyer, a Sonoran Institute ecologist. Finding Gila topminnow underscores how critical effluent is for maintaining our native fish and wildlife.
The latest discovery of topminnows is particularly significant because the Santa Cruz is a large river system where topminnows used to occur commonly, Duncan said. Its also happening in a city where multiple native fish species used to dwell in the Santa Cruz but now only live in tributaries such as Sabino Canyon and Cienega Creek, northeast and southeast of Tucson respectively.
It also means that:
The Santa Cruz could be host to the largest of 11 remaining wild populations of topminnow known to exist, Duncan said. Until now, Cienega Creek southeast of Tucson had the largest known population, he said.
But with this finding, the combined populations in the Santa Cruz may be larger. Cienega Creek has the fish in nine miles, whereas dozens of miles in the Santa Cruz have the endangered topminnows, Duncan said.
Combined with other conservation actions helping the topminnow over the past five years, I think were getting close to downlisting. ... Were definitely on our way to downlisting the fish from an endangered to a threatened species, Duncan said.
Removing the topminnow entirely from the endangered species list will take longer, he said. The criteria and timetable for downlisting are unknown, because the service is in the middle of revising its topminnow recovery plan, he said.
If the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation continues to seek to remove treated sewage effluent from the Santa Cruz for groundwater recharge outside it, it will likely require a formal review by the wildlife service to see how the loss of effluent would affect the topminnow species, Duncan said.
The wildlife service has begun a similar review of the ongoing $148 million rebuilding of the Ina Road-Interstate 10 interchange and the building of a new Ina Road bridge over the river.
Duncan said he wont rule out the possibility that some of the 1,000-plus fish killed in the river below Ina as part of that construction project in late October and early November were topminnows. But authorities dont believe any were there at that time, since surveys downstream didnt find any. They could occur there in the future.
In any case, We believe that bridge construction can continue and minimize potential impacts to the topminnow. We would expect certain losses, but as long as the rest of the populations fine, for management purposes we want a viable population, Duncan said.
In the Upper Santa Cruz River in the Tubac area, surveyors found eight Gila topminnows in 2015 and 135 last year.
This year, surveyors found hundreds of topminnows near the rivers Tubac bridge and at nearby Santa Gertrudis Lane, said Peter Reinthal, curator of fishes at the University of Arizona, who participated in the Upper Santa Cruz survey.
The topminnow used to be abundant across the Gila River Basin, which includes the Santa Cruz. In 1941, it was considered one of the most common fish in the southern Colorado River Basin, the wildlife service said. But its numbers dropped dramatically after World War II due to non-native fish competition, groundwater pumping and other forces that have damaged many of Arizonas native fish populations. It occupies a fraction of its former range.
The Nogales International Wastewater Treatment plant was given a $59 million overhaul that finished in 2009. Pima County spent more than $600 million cleaning up discharges, by 2013, from the Aqua Nueva and Tres Rios sewage plant at Ina along the Lower Santa Cruz.
For decades, both sections were so polluted that few fish of any kind were found during annual surveys. The Sonoran Institutes annual Living River report says fish now thrive in healthier living conditions, including reduced toxin levels and increased dissolved oxygen.
Since 2013, the number of non-native fish found in the Lower Santa Cruz has increased, but until now no native fish were seen there.
Zugmeyer said shes hopeful that in the future, native longfin dace will be found in the Lower Santa Cruz. Theyve already been found in recent years in the Upper Santa Cruz.
Exactly how the topminnows reached the Lower Santa Cruz is uncertain, but officials will be conducting genetic testing to try to find out. A possible or likely source is the Upper Santa Cruz, particularly since the two rivers were connected with floodwaters during July when nearly 7 inches of rain fell.
Legislation has been passed in the Russian parliament that will make it compulsory for international media operating in the nation to declare as "foreign agents." The law, which can also be applied to those who are suspected of operating in the nation as spies are thought to have been enacted in response to the Russian state broadcaster RT being told to register as a Foreign Agent in the U.S. According to the BBC, it is thought that broadcasters such as the U.S backed Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio could be affected by the passing of the new law.
Amendments to the law were passed in parliament on Wednesday and it is thought it would apply to both online and offline news outlets.
A retaliatory move
Under the passing of the new law, those companies which don't comply could be fined, it's staff imprisoned and eventually be shut down from operating in the country. The passing of this new law is seen as an outright retaliation to the move that saw the Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT being forced to register as a foreign agent in the United States.
There have been years of accusations levelled at RT, it has been accused of being a "propaganda arm" of the Russian government. Following the 2016 election win of Donald Trump, Russian interference in the U.S has been under intense scrutiny following the allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
During the months of hearings in relation to the alleged collusion scandal, it has been alleged that RT played a part in the spreading of information that would be unfavourable to the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump and vladimir putin met briefly at the Asia Summit in Vietnam last week, and from all accounts, the meeting was a friendly encounter.
This latest back and forth of retaliatory legislation could indicate a weakening of an already strained relationship between the U.S and Russia. Even though the law has been passed in the Russian parliament, it would still need to be signed into effect by the Russian President himself, it has been reported by the New York Times that Vladimir Putin said that this law may go too far.
Donald Trump has said on multiple occasions that he hopes that Russia and The United States could build a relationship that is free from the hostilities that we have seen over the years. But there has been a noticeable rise in tensions between the two world powers and the collusion claims have done nothing to thaw the already frosty relationship. A move like the passing of this law seems to indicate that the relationship between the U.S and Russia has some way to go before it can ever be described as friendly.
Ever since Narendra Modi became prime minister he had hinted a number of times that Muslim Personal Law needs to be reformed. This was part of the BJP election manifesto. The decks were cleared for him to act when a slew of petitions reached the Apex court and a bench of the SC by majority judgment decided that Triple Talaq or divorce by saying the words "Talaq" three times was unconstitutional and violated the rights of women. It had directed the government to enact a law to regulate triple talaq, which the SC said was not sanctioned by the Sharia.
India today, has reported that after discussion the cabinet approved a draft bill banning triple talaq and making it a criminal offence.
Draft bill
The draft bill will now be introduced in the lower house (Lok Sabha) in the winter session of parliament. Muslim women are elated but some of the Muslim leaders feel the government should not have enacted such a law and left it to Muslim Law Board to do the needful. The draft law stipulates a jail term of three years, for a man who carries out triple talaq. The bill also codifies the responsibility of the man to pay maintenance and support for the wife and children. The offence is proposed to be made cognisable and non- bailable.
Muslim personal law
Reform in the Muslim law has come after seven decades of independence. The Hindu Marriage Act was passed in 1955, but for some strange reason, the Congres party and leader Jawaharlal Nehru did not include Muslims under the act. The act was made applicable to Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, and Jains. Arnab Goswami on the Times-News Channel has opined that one reason for this was the need felt by the Congress party to cultivate vote banks.
Muslim personal law thus remained untouched for seven decades.
This isolated the Muslim community who remained backward and are among the poorest in India. The Congress ploy worked for some time but now with the BJP in power, the scenario has changed. The Modi government in its election manifesto had promised a Uniform Civil Code. The declaration of triple talaq as a criminal offence is the first step towards a uniform civil code, which finds mention in the Directive Principles of the Constitution.
Future
Muslim women have celebrated this decision of the Supreme Court but the die-hard Mullahs have opposed it as an interference in the life of Muslims. The clock has moved forward and no party, not even the Congress will be able to stop the passage of this law.
One of the biggest stories in American politics has involved Roy Moore and the sexual assault allegations against him. As new information continues to be released, the White House is looking for ways to deflect, including Kellyanne Conway blaming the media.
Moore scandal
It seemed like a sure thing for Republicans to win the upcoming special election to fill the vacant senate seat in Alabama. After Roy Moore won the GOP nomination over Donald Trump-endorsed Luther Stranger, Democratic nominee Doug Jones didn't seem to have much of a chance in the traditionally red state.
However, earlier this month the New York Times broke a story claiming that Moore had attempted to engage in sexual activity with at least four underage women, dating back to as far as 1979. As expected, Moore has denied the allegations, and despite push back from top GOP leaders to drop out of the race, appears to be staying in and standing his ground. Since the report in the New York Times, several other women have come forward to accuse Moore of sexual assault, with one even providing her high school year book that was allegedly signed by the senate hopeful. The issue has been a hot topic across cable news, much to the chagrin of Kellyanne Conway who decided to target a host on MSNBC during a series of tweets on November 16.
Conway complains that "the mainstream media want to talk about this issue" -- the Roy Moore scandal -- "more than almost anything else. Then we're not telling Americans what's in the tax plan for them." Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 16, 2017
While joining Fox News on Thursday morning, Presidential Counsel Kellyanne Conway spoke out about the coverage cable news has been giving to the Roy Moore scandal, while complaining that they haven't been focusing on other issues, including Donald Trump's tax reform plan.
"The mainstream media want to talk about this issue (Moore)," Conway said of the scandal, before adding that they are "not telling Americans what's in the tax plan for them."
This is untrue @KellyannePolls - EVERY SINGLE DAY i cover tax reform on @MSNBC & EVERY DAY @WhiteHouse turns down my requests for interviews with ANYONE working on it. THIS IS A LIE https://t.co/5z7wg20jf1 Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) November 16, 2017
CNN host Brian Stelter pointed this out on his Twitter account, which quickly got a reaction from MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle.
"This is untrue @KellyannePolls," Ruhle tweeted out. "EVERY SINGLE DAY I cover tax reform on @MSNBC & EVERY DAY @WhiteHouse turns down my requests for interviews with ANYONE working on it," Ruhle continued, while stating, "THIS IS A LIE."
Conway responds
In response, Kellyanne Conway wasted no time firing back. "It is true that Moore issue dominates coverage across MSM. Just own it. You led your MSNBC show with it," Conway tweeted. "You are on your 14th minute of just this topic. (#AlFranken anyone?) How many reporters are in Alabama v. visiting small businesses about #taxcuts today?" she wondered.
.@stephanieruhIe - it is true that Moore issue dominates coverage across MSM. Just own it. You led your @MSNBC show with it. You are on your 14th minute of just this topic. (#AlFranken anyone?) How many reporters are in Alabama v. visiting small businesses about #taxcuts today? https://t.co/NW6RdKacU6 Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) November 16, 2017
P.S. @sruhle: when next we visit, let's talk why it took a year to discuss this on Cap Hill, Hollywood, MSM; I started convo on @MSNBC: Kellyanne Conway Recalls Members of Congress 'Rubbing Up Against Girls, Sticking Their Tongues Down Women's Throats' https://t.co/tQDmT7xM3a Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) November 16, 2017
In a follow-up tweet, Kellyanne Conway pointed out that she spoke out against sexual harassment in the past, once again calling out Stephanie Ruhle while attaching an article from Breitbart as her reference. "P.S. @sruhle: when next we visit, let's talk why it took a year to discuss this on Cap Hill, Hollywood, MSM; I started convo on @MSNBC," she wrote.
In the aftermath of the growing allegations of sexual harassment and assault against various high-profiled men, the news has dominated the headlines. When asked if she had her own personal experience to speak of, Sarah Palin gave a unique answer.
Palin on sexual harassment
It all started last month when the New York Times broke the door down with their exclusive report about the allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Harvey Weinstein. The well-known film producer was accused of various acts of assault, dating back to decades in Hollywood.
In the days and weeks that followed, numerous women came forward to reveal their alleged experiences with the film mogul, which has led to Weinstein being fired from his company and ostracized as a result. Since then, various actors, directors, producers, and even politicians have been accused of similar acts. The latest stories has revolved around Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, who was accused of sexually assaulting underage girls on multiple occasions over the last four decades. On the Democratic side, Sen. Al Franken was accused of forcibly kissing a woman and has since apologized for the act. As reported by NBC News on November 16, Sarah Palin was asked about whether or not she had gone through a similar situation.
Sara Palin on sexual harassment: "I think a whole lot of people probably know I'm probably packing so I don't think there's a whole lot of people who would necessarily mess with me." pic.twitter.com/WqORpJ594P MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 16, 2017
Speaking to NBC reporter Kasie Hunt, former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke about the current issues of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace as it pertains to the aforementioned headlines.
"It's amazing what happened today," Palin said in response to the Al Franken allegations. "It's very important we are consistent...it's not a partisan issue," she continued.
When asked if she had ever been the victim of sexual harassment, Sarah Palin explained that her reputation of carrying a gun was likely the reason why men stayed away.
"You know, I think a whole lot of people know that, Im probably packing," Palin said. "I dont think theres a whole lot of people who would necessarily mess with me," she added."
Leeann Tweeden, who alleges Al Franken groped and kissed her without consent, says she believes his apology is "heartfelt" https://t.co/qKyrSc0poE pic.twitter.com/gKf1dadhPf CNN (@CNN) November 16, 2017
Sarah Palin went on to say that it "really stinks" that women have been victims of sexual harassment, but warned against potential false allegations. "The floodgates are really open that could lead to a lot of false accusations that really harm an innocent person," she concluded.
.@gdebenedetti on Roy Moore's response to sexual assault allegations: "He's doing whatever he can to rile up his supporters against the establishment. He's not actually having a conversation about sexual assault." #MTPDaily Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) November 16, 2017
Twitter reacts
After Sarah Palin's remarks were made public, social media users were quick to fire back with thoughts of their own.
"So, there was literally nobody else available you could talk to?" one tweet read.
I'm thinking they're just not into crazy... ChiTownHarleyGranny (@OfTheGrandKids) November 16, 2017
LMAO...is it that or is it that you're crazy as a loon? Independent Observer (@ILperspective) November 16, 2017
So, there was literally nobody else available you could talk to? saradute (@s_dute) November 16, 2017
"LOL...is it that or is it that you're crazy as a loon?" another Twitter user wondered. "I'm thinking they're just not into crazy..." an additional tweet noted. "What they hell is she doing in Washington?? Perhaps Trump has a hankering for pistol packing dimwits!" a social media user stated.
Batshit crazy lady is packing. What could possibly go wrong? Andi Goward (@AndiGoward) November 16, 2017
What they hell is she doing in Washington?? Perhaps Trump has a hankering for pistol packing dimwits! Darlene (@DarMV) November 16, 2017
"Batsh*t crazy lady is packing. What could possibly go wrong?" a tweet sarcastically asked. The backlash to Sarah Palin's remarks continued as the debate over sexual harassment and assault moved forward.
Donald Trump has been president for nearly a year and his critics are even more opposed to him now than the day he was elected. In a string of tweets highlighting some of the worst aspects of the Trump administration, MSNBC host Joy Reid ripped into the commander in chief.
Reid on Trump
It's been one year since Donald Trump shocked the world and defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton last November to become the 45th President of the United States. In the over 11 months since he was sworn into office, the former host of "The Apprentice" was unable to pass most of the legislation he promised due to predictably clashing with Democrats, as well as engaging in in-fighting with members of his own Republican Party.
In the place of passing legislation, Trump did his best to roll-back as much of the Obama-era laws as possible, which has resulted in massive backlash from the media and his critics. In addition, Trump's reckless behavior on the world stage has raised many red flags, resulting in MSNBC host Joy Reid creating a detailed list that she posted in the form of several tweets on December 14.
- Creating a commission designed to scoop up your data and gut voting rights
- A shameful Muslim ban
- Mass deportation of people's grandparents and working moms and dads
- Destroying America's image around the world
- Placing his party in firm support of an accused pedophile Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 14, 2017
Taking to Twitter on Thursday night, Joy Reid didn't hold back her thoughts about the current state of the United States under the leadership of Donald Trump.
"The Trump legacy so far: Freeing polluters to befoul the air and pollute ground water. Taking away millions of people's healthcare (pending). Slashing taxes on the super rich and making you pay for it (pending). Withdrawing the U.S. from world leadership on climate & Mideast," she tweeted out.
- Constitutional crisis (pending)
- Sexual assault and harassment scandal brought to the White House
- Emboldening white supremacists
- Unsolved death of four U.S. troops in Niger
- Skyrocketing racial polarization Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 14, 2017
Not stopping there, Joy Reid went on to list many other aspects of Donald Trump's presidency that she disagrees with, such as "A shameful Muslim ban," "Mass deportation of people's grandparents and working moms and dads," all while claiming that the president has helped to "Destroy America's image around the world."
Am I missing anything? I know I forgot "rubbing a magical orb..." Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 14, 2017
The outspoken host of "A.M.
Joy," didn't stop there, as she went on to elaborate further on her list. "Sexual assault and harassment scandal brought to the White House," Joy Reid tweeted, while also adding, "Emboldening white supremacists" and "Emboldening and empowering Russia around the world and even in U.S. affairs."
- Increasing the likelihood of war with Iran and/or North Korea
- Destabilizing our Mideast alliances
- Destabilizing our European alliance and NATO
... anything else? I've heard that the tax bill could spark a recession, so that's pending... Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 14, 2017
Moving forward
Joy Reid's tweets continued and pointed out some of the biggest arguments against Donald Trump, especially from his critics in the media and on the Democratic side of the aisle.
Despite the president claiming to have the support of most of the country, the most recent released polls shows that most Americans are in line with Reid's thinking as Trump's approval rating is down to just 32 percent.
The Alabama special election for the US Senate finally ended Tuesday night (Dec. 12) with Doug Jones drawing 20,715 votes more than rival candidate Roy Moore. Following the results, both candidates made their speeches, with Doug Jones taking the lead to announce his win with his broadcast, followed by Moore's, where he refused to concede the election to Jones.
Dan Senor who is a Republican analyst and former adviser to US House Speaker Paul Ryan, was on "CBS This Morning" to talk about the Alabama special election results. He has apparently been in touch with congressional Republicans since Roy Moore lost the election.
Sexual assault, pedophilia allegations before election day
Senor said that most of the Republicans, which included the leadership, are relieved that Moore didn't win the election. In recent weeks, the Republican candidate has been accused of sexual harassment and pedophilia, all of the accusations being decades old from the 1970s.
Many Moore supporters also cited the age of the sexual harassment incidents as a way to discredit them, at the beginning of the reported allegations. Despite this, Moore himself denied that they ever happened after initially admitting that he dated younger women back then. Immediately after the reports, Republican leadership publicly expressed that Moore could become a political liability for their party in the US Senate seat.
Refuses to concede against overwhelming odds
During what was supposed to be a concession speech by Moore, the Moore campaign's Bill Armistead initially said that Alabama law requires a recount if the vote is within one-half of a percent. In fact, the distance between Moore and Jones is more than that.
Soon after Moore's two-minute speech, the Secretary of State of Alabama, John Merrill, said that the provisional and overseas ballots could trigger a recount if those ballots narrowed the margin.
Moore would have to submit a waiver to finally concede but when the secretary of state spoke to reporters about the results, Merrill also added that those ballots were unlikely to make any difference.
Regardless, Moore and his supporters are likely to push for a recount anyway, but the Alabama Republican Party also added that they would not support it.
It is in this case that most will support the legitimacy of the election results against Moore and his supporters. Even with these, Roy Moore's campaign showed their resilience against their defeat by pandering to their religious supporters by either crediting God for the result, suggesting it would be under the condition that they would win. Roy Moore did the same when saying that they had been painted in an unfaithful light.
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HCM CITY Russian Export Centre and E&N Group on Thursday opened Russian Gastro House in HCM Citys District 1 to help Russian companies introduce their products directly to Vietnamese customers.
Evgeny Volosov of E&N Group said: Demand for Russian products has increased in Viet Nam. Therefore, we established Russian Gastro House to present Russian products to the market.
The products on display include childrens food, chocolate, bread, meat, fish and meat/fish-based products, sunflower seeds, ice cream made from fresh milk, dairy products, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, with their quality meeting Russian food safety standards.
Some 100 Russian companies are displaying their products at Russian Gastro House, which is at 86-88 Ham Nghi Street, Volosov said.
Another 200 would come soon, he said.
Talking about the prices, he said the prices of Russian products are more competitive than those of the US and EU and even Thailand and China.
Russian Gastro House is also willing to help Vietnamese export their products to Russia, he added.
Trade between Russia and Viet Nam topped US$3.2 billion in the first 11 months of this year, up 26.7 per cent year-on-year. The two countries have set a target of $10 billion by 2020. VNS
HCM CITY HCM City authorities yesterday discussed the current shortcomings of tax and customs regulations in Viet Nam at a dialogue between the city authority and enterprises.
As many as 400 representatives from 320 enterprises participated in the dialogue organised by the HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC) and the HCM City Tax Department.
Most enterprises asked questions related to policies on VAT, enterprise income tax, special consumption tax and import-export tax as well as tax refunds and tax preferences for enterprises and income tax for expats in Viet Nam.
Nguyen Nam Binh, deputy chief of the HCM City Tax Department, said the comments and recommendations of enterprises would help improve the policy-making process, creating a fair and attractive business environment for local and foreign enterprises.
Cao Thi Phi Van, deputy director of ITPC, said the dialogue between the citys authority and enterprises would be done directly and online.
ITPC would continue to perform its role as head of the executive board of the dialogue system between the citys authority and enterprises, which was established in 2002 by the city Peoples Committee, she said.
Since 2002, ITPC has worked with concerned agencies to organise 174 dialogues, attracting participation of 26,819 enterprises and answering 11,839 questions from company representatives at the meetings.
Prior to the meeting, the organisation board received more than 90 questions from enterprises related to tax-related issues.
Last year, ITPC held 17 dialogues on taxes, customs, labour issues, social insurance, construction, environment, planning, trade, investment and traffic, among others.
Together with the direct dialogues, the online dialogue system continued to be a channel to help resolve problems, in which the business community places its trust.
The members of the dialogue system includes departments, agencies and districts of HCM City and central departments and agencies which answer online questions and deal with obstacles of enterprises in a timely manner.
Last year, all of these authorities answered 540 tax-related questions from enterprises. VNS
HA NOI All shares of the Agribank Gold Joint Stock Corporation (AJC) offered by the Vietnam Agriculture and Rural Development Bank (Agribank) at the December 15 auction were sold to three domestic investors, the Ha Noi Stock Exchange announced.
The stock exchange said the three investors bought more than 12.62 million AJC shares, equivalent to 61.24 per cent of charter capital, at the average bidding price of VN15,044 (66 US cents) per share.
The price is 8.2 per cent higher than the initial price of VN13,900 per share offered by Agribank, helping the bank earn VN189.79 billion ($8.4 million) from the auction.
Earlier, 13 investors registered to buy AJC shares.
The bank, which was set up in 1994, earned revenue of VN1.2 trillion in 2016, a decline of 22 per cent compared with 2015. In the first six months of the year, AJC posted revenue of VN503 billion and after-tax profit of VN1.3 billion. VNS
HA NOI Viet Nam is one of the worlds fastest growing e-commerce countries, Lai Viet Anh, deputy director of Viet Nam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency (Vecita) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said.
The countrys e-commerce market is growing 35 per cent per year, 2.5 times faster than Japan, Anh said.
Vietnamese businesses capable of taking advantage of the internet and technology grow 2.1 times faster than others. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that spend more than 30 per cent of their budget on technological innovation grow nine times faster than those spending less than 10 per cent.
Anh told the Viet Nam Business Forum 2017, themed E-commerce Solutions for the Success of Businesses, held in Ha Noi this week that Viet Nams e-commerce retail sales growth in 2016-20 is estimated at 20 per cent per year and the countrys total retail e-commerce sales would reach US$10 billion by 2020.
In 2017, e-commerce retail sales have expanded by 25 per cent and will become an important part of Viet Nams e-commerce sector. E-commerce is widely considered the buying and selling of products over the internet. E-commerce is subdivided into three categories: business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) and consumer to consumer (C2C) also called electronic commerce.
E-commerce is expected to become an important infrastructure of Viet Nams trade sector, she added.
However, e-commerce has seen some barriers that deter its sustainable development, including low consumer trust in products and services and concerns over online payment security.
In addition, most Vietnamese e-commerce websites provide only basic services, such as information about products and modes of payment. Services such as digital marketing optimisation and connecting online with offline sales need to be added.
Anh said retailers should not only create and operate websites, but also have an overall business trading system from production, marketing and order management to transport and delivery services to successfully participate in the e-commerce sector.
Le Hai Binh, vice chairman of Viet Nam E-commerce Association (VECOM) said the countrys IT infrastructure was favourable for e-commerce development.
Nguyen Quynh Nga, deputy director of the SME Department under Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB), said one of the main barriers for SMEs was guaranteed assets. In addition, unclear financial reports and unsuitable business plans also made connections between banks and SMEs become more difficult in developing e-commerce.
Nga said the participation of SMEs in the global supply chain was limited as the added value was low despite high export turnover. This was the reason that banks needed to have special products and services in the long-term period to support SMEs.
SMEs have been a potential market segment, thus requiring banks to have special access, she added.
o Phi Long, director of a company specialising in consumer goods trading and distribution was quoted by online newspaper dantri.com.vn as saying that trading through e-commerce channels was not less expensive compared with the traditional ways of selling goods.
Long said his company posted products on e-commerce websites. This way of selling had advantages of reducing management and human resources costs, even as information on products was readily available to customers.
However, there were shortcomings, such as high costs paid to e-commerce websites and risks of cancelled orders by customers, he said, adding that there was no penalty mechanism for people canceling orders.
He said e-commerce had brought a new selling channel for businesses, parallel with the traditional ways and removed intermediaries. Growth in sales was seen, however it wasnt strong.
The director added that most people shopping online were young and with white-collar jobs. It was hard to encourage the middle-aged to shop online although they had a high income.
He suggested that the Government enhance its management role by tightening goods information provided by retailers. He added there was a lack of accurate information when shopping online, especially on Facebook.
It was this chaotic dissemination of information that led to a lack of trust among consumers when shopping online, preventing e-commerce development. VNS
A NANG Up to 10 years in prison and fines up to VN5 billion (US$221,000) now await captains, fishermen and boat owners who conduct illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The strict sanctions were included in the revised Law on Fisheries that was approved by the National Assembly on November 21, 2017, and was announced by President Tran ai Quang on December 15.
Head of the section for legislation and inspection under the department of sea product Phan Thi Hue revealed the information at a conference on solutions for the European Commission (EC)s yellow card warning to Viet Nam over IUU fishing.
The yellow card is a warning measure, given to nations considered at risk of being deemed uncooperative in the fight against IUU fishing.
Hue said the revised law also prescribes fines from VN50 million ($2,200) to VN70 million ($3,000) for illegal fishing and the revocation of fishing licences from three to six months.
She said it also regulated that all fishing boats from 15m long have to run tracking device systems 24 hours a day when at sea.
The law also included detailed regulations based on principles of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, Port State Measures Agreement by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Straddling Fish Stocks Agreement of the United Nations and the ECs recommendations, Hue said.
She said it also stated that the temporary import and re-export of illegal fishing materials and sea products via Vietnamese ports is illegal.
Nguyen Van Trung, from the department of sea product, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also issued an instruction on Wednesday calling for urgent measures to tackle global IUU fishing following the ECs warning on October 23.
Trung said the PMs instruction also banned the building of new or upgrading old drift net boats and the transportation and trading of sea cucumbers in foreign waters.
Deputy General Secretary of Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) Nguyen Hoai Nam said the association, in co-operation with Eurocham, has been developing a white paper in English and Vietnamese and a database on fisheries to promote Viet Nams efforts to improve its legal system in regards to IUU fishing.
The EC needs clear information and actions to curb IUU fishing. More than 60 out of 100 businesses from VASEP have committed to fight IUU fishing, and these positive actions will be clearly and publicly showed to the EC, Nam said.
He added that human resources and funds are needed to support fishing port management boards in boosting supervision and monitoring fishing boats, captain and owners as well as preventing illegal fishing.
Nam also suggested that high-ranking dialogues between the ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and EC should be held to remove the ECs yellow card.
He said Viet Nam also joined international organisations and agreements as recommended by EU, as well as negotiations with neighbouring countries on IUU fishing.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vu Van Tam, said Viet Nam would focus on issuing legal frameworks, sea product recognition, tracking fishing boats and providing certificates of origin for sea product.
New regulations also involve the responsibilities of boat owners and leaders of local administrations on IUU fishing violations. We will also improve management capacity of port management boards in inspection of sea product and cruise tracking detection, Tam said.
He said communications would be promoted among communities and fishermen on the risks of IUU fishing.
Viet Nam received a yellow card warning from EC because of its failure to meet standards against IUU fishing from October 23, 2017 to April 23 of 2018.
The country has been making efforts to have the yellow card withdrawn before the deadline.
The Government has approved an action plan to prevent, minimise and eliminate IUU fishing by 2025, with the plan set to be issued later this month.
According to VASEP, Viet Nams sea product export earned $8.3 billion, of which 20 per cent were from the EU market, in 2017. VNS
HA NOI Vietnamese logistics firms must work to improve their competitiveness, said Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh at the Viet Nam Logistics Forum 2017 in Ha Noi on Friday.
In his speech, Anh noted that logistics should be considered an infrastructure service sector, adding that the domestic industry is facing difficulties including loose co-ordination among relevant sectors, weak transport and IT infrastructure, and a shortage of qualified human resources.
He asked participants at the forum to propose solutions to help the sector develop in a sustainable manner, thus contributing to renovating the growth model and restructuring the national economy. Anh urged ministries, sectors and localities to co-operate. He said they should focus on building and upgrading the transport and IT infrastructure network and logistics centres in connection with key economic areas, other countries in the region and the larger world. Ministries and sectors were required to look for ways to improve the quality of human resources to meet the requirements of the logistics sector in the context of international economic integration.
Challenges ahead
According to Ousman Dione, Country Director for the World Bank in Viet Nam , Viet Nam s logistics cost is 18 per cent of GDP, almost twice the ratio of developed economies and 4 per cent higher than the global average rate. He said while the country is emerging as a global industrial centre and one of the most attractive destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI), attracting about US$35 billion in registered capital in 2017, Viet Nam is still doing the work with the least added value in the global value chain. Therefore, Viet Nam needs a solution to improve export efficiency towards its vision to become an upper middle income country.
He said that while significant progress has been made in improving logistics infrastructure and services, there was still ample room for further improvement. Viet Nam s ranking in the Logistics Performance Index dropped from 48 in 2014 to 64 in 2016. During the same period, other economies improved their performance much faster than Viet Nam , meaning it is losing competitiveness.
The countrys consistent policy of openness and export-led growth has paid off. However, Viet Nam often carries out the lowest value-added segment of production in global value chains.
Export performance remains largely driven by the FDI sector, which accounts for 70 per cent of total exports. Links between domestic firms and global value chains are weak.
Dione noted that the Vietnamese Government and the private economic sector need to outline a specific roadmap to improve the quality of logistics service, thus meeting demand of the countrys increasingly modern economy. The WB is ready to support Viet Nam in developing and improving competitiveness of the countrys logistics industry, he affirmed, adding that the bank will provide technical and financial assistance for Viet Nam as well.
High on the agenda at the forum was improving competitiveness and the development of Viet Nam s logistics services.
Viet Nam s total logistics costs in 2016 were $41.26 billion, equivalent to 20.8 per cent of GDP, said Le Duy Hiep, chairman of the Viet Nam Logistics Business Association (VLA).
Hiep said that despite high logistics costs, the logistics sector has contributed a mere 3 per cent to GDP. The number of logistics enterprises in Viet Nam has grown rapidly from 700 in 2005 to more than 1,200 in 2012 with an annual service growth rate of 16-20 per cent.
At present, about 30 businesses providing trans-national logistics services are operating in Viet Nam and the country has 1,300 logistics firms total.
However, Viet Nam is faced with several challenges such as poor logistics infrastructure and lack of uniformity, small-scale logistics enterprises, with fragmented operations and lack of professionalism and low competitiveness overall, he added.
He said that the country has also suffered from limited international maritime and air transport as well as other services due to a shortage of global systems.
The majority of 1,300 Vietnamese logistics firms are small- and medium-sized, accounting for only 25 per cent of the logistics market share and about 72 per cent of the logistics labour force. They mostly provide small supply chain services in Viet Nam including freight forwarding, warehouse leasing and customs clearance.
In the framework of the forum, the Ministry of Industry and Trade officially released the Viet Nam Logistics Report 2017 and inaugurated a portal at www.logistics.gov.vn.
The report provides a close look at the inherent vantage points and dynamics of international markets, revealing Viet Nam logistics sectors great potential for growth and deep integration in the global logistics arena. The report suggests that in 2018, more focus should be paid to enhance administrative reforms, reduce or simplify logistics-related administrative procedures and accelerate key logistics infrastructure projects.
Authorities, associations and businesses should also look at embedding regional integration and partnership efforts in market liberalisation, expanding existing logistics training systems, increasing communication and further perfecting the regulatory framework and public sector management system to support logistics development. The forum also witnessed the signing of five strategic and comprehensive co-operation agreements among enterprises, associations and universities, which aim to create breakthroughs in logistics development. VNS
News / National
by Simbarashe Sithole
There have been mixed feelings on Twitter following the MDC Alliance move to United States where they reportedly went to seek for international intervention in the looming harmonized elections.Mt Pleasant independent candidate for 2018 Fadzai Mahere tweeted that US cannot reform Zimbabwean electoral system."The US can't reform our electoral system. The fight has to be taken to Parliament to ensure the Electoral Act is aligned to the Constitution. We need to enforce ZEC's obligation to make public the voters' roll.We need to monitor the voter reg \ voting process for irregularity," she tweeted.Norton house of assembly member Temba Mliswa said the Alliance should be concentrating their efforts on transitional government rather than going international."Hon Misihairambwi has moved a motion in Parliament which l have seconded to debate the merits of a transitional government. This is where MDC should be concentrating their efforts in order to put their points across, not globetrotting. We look forward to the debate,"tweeted Mliswa.Zimbabwean sportscaster Barry Manandi tweeted, " The MDC Alliance has missed out on a golden opportunity to demonstrate their aptitude for leadership and have instead shown a frightening proclivity for power rather than progress! Shameful!However, former Minister of Education David Coltart believed those who are complaining about the Alliance's visit to US must also condemn the breaches of the Constitution by the ruling party,state media, chiefs and the military."All those complaining about #MDCAlliance trip to the US must equally condemn the breaches of the Constitution by Zanu PF - ZBC ,@ HeraldZimbabwe , the military and Chiefs are barred from supporting ZANU PF by the Constitution, but the ruining party perpetuates the illegality."Meanwhile, MDC- T vice president Nelson Chamisa explained why the delegation visited other countries and dismissed allegations of begging for sanctions."The sanctions lies.What we are here for is more about the repositioning the opposition than the positioning of the ruling party. It's more about the next government not this outgoing one, the future government not this present one.We a e next government in 7 months time!"
HA NOI Widespread water pollution nationwide has inflicted an estimated economic loss of VN11.6 trillion (US$510.7 million) in the last ten years and the situation is not getting better, an environmental expert says.
Nguyen Ngoc Ly, director of the Ha Noi-based Centre for Community and Environment Research said rapid urbanisation and industrialisation were generating more and more pollutants, and the water environment had been badly hit.
Apart from the economic losses, water pollution had had serious health impacts, she said.
Fixing water pollution required huge funding, Ly said, citing as an example the efforts made to clean the 8km long Nhieu Loc Canal in HCM City.
The restoration work, ongoing since 2008, has taken many years and $685 million thus far.
Nguyen Van Thuy, director of the Centre for Environment Monitoring said Viet Nam has about 3,450 rivers and springs with length of at least ten kilometers each, their total surface water is about 830 billion cubic metres.
The major rivers in the three regions are: Hong (Red) River, Thai Binh River, Bang Giang River, Ky Cung River, Ma River, and Ca River in the north; Vu Gia River, Thu Bon River and Ba River in the centre; and ong Nai River and Mekong River in the south.
The water volumes in these rivers were showing vast differences during different seasons, and the quality of the water had also degraded, and the risks of water exhaustion were alarmingly visible, Thuy said.
He said that in the Red River Delta, 80 per cent of water used for daily activities became wastewater, making the region the largest wastewater discharger in the country.
The wastewater contained many pollutants including those generated by industrial production in trade villages, industrial zones, hospitals and farms, Thuy said, emphasising that water pollution was a major challenge for the region and the country.
According to the Construction Ministry, Viet Nam has 37 wastewater treatment plants in urban areas with capacity of 890,000 cubic metres daily, dealing with just 12-13 per cent of discharged wastewater.
Nguyen Hong Quan from the Institute of Environment and Natural Resources under HCM City National University told the Sai Gon Giai phong (Liberated Saigon) newspaper that demand for water and wastewater treatment increased along with urbanisation.
But the water supply system and wastewater treatment facilities in Viet Nam had failed to meet the rising demand, partly because of modest funding, with private investors showing no interest in the sector, Quan said.
The National Environment Report 2016, released in the middle of this year by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, says that on average, an urban dweller consumes 105 litres of water daily and in big cities like Ha Noi or HCM City, the water consumption per head is about 120-130 litres a day.
About 40 per cent of water consumption in urban areas in Viet Nam is from underground sources. HCM City and Ha Noi use about 2.63 million cubic metres of water per day, accounting for nearly 26 per cent of the total water consumption in the country.
The report says that improper exploitation and use have decreased both quantity and quality of water in urban areas including HCM City, Ha Noi, Vinh Yen City in Vinh Phuc Province and Soc Trang City in the province of the same name.
Overexploitation of underground water has also caused water pollution in Ha Noi, Phu Ly City in the northern province of Ha Nam, and land depression in HCM City and Ca Mau City.
According to Water Resource Management Department under the Environment Ministry, between 1992 and 2013, average groundwater levels in Ha Noi fell by 0.08-0.91 metres every year. This has worsened the degradation of fresh water resources, leading to reduced efficiency in exploitation and increased risks of pollution and land depression.
Urban water supply pipe systems are said to have degraded in all localities, resulting in wastage as well as pollution.
Last year, Ha Noi reported a supply of 880,000- 900,000 cubic metres of water every day, but lost 23 per cent because of degraded water pipelines. In 2014-2016, the water supply pipeline from a River to the city broke 16 times.
Severe water pollution has been detected in urban areas with excessive concentration of ammoniac as well as heavy metals like lead, arsenic and manganese.
In Ha Noi, water in Hoang Mai and Long Bien districts has been contaminated by arsenic for years. High concentrations of iron were found in the districts of Hai Ba Trung, Ba inh, Ha ong, Thanh Xuan, Tay Ho, Hoang Mai, Bac Tu Liem and Nam Tu Liem.
The concentration of ammoniac was found to be dozens of times higher than permitted levels in almost all 34 wells located near 13 water treatment and supply stations in the city.
Residents are very worried about the health implications of such reports.
For examples, arsenic is a chemical element found in nature and some manmade products like pesticides. Consumption of 0.3-30mg of arsenic can cause acute poisoning within 30-60 minutes. Long-term exposure to the element can damage the nervous, cardiovascular and digestive systems and increase the risk of cancer.
High concentration of iron and/or ammoniac can change taste, colour and characteristics of food, making them less digestive or more prone to triggering diseases.
Weak enforcement
Ly from the Centre for Community and Environment Research said that Viet Nam had relatively proper legal framework to manage its water resources, but enforcement has been weak.
He said stronger law enforcement and improved legal frameworks were needed to protect fresh water resources and control water pollution.
Other experts have called for a comprehensive, thorough plan to dredge and clean polluted rivers and canals, improve wastewater treatment works, upgrade urban sewage systems and drastically limit the exploitation and use of underground water. VNS
A NANG A photo exhibition marking the 50th publishing anniversary of the Nobel Prize winning One Hundred Years of Solitude by Colombian author Garbriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014), will be held at the Da Nang Fine Arts Museum on December 18-30.
The exhibition, held for the first time in the city in a collaboration between the museum and the Colombian embassy, will display 27 photographs featuring the life of Marquez taken by documentary photographer Nereo Lopez (1920-2015).
The novel was first published in Spanish in 1967 in Buenos Aires by Editorial Sudamericana. An English translation by Gregory Rabassa released in New York in 1970 by Harper and Row.
The book is considered Marquezs masterpiece, metaphorically encompassing the history of Colombia and Latin America.
Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century and one of the best in the Spanish language, Marquez was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.
About 50 million copies of the novel, which has been published in at least 40 languages, have been sold over the world.
The novel was translated into Vietnamese by a group of translators in 1986 and 10,000 copies released that year.
Literary magician: Nobel Prize winning Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Photo courtesy by Colombia Embassy in Viet Nam
Translator Pham uc Loi has selected extracts from the novel to display at the exhibition, museum officials said.
The exhibition is a chance for readers in central Viet Nam to explore the culture of Colombia and learn more about its famous novelist.
It will officially open to the public at 3.30pm on December 18.
The exhibition on Marquez is the latest in a series of event hosted by the museum, including the display of works by French photographer Rehahn and many artists from Laos and Cambodia.
In May, the ASEAN Community Exhibition was also held here to mark the 50th anniversary of the regional bloc.
The museum, the only one of its kind in the Central and Central Highlands region, has a regular display of 413 works by artists from the city and provinces in the region, attracting visitors from within the country and abroad.
The central city has welcomed 6.6 million tourists so far this year, of which 2.3 million were foreigners. VNS
HA NOI Ha Noi, Hai Phong and their vicinities were heavily bombarded in an aerial raids in December 1972, known in Viet Nam as "ien Bien Phu in the Air and in the West as the 1972 Christmas bombing.
It was the last US military campaign during the war and lasted for 12 days from Dec 18 until 29th.
Over 12 days and nights, the Ha Noi air defence grids and all across the north of Viet Nam shot down 4,181 airplanes, including 34 expensive B52s, referred to as flying fortresses, which had their own radar bomb navigation systems with well-trained crews.
Linebacker II was to be a "maximum effort" bombing campaign to "destroy major target complexes in the Ha Noi and Hai Phong areas, which could only be accomplished by B-52s, according to military experts.
It saw the largest heavy bomber strikes launched by the US Air Force since the end of World War II.
But the people of Ha Noi triumphed over the heavy bombardment, although more than 1,600 civilians were killed and three Mic 21 were shot down. The Hanoians had named the 12 day and night campaign their ien Bien Phu in the Air, recalling their decisive victory over the French in 1954.
The victory under Ha Noi skies prompted the U.S. return to the negotiating table in Paris and finally sign the peace accords that they had previously refused to.
The ien Bien Phu in the Air is now remebered through photos and objects displayed at the exhibition called Battle of ien Bien Phu in the Air and the Trench of the Command Post of Operations.
The exhibition opened yesterday in Ha Noi to mark the 45th anniversary of the victory.
The exhibition recalls the proud of history of the army and people of the capital, said Tran Viet Anh, director of the Thaeng Long Ha Noi Heritage Conservation Centre.
It emphasises the role of the trenches and the people who witnessed first hand our ien Bien Phu in the air victory in late 1972, he said.
The exhibition is divided into two parts, the Battle of ien Bien Phu in the Air and the Trench of the Command Post of Operations aka T1 bunker.
The victory of the ien Bien Phu in the Air campaign in 1972 defeated the US aggressors, forcing them to return to the negotiating table and sign the Paris Agreement on January 27, 1973.
The exhibition of ien Bien Phu in the air campaign recalls the proud of history of the army and people of the capital. VNS Photo Minh Thu
Pham Thi Thanh, a mapper in the trench of the Command Post of Operations for the 12 days and nights in 1972, said their mission was to detect and follow US aircraft. When the US planes took off from any base, in south Viet Nam, they had to follow and mark their routes.
She still remembers her shift on December 18, 1972. Groups of five planes that flew in zigzag paths indicated they were common fighter aircrafts, she said. Groups of three planes flying in a straight path were definitely B52s. They flew in straight lines but were very swift.
Back then, I did not understand why the leaders and commanders in the trench asked us to focus carefully on the mission and that we need more mappers.
We did not know exactly what was coming but thought about the dangerous situation on that day. I still remeber that on that day three B52 aircrafts entered, but only two of them escaped so we guessed one was shot down. Soon after, we were informed that was true.
Everyone in the trench clapped in joy and together celebrated the victory, she said.
The trench of the Command Post of Operations, built in 1964, received reports and gave directions throughout the country. During the 12 days and nights in 1972, operations from bunker T1 helped shoot down several B52 planes.
Today T1 is an important part of the Thaeng Long Imperial Citadel relic, making it an outstanding heritage site in Ha Noi .
The exhibition will run until the end of the year at the Thang Long Ha Noi Heritage Conservation Centre in Ha Noi .
During the exhibition, the organiser will also screen documentaries and hold talks with witnesses and experts. VNS
National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong has asked concerned agencies to speed up preparations for the 26th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26). VNA/VNS Photo Phuong Hoa/
HA NOI National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong has asked concerned agencies to speed up preparations for the 26th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26).
APPF-26, which will take place in Ha Noi from January 18-20, 2018, will focus on the theme: Parliamentary partnership: Peace, Innovation and Sustainable Development.
Phong, who heads the events organising committee, chaired its third meeting yesterday. It was attended by officials from all subcommittees in Content, Information and Communications, Reception and Logistics, Health and Security alongside APPF-26 and APEC 2017 secretariats, who provided updates of their efforts.
Phong noted that APPF-26 was taking place following the success of the APEC Leaders Week 2017 in a Nang and would be an event for lawmakers across the Asia-Pacific region to show support for the a Nang Declaration.
In preparing for APPF-26, the subcommittees should focus in particular on communication and promotion campaigns so as to boost the countrys image, she said.
Phong also asked them to review and get final works done, including ensuring security for the successful hosting of the event.
The APPF was founded by former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone on March 15, 1993. Bringing together parliamentarians from across the Asia-Pacific region, the forum aims to directly assist the APEC, contributing to peace, stability and prosperity in the region.
The APPF is also a mechanism that enables parliamentarians to discuss issues of common concern, deepen their understanding of the region and widen interests and experience of its members.
The forum will address political, security, economic, social and cultural issues, thus furthering regional co-operation and building relations between and among parliamentarians from the Asia-Pacific region.
Viet Nam hosted the 13th APPF in Ha Long City in January 2005. VNS
The Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV)s Central Committee General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong speaks at a conference in Ha Noi yesterday reviewing national defence and military work 2017 and outlining tasks for 2018. VNA/VNS Photo Tri Dung
HA NOI The Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV)s Central Committee General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has asked the Central Military Commission to pay attention to strengthening the Party while preventing self-evolution and self-transformation behaviour and peaceful evolution plots from hostile forces.
The Party chief, who is also Secretary of the Central Military Commission, made the request while chairing a conference in Ha Noi yesterday reviewing national defence and military work 2017 and outlining tasks for 2018.
He lauded the Military Party Committee for completing all tasks for the year, including offering strategic advice to the Party and State on national defence and military affairs, contributing to maintaining political stability and a peaceful environment for development.
The army has built strategies, adopted several military and defence resolutions and projects and successfully held major drills to shore up its capacity.
The army also played an important role in the success of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Year 2017, particularly the APEC Economic Leaders Week in the central city of a Nang in November.
It reaped achievements in mass mobilisation, post-disaster and post-war recovery, as well as United Nations peacekeeping work.
Progress has also been made in technical logistics and the national defence industry.
The Party General Secretary underscored top tasks for 2018 a key year to implement Resolutions by the 12th National Party Congress and the 10th Military Party Congress, including closely monitoring of domestic and international situations to offer accurate and timely advice to the Party and State, improving military training quality and developing the defence industry and external defence relations.
The army must lead the way in rejecting wrongful opinions and distorted allegations by hostile forces, he said, adding that he wished the Military Party Committee would continue standing united to accomplish national defence military and Party building tasks.
At the event, members of the Central Military Commission conducted criticism and self-criticism . VNS
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh yesterday lauded proactive engagement and co-operation among all riparian countries at the third Foreign Ministers Meeting on Mekong-Lancang Co-operation (MLC) held in China. VNA/VNS Photo Luong Anh Tuan
YUNNAN Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh yesterday lauded proactive engagement and co-operation among all riparian countries at the third Foreign Ministers Meeting on Mekong-Lancang Co-operation (MLC) held in China.
Attending the meeting in Dali, Yunnan Province, were the foreign ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, China and Viet Nam.
Minh said Viet Nam had made active and effective contributions to building the MLC working mechanism and proposing practical ideas for co-operation.
He acknowledged important MLC outcomes over the past two years, hailing Chinas role and the proactive engagement of Mekong countries.
He suggested that the MLC should focus on enhancing sustainable management and use of Mekong River water resources to balance interests and responsibilities of riparian countries.
Collaboration between MLC and the Mekong River Commission would better meet countries demand for data sharing, joint research and improving management capacity, he said.
The Deputy PM reiterated Viet Nams proposal to establish the first hotline among six MLC member countries to deal with emergency situations on the Mekong River.
Minh also called for enhancing joint work to develop a competitive agricultural sector that is resilient to climate change and able to engage in regional and global value chains by upgrading regional transport infrastructure and improving human resources training to meet demands of the fourth industrial revolution.
The ministers reviewed the implementation of outcomes of the first and second meetings and discussed measures to promote regional sustainable development.
Over the past two years, MLC member countries have completed many early-harvest projects, established a secretariat national co-ordinating centre in each country and the MLC Special Fund.
Youth exchanges, cultural and tourism co-operation held within the framework had enhanced mutual understanding and friendship among the peoples of member countries, the meeting heard.
The ministers agreed that MLC should do more to help narrow the development gap and support building of the ASEAN Community. They approved a list of projects eligible for financial assistance from the MLC Special Fund.
In preparation for the second MLC Summit slated for January 10 - 11, 2018 in Cambodia, the ministers agreed on the content of several documents for submission to MLC leaders, including the MLC Action Plan for 2018-2022 and the list of MLC projects, second stage.
Minh also held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi yesterday.
He asked China to take effective measures to further boost bilateral economic and trade ties and help ease Viet Nams trade deficit, invest in projects using advanced and eco-friendly technology, as well as extend mutually-beneficial collaboration in agriculture, environment, climate change response and science-technology.
He took note of recent progress made in negotiations on the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) between ASEAN and China. He urged ASEAN and China to soon discuss practical content of the COC while continuing with full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), building trust and maintaining peace, stability and security in the East Sea.
The two sides vowed to facilitate high-level visits and direct ministries, agencies and localities to effectively implement existing agreements and realise common perceptions reached by high-ranking leaders.
The Vietnamese Deputy PM also attended the inauguration of a photo exhibition on MLC achievements and the launch of the official website of the MLC Secretariat. VNS
BA RIA-VUNG TAU The Peoples Court in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau has reported that it has received the indictment of the provincial Peoples Procuracy for prosecuting four crew members in connection with the sinking of the Hai Thanh 26-BLC cargo ship.
The cargo ship sank in the waters off the countrys southern coast on March 28.
It is expected that the court will open the first instance hearing of the case before the Lunar New Year holiday which falls in mid-February next year, the online vietnamplus newspaper reported.
The crew members of the Hai Thanh cargo ship include Hoang Tien Khoi and Nguyen Viet Thang, accused of violating Circular 07/2012/TT-BGTVT.
Nguyen Xuan Sang and Tran Kien of the Petrolimex 14 oil tanker are, meanwhile, accused of violating maritime regulations on controlling maritime vehicles as stipulated under Article 223 of the Penal Code.
Earlier on June 21, Vung Tau Port Authority concluded that the the accident was the fault of the crew members, who did not perform their job of patrol and control well.
Kien and Sang were reported to leave their position while being on duty on Petrolimex 14 oil tanker and they also did not observe well, resulting in their ship colliding with Hai Thanh ship.
Kien and Sang also did not answer the report of Hai Thanh ships crew members when Hai Thanh ship discovered that the two ships could collide.
While Hoang Tien Khoi, a crew member of Hai Thanh ship was accused of having no timely action to avoid the collision although he discovered the Petrolimex 14 tanker could hit his ship.
The Hai Thanh 26, with 11 crew members on board, sank some 44 nautical miles to the east of Vung Tau City in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province while carrying clinker from the northern city of Hai Phong to the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.
Two sailors were rescued, according to the Viet Nam Maritime Search and Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
Nine crewmembers were killed in the accident and all the bodies were recovered. VNS
HCM CITY Enterprises are facing challenges in hiring and keeping employees as a result of competition from multinational corporations expanding their businesses in Viet Nam, with many recruiters saying they cannot find enough qualified candidates for jobs.
Local media recently reported that taxi service provider Vietnam Sun Corporation (Vinasun), for instance, had 8,000 employees, including drivers, who quit in the first six months of the year.
Taxi operator Mai Linh Group cut its personnel by more than 20 per cent in the first half of the year. Representatives of two companies said the problem was due to the competition of two new tax service providers, Uber and Grab.
Tran Bang Viet, CEO of DongA Solutions and former CEO of the Mai Linh Group, said that drivers were important in helping taxi companies attract customers.
Viet spoke at a forum titled How to Keep Peace as Employee Retention Fluctuates held on Thursday by Saigon Times Group in co-operation with ManpowerGroup Viet Nam.
Viet said that if one driver asked for leave because of illness, spare drivers would replace him, but 5 per cent of all the drivers were available. Now, the proportion has fallen further at these companies.
The decrease in taxi personnel has led to a shortage of drivers.
In the past, taxi drivers had to make a deposit worth two months of salary. But, now, taxi companies have rolled out the red carpet for drivers. At this time, discipline is not high. It is dangerous because service quality could be affected, he said.
"When quality is affected, taxi companies attract fewer passengers and their profits fall, leading to more drivers quitting," he added.
According to a recent survey of the HCM City Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information, the turnover rate at many companies is more than 10 per cent.
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hue, head of human resources at AEON Viet Nam Co Ltd, said that recruiting employees in the retail sector was difficult as many people were not used to working on weekends or holidays
Hue said demand for employees is so high that recruiters have difficulty finding suitable candidates.
Nguyen Xuan Son of ManpowerGroup Viet Nam said the turnover rate was caused primarily by startup trends.
Employees also want bonuses and allowances, he added.
Cao Thi Ngoc Dung, chairwoman of the board of directors and general director of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company, said that companies should maintain a good working environment and offer training to staff so they can update their skills.
Le Thi Kim Thuy, HR director at Bosch Vietnam, said that enterprises should devise workforce plans and have a talent pipeline, which is a critical part of a proactive recruiting strategy that helps to retain and replace staff.
Fluctuation of employees is inevitable, Thuy said, adding that such changes could help them restructure their HR systems and employee welfare policies. VNS
HCM CITY HCM City Peoples Court has sentenced Nguyen Thi Hoang Oanh, former director of Ben Thanh branch of the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development of Viet Nam (Agribank), to life in prison on corruption charges after a 10-day trial.
Oanh, 57, was sentenced for three offences of property embezzlement, receiving bribes and violating lending regulations.
Earlier at the hearing, a representative of the Procuracy proposed giving Oanh the death penalty.
However, Oanh received extenuating circumstances due to her long dedication to her work and she has repaid most of the money stolen from the bank.
Le Van Tinh, former director of Kim Gia Thao Ltd Co, also received life imprisonment for property misappropriation and bribery.
The remaining 10 defendants, Oanh and Tinhs accomplices, received from three-year suspended sentences to 26 years in prison from the court.
According to the indictment, Oanh used the names of eight people, created dossiers and completed loan procedures to appropriate 2,660 taels of gold from the countrys biggest gold bar trader, Sai Gon Jewellery Joint Stock Company, worth VN47.2 billion (US$2 million) from the branch.
Oanh said she spent 2,250 gold taels to purchase a house on Tran Quang Khai Road in District 1s Tan inh Ward, and then rented it to Agribank Ben Thanhs transaction office for a total of VN5.6 billion ($5,800 a month).
She used the remaining gold on private businesses. When the debt was due, Oanh directed Cao Ba Hieu (former deputy head of Agribank Ben Thanhs Business Planning Division) and Truong The Thanh (former director of Agribank Branch No 3) to use Lien Luc ia Ltd Co and the names of some other individuals and businesses to borrow money from Agribank Ben Thanh and used the money for repayment.
Additionally, Oanh allowed Thanh, former director of Agribank Branch No 3, to use the names of another two persons to borrow VN13 billion ($572,000) from Agribank Ben Thanh for personal purposes. But Thanh failed to repay the bank.
Oanhs actions are said to have caused Agribank Ben Thanh losses of more than VN358 billion ($15.7 million).
Oanh was also accused of receiving bribes for approving a VN24.6 billion loan for Le Van Tinh. VNS
Leaders of more than 30 cities in ASEAN countries gathered at a conference in Hue City, the central province of Thua Thien-Hue in the last two days to discuss sponsoring and implementing sustainable development projects for cities in Southeast Asia. Photo daidoanket.vn
THUA THIEN-HUE Leaders of more than 30 cities in ASEAN countries gathered at a conference in Hue City, the central province of Thua Thien-Hue in the last two days to discuss sponsoring and implementing sustainable development projects for cities in Southeast Asia.
The conference was organised by the International Association of French-speaking Mayors (AIMF), the European Union and Hue City.
Addressing the event, Chairman of Hue City Peoples Committee Nguyen Van Thanh said the conference aimed to share experience in mobilising financial resources for urban development projects.
He also highlighted Hues efforts to contribute to AIMF activities and the citys determination to integrate into the French-speaking community as well as to protect and develop heritage values.
Three seminars were held within the framework of the conference, dealing with calling for investment, experience in responding to climate change in the region, the role of cities in strengthening regional integration, co-operation among cities in Southeast Asia and the engagement of cities in sustainable development.
AIMF Permanent Secretary Pierre Baillet said ASEAN is strongly integrating into the world economy and facing many challenges in education, population growth and climate change.
Participants at the event also shared experience in defining the role played by cities in calling for investment to sustainable urban development and climate change response.
Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung lauded activities of AIMF in sustainable urban development, noting that the association has created strong connectivity among member cities and Francophone organisations regionally and globally.
He also expressed hope that the association will play a bigger role in stepping up regional and inter-regional co-operation for the sustainable growth of cities in Southeast Asia. VNS
News / National
by Staff reporter
Serial political flip-flopper, Jonathan Moyo, has backed opposition political parties' calls for the west to maintain sanctions on Zimbabwe until the ruling party has introduced noticeable reforms.Before his latest damascene moment from self-imposed exile, the former Higher and Tertiary Education minister was at the forefront of blaming the United States' policy towards Zimbabwe for hurting the country's economy.He even launched a sanctions impact research in January and devoted $150 000 to finance the survey.With the tables having been tabled against him, Moyo is now singing from a different hymn book.Quoting New York-based Human Rights Watch Southern Africa head Dewa Mavhinga's submission presented before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee urging Washington to maintain its stance on Zimbabwe until reforms have been enacted, Moyo said no country should deal with Zimbabwe as it was an illegitimate administration."A military coup is a military coup and in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe it can only beget nothing else but an unconstitutional government and thus an illegitimate dispensation! #CouptheCure @dewamavhinga," Moyo said on his twitter account.The former Zanu PF politburo member took another about turn as he supported the opposition's call for the United Nations and other international election watchdogs to supervise the 2018 elections.Zanu PF has always maintained that the elections will not be observed by the UN."Given what has happened since the coup d'etat of 15 November 2017, the only way forward is for Sadc, AU and UN to cure the coup by restoring constitutional legitimacy through a civilian national transitional structure to oversee free, fair and credible elections! Cure the coup. To expect the same Junta and Mnangagwa who violently grabbed power through a coup d'etat on 15 November to organise and oversee free, fair and credible elections is the same as expecting Satan the devil to organise and run the church of God on behalf of Christians! Cure the coup," Moyo insisted.He further called on the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), the African Union (AU) and UN to interrogate the deployment of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) on November 15 and the "alleged resignation of Mugabe on November 21. Firstly, was the ZDF deployment constitutional? Secondly did (former) president Mugabe voluntarily and freely resign?"Moyo starkly warned: "The Junta will pay at the polls for humiliating ...Mugabe!"This week, Tendai Biti led an MDC Alliance delegation comprising Nelson Chamisa, activists Dewa Mavhinga and Peter Godwin to make presentations before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday where they urged Washington to maintain its current policy on Zimbabwe, which includes the sanctions.Foreign Affairs and International Trade minister Sibusiso Moyo has responded by saying it was staggering that opposition expects Mnangagwa to undo the wrong committed over 37 years in just two weeks.In the wake of an outcry from Zanu PF, Biti said the ruling party should stop "being cry-babies" and implement electoral reforms if at all it is sincere about creating a new political dispensation.Moyo's narrative on maintaining existing US policy towards Zimbabwe until the military removes itself from politics was in tandem with that of Biti who described the intervention by the army in the country's political affairs as an illegal and illegitimate transfer of power from one faction of the ruling Zanu PF party to another.Speaking after lobbying Washington as Zanu PF went into overdrive blaming the MDC Alliance for calling on sanctions to the detriment of ordinary Zimbabweans, Biti said:"The goodwill we have witnessed as MDC Alliance on this trip, the doors that have been open for us here, some of the offices we have entered that are no normally not opened to anyone is telling, when we say we have the keys to unlock Zimbabwe it's not a lie. It's all shown us that we have the goodwill as the opposition. Our message has been that it's time to build Zimbabwe that has been our message from the white house, national security department, Capitol Hill, it's time to build Zimbabwe but Zimbabwe has to walk the talk. There has to be incentives for good behaviour. So the ball is in our court. Let us not cry sanction or no sanction lets walk the talk."In his welcome remarks to the Zanu PF central committee meeting on Thursday, Mnangagwa stressed that general elections will be held next year as scheduled, promising that unlike in previous seasons, this time around the outcome will not be disputed."As I have already announced, harmonised general elections will be held in 2018 as scheduled. Government will do all its powers to ensure that these elections are credible, free and fair," he said without elaborating.It remains to be seen if Mnangagwa will stick to his word within the eight months preceding the elections that are expected in July next year.
DES MOINES Minority legislative Democrats on Friday called upon Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republicans who control the Iowa Legislature to work together during the upcoming 2018 session to end the states experiment with privately managed Medicaid.
In a letter from 20 Senate Democrats and 40 House Democrats, minority-party legislators expressed concern Iowas privately managed Medicaid system is collapsing with the withdrawal of one of the three managed care organizations that contracted with the state in April 2016.
For the past 20 months, constituents of all ages have been bombarding Gov. Reynolds and Republican and Democratic legislators with real problems caused by Medicaid privatization, Democrats wrote.
There is clear evidence that Iowans have died as a result of life-sustaining services being cut off to extremely vulnerable individuals.
The letter also cited what the Democrats called the financial jeopardy that Medicaid privatization has imposed on hospitals, nursing homes and other Iowa health care providers especially in Iowas small towns and rural areas.
They also challenged contentions the privately managed Medicaid approach is saving money for taxpayers or resulting in healthier participants.
Under Medicaid privatization, the state of Iowa keeps giving the private, out-of-state companies more and more money, while giving Iowa taxpayers less and less, they wrote.
Top GOP legislators declined to comment on Fridays letter, but Reynolds spokeswoman Brenna Smith issued a statement indicating the governor is committed to improving quality and access to care, promoting accountability for patient outcomes and creating a more predictable and sustainable Medicaid budget.
Smith noted than more than 55 million Medicaid patients are enrolled in managed care health plans in 39 states and Washington, D.C., and that Democratic governors from across the country have credited Medicaid managed care in their states for improving patient quality and accountability.
Medicaid modernization is a proactive, patient-centered approach to modernizing Iowas Medicaid program. Recently, JD Power ranked Iowa's Medicaid program as second highest in the nation in patient satisfaction, she added.
Last month Reynolds told reporters she is committed to a privately managed Medicaid system despite recent system upheavals and calls from Democratic rivals to dump the approach.
One of three companies initially hired to manage the program exited after it and the state did not agree to terms for a new contract.
Iowa has signed new contracts with its remaining two Medicaid insurers Amerigroup and UnitedHealthcare of the River Valley and will seek a third company to replace AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa.
The departure of AmeriHealth has caused some missteps and confusion during the transition period that the governor acknowledged has not been perfect.
Im willing to put the time and the effort into making sure that Iowans get the care that they deserve in a managed and coordinated and more modern delivery system. Im not going back, Reynolds stated.
However, Democrats, in their joint letter, called for working in a bipartisan fashion to expand access to affordable health care for Iowas most vulnerable citizens by using a different approach for administering a Medicaid safety net that is funded through a federal-state partnership.
When Connecticut realized its privatized Medicaid was not working, state leaders made the decision to go back to a publicly managed Medicaid system. Connecticut is now seeing much better results with their new model. They are saving money and improving care, they wrote.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 14, 2017 | 05:49 PM | PADUCAH, KY
Stolen firearms have been recovered in a theft investigation that has already led to the arrests of two western Kentuckians in Louisiana.The McCracken County Sheriff's Department says detectives have been working with detectives from the Jackson, Tennessee Police Department and Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, Sheriffs Office, since the arrests last week of Sarah Young of Ledbetter and 31-year-old Johnathan Coates of West Paducah. They face charges related to the theft of a vehicle and guns from a home on Bethel Church Road on December 1.Based on information shared between the agencies, Jackson Police Detectives were able to recover three stolen firearms related to this case.Detectives also learned that the McCracken County victim had three weapons stolen instead of four, which was initially reported. This means all of the victim's property has been recovered.McCracken County Sheriff's Department thanked law enforcement from Louisiana and Tennessee for their cooperation and assistance in solving the case.
On the Net:
Young Mega hero Sai Dharam Tej has joined hands with star director VV Vinayak for a high budgeted action, family entertainer. This film is rumored to have been titled Dharma Bhai.
The latest update is that the films unit will be heading to Oman to picturize a couple of songs from December 18. After wrapping up the Oman schedule, the makers will return to Hyderabad and can a high-voltage climax sequence.
Lavanya Tripathi is the female lead in the movie, while Bollywood actor Rahul Dev essays the antagonists role. This movie is being produced by C Kalyan. The movie is slated to hit the screens on February 9, 2018.
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News / National
by Staff reporter
President Emmerson Mnangagwa this week called for the rehabilitation of members of the vanquished G40 faction back into Zanu PF to foster the spirit of unity ahead of elections next year.Following the military-aided ouster of former president Robert Mugabe and his subsequent replacement with Mnangagwa as Zanu PF first secretary, there were calls for the expulsion of all officials linked to the G40 faction that opposed his ascendancy to power.Targeted for expulsion were former ruling party political commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere, former women's league secretary Grace Mugabe, former youth league secretary Kudzanai Chipanga, former secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo and Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo ,among several other G40 kingpins.Attempts by Chombo and Chipanga to launch a comeback were met with a warning from Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo that it was criminal for them to put on the ruling party regalia.However, while addressing the Zanu PF central committee at the party headquarters on Thursday Mnangagwa said there was no need for his supporters to pursue a retributive agenda against their erstwhile foes.Mnangagwa acknowledged that the factional and succession fights that led to Mugabe exiting the power pedestal last month had severely weakened and polarised that it needed to be galvanised if it entertains hopes for retaining power."Events preceding this congress also allowed our qualities as a party to shine, principally the quality that enables us to show mercy on those that genuinely err, while working hard to rehabilitate them in order to re-integrate them into the party fold," Mnangagwa said.He expressed satisfaction that the party had been able to deal with internal contradictions and exhorted Zanu PF "to outgrow the urge for vengeance and vindictiveness so it rebuilds and moves forward around this abiding ethic of mercy and forgiveness""Let us say no to retribution albeit remaining vigilantbetween now and the next elections are a few monthswe cannot afford divisions which weaken our focus while they dissipate our collective energies in wasteful intra-party conflicts."We need every vote, including that of our members who may have been misled by the (G40) cabal, and whom we must now rehabilitate and bring back into the party fold," he said.He bemoaned the fact that party youths had lost connection with the "ethos of the struggle and value system of the party".Mnangagwa accused the G40 faction of hijacking the party in a manner that affected Zanu PF and government negatively and in equal measure.
Dec 15, 2017 | By Tess
As a small nation, the Netherlands is known for a lot of things including cheese, bicycles, tulips, and bridges. Now, as it turns out, the European country can also add 3D printed benches to that list.
That is, while most countries have zero 3D printed benches, the Netherlands now boasts two: one in Amsterdam, which was designed by Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars and another in Haarlem, which was unveiled this past September.
The Haarlem 3D printed bench projectwhich also includes a 3D printed bicycle rack and a 3D printer planterwas realized through a collaboration between Dutch engineering company Dura Vermeer, architectural firm Inbo, and Dutch construction company CyBe, which specializes in 3D printed concrete structures.
Together, the three parties designed, 3D printed, and installed the bench and its accessories along the edge of the Spaarne river, which flows through Haarlem. The concrete 3D printed pieces were given to the city of Haarlem by Dura Vermeer to celebrate the successful renovation of two of the citys Buitenrustbruggen (bridges).
Haarlem residents and visitors had the chance to see the bench, bike rack, and planter being 3D printed on site this past September, and can now freely use the modern concrete installation.
In addition to adding some technological flair to Haarlems river banks, the 3D printed bench is also meant to demonstrate the potentials of 3D printing, both for design and sustainable manufacturing.
In regards to the latter, Dura Vermeer worked with CyBe Construction and Inbo to construct the bench, rack, and planter from a durable and eco-friendly concrete material, which reportedly has a 32% smaller CO2 footprint than standard concrete.
Moreover, Dura Vermeer says it could one daymaybe ten years from nowreclaim the 3D printed structures, break them down, and reuse the materials for new projects.
Since the benchs unveiling, CyBe Construction says it has additively manufactured five more city benches for Dura Vermeer at its R&D facility adding that each bench takes only about 35 minutes to 3D print. That means CyBe has 3D printed 5 concrete benches in less than 1 working day. Dura Vermeer plans to gift the new concrete benches to their focus clients.
In recent years, the Netherlands has gained a positive reputation within the nascent construction 3D printing industry. Earlier this year, for instance, BAM, the Technical University of Eindhoven, and Witteveen+Bos unveiled the countrys first 3D printed concrete bicycle bridge.
Robotic 3D printing company MX3D has also been working on a 3D printed pedestrian bridge made from steel for the past few years, which has an expected completion date of June 2018.
CyBe Construction, for its part, made headlines recently for having completed the on-site 3D printing of the R&Drone Laboratory, a research lab dedicated to drone technologies in Dubai.
In an ongoing initiative, Amsterdam-based architecture firm Dus Architects is aiming to build the worlds first 3D printed canal house. Were still eager for updates on this particular project, which even piqued the interest of President Barack Obama in 2014.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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Melissa Beck at The Quarterly Conversation:
Bakkhai continues to be one of Euripidess (c. 484-406 b.c.e.) most popular plays to stage, translate, and interpret, even though it was never performed in its authors lifetime. The ancient Greek playwright and Athenian wrote Bakkhai in the last few years of his life in Macedonia, where he had fled after becoming disillusioned with his native city-state. The play was found among his papers after his death and produced posthumously by either his nephew or his son at the Dionysia, the festival held annually for the eponymous god in Athens. The drama presents the god Dionysos arriving in Thebes disguised as a mortal to establish his cult in that city and exact a brutal punishment on his cousin, King Pentheus, who denies the existence of the god. Anne Carsons unconventional new translation of Bakkhai is a fitting interpretation of what is arguably Euripidess most enigmatic tragedy.
Dionysos is the first character to appear on stage in the play, and he tells us that he is harboring anger for his maternal family who have denied his immortality. Dionysos is the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Semele, daughter of the king of Thebes. When Semele is pregnant with Dionysos, she is tricked by Hera into viewing Zeus, undisguised, in all his glory as the mighty god of sky and lightning.
more here.
Salman Rushdie in Vogue:
Salman Rushdie with sisters Sameen and Nevid
When I was growing up in Bombay (which wasn't Mumbai then, and still isn't in my personal lexicon), Christmas wasn't really a thing. Not only were we not Christians, we weren't a religious household, so December 25 was just that: the 25th of December. New Year's Day was much more significant. The above paragraph is not completely true. For one thing, the school I went to was called the Cathedral School, or, in full, the Cathedral and John Connon Boys' High School, run "under the auspices", whatever "auspices" were, of the Anglo-Scottish Education Society, whatever that was. As a result there were hymns at assembly every day of the year and "O Come, All Ye Faithful" and "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" in December, and all of us, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Parsi, had to sing along. And because we were, after all, schoolboys, we learned the comic version of "Hark!" also. "Hark! the herald angels sing/ Beecham's Pills are just the thing./ If you want to go to heaven/ Take a dose of six or seven./ If you want to go to hell,/ Take the whole damn box as well."
Also, my sisters and I had a wonderful Christian ayah, Mary Menezes from Mangalore, a devout Roman Catholic who helped to raise us, and because of whom my mother put up a (very small) tree and made us sing carols to her on Christmas morning. Other than the brief appearance of the tree and the singing, though, there was nothing. Turkey? Mince pies? Brussels sprouts? Of course not. We had much tastier food to eat. And presents were for birthdays and Eid.
More here.
News / National
by Staff reporter
FORMER finance minister Ignatius Chombo was yesterday freed from custody after a Harare magistrate ruled the accused is bound by bail conditions set out in his previous case.In his previous case, number 11633/17, Chombo was ordered to deposit $5000, surrender his passport, report thrice a day at Marlborough police, not to interfere with witnesses and surrender title deeds of his house among other conditions.Chombo is facing corruption and bribery allegations.Representing the accused, Professor Lovemore Madhuku submitted that his client can be released on previous conditions, which the State led by Edmore Nyazamba confirmed.Magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa ruled that Chombo on the new charges, Chombo be bound by bail conditions of case number 11633/17.He will be back in court on January 8.
Iraq's Assyrians and Us: Will Time and Neglect Complete the Job That ISIS Began?
Holly McKay's Life after ISIS: Christians say they can't go home without international protection is both a heart-rending story about the destruction of ancient Christian communities and a plea for help from the international community. It is also a stark warning of things to come. Since there are many layers here, it will be useful to unpack them, one by one. Let's begin with an obvious, often-unstated issue: Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia are caught in the crossfire of geopolitical battles they neither started nor have the resources to end. Writing in 1892, the British diplomat Lord George Curzon referred to the countries of the Middle East as "the pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the dominion of the world." Unless there is an international, regional and local commitment to provide meaningful defense and internal security services, these communities cannot be rebuilt.
Next, we are witnessing genocide in real time. According to Article II of the Genocide Convention of 1948, "genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; [and] (c) subjecting the group to conditions of life that are intended to cause the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part; (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." The Islamic State and those who supported its efforts undoubtedly killed, maimed, raped and trafficked in women and children. They devastated entire communities and created "conditions of life" that were unquestionably "intended to cause the physical destruction of" Christian and other religious minority communities. The question for us is whether time and neglect will complete the job that ISIS began. There are many individuals, churches and religious communities around the world eager to lend human, financial and material resources to the resettlement and rebuilding effort. They cannot do so without knowing that their volunteers will be safe, and that their investments in the future of the Christian communities of the region are secure. Without security, the genocide is complete. The last -- and perhaps the most difficult -- issue embedded in this story is "wishful thinking." It starts with the title: "Life After ISIS". Can we honestly say that the organized criminals who called themselves the "Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham [Syria]" (ISIS or Da'esh) have been defeated? It depends on how one views the problem. American news coverage (and hence, political discourse) views the situation in the Middle East through a "Cold War" lens. We learn that the Islamic Republic of Iran, with terrorist proxies and militias like Hezbollah, is waging war against Sunni Muslims. In this narrative, the Syrians, Russians, Iranians and Iraqi Shiite militias are on one side, and the Americans, Iraqi Sunnis, Kurds and Saudis are on the other. In this narrative, Christians, Jews and others are hostages and "collateral damage." Not targets. If, however, we "connect the dots," we will see that ISIS is but one part of a worldwide network of Salafi-jihadi organizations, of which Al Qaeda is the largest. The network operates in the United States, Western Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Russia, Kashmir, the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen, Somalia, Mali and elsewhere. The network includes Iraq's Ansar al-Islam and ISIS; Nigeria's Boko Haram, Somalia's Al Shabab, Indonesia's Islamic Defenders Front and the Taliban in Afghanistan. All of these groups are committed to the destruction of Christians, Shia Muslims, Jews and other religious minority communities, no matter where they are found. If the behavior of ISIS in Iraq and Syria and Boko Haram in Nigeria tells us anything, it is that religious minorities will have no place in the global "caliphate" that they seek to establish. Back in the days before smoke and gas detectors, caged canaries served as miners' early-warning systems. If the canaries died, the miners knew that toxic gases were building and it was time to get moving. Today's "canaries in the coal mine" are the thousands of Christians, Shia Muslims, Yezidis, Shabaks and other religious minorities slaughtered by the Salafi-jihadi fighters of Al Qaeda, ISIS and their affiliates. Their deaths and the destruction of their communities are not isolated occurrences. This is genocide. It is also an unmistakable warning that the toxic ideology driving the recruitment, radicalization and training of thousands of young jihadis to murder in name of God is far more widespread than most Americans appreciate. Is there any doubt that the Christians, Shia Muslims and religious minorities of Lebanon and Jordan -- and the millions of refugees holed up there -- are next? That Israel is in their crosshairs? Or that the holy places of Saudi Arabia are the ultimate prize? Like Sherlock Holmes, who noticed that the dog at the scene of the crime did not bark in the night, we should notice just how little discussion there is in the media about the Salifi-jihadi ideology that drives extremists to murder any religious believer who refuses to convert or submit. In sum, the murdered innocents of the Middle East, Europe, the United States, Africa and South Asia are not only collateral damage in an ongoing game of geopolitical chess. They are the canaries in the coal mine. We either get together and put a stop to this madness, and, together, confront the menace we face -- or we die.
Robert A. Destro is Professor of Law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and of Director of CUA's Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.
News / National
by Staff reporter
President Emmerson Mnangagwa left the country in suspense yesterday after he deferred naming his two deputies to another day, the Daily News can report."We have vacancies for vice presidents (VPs). This will need me to clear other areas, so I am delaying the appointments of these two for another two days," Mnangagwa said.Mnangagwa was widely expected to name his deputies yesterday in line with the party's constitution that gives him the prerogative to do so. Although he left the nation hanging, the race for the positions has been narrowed to a few faces.Those who were appointed into the politburo yesterday are effectively out of the running.The list includes Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri who is now the party's national chairperson; Obert Mpofu (secretary for administration); Patrick Chinamasa (secretary for finance); Major General Engelbert Rugeje (secretary for the commissariat); Lovemore Matuke (secretary for security); July Moyo (secretary for transport); Christopher Mutsvangwa (secretary for science and technology); Victor Matemadanda (secretary for war veterans, detainees and restrictees); Munyaradzi Machacha (head of Chitepo Ideological College); Paul Mangwana (secretary for legal affairs); Mabel Chinomona (secretary for women's affairs); Pupurai Togarepi (secretary for youth affairs, and Simon Khaya-Moyo (secretary for information).In terms of the ruling party's constitution, Mnangagwa must appoint one of the two VPs in line with the Unity Accord, signed between Mugabe (Zanu) and Joshua Nkomo (Zapu) in 1987 to end the disturbances that rocked the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces in the 1980s.Until recently, that position was occupied by Phelekezela Mphoko who was swept aside by the wave triggered by the military intervention in Zanu PF's internal affairs last month.With Mpofu and Khaya-Moyo having been removed from the equation after being appointed secretaries for administration and information respectively, the position could either go to Kembo Mohadi, Tshinga Dube or Jacob Mudenda.These cadres did not get posts in the politburo despite their record of defending Mnangagwa and the respect they command in the Matabeleland region.Army General Constantino Chiwenga appears to be shoo-in for the other VP slot reserved for cadres who were with Zanu before the signing of the Unity Accord.Sydney Sekeramayi, the former Defence minister who could have given Chiwenga a good run for his money, appears forgotten by the new dispensation calling the shots in Zanu PF's scheme of things.This is after he became one of the bigwigs that were being tipped by the Generation 40 cabal to succeed former president Robert Mugabe before its demise last month.Muchinguri-Kashiri, another of the Zanu PF heavyweights that were being touted for the position before the extraordinary congress, is now out of the way after she was appointed the party's national chairperson.Political analyst Maxwell Saungweme said by deferring VP appointments, Mnangagwa could be in a political dilemma as he has a large pool of people to please following his appointment as president with the assistance of the army."He is in some political catch-22 of sorts. He has to appease four main groups-Lacoste faction, war veterans, women's league and military. He also has to satisfy the Ndebele-Shona-Zipra-Zanla matrix. The delay is indicative of tussling, backdoor diplomacy and negotiations within this political complex. He is literally under siege and has to please everyone who backed him and this will be his undoing and cause for downfall," said Saungweme."By appointing Mai Kashiri he has dealt somehow with the issue of women in the party's presidium. So now negotiations are inclusion of (army boss Constantino) Chiwenga, general (Phillip Valerio) Sibanda, Mohadi and Sekeramayi. From these four we will get next Zanu PF VPs. So he is in a quandary. So they have to talk a bit more," Saungweme said.He however, said that Mnangagwa could break the ranks and pull a shocker and appoint a dark horse, though hinting that this could be far-fetched."Just like he has broken with tradition to have ... Kashiri, a woman as chairperson, they might be forced to break with tradition and appoint a Ndebele, Sibanda as Commander Defence Forces. This then paves way for Mohadi and Chiwenga. He might even confound us and have three VPs as he tries to placate everyone. But his ascendancy to power is his downfall. The seeds are already sown. He is trying to placate all and he will inevitably fail," he said.Political analyst Shakespeare Hamauswa also echoed Saungweme's sentiments, saying Mnangagwa could be in a catch-22 situation."He needs to reward the Generals who view his new throne as their gift, at the same time there are party stalwarts who have been politically active and earmarking also the higher post. Giving the Generals the VP post might again confirm that indeed they staged a coup yet they are preaching smart politics."It might also be that they are trying to find who can replace the Generals if they move into politics. This is because, in the military they seem to follow seniority but the most seniors might not be so loyal to the incumbent. In short he is dealing with a post-coup delicate situation," Hamauswa said.Respected political science lecturer Eldred Masunungure said it is now clear that no woman will be among the two VPs in as much as the hand of Mohadi has been strengthened."At least we now know that the appointment will not be from a female candidate, seeing that Oppah has been appointed the party's chairperson. It's a delicate balancing act and the pressure is piling on him especially considering the role played by the army on his ascendency," Masunungure said.He said Mnangagwa has to be seen to be playing above regional and tribal lines, adding that the delicacy of the whole issue is what precluded him from appointing the VPs yesterday.He said from the Zipra side, Mohadi now stands a chance to be one of those that could be appointed.
A 1,252-acre tract of farmland in Limestone County's unincorporated Greenbrier community is apparently the site where Toyota-Mazda might locate their $1.6 billion plant, should the companies decide to build it in Alabama.
The area, off Powell Road and Greenbrier Road, was passed over by Volkswagen in 2008 in favor of Chattanooga. Since then, it has been certified as a TVA Megasite, and an Advantage Alabama site by the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.
The site is only a short drive from Polaris and the Target Distribution Center off Interstate 565.
The Huntsville Mega Site lies in Limestone County with 1,252 acres not far from Interstate 565 and 65.
Residents in the area, who asked their names be withheld, confirmed there has been activity at the site within the last month related to the Toyota-Mazda project. One property owner said he was told three weeks ago that his land was on the site being considered.
Another homeowner, who lives near the site, said part of his property had been surveyed in connection with the project, while another was told his irrigation systems might be affected.
"They were out doing core drilling and surveying," he said. "That's probably in the last month."
Still another homeowner in the area who works on farmland was told about the Toyota-Mazda project, hearing it was a possibility.
"They said it was between here and North Carolina," the person said.
State and local economic development officials have refused any comment on the project or the Limestone County site, and government officials have stayed very tight-lipped since Alabama was identified in media reports as one of the states being looked at for the plant. It is the policy of the Alabama Department of Commerce not to comment on potential development projects.
The rural character of the Greenbrier community, just north of I-565 in Limestone County, will undoubtedly change if the Sewell farm on Powell Road becomes Alabama's first TVA Megasite for large-scale industrial development. (Eric Schultz | eschultz@al.com)
Alabama is believed to be one of two states left in contention for the auto plant.
Toyota and Mazda first announced their plans in August for the manufacturing facility, which is projected to be operational by 2021 and employ about 4,000. Toyota will build the Corolla there, while Mazda is expected to produce crossovers. Both companies reportedly want an incentive package of at least $1 billion to get the sought-after factory.
Toyota and Mazda have only said that a decision on where the factory will be built is expected next year.
In June 2016, Limestone County land was certified as a TVA Megasite and heralded at an event by the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce, the City of Huntsville and the Limestone County Commission.
Megasite certification was the end of a process that began in 2011. Local leaders said certification would allow a large industry to "plug and play," in the words of Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle.
"You can move an industry in here, you can start working and you can expect 2,000 to 4,000 jobs," Battle said at the time.
To become a megasite, a property must have at least 1,000 acres, undergo environmental reviews, have Interstate access, potential for rail service and utility capabilities.
According to the EDPA website, the slightly-rolling land is only three miles from I-565, six miles from I-65, and within 10 miles of the Tennessee River.
It is also 21 miles from Toyota's engine manufacturing plant in Huntsville. Earlier this year, Toyota announced a $106 million investment at the plant, creating 50 new jobs. It's the fifth upgrade of the Huntsville plant by Toyota since the 2001 groundbreaking.
North Carolina, which has labored for years to land an auto plant, created four megasites ready to accommodate a large project, hoping to entice Volvo, Mercedes and Hyundai over the years.
The state's likely tract in the Toyota-Mazda push is a 1,900-acre megasite in the middle of the state near Greensboro that has seen considerable activity over the past few months, according to reports, with helicopter flyovers. A combination of public and private entities have spent more than $32 million buying land at the site from private owners, according to local newspapers.
Tori and Shante Wolfe-Sisson each saw progress in the making and problems to tackle in the lead up to the special election for U.S. Senate.
Watching the race live at Saturn, a bar in Birmingham, on Tuesday was a nail-biting experience for the women who walked across the threshold of history together as the first same-sex couple to get married in Alabama. To them, it was bigger than red vs. blue. It was a battle between Roy Moore, a man who has vocalized his animosity against the LGBTQ community during his nearly three-decade career as a public servant, and Doug Jones, a man who some thought committed "political suicide" by saying President Donald Trump's ban on transgender individuals from the military was wrong.
Although the state elected its first Democratic senator in 25 years, the win doesn't erase LGBTQ issues, including poverty, voter suppression, and employment and housing discrimination - problems that are amplified in communities of color due to racial discrimination, the couple said. These obstacles will take both policy and cultural sensitivity training to overcome, according to Tori.
There's no policy that will change the way that you see people when we have colorism issues," Tori said. "In a way, yes, we are seeing progress. People are becoming aware that you can't do certain things just like people stopped calling people the n-word and other slurs just because it's not widely acceptable anymore."
"The outward attitude is changing, but if the inside (of people) isn't changing, a perfect example was that Roy Moore was even running again despite everything he said."
Jones' win wasn't a landslide. He took the senate seat with 639,088 votes, or just under 50 percent. Moore received 629,749 votes, or 48 percent. The close margin concerned some LGBTQ advocates like Alex Smith, Equality Alabama's executive director. But he said the win does show that minority voices can come together to be heard through the ballot box.
There are more than 60,000 LGBTQ active voters in the state, Smith said.
Unlike during the 2016 general election, Smith's organization partnered with the Human Rights Campaign during the senate race. They not only contacted both HRC and Equality Alabama members to make sure they were registered to vote, but they also updated addresses and ensured people had transportation to the polls. Smith said they want to keep up that political energy during next year's state elections.
Smith said advocates have to chisel away at barriers some LGBTQ members face at the polls. Alabama law requires citizens to present photo identification to vote. Smith said his organization wants to seek administrative actions that will make it easier to change gender markers on birth certificates and driver's licenses for the transgender and gender non-conforming community. This year, Washington D.C. and Oregon allowed LGBTQ members to choose X as their gender marker on their photo ID cards instead of male or female.
According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, a gender marker change requires a court order for a name change and documentation from a surgeon stating the person has completed gender reassignment surgery. But most transgender individuals either cannot afford the surgery or their insurance companies do not accept the claims, Smith said. Some of them decide not to have the surgery at all. This leaves transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals with a decision, Smith said: either "dress down" to look like their gender assigned at birth or risk being kicked out of the polling locations due to gender markers.
"What do you do? Do you just leave and not come back and not vote and not have your voice heard during the democratic process?" Smith said "Or do you put yourself through trauma to be able to vote. Transgender people are being suppressed from being active participants of daily modern society and being active voters."
Smith's organization was one of the advocacy groups that pushed Birmingham officials to pass an ordinance punishing those who discriminate based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or disability. The state's first LGBTQ-inclusive ordinance covers housing, public accommodations and employment. Since there isn't a statewide protection for LGBTQ members, Smith said his organization is planning to talk to other city councils about enacting their own versions of the non-discrimination ordinance.
Seeing traditionally Republican territories, such as Madison, Mobile and Talladega counties, flip from red to blue was a sign to Smith that officials could be more open minded toward the LGBTQ community.
"I would feel a lot less confident had Roy Moore won. We would be in a much different place than we are today," Smith said. "Not that Doug Jones fixes things overnight. But his win tells us the direction we are heading as a state towards an equitable environment where people are actively engaged."
Moore this week released a videotaped statement in which he said he would not concede the race and also said that men do not have the right to pretend to be a woman.
"We have redefined marriage and destroyed the basis of family, which is the building block of our country," Moore said in the video. "...We have even begun to recognize the right of a man to claim to be a woman, and vice versa. We have allowed Judges and justices to rule over our Constitution, and we have become slaves to their tyranny. Immorality sweeps over our land."
While people can be punished for discrimination via policy and ordinances, Shante said it doesn't stop individuals from having their own biases. She said she saw an example of this while canvassing during the election.
"We dealt with people who didn't want to go into certain neighborhoods because it was too dark or said, 'Oh, I don't feel safe,' even though we are going with eight other people," Shante said. "That's coded language for the things we don't want to talk about that still exists in our communities which is racism, classism and all sorts of other 'isms' that we deal with cisgender, straight people."
She also stressed that organizations have to make sure LGBTQ communities of color are involved in the creation of policies or ordinances.
"I feel like Birmingham is two worlds when it comes to LGBTQ issues," Shante said. "A lot of the issues that are represented by these well-respected organizations don't really transcend to the black, brown, indigenous community because the communities are often left out of these discussions. They are not reached out to in a way that is holistic."
In general, Shante said there needs to be more education about the LGBTQ community through cultural competency training in schools to prevent biases. Medical professionals can be taught how to better serve transgender members. Activists should also ensure LGBTQ youth are informed about their Title IX protections, which encompasses discrimination based on a student's failure to conform to stereotyped notions of masculinity and femininity.
These meetings and trainings have been happening in cities like Huntsville and Birmingham. Shante said the events should be offered in poor, rural communities as well. The expansion will require activists and advocates to increase their presence on the ground instead of relying solely on their social media presence, especially when it comes to areas where people don't have reliable Internet access.
"One thing advocates seem to do, and that I've been guilty of, is that we get into this one place that responds well but we need to reach out to these black and rural communities that a number of non-profit organizations don't reach out to," Shante Wolfe-Sisson said "That may not be (the organization's) fault. They may not have the means to do it, but we have to think about how else are we going to reach these people."
On December 6, the UN Committee Against Torture released its concluding observations after a routine review of the situation in Rwanda. During the review, committee members raised concerns about serious violations including torture, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and intimidation of journalists, human rights defenders and opposition party members and asked numerous, precise questions about the Rwandan governments actions.
The Rwandan governments response was to deny, deny, deny. On illegal detention and abuse in military camps, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the government wrote in its final submission to the committee that, we want to repeat and insist that there are no unofficial or secret places of detention in Rwanda.
In October, Human Rights Watch issued a report documenting abuses in military camps around Kigali, the capital, and in the northwest. For at least the last seven years, Rwandas military has frequently held and tortured people, beating them, asphyxiating them, using electric shocks and staging mock executions. Most of the detainees were disappeared and held incommunicado, meaning they had no contact with family, friends, or legal counsel. Many were held for months on end in deplorable conditions. We continue to receive information about new abuses.
Many of those tortured were forced to confess to crimes against state security and later transferred to official detention centres. Instead of keeping quiet, scores of victims dared to speak up at their trials. When the committee asked the Rwandan government why judges did not investigate when defendants said in the courtroom that they had been tortured which the government is required to do under the Convention against Torture the government simply presented a table in its report asserting that no one alleged they were tortured in trials from 2013 to 2017.
This stands in stark contrast to the facts. From 2011 to 2016, we documented 65 cases in which individuals said in court said they were illegally held in military camps or unlawful safe houses. Of those cases, 36 said they were either tortured, beaten or otherwise forced to confess to crimes they did not commit. These were statements either made publicly in court during trials we monitored or are reflected in official court judgments.
In response to allegations, including by Human Rights Watch, about torture in Kami, a military base outside Kigali, the government wrote in its final report that it needed, clarifications of these allegations because the people who alleges [sic] to have been tortured in The Kami Military Camp are unknown. Those reports did not provide names of victims and suspects; therefore, no investigations were conducted. To Johnston Busingye, the justice minister who headed the Rwandan delegation at the committee, I say: please see Appendix I, pages 92-98 of our last report.
We provided the case numbers and the identity of those who dared to speak up in court. It is not difficult to confirm. That the government would simply say these people never spoke is the final act of torture. It denies them their right to tell the truth about what happened.
The government maintains it has no political prisoners. The government also says any case of enforced disappearance is investigated. Here again, recent facts tell a different story. Take the case of Theophile Ntirutwa, Kigali representative of the Forces democratiques unifiees (FDU)-Inkingi, a banned opposition party. Ntirutwa was forcibly disappeared on September 6, after the arrest of several other FDU members the same day, and held incommunicado until September 23. During this period, the police would not confirm to Human Rights Watch or his family whether he was in custody.
He has now been charged with supporting an armed group. On November 21, during a hearing, Ntirutwa said in court, I was disappeared for 17 days My family was not informed of where I was, nor were human rights organizations. My wife told the police I had been disappeared. All that time I was blindfolded and handcuffed before it was revealed I was at [a] police station.
These were words said in a public courtroom. The government should follow through on its obligations, open an investigation, and hold those responsible for this enforced disappearance accountable. But if recent history is any indication, chances are nothing will happen. Ntirutwa had previously been arrested on September 18, 2016, allegedly by the military, in Nyarutarama, a Kigali suburb. He said he was beaten and questioned about his membership in the FDU-Inkingi, then released two days later. Accounts of this detention were published, but the government did not investigate.
The committee wrote its final report that it is seriously concerned both about Rwandas failure to investigate allegations of torture and its failure to clarify whether or not it opened an investigation into the allegations of unlawful and incommunicado detention.
The committees concluding observations are cause for concern about the situation in Rwanda. While technically Rwanda has made advances in its legislation, in reality it does not seem to take seriously the absolute prohibition on torture. Rwanda is bound by both national law and international treaty obligations to act on allegations of torture and enforced disappearances, and to take steps to prevent such abuses. Instead of denying these abuses exist, it should demonstrate that it is ready to meet those obligations.
The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Relatives of crew members from missing vessels are demanding the search operation continues until it is found.
Argentina has dismissed the head of its navy a month after the disappearance of a submarine with 44 crew members on board.
The sacking of Navy Admiral Marcelo Srur came as relatives of the missing crew demonstrated on Saturday outside the presidential palace in the capital, Buenos Aires.
Carrying posters and banners, they urged authorities to continue the search until the ARA San Juan is found.
They promised us that they would keep looking for them, exhausting all the resources, Luis Tagliapietra, father of missing crew member Damian Tagliapietra, told reporters.
They told me the saying a sailor does not leave another sailor behind. Well, here we are, were reminding them of that, he added.
Contact was lost with the ARA San Juan on November 15, shortly after the vessel reported an electrical problem.
Argentina officially ended its rescue mission for the vessel two weeks ago, after a noise, thought to be the submarine imploding, was detected near its last known location.
However, Argentinas search for the vessel continues, supported by aircraft and ships from 18 countries, including the United Kingdom, Russia and the United States.
If submerged, it is believed the vessels crew would have enough oxygen for up to 10 days. Argentinas navy said it tried to locate the submarine for double the amount of time that the crew would have had oxygen.
Sebastien Kurz to become worlds youngest leader as conservative Peoples Party enters coalition with right-wing FPO.
Austria is on course to have a far-right party in the government for the first time in 17 years, as anti-immigration sentiment appears to grow across the country and Europe.
The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) reached a five-year deal with the larger conservative Peoples Party (OVP) on Friday two months after the parliamentary elections.
We can inform you, there is a turquoise-blue agreement, said OVP leader Sebastian Kurz in a joint statement on Friday, referring to the colours of the two parties.
The voters had made a decision for change, the future Chancellor of Austria added. This change is now to be ensured together.
The conservatives won the biggest share of the vote in October at more than 30 percent, but failed to achieve a simple majority.
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At 31 years old, OVPs Kurz will now become the worlds youngest leader.
The Freedom Party is led by veteran politician Heinz-Christian Strache.
With the coalition, the FPO will enter the government for the fourth time in Austria.
In the run-up to the October polls, both parties had campaigned for tougher immigration rules and the deportation of asylum seekers.
The two parties had previously formed a government between 2000 and 2007, leading to European sanctions because of the FPOs far-right views.
Polls were held in October, a year earlier than expected, following a breakdown of the countrys grand coalition government in May.
In a neck-to-neck race, the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPO) obtained 26.9 percent of the votes, just ahead of the far-right FPO on 26.0 percent.
Although the OVP and the SPO have a long history of ruling the country, analysts say one of the reasons the OVP is successful because it has moved away from the SPO and closer towards the far-right.
The election was watched closely across the EU, as the bloc seeks stability in the wake of the UKs Brexit vote last year and a far-right surge in Septembers German elections.
Arab Bank chairman Sabih al-Masri detained for questioning during business trip to Saudi capital, family members say.
Palestinian billionaire businessman Sabih al-Masri has been detained in Saudi Arabia on a business trip to Riyadh, his family confirmed to Reuters news agency.
The 80-year-old founder of Zara Investment Holding and chairman of Arab Bank was held in the Saudi capital for questioning last week about information related to corruption, according to Rai al-Youm.
The Arab news website reported on Saturday that no formal charges were made against al-Masri, who reportedly also holds Saudi and Jordanian citizenship.
Al-Masri, one of Jordans most prominent businessman, is the cousin of the billionaire Munib al-Masri, the wealthiest person in Palestine.
He also founded the Palestine Securities Exchange, and has managed investment companies and financial economic institutions across the Middle East and beyond, including Arab Bank.
Headquartered in Amman, Arab Bank is Jordans largest lender and functions as a major economic engine throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Masris detention sent shockwaves across Jordan where Masris multibillion-dollar investments are a cornerstone of the economy and employ thousands.
Reuters reported that Masri had cancelled a dinner for friends and business associates that was planned for Tuesday upon his return to Jordan.
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Saudi Arabia initiated an anti-corruption purge at the beginning of November, which has implicated some of the countrys top officials, businessmen and members of the royal family.
Among those detained are 11 princes, four ministers and several former ministers, in what is seen as an unprecedented crackdown that has shaken the country.
Many of them are believed to be held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh. Several had their accounts frozen and ended up on a no-fly list.
The dramatic steps were the latest in a series of measures by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to assert power over the country and its previous leaders.
Shortly after the first arrests were made in the purge, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced that his son, the crown prince, would oversee a newly formed anti-graft commission that would purge the country of corruption.
Pressure tactic
Arab states, mainly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have put pressure on Jordan to accept the recent US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and a heavily stripped-down version of the Palestinian state, according to Jordanian politicians and analysts.
Jordan sided with the Palestinians and rejected US President Donald Trumps Jerusalem decision.
Bin Salman and the United Arab Emirates are trying to strangle Jordans economy until it agrees to their terms, submit to their leadership in the region, and agree to Trumps so-called ultimate deal, Wafa Bani Mustafa, a Jordanian MP, told Al Jazeera last week referring to Trumps as yet unexplained new plan to bring about peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Commenting on Masris detention, Rami Khouri, a professor and senior fellow at the American University of Beirut, said that the businessman is a massive figure in Jordan and Palestine.
The Jordanian government, when it needs money, turns to the Arab Bank to get some advances, Khouri told Al Jazeera.
So this is massive sign that Saudi Arabia is sending to Jordan, that we are prepared to rattle your whole economic structure, and to the Palestinians as well, where Masri is a leading investor, he added.
Khouri said that Masris detention is seen by most analysts as yet one more tactic by Riyadh to try and pressure a smaller, more vulnerable Arab country to fall in line with its wishes, including the US plan for Middle East peace devised for Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and a senior adviser for Trump.
This is basically another move by Mohammed bin Salman, who effectively runs the country, to bring Jordan and Palestine in line with the Saudi wishes to have a close working relationship with Israel and the US to push through an alleged peace plan that Kushner has been working on to try to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, said Khouri.
Everybody who has looked into this and heard about what it contains says that this is a totally unrealistic, one-sided Israeli deal that has been pushed by the Americans and now supported by the Saudis, he added.
The Saudis are desperate to get Jordanian and Palestinian support.
Thousand of refugees risk crossing the Evros River, on the Turkish-Greek border, with fatal consequences.
The bodies are usually discovered half naked. They have been in the Evros, the river dividing Greece from Turkey, for weeks. And the currents or the fish have taken their clothes.
Sometimes there are personal effects a pair of glasses, a chain of beads, a bracelet that can offer a clue to someones identity.
But usually they remain unidentified, stored here at a hospital morgue in the northeast Greek town of Alexandroupolis silent witnesses to the horror of a refugees journey.
Its very difficult because we have women, we have little boys, girls, we have children, Pavlos Pavlidis, a forensic pathologist at Alexandroupolis general hospital, told Al Jazeera.
Deadly crossing
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The land border between Greece and Turkey, a nearly 200km frontier mostly formed by the Evros, has seen increased traffic since the European Union and Turkey struck a deal to shut down the route into Europe via the Aegean sea.
The UN said Turkish authorities at the land border with Greece intercepted almost 20,700 people between January and September this year, compared to 7,500 reported for the same period last year.
According to the UNs refugee agency, an estimated 4,300 people had arrived this year at the Evros Greek-Turkish land border by the end of October. More than 800 crossed using this route in October alone.
However, attempting to cross Evros can de deadly.
It was so dangerous, so cold, recalled Martin Jafari, an Afghan refugee who said that he lost three friends while attempting to cross the border.
They were three of my best friends, he told Al Jazeera. We were out in the open We didnt have any food or clothes.
Al Jazeeras Laurence Lee, reporting from Alexandroupolis, said hypothermia was the cause of many deaths on the Evros. Some of the bodies have been discovered by fishermen in the shallows, or in outbuildings, half eaten by wild dogs.
Refugees are forced into the river because of a double-barbed wire fence on the border, paid for by the EU to keep refugees out, Lee said.
They cross either in the hands of illegal smuggling gangs or by themselves, he added.
Its really dangerous either way, and yet again exposes the lack of safe routes at the edges of the EU for refugees.
Reporting by Laurence Lee on the Greek-Turkish border
The ZANU-PF endorsed the current president of Zimbabwe as their candidate in elections next year, as Mnangagwa clarified his policy on land reform and promised to tackle corruption and create jobs.
The ZANU-PF endorsed the current president of Zimbabwe as their candidate in elections next year, as Mnangagwa clarified his policy on land reform and promised to tackle corruption and create jobs.
Zimbabwes new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been endorsed as the ruling ZANU-PFs presidential candidate for next years election.
Mnangagwa took over from Robert Mugabe last month after the military intervened and forced his resignation.
He says the interests of black Zimbabweans will be protected.
Al Jazeeras Haru Mutasa reports from Harare.
Despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, Lebanese Canadian professor has spent three years in French prison.
Toronto, Canada Hassan Diabs handwriting does not match the suspects, nor does his physical description, fingerprints or palm print.
Despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, Ottawa professor Hassan Diab is now entering his fourth year in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison in France without charge or trial. The case has been compared with the infamous Dreyfus affair, a 19th-century miscarriage of justice involving the treason conviction of a French artillery officer.
Diab, a Lebanese Canadian, remains the only suspect accused of involvement in the 1980 synagogue bombing in Paris that killed four people and injured dozens. He was arrested in 2008 in Canada at the request of French authorities and placed under draconian bail conditions before his extradition.
French investigative judges have repeatedly stated that there is consistent evidence that Hassan was in Beirut, not Paris, at the time of the attack.
Official documents and many witnesses have confirmed that Diab was studying and writing his university exams in Beirut at the time. The investigation confirmed that his passport was stolen and used by somebody else.
The fingerprints and palm print found on a hotel register and in a car used in the attack do not match Diabs either.
Innocence maintained
The suspect has been described as a man aged between 40 and 45, but Diab was 26 years old at the time.
Diab, now 64, has always maintained his innocence.
Canadian extradition judge Robert Maranger found the evidence presented against Diab by French authorities in 2014 to be very problematic, illogical and suspect. However, due to the low threshold in Canadian extradition law, the judge was compelled to order Diabs extradition in November 2014.
Four different French judges have ordered Diabs conditional release eight times in the last 18 months but the French Court of Appeal overturned the release each time, most recently last month.
Its been very difficult to ascertain why French authorities have continued with such a harsh position on this case while the investigating judge, who has been probing only, seems to become more and more convinced that he is very likely innocent, said Alex Neve, the secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada.
I dont think anyone at that time [of his extradition] would have imagined that three years later, that he would be in the position he is at this time, trapped in a justice system that continues to be nothing but a labyrinth of injustice.
Rania Tfaily, Diabs wife and a professor at the University of Ottawa, has been campaigning the Canadian government for her husbands release for the past three years, but remains frustrated by the response.
[Canadian officials] say they have been raising concerns about the case, but the end result is the same. Whatever they are doing is clearly not enough, because Hassan continues to be detained, Tfaily said.
Harsh conditions
Diab has been living in harsh conditions, kept in solitary confinement for 20 hours a day. Since his imprisonment, he has lost 15 pounds and suffers from back pain, arthritis, nosebleeds and a myriad of other health problems.
Its very hard to maintain ones mental, cognitive and psychological senses when one is deprived of what makes us human He has little, if any emotional, social, psychological support, Tfaily said.
Elizabeth Reid, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, told Al Jazeera via email that Canadian officials have engaged their French colleagues regularly on this case, noting that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has raised it with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Diabs French lawyers say they believe he is being detained for political purposes, in order for France to appear tough on terrorism. Diab is one among many individuals who have been wrongly imprisoned in the context of national security in the post-9/11 climate, Neve noted.
Hassan is going to spend the rest of his life in prison and die there if we don't continue with our campaign exposing the injustice. by Rania Tfaily, Diab's wife
Canada is obviously reluctant to be openly and publicly critical of a country that is a close ally. Canada is also giving France the benefit of the doubt that its legal system is going to handle the case, Neve said.
In late July, French investigative judges announced that their investigation was over. But Diabs case took another turn in late September, when officials from the Israeli secret service met French investigative judges and offered their support to charge him instead of releasing him.
Officials of a foreign state have intervened to keep the case against Dr Diab alive at any cost, stated a press release from the Justice for Hassan Diab support group.
Secret intelligence
This week, it was revealed that the French prosecutor has asked the investigating judge to put Diab on trial based on secret, unsourced intelligence. The judge will make a decision in the coming weeks as to whether Diab will be discharged or sent to trial.
Such a trial cannot be allowed to happen to a Canadian citizen, much less one who, according to the evidence gathered by the investigating judges, was not even in France at the time of the crime, noted Diabs lawyer in Canada, Don Bayne.
A trial based on secret, unsourced non-evidence that cannot be challenged is contrary to fundamental justice, contrary to our Charter, and a recipe for wrongful conviction. The Government of Canada cannot condone a trial for Dr Diab proceeding in such circumstances, and must object to a Canadian citizen being subjected to such a clearly unjust trial.
As Diab continues to languish at the Fleury-Merogis prison in the southern suburbs of Paris while the 37-year-old investigation continues, Tfaily, a mother of two young children, fears that her husband might die in prison. She is determined to continue campaigning on his behalf.
It leaves me drained, so tired. Why does this keep happening to him? Its been over nine years, Tfaily said. Nine years that was taken from his life, from our life and despite all of the evidence of his innocence. Its really hard.
I know the consequences of not doing enough, she added. Hassan is going to spend the rest of his life in prison and die there if we dont continue with our campaign exposing the injustice. The outcome for him is going to be really awful.
Trial winds down for six facing charges related to their alleged participation in protests against Trumps inauguration.
The trial of six people facing more than 50 years in prison over felony charges related to January 20 protests against the inauguration of US President Donald Trump neared its conclusion on Friday as the jury began its deliberations.
Nearly 200 people were charged with various felonies and misdemeanours related to destruction of property mostly windows of businesses after being arrested during a protest in Washington, DC on inauguration day.
The charges stem from the January 20 demonstration against the inauguration of Trump, organised by an umbrella group, named Disrupt J20, which included anti-capitalist, anti-fascist and other activists and individuals.
The trial has been criticised as a criminalisation of free speech by rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
One of the accused in the first trial is Alexei Wood, a journalist whose live video streams show he did not participate in destruction of property.
He was arrested, along with more than 230 other people, including observers, bystanders, activists and medics.
Some have pleaded out and others have had their charges dropped, but more than 190 people still face felony and misdemeanour charges.
Dismissed charge
Jury deliberations began in the late afternoon on Friday and followed Judge Lynn Leibovitzs dismissal of a felony count of incitement against the defendants on Wednesday, knocking 10 years off the 60 years of prison time the defendants faced.
Leibovitz dismissed the charge because the justice departments prosecution team, headed by lawyer Jennifer Kerkhoff, were not able to prove that the defendants incited a riot.
I dont agree that the state of mind of wanting a riot to occur is equal to the state of mind of aiding and abetting the incitement of a riot to occur, Leibovitz told the courtroom, according to US media.
Scott Michelman, senior staff attorney for the ACLU-DC, told Al Jazeera that this ruling confirms what weve known all along: that the government doesnt have the evidence to prove all the charges.
Michelman added: As to the remaining charges, we hope the jurys verdict will vindicate the principle that our system doesnt allow guilt by association.
Jude Ortiz, chair of the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee and part of the defence team in the trial, told Al Jazeera this is a significant blow to the prosecution and the states theory of the case.
Far-right narrative
In criminal trials, the prosecution and defence craft narratives that are meant to shape jurors understanding of the events in question. Kerkhoffs prosecution has relied on evidence from far-right sources to craft their narrative.
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The prosecution used a portion of a livestreamed video from Lauren Southern, a Canadian far-right blogger and YouTuber who tried to block refugees from crossing the Mediterranean Sea over the summer.
Southern was in the January 20 kettle, a police tactic that involves officers surrounding and closing in on a group of demonstrators in an effort to contain them, but was let out.
The far-right blogger has admitted to lying to police officers in order to secure her release, saying she was pregnant at the time.
Ortiz claimed the prosecution attempted to use Southerns livestream, which was originally broadcast through The Rebel Media, a far-right political and social commentary website with ties to Trump-supporting groups, to show a people acting in concert in a sea of black masks.
Most of the protesters that day were clad in black attire associated with anarchist and anti-fascist groups.
Stills from Southerns video and others were used to create collections that highlighted certain items, such as goggles or backpacks, and attempted to track said items throughout the protests.
By tracking the items, the prosecution attempted to place alleged offenders at certain locations in the protest.
Video from Project Veritas (PV), a right-wing nonprofit organisation whose stated mission is to investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud and other misconduct, but typically targets liberal and left-wing groups in undercover sting operations, was also shown in court.
The footage came from an undercover PV affiliate who videotaped a January 8 planning meeting at a church in Washington, DC. This was used to aid the testimony of Bryan Adelmeyer, a DC police officer tasked with infiltrating the group.
Wide latitude
Robert P Burns, a professor of law at Illinoiss Northwestern University, said that while the prosecution may not call a witness or enter evidence they know to be false, US courts give both the prosecution and defence a fair amount of latitude in the story they choose to tell.
Every aspect of this story or narrative must be supported by evidence that will be admitted in the case, he said.
Concerns over this evidence coming from far-right or conservative sources can be easily brushed aside by the prosecution saying it has to take believable evidence from where [it] can find it, Burns added.
However, trial procedures allow the defence to challenge the bias and prejudice of the evidence, Burns concluded.
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Undercover officer Adelmeyer was asked by the defence if was aware of PVs political leanings.
Adelmeyer confirmed he had learned of PVs conservative political ideology after several controversies, including a failed attempt to out the Washington Post as biased, circulated in the media.
Jurors had less than two hours to weigh evidence on Friday afternoon before a weekend recess. They will resume deliberations on Monday morning.
Sam Menefee-Libey, a member of the DC Legal Posse, a group that provides support to the J20 defendants such as transportation, hospitality told Al Jazeera it was troubling that the jury would be presented evidenced from a plethora of neo-fascist sources that are being used to criminalise people from an anti-fascist march.
If verdicts are not reached by December 22, jurors will have a holiday recess until December 27. That will be followed by another holiday recess that begins on December 29 and lasts until January 2. The jury could reach a verdict at any time.
While the trial could end before January, there is still a long legal road ahead.
Menefee-Lieby concluded by saying its important to remember that these are just the first six of 194 defendants in legal proceedings surrounding J20.
Trials for the remaining defendants are scheduled throughout 2018.
Opinion / Columnist
The latest excursion to the West by the MDC, donning the new coat of "Alliance", is nothing more than the opposition returning to its treacherous roots. The MDC, with the help of the United States (US), is re-strategising, following the resignation of former President Robert Mugabe, and the subsequent ushering in of a new Government headed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, which has left the opposition at sixes and sevens.This is more so given that the reformist thrust being pursued by the new administration has left the opposition with no message, if it ever had, serve for its "Mugabe Must Go" mantra. Now that Mugabe is gone, and President Mnangagwa is implementing progressive economic reforms, as well as unveiling a new political culture both within, and without Zanu-PF, the opposition has been left clutching at straws.In the aftermath of leadership change in the country, the MDC, through its leader Morgan Tsvangirai, supported the march by Zimbabweans on November 18 2017, as well as the military intervention. Yes, Tsvangirai even graced the inauguration of President Mnangagwa and heartily congratulated him.Realising that the new President had taken over their niche political market through his conciliatory and reformist tone, the MDC inexplicably retraced its footsteps after realising that it was fast regressing into political oblivion.Not knowing what to do in the wake of this stark reality, Tsvangirai fully aware of his health frailties, which made it impossible for him to personally travel, dispatched a team, comprising Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti and Prof Welshman Ncube to appear before the US Senate Sub-Committee on Africa and Global Health Policy, ostensibly to make submissions on the future of Zimbabwe. Another opposition foot soldier, Human Rights Watch (HRW) Southern Africa Director Dewa Mavhinga, also travelled to the US.The moment many saw the list of attendees, there was consternation as to the wisdom of senior opposition politicians, some actually legislators in Zimbabwe, choosing to appear before the US Senate to pressure the US government to ensure ostensible reforms in Zimbabwe, before exhausting local platforms and remedies from either the new Executive, or through the Legislature, of which Chamisa is a member.Even Government critics such as University of Kent lecturer Dr Alex Magaisa, tweeted that "the idea of our most senior politicians going to bear witness before a legislative body in a foreign country might be packaged as diplomacy, but it gives me no comfort at all. If it's really necessary, that's what technical officers should be assigned to do."Commenting on the same issue, Zimbabwean Ambassador to Senegal Trudy Stevenson, who herself is an MDC daughter, tweeted: "strange that our political leaders have run to Donald Trump, asking for protection."Surely #Zimbabwe can do its own thing, by now?"In the aftermath of the presentation, Zimbabweans woke up to learn that Mavhinga and Biti, both opposition mascots, representing the broader interests of the regime change project, singularly and jointly called for electoral reforms and re-alignment of the country's laws with the Constitution from the United States and insisted on the maintenance of US foreign policy on Zimbabwe until their demands were met.We all know that, that policy is anchored on the illegal sanctions regime captured by the legislation called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (Zidera) of 2001.Why the MDC Alliance and its surrogates such as HRW, if they were sincere, did not seek audience first with President Mnangagwa to air their concerns before rushing to America, is perplexing.But no, it is not. The MDC Alliance had to go to its roots to get guidance on how to reform, re-model and reincarnate itself, seeing that it has become irrelevant in the current political matrix with elections just around the corner.Then the cat came out of the bag.Chamisa posted a picture of himself, Biti, Vanguard Africa executive director Jeffrey Smith, accompanied by the tweet: "in the US I'm with bro & Cde, Biti, on a vital global advocacy and diplomatic outreach. Our meetings are high level with the State Department, Congress, Global business and US civil society. Our focus is repositioning opposition & global coalition for free and fair elections in 2018."The question is, who is Smith? Smith is the executive director of Vanguard Africa, which is purportedly "a start-up non-profit-making organisation that provides campaign advice and public relations support to pro-democracy leaders in Africa."Smith, together with US Democratic Party strategist Joe Trippi and Christopher Harvin of public relations firm Sanitas International, launched Vanguard Africa in April 2016.The organisation purports to support pro-democracy "political underdogs" in Africa by giving them public relations support.According to Newsweek magazine of January 30, 2017, Smith convened meetings with three unidentified Gambian major opposition candidates in New York, where they hammered out details for electoral reforms and various constitutional provisions.Krista Mahr of Newsweek described Smith as "likeable and responsive, has built relationships with dozens of activists from Angola to Zimbabwe, and has American officials at the highest echelons on speed dial."One of his strengths: getting Washington DC power brokers and activists who fight repressive regimes in the same room."Newsweek further reveals that "he (Smith), teamed up with political consultants Joe Trippi with whom he struck up a relationship over shared connections to Zimbabwe's opposition and Christopher Harvin," adding that "the group hopes its successful campaign in Gambia will be a blueprint for working in other countries where fledgling democratic movements need a boost."Smith has previously worked for Unesco on its Africa policy, the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Foundation and US think tank Freedom House. Trippi, who is a senior adviser at Vanguard Africa, had previously been a campaign consultant for US Democratic party presidential candidates, Howard Dean and John Edwards in 2004 and on Tsvangirai's 2008 campaign.From the foregoing, the trip, dubbed the trip of shame, is nothing but an excursion to get counsel and new terms of reference from the MDC's benefactors pursuant to their doomed regime change project in Zimbabwe. The role that Smith will play as the handler of the MDC Alliance ahead of the 2018 harmonised elections is there for all to see. After all, he was the hand behind the MDC Alliance trip to the US as he has "America officials on speed dial".
Gaza funeral for Ibrahim Abu Thurayyah, who was killed while protesting US move to name Jerusalem as Israels capital.
Two days before he was killed, Ibrahim Abu Thurayyah filmed a message to the Israeli army.
I am passing a message to the Zionist occupation army, the 29-year-old double amputee, who lost both of his legs and a kidney in a 2008 Israeli air raid, said.
This land is our land. We are not going to give up. America has to withdraw the declaration it made.
Before his death, the wheelchair-bound Abu Thurayyah had become a staple figure at protests along the Gaza Strips border with Israel.
Since December 6, he and his fellow demonstrators decried US President Donald Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital. In photos, Abu Thurayyah can be seen climbing an electricity pole and sticking a Palestinian flag on it.
On December 15, Abu Thurayyah was fatally shot in the head by an Israeli sniper.
Another Palestinian, Yaser Sukkar, was killed the same day while protesting at Gazas border. Two others were killed by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank, bringing the death toll since Trumps decision in the first week of December to ten Palestinians.
On Saturday, funerals were held for Abu Thurayyah and the three other Palestinians killed a day earlier.
Al Jazeeras Alan Fisher, reporting from Abu Thurayyahs funeral procession in Gaza, said thousands of people had taken to the streets to pay their respects for unlikely figure of Palestinian resistance and defiance.
He would often leave his wheelchair at home and attend rallies in protests around Gaza City just carrying his Palestinian flag, said Fisher.
He was carrying that flag when he was shot by the Israelis.
Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for Gazas health ministry, said in a statement on Saturday that the Israeli army has been using snipers armed with explosive bullets and indiscriminately firing tear gas canisters.
The army also uses gas bombs of unknown quality, which has led to the injury of dozens in the form of convulsions, vomiting, coughing and rapid heartbeat, he said.
Qidra also noted that Israeli forces have been using excessive violence against civilians and deliberately targeting paramedics, ambulances and news crews.
In April 2008, Abu Thurayyah was sitting with several friends in al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza when he was hit by the Israeli air raid that cost him his legs and kidney. Seven people were killed in the attack.
As the sole breadwinner for his 11-member family, which consisted of his two, sick parents, six sisters and three brothers, Abu Thurayyah, who was a fisherman before the Israeli air raid, was forced to find new work to pay the bills for their home in the camp.
He found work washing cars, earning 50-70 shekels ($14-20) a day. Sometimes he also sold vegetables in the market to make ends meet.
In an interview with Shehab News Agency a few years ago, Abu Thurayyah outlined his hopes and dreams for the future.
I hope one day to own a house, he said.
I wish that people in European and Arab countries will help me after listening to my story to get treatment abroad and prosthetic legs.
Beddawi, Lebanon Mahmoud Mashwra was 12 when he left school to sell candy on the street.
Mashwra, whose family fled Israeli oppression in the Palestinian territories years ago in hopes of a better life in Lebanon, instead found a dismal economy, international aid shortages and discrimination against Palestinians. He began working full-time to help his family survive.
I thought, Ill go back to school when I go back to Palestine, Mashwra, now 16, told Al Jazeera.
But that hope has dimmed in the wake of US President Donald Trumps statement this month recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the US proclamation despite being roundly condemned by the international community has dealt a blow to the estimated 280,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, many of whom hope to one day return home to Palestine.
Struggling to survive
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are treated as second-class residents, restricted from working in most fields, banned from owning property, forced to live in run-down camps and barred from formal education.
Mohamad Jabbar makes $10 a day at his butcher shop, just a tenth of what he could earn if Lebanese authorities allowed him to operate outside the military-guarded camp in Beddawi.
Its like living in a prison, Jabbar said. The government controls where I live and where I work.
Palestinians cannot own businesses in Lebanon and are banned from most decent-paying professions, including medicine and law. An estimated two-thirds live in poverty. The government will not give citizenship rights to Palestinian refugees, for fear it could make them stay forever.
This is a cruel and false hypothesis, Bassam Khawaja, a Beirut-based spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. Nothing prevents Lebanon from respecting Palestinians basic human rights while withholding permanent residency or citizenship. But instead, generations have grown up in limbo, without basic protections.
Today, Palestinians are competing with nearly two million Syrian refugees in Lebanon for jobs and aid.
The vast majority of international humanitarian aid coming into Lebanon is focused on the Syrian refugee crisis, which means we are overlooking the long-standing human rights violations that Palestinians have faced here for decades, Khawaja said.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) deals with aid for Palestinians, while the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) covers Syrians and the difference in the aid provided is stark. UNHCR gives 150,000 Syrians in Lebanon $175 a month per family; UNRWA, however, can only give 61,000 Palestinians $10 for each family member every three months, spokespersons told Al Jazeera. Both agencies say they target whoever is considered the most vulnerable.
Unlike Lebanese citizens, Palestinians cannot obtain free treatment at hospitals. They are also barred from most public schools. UNRWA has opened 67 schools and 27 clinics in Lebanon, but the clinics are only for general check-ups, while refugees with serious illnesses, such as cancer, must seek help from other NGOs.
Ripped from childhood
Twelve-year-old Hassan Salem is covered in grease after finishing a 10-hour shift at the local mechanics shop, as he does every day. At the end of the week, he will get $3.33, all of which goes to his family.
Of course I want to send my son to school, his mother, Lena Deeb, told Al Jazeera. But I cant. If he doesnt work, we wont eat.
Nearly 20 percent Palestinians between the ages of six and 15 and 30 percent of those aged 16 to 18 are out of school in Lebanon, often because they are forced to work when their parents cannot. More than 30 percent of Palestinians leave school due to low achievement.
The schools are so bad, I didnt see a point in going any more, said Ali, a 17-year-old Palestinian refugee who asked to withhold his last name. I was 14 when I left, and I could barely read or write.
Nineteen-year-old Mahmoud Mustafa dropped out three years ago. Asked what his dream job is, he laughs: Were refugees, we cant dream here. Were just worried about living today.
Death to America
Rami Saaf becomes anxious when he is at work not because he may have to borrow food from his neighbours again to feed his family, but because his kids could be electrocuting themselves at home.
The 34-year-old lives in the Beddawi camp, where raw sewage and water leak onto wires outside his front door. The last time his nine-year-old son touched a wire, he landed in hospital.
Lebanon has 12 refugee camps to house the generations of Palestinians pushed from their homes after the 1948 founding of Israel. Many lack basic services, such as electricity, sewage and waste disposal networks. Seventy-eight percent of households complain of dampness, 62 percent suffer from water leakage, and 52 percent have poor ventilation, according to a UNRWA study.
But this camp is all Saaf knows. Growing up, his dad sold candy on the street, and Saaf never went to school. Instead, he roamed the camp looking for work, which he still does today.
He always dreamed that one day, he would be able to give his kids a better life in Palestine.
After what Trump said, its like we died, Saaf said. We lost hope. Im sad for the future of my kids. I dont want to have any more kids, because Ill just destroy their future.
Thousands of Palestinians have held demonstrations across Lebanon over the past week, including one in Beirut on Sunday that turned violent. Protesters threw rocks and set rubbish cans on fire outside of the US embassy, while Lebanese security forces fired tear gas and water cannon into the crowd.
At another protest in the capital on Monday, demonstrators chanted: Death to America! Death to Israel!
We dont accept Trumps decision, Ali said. So we will fight.
Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is accused of accepting bribes from a Brazilian construction company.
Members of Perus Congress have passed a motion to start impeachment proceedings against President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, amid a region-wide corruption scandal.
Legislators on Friday voted 93 to 17 to back a proposal to debate Kuczynskis dismissal on December 21.
The presidents impeachment would need 87 votes in the 130-strong Congress.
Kuczynski, who is expected to appear before Congress before the final vote, is accused of covering up decades-old illegal payments from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.
The company became embroiled in a political scandal after admitting to paying more than $788m in bribes to win construction contracts across 12 countries, including Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela.
The multiparty motion said Kuczynski lacks the moral capacity to govern, and accused the president of lying to Peruvians about his relationship with Odebrecht.
Kuczynski has refused calls to stand down, and denies receiving illegal payments, saying he provided advisory services to the company.
Im not running and Im not hiding because I have no reason to, Kuczynski said in a televised speech on Thursday.
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The accusations centre on Westfield Capital Ltd, a company owned by Kuczynski, which received $782,000 from Odebrecht, according to Peruvian national paper El Comercio.
Kuczynski, a former World Bank official, denies having a managerial role in his company and has promised to produce his financial records.
Marcelo Odebrecht, the former company president of Odebrecht, is currently serving a 19-year jail sentence in Brazil.
Kuczynski is the latest Latin American politician to be linked to the scandal, which saw Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas sentenced to six years in prison on Wednesday, for taking $13.5m in bribes from Odebrecht.
Delegates will choose future leader of the African National Congress, with the winner likely to replace President Zuma.
Around 5,000 delegates from South Africas African National Congress (ANC) have gathered in Johannesburg for a key conference to choose the ruling partys next leader.
The five-day convention, which started on Saturday, comes amid divisions between the partys faithful over who will replace President Jacob Zuma as head of the ANC.
There are seven candidates for the post, but the frontrunners are Cyril Ramaphosa, the partys current deputy president; and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former chairperson of the African Union High Commission and Zumas ex-wife.
Zuma, whose tenure has been tainted by allegations of corruption, is set to vacate the countrys presidency in 2019, and whoever ends up leading the ANC will likely replace him in that role, too.
South Africa will hold a national election in 2019.
Speaking at the conference, Zuma acknowledged that this was a crucial moment for the ANC.
[This] conference is taking place at a time when our movement is at a crossroads, he said. While we identify corporate greed as posing a serious threat to the ANC, we also need to look at internal dynamics within our organisations.
Al Jazeeras Tania Page, reporting from Johannesburg, said many South Africans see the contest as a battle for the heart of the ANC.
While Dlamini-Zuma has run a campaign promising to improve the lives of poor, black South Africans, Ramaphosa has placed emphasis on fixing the countrys economy.
Read our Q&A with independent political analyst Ebrahim Fakir about what the conference means for the ANC and for South Africa here.
ANC unity
Gwede Mantashe, the ANC secretary-general, said the convention should not create lasting divisions within the party.
We are hoping to come out of this conference unified, he said.
It is not the magic of the individual, but a function of engagement in the conference itself, to try to unify the body of the ANC, he added.
The unity is not the unity of leaders. Its the unity of the body of the ANC.
In addition to the position of leader, delegates will also be deciding for other senior positions within the ANC.
The party is one of the oldest liberation movements on the continent and was once led by the late Nelson Mandela, an iconic freedom fighter and former South African president, who oversaw the countrys transition from apartheid rule to democracy.
The ANC has dominated South African politics since the fall of apartheid, but, under Zuma, it has lost control of several major cities in local elections, including the countrys capital, Pretoria.
President Moon Jae-in went to China in hopes of easing strained relations after the US deployed an anti-missile system in South Korea earlier this year, but many South Koreans are upset at the seemingly frosty welcome from the Chinese government.
President Moon Jae-in went to China in hopes of easing strained relations after the US deployed an anti-missile system in South Korea earlier this year, but many South Koreans are upset at the seemingly frosty welcome from the Chinese government.
South Koreas president is winding up an official four-day visit to China aimed at repairing frayed relations.
But Moon Jae-in has not been given the warm welcome many South Koreans were expecting.
Al Jazeeras Adrian Brown reports from Beijing.
Polls show next weeks regional election in Catalonia is likely to leave its political crisis unresolved.
Polls show next weeks regional election in Catalonia is likely to leave its political crisis unresolved.
Spain imposed direct rule after Octobers secession referendum and jailed several pro-independence politicians.
Some of them have recently been released, but they still face upcoming trials.
Al Jazeeras Karl Penhaul reports from Igualada, Spain.
US calls on Syrian government to participate fully in Geneva talks, while Damascus blames stalemate on preconditions.
The United States has urged the Syrian government to participate fully in negotiations with the opposition, while a Syrian official blamed opposition preconditions for yet another failed round of talks in Geneva.
Referring to the negotiations, which ended in the Swiss city on Thursday without any results, the US state department commended the Syrian oppositions constructive participation, which it said stood in contrast to the obstructionism and procrastination of the government delegation.
We support [UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan] de Misturas call for the regimes supporters to use their leverage to urge the regime to participate fully in tangible negotiations with the opposition in Geneva, Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert said on Friday.
This was the eighth round of Syria peace talks in Geneva.
The UN-backed international conference on the future of Syria aims to end the war by bringing together the Syrian government and the opposition to discuss steps towards a transitional government.
We commend @UNGeneva Special Envoy for Syria and his team for their efforts in latest round of #Syria talks. The United States urges all parties to work seriously toward political resolution to this conflict or face continued isolation and instability indefinitely in #Syria. pic.twitter.com/1mSobkcIAT Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) December 15, 2017
De Mistura criticised the Syrian government for having preconditions for direct talks with the opposition delegation and only discussing the issue of what Damascus called terrorism.
Describing the failed talks as a missed golden opportunity, de Mistura said that he was disappointed with the results but that he was planning yet another round of talks in Geneva in January.
Honest and objective
Syria strongly condemned de Misturas remarks, alluding to the 70-year-old Italian-Swedish diplomats perceived bias in the talks.
Syrian state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed official at Syrias foreign ministry late on Friday who said that Syria had always dealt in a positive manner with all honest efforts to resolve the [countrys] crisis.
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The source said that de Mistura must be honest and objective in order to reach results that would put an end to the crisis and that he must work to remove obstacles placed by states and sides that control other parties in Geneva talks.
The Syrian governments chief negotiator, Bashar al-Jaafari, said that his side would not engage in any dialogue with the opposition unless they retracted a recent statement issued in Saudi Arabia, which again insisted on the departure of President Bashar al-Assad.
A UN rights expert has issued a damning report on the state of the US under President Donald Trump, saying the Republican presidents tax reform plan stakes out Americas bid to become the most unequal society in the world and will greatly increase income inequality.
Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and rights, made the comments on Friday, after visiting US cities and states to examine the level of homelessness and poverty facing the country.
The proposed tax reform plan is essentially a bid to make the US the world champion of extreme inequality, Alston said in his preliminary report.
Alstons visit to California, Alabama, Georgia, Puerto Rico, West Virginia and Washington, DC came in the shadows of a major tax overhaul in Congress.
Republicans released their final tax bill on Friday night, saying they have the votes to get it passed next week.
The bill has been championed by Trump, who, on Friday, congratulated Republican Congressman Kevin Brady, chairman of the Ways and Means House Committee, for signing the final conference agreement on the proposed tax reform legislation.
If passed, the bill would be the largest tax overhaul since the 1980s.
The plan would drop the corporate tax rate from 39.6 percent to 21 percent. It would also lower the rates for most of the seven tax brackets, including dropping the top bracket from 39.6 percent to 37 percent, according to the Republican summary.
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The cuts are projected to add about $1.46 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, which is just shy of the $1.5 trillion the bill is allowed to cost.
According to Alston, the lack of public debate, the closed nature of the negotiation, the exclusion of the representatives of almost half of the American people from the process and the inability of elected representatives to know any detail they are being asked to vote for, all raise major concerns.
He added that one of the overriding concerns is the enormous impetus given to income and wealth inequality by the proposed reforms.
Social welfare cuts likely to be fatal
Earlier this month, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Republicans will focus on reducing spending on federal healthcare and social programmes to help reduce the countrys deficit.
In his report, Alston warned that the dramatic cuts in welfare, foreshadowed by the president and Speaker [Paul] Ryan, and already beginning to be implemented by the administration, will essentially shred crucial dimensions of a safety net that is already full of holes.
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He added that given the extensive, and in some cases unremitting, cuts that have been made in recent years, the consequences for an already overstretched and inadequate system of social protection are likely to be fatal for many programmes, and possibly for those who rely upon them.
Members of the opposition Democratic party and rights organisations have criticised the bill, saying it benefits big corporations at the expense of working-class US citizens.
Childrens Defense Fund, a nonprofit organisation working to reduce poverty among children, has previously called the proposed tax plan unjust, expansive and immoral.
The proposed bill also repeals a mandate that all Americans must buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
Forty million living in poverty
Alstons report also highlighted the extent of poverty in the US.
The UN special rapporteur placed great emphasis on how neither [the US] wealth nor its power nor its technology is being harnessed to address the situation in which 40 million people continue to live in poverty.
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He highlighted how indigenous communities continue to suffer from widespread, extreme poverty and high suicide rates. He also emphasised the high levels of children in poverty, calling the number 13.3 million in 2016 shockingly high.
Alston is set to release his final report in May, which is expected to expand on the state of the US when it comes to poverty and human rights, and what the future may look like, given recent and proposed actions by the current government.
According to the UN envoy, American exceptionalism was the constant theme during his conversations with state and city officials, human rights groups and those living below the poverty line.
Todays United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights, said Alston.
Trump slammed after Washington Post reports seven words are prohibited in health agency budget documents.
Womens rights groups, LGBTQ activists, scientists and other individuals decried the administration of US President Donald Trump, after reports emerged that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been banned from using a list of words, including transgender and fetus in the agencys official budget.
According to the Washington Post, CDC policy analysts were told at a meeting on Thursday with senior agency officials that seven words vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus, evidence-based and science-based were banned from being used in documents related to next years budget.
The Post, quoting an unnamed analyst present at the meeting, said that in some cases the group was given alternative phrasing, such as, instead of using science-based, they could use science in consideration with community standards and wishes.
The CDC is the countrys health protection agency and works on a number of issues, from HIV/AIDS to maternal and infant health and fighting diseases.
The reported move has been slammed by advocates and health experts, who say it is a clear indication that the Trump administration has disdained science and womens health since taking office.
Womens health and rights group, Planned Parenthood, whose funding has been targeted by the Trump administration, said the news shows that its clearer than ever: this administration has disdained womens health, LGBTQ people and science since day one.
Its clearer than ever: this administration has disdained womens health, LGBTQ people, and science since day one. https://t.co/KeyP0cy1mv Planned Parenthood Action Text WeDecide to 22422 (@PPact) December 16, 2017
Many called the decision absurd and pointed to how the majority of the prohibited words and phrases are based in science and not ideology, which they say the administration favours.
One Twitter user wrote: Fetus is a medical term. Its not a pro-choice term its literal science. Banning the CDC from using it isnt just absurd its an attack on reproductive health and medicine.
Fetus is a medical term. Its not a pro-choice term its literal science. Banning the CDC from using it isnt just absurd its an attack on reproductive health and medicine. Lauren Rankin (@laurenarankin) December 16, 2017
Public health researcher Daniel Grossman added: If you had any doubt about the administrations proclivity for ideology over science, here it is. Public health cannot be advanced if @CDCgovs work is not evidence-based.
If you had any doubt about the administration's proclivity for ideology over science, here it is. Public health cannot be advanced if @CDCgov's work is not evidence-based. https://t.co/wFD0WP2rsr Dr. Daniel Grossman (@DrDGrossman) December 16, 2017
A number of scientists and health professionals on Twitter see the move as another indication of Trumps attack on their profession.
Since Trump came to power, the administration has rolled back environmental protection policies, withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement and attempted to limit womens access to contraception under the Affordable Care Act.
A study in October by the watchdog group, Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, found that the phrase climate change has been disappearing from the EPA website since Trump took office.
Responding to the news about the CDC ban, scientist Jess Pheonix tweeted that the Trump administration has crossed a huge line, adding that science IS evidence-based, and the CDC shouldnt be making recommendations based on wishes.
The Trump admin has crossed a huge line. They are forbidding the @CDCgov from using the words "science-based" & "evidence-based." Guess what? Science IS evidence-based, and the CDC shouldn't be making recommendations based on "wishes." #outrage #science
https://t.co/DQCMg1HuOe Jess Phoenix (@jessphoenix2018) December 16, 2017
Congressman Ted Lieu called the decision stupid.
The @realDonaldTrump Administration is MAKING AMERICA STUPID AGAIN. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention banned from using "science-based" and "evidence-based" terms. Are we now going to use Voodoo & leeches to treat diseases? #MASA https://t.co/f77yrSbMFQ Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 16, 2017
The Post said that the senior CDC officials did not tell the analysts why the words were being banned, but the analysts said that guidelines were also more than likely in place for other departments, including Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC.
The newspaper quoted the analyst as saying that the reaction by those present in the meeting was incredulous.
It was very much, Are you serious? Are you kidding? , the analyst reportedly said.
The CDC did not respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment at the time of publication.
The Kenyan academic passed away in the US at the age of 64, drawing emotional responses in Kenya and the world.
Prominent Kenyan academic Calestous Juma has died in the United States at the age of 64, prompting an outpouring of grief and tributes on social media.
Intellectual giant, innovator, tireless champion of the worlds poorest these are just some of the words used to describe the Harvard University professor after news of his death broke out on Friday.
Juma, whose research and writing focused on science and the environment, was a passionate advocate of the role of technological innovation in transforming African countries.
Earlier this year, he was named among the 100 Most Reputable People on Earth by Reputation Poll, a South African consulting company. Juma was also repeatedly included in the annual list of the 100 Most Influential Africans by the New African magazine.
His lawyer, Peter Wanyama, told Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation that Juma was unwell for two years and was undergoing treatment in the US city of Boston when he passed away. Wanyama did not specify the cause of Jumas death.
Kenyas President Uhuru Kenyatta offered condolences on Twitter, saying he was dismayed by the news of the professors passing.
We have lost one of our most distinguished scholars and patriots, Kenyatta wrote.
https://twitter.com/UKenyatta/status/941713455693869056?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
Paul Kagame, Rwandas president, said the world has lost a brilliant mind who was dedicated to innovation, education and Africas prosperity.
Saddened to hear of the passing of Prof Calestous Juma. We have lost a brilliant mind who was dedicated to innovation, education and Africa's prosperity. Condolences to his family and friends. May he rest in peace. Paul Kagame (@PaulKagame) December 15, 2017
Amina Mohamed, Kenyas foreign minister, described Juma as a friend, compatriot and a role model.
The best of the best, wrote fellow Kenyan academic Makau Mutua. Juma was a towering scholar and a great human being, he added.
Shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Prof Calestous Juma, an African intellectual giant. He was a towering scholar and a great human being. The best of the best. Unbelievable. Prof Makau Mutua (@makaumutua) December 15, 2017
A former student, Farai Gundan, said Juma was a great mentor whose office was a haven for discussions on [Africa] and its development.
Heartbroken over the passing of one of my favorite @Harvard professors, Dr. @Calestous Juma. His office was a haven for discussions on the continent and its development. He was truly a champion & advocate for #Africa. Rest well sir! You were a great mentor! pic.twitter.com/nG12ND3ZUT Farai Gundan (@FaraiToday) December 15, 2017
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has funded some of Jumas work, said he was a tireless champion for economic and social development in Africa.
.@Calestous was a tireless champion for economic and social development in Africa. His legacy will live on through the fruits of his many years of work as an impassioned scholar, fearless advocate and mentor to students and policymakers around the world. https://t.co/YEHMa4iXTJ Gates Foundation (@gatesfoundation) December 15, 2017
A prolific author, Juma published more than a dozen books on sustainable development and won several international awards for his work on the subject, Harvard said.
His latest book, Innovation and its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies, draws on nearly 600 years of economic history to explain how new technologies emerge and take root.
His writings have also appeared in Al Jazeera, as well as The New York Times and The Guardian.
Juma served on the jury of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, among others, and was elected to several scientific academies, including the Royal Society of London and the US National Academy of Sciences.
Tributes also flowed in from politicians, journalists, celebrities and academics.
Heres a sample of some of them:
Dear #Africa,
Let us honour our great teacher @calestous by working towards & achieving African integration. Let us transform agriculture & see a food secure & thriving continent.
Let us invest in #Science #Innovation for sustainable solutions to our challenges.#RIPCalestous pic.twitter.com/x3Ih14zE58 Julie Gichuru (@JulieGichuru) December 15, 2017
When heroes who leave marks and footprints wherever they step on pass on, they are never forgotten. Your efforts will never go unrecognized #RIPCalestous pic.twitter.com/IBi2hxb7hq Janet Machuka (@janetmachuka_) December 15, 2017
The world lost yet another intellectual giant, Professor @Calestous Juma. Not only was he a great patriot of our great continent but was also a passionate advocate for all things #ForAfrica & #ByAfricans. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. #RIPCalestous https://t.co/CiulLVPYb6 Mohammed Dewji MO (@moodewji) December 15, 2017
Shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Havard Professor @calestous Juma. His support for our innovation community was empowering #RIPCalestous UNESCO Botswana follow for updates on the #UN (@UNESCO_BW) December 15, 2017
It is with deep sadness that I received the news of the passing of the distinguished Kenyan scholar Prof. Calestous Juma, who helped build the countrys profile across the globe. We pray for and mourn with his family, students and the entire Harvard University fraternity. pic.twitter.com/eflxnR9OOr Raila Odinga (@RailaOdinga) December 15, 2017
Not unexpected, but still desperately sad. RIP Calestous Juma you taught us much and we are grateful for it. Your constant good humour and intellectual honesty will be missed by all. https://t.co/l3WudXLdgv https://t.co/gEIUX33O2h Mark Lynas (@mark_lynas) December 15, 2017
Really shocked and saddened this morning to hear that Kenyan Professor @calestous has passed away. Ill miss our exchanges about Africa, and his lively mind. Rest In Peace my friend. Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) December 15, 2017
Supreme Court of Delaware. CITY OF BIRMINGHAM RETIREMENT AND RELIEF SYSTEM, ROBERT L. REESE, POLICE RETIREMENT SYSTEM OF ST. LOUIS, EDWARD TANSEY, AND ESTATE OF LEATRICE SEINFELD, Plaintiffs-Below, Appellants, v. LYNN J. GOOD, ANN M. GRAY, G. ALEX BERNHARDT, SR., MICHAEL G. BROWNING, HARRIS E. DELOACH, JR., DANIEL R. DIMICCO, JOHN H. FORSGREN, JAMES H. HANCE, JR., JOHN T. HERRON, JAMES B. HYLER, JR., WILLIAM E. KENNARD, E. MARIE MCKEE, E. JAMES REINSCH, JAMES T. RHODES, CARLOS A. SALADRIGAS, B. KEITH TRENT, LLOYD M. YATES, JAMES E. ROGERS, WILLIAM BARNET III, PHILIP R. SHARP, Individual Defendants-Below, Appellees, DUKE ENERGY CORPORATION, Nominal Defendant-Below, Appellee. No. 16, 2017 Decided: December 15, 2017
Before STRINE, Chief Justice; VALIHURA, VAUGHN, SEITZ, and TRAYNOR, Justices. Martin S. Lessner, Esquire, Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, Esquire, Nicholas J. Rohrer, Esquire, and Meryem Y. Dede, Esquire, Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP, Wilmington, Delaware; Robert A. Hoffman, Esquire, Jeffrey W. Golan, Esquire (Argued), and Julie B. Palley, Esquire, Barrack, Rodos & Bacine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Felipe J. Arroyo, Esquire, Shane P. Sanders, Esquire, and Gina Stassi, Esquire, Robbins Arroyo LLP, San Diego, California; Judith S. Scolnick, Esquire, Donald A. Broggi, Esquire, and Thomas L. Laughlin, Esquire, Scott+Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP, New York, New York, for Plaintiffs-Below, Appellants City of Birmingham Retirement and Relief System, Robert L. Reese, Police Retirement System of St. Louis, Edward Tansey, and Estate of Leatrice Seinfeld. Peter B. Andrews, Esquire and Craig J. Springer, Esquire, Andrews & Springer LLC, Wilmington, Delaware, for Individual Plaintiffs-Below, Appellants Robert L. Reese and City of Birmingham Retirement and Relief System. Alfred G. Yates, Jr., Esquire, Law Offices of Alfred G. Yates, Jr., P.C., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for Individual Plaintiff-Below, Appellant Robert L. Reese. Kenneth J. Nachbar, Esquire (Argued), Susan W. Waesco, Esquire, and Alexandra M. Cumings, Esquire, Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP, Wilmington, Delaware; Jack B. Jacobs, Esquire, Sidley Austin LLP, Wilmington, Delaware; Steven M. Bierman, Esquire, Andrew W. Stern, Esquire, and Elizabeth A. Espinosa, Esquire, Sidley Austin LLP, New York, New York, for Defendants-Below, Appellees Lynn J. Good, Ann M. Gray, G. Alex Bernhardt, Sr., Michael G. Browning, Harris E. DeLoach, Jr., Daniel R. DiMicco, John H. Forsgren, James H. Hance Jr., John T. Herron, James B. Hyler, Jr., William E. Kennard, E. Marie McKee, E. James Reinsch, James T. Rhodes, Carlos A. Saladrigas, B. Keith Trent, Lloyd M. Yates, James E. Rogers, William Barnet III, and Philip R. Sharp.
A stormwater pipe ruptured beneath a coal ash pond at Duke Energy Corporation's Dan River Steam Station in North Carolina. The spill sent a slurry of coal ash and wastewatercontaining lead, mercury, and arsenicinto the Dan River, fouling the river for many miles downstream. In May 2015, Duke Energy pled guilty to nine misdemeanor criminal violations of the Federal Clean Water Act and paid a fine exceeding $100 million. The plaintiffs, stockholders of Duke Energy, filed a derivative suit in the Court of Chancery against certain of Duke Energy's directors and officers. On behalf of the Company, they sought to hold the directorsa majority of whom were outside directors and were not named in the criminal proceedingspersonally liable for the damages the Company suffered from the spill.
The directors moved to dismiss the derivative complaint, claiming the plaintiffs were required under Court of Chancery Rule 23.1 to make a demand on the board of directors before instituting litigation. The plaintiffs responded that demand was futile because the board's mismanagement of the Company's environmental concerns rose to the level of a Caremark violation, which posed a substantial risk of the directors' personal liability for damages caused by the spill and enforcement action. The Court of Chancery disagreed and dismissed the derivative complaint. According to the court, to hold directors personally liable for a Caremark violation, the plaintiffs must allege that the directors intentionally disregarded their oversight responsibilities such that their dereliction of fiduciary duty rose to the level of bad faith. After giving the plaintiffs the benefit of all reasonable pleading inferences, the court held that the reports from management relied on by the board to address coal ash storage problems negated any reasonable pleading-stage inference of bad faith conduct by the board.
We agree with the Court of Chancery that the plaintiffs did not sufficiently allege that the directors faced a substantial likelihood of personal liability for a Caremark violation. Instead, the directors at most faced the risk of an exculpated breach of the duty of care. Thus, the stockholders were required to make a demand on the board to consider the claims before filing suit. We therefore affirm the Court of Chancery's judgment dismissing the complaint.
I.
According to the allegations of the complaint, Duke Energy, a Delaware Corporation based in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the largest provider of electricity in the United States. Duke Energy's coal-fired power plants generate a byproduct known as coal ash, which contains toxic and carcinogenic substances. The plants dispose of the coal ash through wastewater treatment centers composed of unlined ponds where contaminants sink to the bottom and less-contaminated water stays at the top, to be discharged into adjacent rivers.
Under the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA), the discharge of any pollutant by any person shall be unlawful, unless granted a permit by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the applicable state regulatory body in this case, the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR). Primary enforcement authority lies with the regulatory body. If third parties wish to sue a company for violating the CWA, they must first file a notice of intent with the applicable regulatory bodies. If a notified regulator does not initiate enforcement within sixty days, the third party litigant may proceed with the suit. If, however, the state or federal regulatory party files suit within the sixty-day limit, the third parties lose standing to sue. Although the third parties lose standing, they can move to intervene in the litigation between the regulator and the defendant. Further, a third party can regain standing if the regulator fails to diligently prosecute the alleged violator once suit is filed.
In 2013, several citizens' environmental groups filed a notice of intent to sue three of Duke Energy's subsidiaries under the CWA for coal ash seepages at ponds in North Carolina. In response, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) filed an enforcement action, which preempted the suits. DEQ and Duke Energy negotiated a consent decree that would require Duke Energy to pay a $99,000 fine and create a compliance schedule. The consent decree also required Duke Energy to identify[ ] and characteriz[e] seeps and conduct [g]roundwater studies. The Company planned to use the decree as a model for resolving litigation at twelve other sites, and estimated that enforcing the decree at all of its North Carolina locations would cost between $4 and $5 million. The consent decree was subject to a public comment period and court approval.
DEQ withdrew from the proposed consent order when on February 2, 2014, a stormwater pipe ruptured beneath a coal ash containment pond at Duke Energy's Dan River Steam Station in Eden, North Carolina, releasing twenty-seven million gallons of coal ash slurry and wastewater into the Dan River. Duke Energy had never inspected the pipe, although a Duke Energy station manager recommended the company pay $20,000 for camera inspections in both 2011 and 2012. Upon investigation, federal and state regulators found that had Duke Energy completed a camera inspection, it likely would have discovered the corroded pipe. The three subsidiaries pled guilty to nine misdemeanor violations of the CWA, paid $102 million in fines, and agreed to restitution, community service, and mitigation. All counts were negligence-based, and none of the defendants in this appeal were alleged to have any knowledge of the violations in the criminal proceedings.
Duke Energy spent roughly $24 million to clean up the spill and acknowledged responsibility for future costs, including regulatory directives, damage to natural resources, and any additional litigation. It paid a $2.5 million fine to Virginia for damages to the downriver City of Danville and a $6.8 million fine to DEQ, and incurred additional costs to comply with environmental regulations newly enacted by North Carolina and the EPA regulations that could result in the closure of coal ash ponds for an estimated cost of $4.5 billion.
On April 22, 2016, the plaintiffs filed derivative suits in the Court of Chancery, alleging that the directors breached their fiduciary duties because they knew of and disregarded Duke Energy's CWA violations and allowed Duke Energy to collude with DEQ to evade compliance with environmental regulations. The plaintiffs sought damages on behalf of the Company of (1) $102 million for the fine resulting from the guilty pleas, (2) $24 million for repairs and remediation of the Dan River spill, (3) $12 million for the fines to North Carolina and Virginia, (4) $7 million for the fine to DEQ, and (5) additional costs associated with environmental litigation filed as a result of the spill.
The directors moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to plead demand futility, claiming that the plaintiffs did not allege the particularized facts required by Court of Chancery Rule 23.1 to show that the directors faced a substantial likelihood of personal liability. The Court of Chancery agreed and found the facts alleged in the complaint did not lead to the reasonable inference that the directors consciously disregarded environmental problems at the site or improperly colluded with regulators to avoid remediating environmental problems. The court dismissed the complaint under Court of Chancery Rule 23.1 for failure to make a demand on the board. This appeal followed. We review the Court of Chancery's dismissal of a stockholder derivative complaint de novo.
II.
The board of directors, exercising its statutory authority to manage the business and affairs of the corporation, ordinarily decides whether to initiate a lawsuit on behalf of the corporation. Stockholders cannot shortcut the board's control over the corporation's litigation decisions without first complying with Court of Chancery Rule 23.1. Before stockholders can assert a claim belonging to the corporation, they must first demand that the directors pursue the claim and, if the directors decline, attempt to demonstrate that the directors wrongfully refused the demand. Alternatively, stockholders can allege with sufficient particularity that demand is futile and should be excused due to a disabling conflict by a majority of the directors to consider the demand.
For alleged violations of the board's oversight duties under Caremark, the test articulated in Rales v. Blasband applies to assess demand futility. Under Rales, the plaintiffs must plead particularized facts raising reasonable doubt of the board's independence and disinterestedness when the demand would reveal board inaction of a nature that would expose the board to a substantial likelihood of personal liability.
When, like here, the directors are protected from liability for due care violations under 102(b)(7) of the Delaware General Corporation Law, the plaintiff must allege with particularity that the directors acted with scienter, meaning they had actual or constructive knowledge that their conduct was legally improper. In other words, the stockholders must allege that a director acted inconsistent with his fiduciary duties and, most importantly, that the director knew he was so acting. This is because a Caremark claim is rooted in concepts of bad faith; indeed, a showing of bad faith is a necessary condition to director oversight liability. A specific example of bad faith is when the director engages in an intentional dereliction of duty or conscious disregard for one's responsibilities, or acted with the intent to violate applicable positive law. Because of the difficulties in proving bad faith director action, a Caremark claim is possibly the most difficult theory in corporation law upon which a plaintiff might hope to win a judgment.
At the pleading stage, the court must accept particularized allegations of fact as true, and all reasonable inferences must be drawn in the plaintiffs' favor. But, under Rule 23.1, the plaintiffs have a heightened burden to plead particularized facts establishing a reasonable doubt that the board of directors could have properly exercised its independent and disinterested business judgment in responding to a demand. [I]nferences that are not objectively reasonable cannot be drawn in the plaintiff's favor.
On appeal, the plaintiffs argue the court erred in finding the complaint lacked sufficient facts to establish a substantial likelihood that the individual directors would be personally liable for allowing Duke Energy to violate environmental laws, thus excusing demand. The plaintiffs focus their claims of error on two central points: first, the court improperly discredited the plaintiffs' interpretation of board presentations and minutes, which, according to the plaintiffs, showed Duke Energy was violating environmental laws and avoiding remediation; and second, when considering the plaintiffs' allegation that Duke Energy was exploiting its relationship with a captive regulator, the Court of Chancery failed to draw the proper inferences from evidence of what the plaintiffs characterize as collusion between Duke Energy and its regulator. We address each of these arguments in turn.
A.
The Board Presentations
The Court of Chancery reviewed the board presentations addressing the ash ponds at Duke Energy's power generation sites, and concluded that the board was both aware of environmental problems [and] what the company was doing to attempt to address those situations. According to the court, the directors did not consciously disregard the environmental problems. Rather, the presentations informed the board that Duke Energy was working with DEQ to achieve regulatory compliance in a cost-effective way with limited liability. The court found the board presentations an insufficient basis to raise a reasonable inference of bad faith by the board.
On appeal, the plaintiffs challenge the Court of Chancery's conclusion, pointing to specific information in the board presentations and minutes that they argue suggested longstanding knowledge and disregard of environmental violations. The plaintiffs first highlight the December 12, 2012 Coal Combustion Residuals presentation, which stated that [s]ome metals have leached to groundwater from unlined landfills and surface impoundments. Thus, the plaintiffs argue, the board knew Duke Energy was violating the law but did nothing to remedy it.
The plaintiffs unfairly describe the overall presentation, which we are not required to accept on a motion to dismiss. Jeff Lyash, Executive Vice President of Energy Supply, presented to the board's Regulatory Policy and Operations Committee on the Company's exposure (liability) from coal combustion residuals (CCR's), which are different kinds of coal ash. Lyash informed the committee that CCR's were classified currently as non-hazardous but the regulatory environment was changing. Although informed that metals had leached into groundwater, the board committee was also informed there was no indication that drinking water is being impacted. Further, the purpose of the presentation was to chart a future course for addressing proposed EPA regulations governing CCR pollution. The board committee was informed that the EPA had proposed eliminating wet ash management and un-lined CCR storage. After inventorying Duke Energy's CCR storage sites, and estimating the financial impact of the proposed regulations, Lyash informed the board committee of Duke Energy's work underway to mitigate risks:
Dry Ash HandlingConverted to dry fly ash handling at most large base load coal units that will operate past 2015. Projects budgeted over next few years to convert bottom ash transport to dry systems.
Groundwater MonitoringVoluntarily groundwater monitoring of NC ash basins for several years, providing data to the state. Now a requirement of NC wastewater permits in 2011. No indication that drinking water is being impacted.
Closure DesignCurrently utilizing anticipated closure design that incorporates synthetic/plastic membrane cap and drainage layers. Geo-membrane cap design minimizes rain and surface water in-leakage and resultant leaching.
Regulatory EngagementContinuing to advocate efforts to shape the final regulation. Currently closing some basins at Gibson under agreement with [the Indiana Department of Environmental Management]. Evaluating closures at small retired or retiring sites as a part of decommissioning work.58
The presentation is fairly described as a status update to the board committee of the proposed EPA regulations' impact on Duke Energy's ash disposal practices, and its work underway for risk mitigation. As the Court of Chancery found, the board was not only informed of environmental problems, but also the steps being taken to address them. It does not support plaintiffs' central theory that a majority of the board consciously ignored or intentionally violated positive law.
The plaintiffs next point to the August 27, 2013 Environmental Review Presentation to the board of directors. In the twenty-two pages of slides, Keith Trent, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Regulated Utilities, presented a comprehensive review of the history of coal ash ponds and environmental regulation, on-going litigation, and steps Duke Energy was taking to mitigate the financial and environmental risks posed by ash ponds at various Duke Energy sites.
The plaintiffs focus on one line in a slide stating [s]eeps are unpermitted discharges; [groundwater] violations. The statement they refer to, however, was reporting allegations against Duke Energy in pending lawsuits. But more to the point, the board was informed that Duke Energy:
Routinely inspect[ed and] repair[ed] ash dike stability;
[A]cted on all EPA [and] State inspection and recommendations;
Conducted [g]uide monitoring, and review[ed] results with state agency;
Took action especially where potential impacts exist with receptors;
Advocat[ed for] federal non-hazardous' legislation and regulations;
Perform[ed] site-specific studies ';
Submitted an ash basin closure plan to state regulators to review for approval;
Identified seeps to state and found a negligible impact to the overall surface water quality; and
Based on routine assessments, took proactive actions to mitigate risks and potential impacts.63
As to Seepage, the presentation informed the board that Duke Energy:
Found that the [v]olume of ash basin seepage is extremely small and has negligible impact to overall surface water quality;
Routinely informed the state of seeps; and
Identified the seeps in detail to state agencies during recent water permit renewals.64
As to Exceedances of groundwater standards, the presentation informed the board that Duke Energy:
Conducted groundwater monitoring since 2007 or before with results submitted to state agencies;
Took corrective action at three sites with receptors where there was a potential impact to neighbors;
Found no indication of impacts at other receptor sites;
Develop[ed] and implement[ed] measures ( [at] operating and retired sites) to address [groundwater] exceedances, seeps and long-term water quality protection; and
Submitted groundwater assessment reports at North Carolina's request. 65
The August 27, 2013 Environmental Review Presentation is fairly characterized as another update on environmental problems associated with coal ash disposal sites, and steps Duke Energy was taking to address the environmental concerns. It does not lead to a reasonable inference of the board's bad faith conduct by consciously ignoring environmental problems.
The plaintiffs' allegations here are like those in Stone v. Ritter. In Stone, this Court considered whether a board of directors failed to discharge its oversight duties regarding compliance with the Federal Bank Secrecy Act. Although [n]either party dispute[d] that the lack of internal controls resulted in a huge fine, the reports to the board showed that the board exercised oversight by relying on periodic reports from the officers. Thus, the court found plaintiffs' complaint unsuccessfully attempted to equate a bad outcome with bad faith. Similarly, the plaintiffs here conflate the bad outcome of the criminal proceedings with the actions of the board. As in Stone, the board exercised oversight by receiving management presentations on the status of environmental problems. The presentations identified issues with the coal ash disposal ponds, but also informed the board of the actions taken to address the regulatory concerns. Thus, we agree with the Vice Chancellor that the board presentations do not lead to the inference that the board consciously disregarded its oversight responsibility by ignoring environmental concerns.
B.
Collusion with Regulators
To overcome the motion to dismiss, plaintiffs concede that they must plead sufficient facts showing that the board knew DEQ was a captive regulator with whom Duke Energy was colluding. The Court of Chancery rejected this argument, finding it a theory at once creative and unsustainable on the facts plead. According to the court, even if DEQ's prosecution of environmental violations was insufficiently rigorous, or even wholly inadequate, it fell short of leading to a reasonable inference that Duke Energy illegally colluded with regulators.
On appeal, the plaintiffs claim the Court of Chancery made several errors in reaching this conclusion. Before addressing the details of these arguments, however, it is important to keep in mind the target the plaintiffs must hit to defeat the motion to dismiss. As the Court of Chancery found, it is not enough to allege cooperation with what plaintiffs describe as a too-friendly regulator. Instead, the plaintiffs must allege in sufficient detail that Duke Energy illegally colluded with a corrupt regulator. And then, plaintiffs must tie the improper conduct to an intentional oversight failure by the board. The complaint falls short of these pleading requirements.
1.
The Consent Decree
The plaintiffs first argue the consent decree negotiated with DEQ was a fig leaf because it only imposed a $99,000 fine and did not require remediation. They allege that the fine was a meaningless amount in light of Duke Energy's $2.5 billion yearly earnings and that remediation would not occur because the compliance schedule was not yet established, but was to be further delineat[ed].
Like their characterization of the board presentations, the plaintiffs isolate one part of a much bigger picture. In addition to the fine, Duke Energy estimated spending $4 to $5 million to enforce the consent decree at all its North Carolina sites, $100,000 to identify and characterize seeps, and $300,000 to $500,000 to conduct groundwater studies and reroute flows or treatment. Duke Energy also expected to negotiate a compliance schedule with regulators. Further, the presentations show the EPA had still not finalized rules regulating CCR, and there were [i]ndications that final rule may be non-hazardous, which would impact remediation costs. Regardless, even though DEQ imposed a relatively small fine and gave Duke Energy time to establish a compliance schedule, which was not as aggressive as the plaintiffs would have preferred, those facts do not lead to an inference that the board should have been alerted to corrupt activities between Duke Energy and its regulator. Nor does it lead to a reasonable inference that the board ignored evidence of alleged misconduct with a state regulator.
Finally, the collusion argument loses its force when another undisputed fact is consideredthe consent decree was subject to approval by the North Carolina court. The public and environmental groups who intervened in the enforcement action had the opportunity to comment on and object to the consent decree before a court gave it the force of law. Thus, if the consent decree was as deficient as the plaintiffs claim and resulted from improper collusion with regulatory authorities, the court was in a position to make that judgment, and refuse to approve it.
2.
Lax Environmental Law Enforcement
Next, plaintiffs argue that the board should have known DEQ was a captive regulator because DEQ was not a particularly vigorous enforcer of environmental laws, and became particularly friendly when Patrick McCrory was elected governor. The Court of Chancery labelled this conclusion a non sequitur, finding it was belied by the fact that part of the actions and interactions with DEQ predate the McCrory administration. On appeal, plaintiffs argue that the Court of Chancery gave insufficient weight to their allegations that DEQ effectively abandoned its role of pursuing enforcement against polluters, as evidenced by agency employees threatened with job loss if they enforced regulations.
Although the plaintiffs have alleged that DEQ in general did not aggressively enforce environmental laws, DEQ's lack of aggressiveness does not lead to an inference in this case that Duke Energy illegally colluded with DEQ, and that the board was complicit in such illegal activities. We agree with the Court of Chancery that general allegations regarding a regulator's business-friendly policies are insufficient to lead to an inference that the board knew Duke Energy was colluding with a corrupt regulator.
In the Court of Chancery, the plaintiffs also pointed to Duke Energy's goal to preempt the citizens' suits, which allegedly leads to the conclusion that the board should have known Duke Energy would collude with DEQ in bad faith. The court found this conclusion unsustainable, explaining that the facts showed that Duke Energy was working with DEQ to minimize its liability and maximize the time it had to bring its facilities in[to] compliance with environmental regulations, which was a reasonable business decision devoid of bad faith.
On appeal, plaintiffs challenge this conclusion, arguing that DEQ's prosecution was not undertaken in good faith for the purpose of crafting a regulatory solution, but was rather undertaken to avoid remediation. To support this contention, Plaintiffs first point to a May 1, 2013 Regulated Utilities Update Presentation, which states:
[North Carolina] has initiated enforcement action against Asheville, which ordinarily deprives environmental groups of right to sue: We will be working with NC to resolve Asheville and hopefully address other plants at the same time. We do expect a civil penalty and compliance
schedule of tasks, all of which constitute diligent prosecution and bar the environmental groups' citizen suit.
The plaintiffs argue that because Duke Energy wanted to hopefully address other plants at the same time, it was attempting to establish a veneer of diligent prosecution. But, as the Court of Chancery found, the reasonable interpretation of this statement was innocuousDuke Energy chose to work with DEQ to address all of its facilities at the same time to minimize costs and avoid repeated prosecution. As noted before, the lead regulator with enforcement authority is DEQ, not concerned citizens. Further, the board was informed through presentations that Duke Energy expected a civil penalty and compliance schedule of tasks, which meant Duke Energy anticipated actual remediation and was not just facially appear[ing] to be complying with the law. When the board presentations are fairly considered, none of the facts relied on by the plaintiffs lead to a reasonable inference of bad faith conduct by the board.
The plaintiffs also rely on board minutes stating that Duke Energy wanted to maintain control over its coal ash ponds, leading to the inference that Duke Energy did not want to expend funds to comply with the law. That inference, however, is not one reasonably drawn from the minutes. A company's desire to maintain control of its operations, without more, does not lead to a conclusion the company would violate the law to do so.
Finally, the plaintiffs rely on a federal decision that held DEQ was not diligently prosecuting a case against Duke Energy. In Yadkin Riverkeeper, Inc. v. Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, the plaintiffs brought suit against Duke Energy for CWA violations at Duke Energy's Buck Steam Station coal-burning power plant. Because DEQ was already prosecuting Duke Energy for the violations, the plaintiffs could only proceed with their suit if DEQ's prosecution was not diligent. To establish a lack of diligence, the plaintiffs had to show a pattern of conduct in [the state's] prosecution of the defendant that could be considered dilatory, collusive or otherwise in bad faith. The Yadkin court held that plaintiffs met their burden of proving dilatory prosecution, meaning DEQ appear[ed] to have done little, if anything, to move the case forward. It had not taken depositions, it had not filed motions, and an initial case management order was not yet in place, one year into litigation. Because the court believed there was little likelihood that [DEQ's] action would proceed expeditiously to a final resolution, the court held the prosecution was not diligent and allowed the plaintiffs to proceed with their suit.
The plaintiffs argue the Yadkin decision is persuasive evidence that DEQ was a captive regulator in the instant case. But the Yadkin court found a lack of diligent prosecutionnot bad faith by the Company or the board. Like plaintiffs' other arguments, the court's finding of a lack of diligence in pursuing litigation does not lead to a reasonable inference that DEQ was a corrupt regulator colluding with Duke Energy, and that the board knew about the corrupt activities and consciously ignored those facts.
III.
Duke Energy was responsible for fouling the Dan River with a slurry of toxic coal ash, causing major environmental damage many miles downstream. The Company pled guilty to environmental crimes and faced stiff fines and costly remediation expenses. The backlash for its poor environmental stewardship was severe. The EPA and the State of North Carolina responded by enacting stricter laws and proposing rules governing coal ash pond maintenance and closure.
None of this reflected well on Duke Energy. But, the question before us is not whether Duke Energy should be punished for its actions. That has already happened. What is before us is whether a majority of Duke Energy directors face a substantial likelihood that they will be found personally liable for intentionally causing Duke Energy to violate the law or consciously disregarding the law. We find, as the Court of Chancery did, that the plaintiffs failed to meet this pleading requirement. Thus, the plaintiffs were required to first demand that the board of directors address the claims they wished to pursue on behalf of the Company.
We therefore affirm the Court of Chancery's December 14, 2016 judgment dismissing the plaintiffs' derivative complaint.
With regret, I respectfully dissent from the well-stated decision of my colleagues, which affirms a thoughtful decision of the Court of Chancery. I do so because I find that the facts pled raise a pleading stage inference that it was the business strategy of Duke Energy, accepted and supported by its board of directors, to run the company in a manner that purposely skirted, and in many ways consciously violated, important environmental laws. Being skilled at running an energy company whose conduct presented environmental hazards, but whose operations provided an important source of employment, Duke's executives, advisors, and directors used all the tools in their large box to cause Duke to flout its environmental responsibilities, therefore reduce its costs of operations, and by that means, increase its profitability. This, fiduciaries of a Delaware corporation, may not do.
My primary disagreement with my friends in the majority and the Court of Chancery involves the application of the procedural posture to the facts as pled. Even though we are in a context when particularized pleading is required, that does not mean that the plaintiffs must have conclusive proof of all their contentions. Instead, they must plead particularized facts that support a rational inference of non-exculpated breaches of fiduciary duty by a majority of the Duke Energy board. Rarely will such evidence involve admissions by experienced managers and board advisors that the strategy they are undertaking involves a conscious decision to violate the laws, against the backdrop of a regulatory environment heavily influenced by the company's own lobbying and political contributions.
Unlike the majority and the Court of Chancery, I do not believe that the plaintiffs have to prove at this stage that there was collusion between a weak local regulator and Duke to avoid more searching scrutiny of its practices that pose a risk to the environment, wildlife, and public health. What they have to do is plead facts supporting an inference that Duke consciously was violating the law, taking steps that it knew were not sufficient to come into good faith compliance, but which it believed would be given a blessing by a regulatory agency whose fidelity to the law, the environment, and public health, seemed to be outweighed by its desire to be seen as protecting Duke and the jobs it creates.
The pled facts that support this inference at this stage include:
Duke's board knew that Duke illegally discharged highly toxic water from its coal ash ponds into the groundwater, sometimes intentionally through manmade channels,109 in violation of both state and federal environmental law.110 Duke's 760 daily violations of environmental regulations dated back to at least January 2012: the earliest time period from which the state regulator could assess liability under the statute of limitations.111
Duke knew its coal ash ponds were contaminating groundwater at illegal levels,112 as confirmed by testing dating back to at least 2007 conducted by Duke itself, regulators, and environmental groups.113
Duke's board knew that Duke had to procure discharge permits for its many coal ash ponds, but continued to operate them illegally and, in some cases, without any permit at all, in violation of state law and the Clean Water Act, even after trying, but failing, to secure a less restrictive type of permit.114
Duke and its affiliated donors spent over $1.4 million dollars to influence its home state political process to secure the election of officials who would be lax in their enforcement of federal and state environmental laws that applied to Duke's operations,115 including a Governor who had been a Duke employee for twenty-eight years.116
Duke's board was aware of and supported the strategy to enlist the state regulator, which had done little to cause Duke to come into compliance with law in the past and which was now overseen by the Governor who had been a Duke employee for twenty-eight years and was supported by Duke in his campaign, to file complaints against Duke and thereby preempt the citizen suits that sought substantial remediation.117 The regulator then proposed a consent order that involved a trifle of a civil penalty and that did not require remediation or a change in Duke's coal ash storage practices. 118
Four days after being court-ordered to immediately eliminate all sources of contamination from its coal ash ponds, Duke was caught illegally and deliberately dumping toxic coal ash wastewater into the Cape Fear River, a practice that had been ongoing for several months and which resulted in 61 million gallons of wastewater discharged in the river.119 Confronted with aerial photographs of this illegal activity, a Duke spokesman attributed the pumping to routine maintenancean assertion rejected by DEQ because the pumping activity far exceeded what would reasonably be considered routine maintenance.120
As can be seen, in one respect, I share a key assumption with my colleagues in the majority. I do not rest my dissent on the notion that the board of Duke, under the pled facts, was ignorant of the company's practices. Sadly, my dissent rests on my reluctant conclusion that the facts as pled support a fair inference that the board was all too aware that Duke's business strategy involved flouting important laws, while employing a strategy of political influence-seeking and cajolement to reduce the risk that the company would be called to fair account. Under the facts as pled, the only surprising thing about the Dan River spill that gave rise to the state regulator's issuance of a $6.8 million fine, twenty-three Notice of Violation letters, twenty-six Notice of Deficiency letters, and a finding that Duke committed more than 760 daily violations of environmental regulations, in addition to other severe civil and criminal penalties related to Duke's operations at other sites, is that something like it did not happen years earlier. And the fact that the local regulator that had been so compliant and cooperative in shaping easy conditions for Duke that the plaintiffs from the environmental community Duke sought to avoid would not have accepted, so rapidly turned tail and ran in the face of public sentiment supports, rather than contradicts, the complaint's allegation that Duke knew it was dealing with a regulator that was not focused on its legal duties. When the deal they cut was put under the spotlight of public scrutiny, its friendly regulator abandoned it, consistent with the behavior one would expect of a regulator that did not, let's say, run straight. The company then experienced the predictable: the serious financial and reputational consequences that come when an offender is caught out, and those complicit in turning a blind eye to the past misbehavior tries to distance itself from responsibility by slapping its old buddy hard.
It may be that after the daylight of discovery shines for some time, the rancid whiff that arises from the pled facts dissipates and turns into the bracing freshness of a new Carolina day. But, without that, the off-putting odor will linger and so too will rational suspicions that the defendants caused the smell.
FOOTNOTES
. The director and officer defendants are Lynn J. Good, President, CEO, director, and chairwoman; Lloyd M. Yates, Executive Vice President; B. Keith Trent, Executive Vice President; Ann M. Gray, director and former chairwoman; G. Alex Bernhardt, Sr., director; Michael G. Browning, director; Harris E. DeLoach, director; Daniel R. DiMicco, director; John H. Forsgren, director; James H. Hance, Jr., director; John T. Herron, director; James B. Hyler, director; William E. Kennard, director; E. Marie McKee, director; E. James Reinsch, director; James T. Rhodes, director; Carlos A. Saladrigas, director; James E. Rogers, President and CEO from 2006 to 2013, director and chairman until 2013; William Barnet, III, director until 2014; and Philip R. Sharp, director until 2014. The plaintiffs do not dispute that at the time the complaints were filed, outside directors composed a majority of the board. For ease of reference, this opinion will refer to the defendant directors and officers simply as the directors.
. In re Caremark Int'l Inc. Derivative Litig., 698 A.2d 959 (Del. Ch. 1996).
. This Court, like the Court of Chancery, may rely on the allegations of the complaint and documents referred to or incorporated by reference. Vanderbilt Income & Growth Assocs., L.L.C. v. Arvida/JMB Managers, Inc., 691 A.2d 609, 613 (Del. 1996); Amalgamated Bank v. Yahoo! Inc., 132 A.3d 752, 797 (Del. Ch. 2016). The documents incorporated into the complaint are fulsome because the plaintiffs demanded books and records from Duke Energy before filing suit under 8 Del. C. 220.
. The toxic substances include arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, and selenium, which federal regulations define as toxic pollutants. 40 C.F.R. 401.15. In 2010, the EPA specifically clarified that coal ash was a pollutant, and thus its discharge required a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. See Memorandum from James A. Hanlon, Dir., U.S. Envtl. Prot. Agency, Office of Wastewater Mgmt., NPDES Permitting of Wastewater Discharges from Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) and Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Impoundments at Steam Electric Power Plants, Attach. B: Water Quality-Based Effluent Limits Coal Combustion Waste Impoundments (June 7, 2010).
. 33 U.S.C. 12511388.
. Id. 1311(a).
. Id. 1342(b) ([T]he Governor of each State desiring to administer its own permit program for discharges into navigable waters within its jurisdiction may submit to the Administrator a full and complete description of the program it proposes to establish and administer under State law or under an interstate compact.).
. Id. 1342. Federal permits are issued under the NPDES. Id.
. See Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd. v. Chesapeake Bay Found., 484 U.S. 49, 60 (1987) (explaining that Congress intended for citizen suits to supplement rather than to supplant the enforcement powers of governmental agencies).
. 33 U.S.C. 1365(b)(1).
. Id.
. Id. 1319, 1365(b)(1).
. Id. 1365(b)(1), 1365(g) (No action may be commenced if the Administrator or State has commenced and is diligently prosecuting a civil or criminal action in a court of the United States, or a State to require compliance with the standard, limitation, or order, but in any such action in a court of the United States any citizen may intervene as a matter of right.; For purposes of this section citizen means a person having an interest which is or may be adversely affected.); see, e.g., App. to Opening Br. at 270 (Keith Trent, Environmental Review Presentation, August 27, 2013, at 8 [hereinafter ERP] ) (stating that Riverkeeper and Sierra Club [were] granted intervener status in the Asheville and Riverbend enforcement actions); United States v. Hooker Chems. & Plastics Corp., 540 F. Supp. 1067, 108283 (W.D.N.Y. 1982), aff'd, 749 F.2d 968 (2d Cir. 1984) (granting intervention in EPA prosecution to people affected by environmental violations due to close proximity to contaminated water).
. Yadkin Riverkeeper, Inc. v. Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, 141 F. Supp. 3d 428, 440 (M.D.N.C. 2015) [hereinafter Yadkin].
. Duke Energy Carolinas, Duke Energy Progress, and Duke Energy Business Services, LLC. See App. to Opening Br. at 639 (Plea to Crim. Info. & Sent'g Hearing, In re Duke Energy Corp. Coal Ash Derivative Litig., C.A. No. 9682-VCG (Del. Ch. Nov. 15, 2016) (TRANSCRIPT) [hereinafter In re Duke Energy] ).
. The plaintiffs allege that Duke Energy asked DEQ to bring the charges to preempt the citizen suits. Opening Br. at 15. However, the plaintiffs' only support for this allegation is a meeting between Duke Energy's lawyers and DEQ that took place after the citizen groups filed their notice of intent to sue Duke Energy for the CWA violations. See App. to Opening Br. at 61 (Am. Compl. 97 120); Michael Wines, Emails Link Duke Energy and North Carolina, N.Y. TIMES (Mar. 14, 2014), https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/us/emails-link-duke-energy-and-state.html (stating that emails show[ ] Duke officials contacted the State Department of Environment and Natural Resources, apparently seeking an agreement addressing the center's complaint) (emphasis added). The plaintiffs did not include with their complaint the emails or any specific factual evidence that Duke Energy asked DEQ to bring the suits at this meeting. Regardless, as explained below, even if Duke Energy had requested DEQ bring the suit, this reflects a reasonable business decision and is neither illegal nor improper. App. to Opening Br. at 44 (Am. Compl. 8 12); Answering Br. at 4142.
. App. to Opening Br. at 270 (ERP, Aug. 27, 2013, at 8); see also App. to Answering Br. at 24 (ERP Minutes, Aug. 27, 2013, at 3).
. App. to Opening Br. at 271 (ERP, at 9).
. Id. at 270 (ERP, at 8).
. Id. at 271 (ERP, at 9).
. App. to Opening Br. at 380, 418 (Oral Arg. on Def.'s Mot. to Dismiss, In re Duke Energy, No. 9682-VCG, at 38, 76 (Nov. 16, 2016) (TRANSCRIPT)).
. Id. at 40 (Am. Compl. 4 6).
. Id. at 17274 (Joint Factual Statement, United States v. Duke Energy Bus. Servs. et al., No. 5:15-CR-62-H, at 2426 6976 (Del. Ch. Feb. 20, 2015)).
. Id. at 174 (Joint Factual Statement 26 79).
. Five counts of negligent discharge of pollutants from a point source into waters of the United States; three counts of failure to maintain treatment systems and equipment and related appurtenances; and one count of negligently violating a condition of a NDPES permit. See App. to Opening Br. at 66876 (Plea to Crim. Info. & Sent'g Hearing 30:2238:08).
. Id. at 49 (Am. Compl. 112 146).
. Id. at 639 (Plea to Crim. Info. & Sent'g Hearing).
. Id. at 46 (Am. Compl. 10 14).
. Id. at 4647 (Am. Compl. 1011 14).
. Id. at 48 (Am. Compl. 12 17).
. Id.
. Originally, there were four suits filed in the Court of Chancery against the Duke Energy directors alleging breaches of fiduciary duty. They were consolidated into this case. See Order for Consolidation of the Related Actions, In re Duke Energy, C.A. No. 9682-VCN (Oct. 31, 2014).
. Id. at 38 (Am. Compl. 2 1); App. to Opening Br. at 41 (Am. Compl. 5 7) (asserting the Dan River spill was the foreseeable and inevitable result of a pattern of willful violations of the [CWA] and the North Carolina state law).
. Id. at 13940 (Am. Compl. 10304).
. Opening Br. at Ex. B (Telephonic Rulings, In re Duke Energy., C.A. No. 9682-VCG, at 16 (Del. Ch. Dec. 8, 2016) (TRANSCRIPT)).
. Wood v. Baum, 953 A.2d 136, 140 (Del. 2008).
. Aronson v. Lewis, 473 A.2d 805, 811 (Del. 1984) (citing 8 Del. C. 141(a)); see also Stone ex rel. AmSouth Bancorporation v. Ritter, 911 A.2d 362, 366 (Del. 2006) (It is a fundamental principle of Delaware General Corporation Law that [t]he business and affairs of every corporation shall be managed by or under the direction of a board of directors. ) (quoting 8 Del. C. 141(a)); Zapata Corp. v. Maldonado, 420 A.2d 779, 782 (Del. 1981) (explaining the directors' managerial decision making power encompasses decisions whether to initiate, or refrain from entering, litigation).
. Aronson, 473 A.2d at 817; Rales v. Blasband, 634 A.2d 927, 932 (Del. 1993).
. Wood, 953 A.2d at 140.
. Horman v. Abney, 2017 WL 242571, at *6 (Del. Ch. Jan. 19, 2017) (quoting Rales, 634 A.2d at 936); see also In re Citigroup Inc. S'holder Derivative Litig., 964 A.2d 106, 121 (Del. Ch. 2009) (explaining demand is futile in the rare case when a plaintiff is able to show director conduct that is so egregious on its face that board approval cannot meet the test of business judgment, and a substantial likelihood of director liability therefore exists).
. Wood, 953 A.2d at 141 (citing Guttman v. Huang, 823 A.2d 492, 498 (Del. Ch. 2003)).
. In re Massey Energy Co., 2011 WL 2176479, at *22 (Del. Ch. May 31, 2011) (emphasis in original); see also Melbourne Mun. Firefighters' Pension Tr. Fund on Behalf of Qualcomm, Inc. v. Jacobs, 2016 WL 4076369, at *8 (Del. Ch. Aug. 1, 2016), aff'd, 158 A.3d 449 (Del. 2017) (explaining plaintiffs must show (1) that the directors knew or should have known that the corporation was violating the law, (2) that the directors acted in bad faith by failing to prevent or remedy those violations, and (3) that such failure resulted in damage to the corporation).
. In re Citigroup Inc. S'holder Derivative Litig., 964 A.2d at 123 (emphasis in original).
. In re Walt Disney Co. Derivative Litig., 906 A.2d 27, 66 (Del. 2006).
. In re Citigroup Inc. S'holder Derivative Litig., 964 A.2d at 125 (emphasis in original).
. In re Caremark Int'l Inc. Derivative Litig., 698 A.2d at 967; see also Stone, 911 A.2d at 372.
. White, 783 A.2d at 549.
. Rales, 634 A.2d at 934; see also Del. Cty. Emps. Ret. Fund v. Sanchez, 124 A.3d 1017, 1020 (Del. 2015); Brehm v. Eisner, 746 A.2d 244, 254 (Del. 2000).
. Wood, 953 A.2d at 140.
. Opening Br. at 2425.
. Id. at Ex. B (Telephonic Rulings, at 16).
. Id. (Telephonic Rulings, at 11).
. Id. at 24.
. Id. at 13; App. to Opening Br. at 214 (Jeff Lyash, Coal Combustion Residuals Presentation, Dec. 12, 2012, at 3 [hereinafter CCRP] ); see also App. to Answering Br. at 611 (Mitch Griggs, Environmental Compliance Assurance Presentation, Oct. 29, 2012, 16).
. Id. at 214 (CCRP, at 3).
. Id. at 221 (CCRP, at 10).
. Id. at 216 (CCRP, at 5).
. Id. at 221 (CCRP, at 10).
. Id.
. App. to Opening Br. at 26384, (ERP, at 122).
. Id. at 267 (ERP, at 5).
. Id. (Highlighted IssuesRecent Allegations: Seeps are unpermitted discharges; [groundwater] violations.). As of the date of the presentation it was not altogether clear that seeps were in fact unpermitted discharges under Duke Energy's permits. Id. at 325, 32728 (Def.'s Reply Br. on Mot. to Dismiss, In re Duke Energy, No. 9682-VCG, at 11, 1314 (Aug. 31, 2016)).
. Id. at 26566 (ERP, at 34).
. Id. at 268 (ERP, at 6).
. Id. at 269 (ERP, at 7). Plaintiffs emphasize that, according to the joint factual statement, Duke Energy did not provide detailed, specific, and comprehensive data concerning seeps until after the Dan River spill. Id. at 192 (Joint Factual Statement 44 138). However, the plaintiffs omit the preceding sentence, which stated that between 2010 and 2014, Duke Energy provided detailed information concerning seeps, including engineered seeps. Id. The fact the reports became more specific or comprehensive after the spill does not mean that the seeps were disregarded in bad faith before the spill.
. 911 A.2d 362.
. Id.
. Id. at 37273.
. Id. at 373; see also In re Gen. Motors Co. Derivative Litig., 2015 WL 3958724, at *11 (De. Ch. June 26, 2015).
. The plaintiffs also argue Duke Energy's guilty pleas from the Dan River spill provide evidence that the board consciously disregarded environmental violations. Opening Br. at 2425, 32, 3738; Reply Br. at 11. The plaintiffs argue there is reason to believe that the failure to properly inspect the stormwater pipes was the product of a high-level decision within the company. Id. at 22. But this speculative assertion is unsupported by particularized facts connecting the board to the negligence-based guilty pleas, and [w]ithout a connection to the board, a corporate calamity will not lead to director liability. La. Mun. Police Emps.' Ret. Sys. v. Pyott, 46 A.3d 313, 340 (Del. Ch. 2012), rev'd on other grounds, 74 A.3d 612 (Del. 2013). The plaintiffs also argue that the board had long-standing knowledge of the criminal violations due to a letter from DEQ to EPA, which stated that seeps have been well known and well documented for decades, yet virtually no initiative was undertaken by any governmental organization or governmental agency to address these problems until quite recently. App. to Opening Br. at 286 (Letter from Dan R. van der Vaart, Deputy Sec'y & Energy Policy Advisor, DENR, to Hon. Regina McCarthy, Adm'r EPA, and Lynn J. Good, President & CEO, Duke Energy Progress, Inc. and Duke Energy Carolinas, Aug. 28, 2014, at 1, 11). However, the fact the board was aware of the seeps does not mean they consciously disregarded themthe presentations show that the board was regularly informed of Duke Energy's remedial actionsand the letters state that no governmental organization or agency addressed the issues, which does not show the board disregarded them. See Desimone v. Barrows, 924 A.2d 908, 940 (Del. Ch. 2007) (Delaware courts routinely reject the conclusory allegation that because illegal behavior occurred, internal controls must have been deficient, and the board must have known so.).
. App. to Opening Br. at 451 (Oral Arg. on Def.'s Mot. to Dismiss 109:814) ([T]he captive and corrupt and nonenforcing agency is a linchpin of our argument; the whole thing depends on the board being aware that it has got this lapdog regulator that won't enforce the law.).
. Opening Br. Ex. B. (Telephonic Rulings, at 12).
. Id. (Telephonic Rulings, at 1617); see Yadkin Riverkeeper, 141 F. Supp. 3d at 441 (explaining that to overcome a presumption of diligent prosecution, the plaintiff must show conduct that is dilatory, collusive or otherwise in bad faith[i]t is insufficient to merely show that the agency's prosecution strategy is less aggressive than [the plaintiff] would like ) (citations omitted).
. In re Toys R Us, Inc. S'holder Litig., 2005 WL 5756357, at *31 n.50 (Del. Ch. June 24, 2005) (quoting Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary (10th ed. 1993)) (defining collusion as a secret agreement or cooperation, especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose); see also Dickerman v. N. Tr. Co., 176 U.S. 181, 190 (1900) (Collusion is defined by Bouvier as an agreement between two or more persons to defraud a person of his rights by the forms of law, or to obtain an object forbidden by law, and in similar terms by other legal dictionarians.); Sidman v. Travelers Cas. & Sur., 841 F.3d 1197, 1206 (11th Cir. 2016) (quoting Collusion, WEBSTER'S 3D NEW INT'L DICTIONARY 446 (2002)) (Dictionary definitions of collusion include a secret agreement, secret cooperation for a fraudulent or deceitful purpose, a secret agreement between two or more persons to defraud a person of his rights often by the forms of law, an agreement between parties considered adversaries at the law, and a secret agreement considered illegal for any reason. ).
. Here is where our dissenting colleague misses the mark. The dissent recites Duke Energy's troublesome record of environmental violations. Fair point. But, the question on appeal is not whether Duke Energy violated environmental laws. It did. Rather, the question is what the directorsa majority of whom were independentknew about the violations and whether they ignored them. As we have shown, based on the specific arguments raised on appeal, the plaintiffs have not demonstrated a pleading stage reasonable inference that those directors knew Duke Energy was violating the law and knew from the information presented to the board that the Company ignored the violations.
. Opening Br. at 17.
. Id.
. Id. at 37; App. to Opening Br. at 27071 (ERP, at 89).
. App. to Opening Br. 271 (ERP, at 9).
. Id.
. Id. at 273 (ERP, at 11).
. The plaintiffs' criticisms of the consent decree are like those raised in Tennessee Clean Water Network v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 206 F. Supp. 3d 1280 (M.D. Tenn. 2016), reconsideration denied, 2016 WL 7491625 (Dec. 30, 2016). Conservation organizations sued the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), arguing the State of Tennessee was not diligently prosecuting TVA for CWA violations at a coal-fired power plant. The plaintiffs challenged the pace and aggressiveness of the prosecution, TVA's preference to work with the state agencies instead of facing litigation, and the fact the agreed injunctive order did not itself mandate compliance. Id. at 1239. The court rejected these arguments, holding that comparable delays are not so unusual to give rise to an inference of a lack of diligence, and TVA's preference to work with the state did not amount to a showing of bad faith. Id. at 1294. It also dismissed the claim challenging the effectiveness of the injunction regarding compliance, because the injunction was not a final order, but was subject to further changes. Similarly, as explained above, the plaintiffs' dissatisfaction with the timing and effectiveness of the consent decree or its preference to work with DEQ does not lead to a reasonable inference of bad faith. Id. (quoting Karr v. Hefner, 475 F.3d 1192, 1197 (10th Cir. 2007)) (Section 1365(b)(1)(B) does not require government prosecution to be far-reaching or zealous. It requires only diligence. Nor must an agency's prosecutorial strategy coincide with that of the citizenplaintiff.); see also Williams Pipe Line Co. v. Bayer Corp., 964 F. Supp. 1300, 1324 (S.D. Iowa 1997) (The government agency is not required to succeed by the private party's definition of success.).
. App. to Opening Br. at 380, 418 (Oral Arg. on Def.'s Mot. to Dismiss, at 38, 76 ([Y]ou do need a court to approve it, and no court ever approved it.); id. at 799 (Def.'s Opening Br. on Mot. to Dismiss, at 26).
. Opening Br. at 1415. McCrory was a Duke Energy employee for twenty-eight years. The plaintiffs allege Duke Energy contributed $1.1 million to his campaign for governor. Id. at 15.
. Id. at Ex. B. (Telephonic Rulings, at 13).
. Id. at 15.
. Id. To support this contention, the plaintiffs rely on a New York Times article in which a supervisor stated that [t]hey want a hammer to come down on anybody who hinders developers by enforcing regulations. App. to Opening Br. at 306 (Trip Gabriel, Ash Spill Shows How Watchdog Was Defanged, N.Y. TIMES (Feb. 28, 2014), https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/us/coal-ash-spill-reveals-transformation-of-north-carolinaagency.html).
. Opening Br. at 3441.
. Id. at Ex. B. (Telephonic Rulings, at 16).
. Id.
. Id. at 14. The plaintiffs allege the board was fully apprised of and endorsed of this strategy to evade compliance with positive law. Id. at 2.
. App. to Opening Br. at 244 (Lloyd Yates, Keith Trent, and Dhiaa Jamil, Regulated Utilities Update Presentation, May 1, 2013, at 13).
. Opening Br. at 17.
. The plaintiffs argue the use of quotations marks around the term diligent prosecution was a wink and a nod to directors that DEQ just has to facially appear to be enforcing the law. Id. at 38. However, diligent prosecution is a term of art, and putting the two words in quotation marks is thus unremarkable.
. Id.
. App. to Opening Br. at 26061 (Regulatory Police and Operations Committee Meeting Minutes, May 1, 2013, at 34).
. Opening Br. at 38.
. 141 F. Supp. 3d 428.
. Id. at 44243.
. 33 U.S.C. 1365(b)(1). To determine whether prosecution is diligent, the court must first ask whether, at the time the citizen suit was filed, the EPA or state had commenced a judicial action to enforce the same standard, limitation, or order as the citizen suit. Yadkin, 141 F. Supp. 3d at 440. Here, the parties do not contest that the citizens' groups and DEQ both filed actions for CWA violations at its North Carolina sites; thus, this requirement is met. The court then evaluates whether the EPA or state was diligently prosecuting its enforcement action at the time the citizen suit was filed. Id.
. Id. at 441 (quoting Conn. Fund for the Env't v. Contract Plating Co., 631 F. Supp. 1291, 1293 (D. Conn. 1986)).
. Yadkin, 141 F. Supp. 3d at 442.
. Id.
. Opening Br. at 36.
. Coal Ash Management Act of 2014, N.C. Gen. Stat. 130A-309.200231 (2015) (requiring corrective action to restore groundwater quality, identify, and address unpermitted discharges at its lagoons, and close all lagoons by the year 2029); Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals from Electric Utilities, Final rule, 80 Fed. Reg. 21,302 (Apr. 17, 2015) (to be codified at 40 C.F.R. pts. 257, 261) ([E]stablishes nationally applicable minimum criteria for the safe disposal of coal combustion residuals in landfills and surface impoundments.); id. at 21,303 (stating minimum criteria for location restrictions, liner design criteria, structural integrity requirements, operating criteria, groundwater monitoring and corrective action requirements, closure and post-closure care requirements, and recordkeeping, notification, and internet posting requirements).
. The dissent concludes that the facts as pled support a fair inference that the board was all too aware that Duke's business strategy involving flouting important laws, while employing a strategy of political influence-seeking and cajolement to reduce the risk that the company would be called to fair account.106 These conclusions, however, are not fairly connected to what was actually presented to the board, a majority of whom were independent directors. Instead, the presentations show the board was informed that Duke Energy was aware of environmental violations and had plans to address them, which contradicts the inference that the board knew Duke Energy was flouting the law. As explained before, it is not enough to allege that the Company violated environmental laws and had a cozy relationship with regulators. The plaintiffs must trace that conduct to the board to survive a dismissal motion, which they have not done here. See Brehm, 746 A.2d at 254 (Rule 23.1 is not satisfied by conclusory statements ).
. See, e.g., In re Massey Energy Co., C.A. No. 5430-VCS, 2011 WL 2176479, at *20 (Del. Ch. May 31, 2011) (gathering sources for the proposition that Delaware law does not charter law breakers. Delaware law allows corporations to pursue diverse means to make a profit, subject to a critical statutory floor, which is the requirement that Delaware corporations only pursue lawful business' by lawful acts. As a result, a fiduciary of a Delaware corporation cannot be loyal to a Delaware corporation by knowingly causing it to seek profit by violating the law.); see also 8 Del. C. 101(b) (A corporation may be incorporated or organized under this chapter to conduct or promote any lawful business or purposes ); 8 Del. C. 102(a)(3) (It shall be sufficient to state that the purpose of the corporation is to engage in any lawful act or activity for which corporations may be organized and by such statement all lawful acts and activities shall be within the purposes of the corporation )).
. E.g., In re Cornerstone Therapeutics Inc., 115 A.3d 1173, 117576 (Del. 2015).
. App. to Opening Br. at 7475 (Am. Compl. 3839) (alleging that Officer Defendant Keith Trent in a presentation to Duke's Board of Directors on August 27, 2013, including seventeen of the defendants, explained that seepage was a necessary aspect of the Company's ash ponds because the release of contaminated water was needed to manage [ ] water pressure); id. at 7677 (Am. Compl. 4041) (SELC identified instances of illegal seeps at the Riverbend Steam Station, and [i]n some instances, Duke had even constructed so-called French drain structures to facilitate the flow of this contaminated water out of the coal ash ponds and into surrounding lakes and rivers. SELC tested some of this contaminated water and found it contained arsenic at twice the allowed level, cobalt at 52 times the allowed level, manganese at 128 times the allowed level and iron at 27 times the allowed level.); id. at 10304 (Am. Compl. 6768) (alleging that fourteen of the director defendants knew that the Riverbend facility was literally flooding polluted coal ash water into North Carolina waterways at a rate of 4.9 million gallons per day and that the director defendants were told that the DEQ settlement [for Riverbend and Asheville] would only impose a $99,000 fine to help reinforce[ ] the facade of a diligent prosecution by DEQ, thereby preventing environmental groups from suing Duke to enforce the law).
. Id. at 91 (Am. Compl. 55) (Jeff Lyash, Executive Vice President, Energy Supply, explained at a meeting of the Regulatory Policy and Operations Committee that the Company was violating state and federal laws by making unauthorized discharges of pollution into groundwater and that by December 2012, after a presentation from the RPOC, twelve of the fifteen director defendants and three of the former director defendants knew that: (i) Duke was in violation of the Clean Water Act and North Carolina state law; (ii) Duke's violations posed enormous threats to the Company, the environment and the health of North Carolina citizens; and (iii) third-party litigation could bring the situation to a head by prosecuting Duke for its violations.).
. Id. at 110 (Am. Compl. 74).
. Id. at 269 (Keith Trent, Environmental Review, Aug. 27, 2013, at 7) (Groundwater (GW) monitoring has been conducted since 2007 or before with results submitted to state agencies; exceedances of certain GW standards at all ash ponds Exceedances at most sites are for secondary (non health-based) standards; exceedances at some sites include primary (health-based) standards); id. at 10304 (Am. Compl. 6768) (alleging that this presentation to the board is direct evidence that these Director Defendants knew that Duke's earthen coal ash ponds were discharging polluted coal ash water in violation of the Clean Water Act).
. Id. at 7579 (Am. Compl. 3943) (describing Duke's finding in 2007 of exceedances at all of its ash ponds; state reports in 2009 and 2012 of exceedances at 13 and all 14 of Duke's active coal plants, respectively, in North Carolina; a county report in 2010 of exceedances of arsenic and zinc in Mountain Island Lake, Charlotte's main source of drinking water, near Duke's Riverbend facility; the 2013 reports of two environmental groups that Duke's ash ponds were illegally discharging contaminated water at a rate of 5 gallons per second, sometimes facilitated by drain structures Duke constructed; reports of contaminated groundwater at Duke's Dan River Station between 2011 and 2013, and at Duke's Asheville plant between 2010 and 2012; and DEQ's disclosure of the existence of violations at 14 Duke facilities).
. Id. at 8990 (Am. Compl. 5354) (summarizing articles from the New York Times and the Charlotte Observer reporting, based on internal DEQ emails, that regulators knew as early as 2009 that power plants were operating without stormwater permits; that George Everett, Duke's director of environmental and legislative affairs, met with regulators to discuss the issue in 2011 and 2012 seeking a general landfill permit for its coal ash ponds, a less stringent permit, because it was not subject to the same extended comment period as stormwater permits; and that [a]s a result of Duke's improper influence with DEQ, the issue was permitted to remain unresolved); id. at 132 (Am. Compl. 96) (alleging that by as early as 2011, nine of the defendants utterly failed to implement a system to insure that the Company applied for proper permits for Duke's coal plants, let alone complied with the operational requirements governed by those permits).
. Id. at 9497 (Am. Compl. 5861) (alleging that new Governor Pat McCrory put in place policies to ease environmental regulation and appointed Duke employees to key posts, including the Commerce Secretary) (citing Michael Biesecker & Mitch Weiss, The Big Story: NC Regulators Shielded Duke's Coal Ash Pollution, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 9, 2014, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/nc-regulators-shielded-dukes-coal-ash-pollution (quoting Amy Adams, former DEQ regional director who resigned in protest in November 2013 as observing: Under the new administration, North Carolina has changed the definition of who its customer is from the public and natural resources it is supposed to protect to the industries it regulates. There's been a huge push away from environmental protection toward promoting economic growth.)).
. Id.
. Id. at 9798 (Am. Compl. 6162) (alleging that [t]he purpose of DEQ's suits was to permit Duke to continue to do business as usual and to block SELC from enforcing the Clean Water Act and requiring Duke to clean up its ash ponds. As reflected in Duke's Board materials, the Director Defendants were kept apprised every step of the way on how Duke was colluding with DEQ to abuse the protections afforded citizens under the Clean Water Act and to shield Duke from the consequences of its violations of the Clean Water Act.) (emphasis omitted).
. Id. at 105 (Am. Compl. 69) (quoting the Chief of the EPA's Clean Water Enforcement Branch as stating to DEQ that [t]he consent order's proposed penalty amounts for past violations seems low considering the number of years these facilities are alleged to have been out of compliance). Compare id. at 244 (Lloyd Yates et al., Regulated Utilities Update, May 1, 2013, at 13) (NC has initiated enforcement action against Asheville, which ordinarily deprives environmental groups of right to sue We will be working with NC to resolve Asheville and hopefully address other plants at the same time. We do expect a civil penalty and compliance schedule of tasks, all of which constitute diligent prosecution and bar the environmental groups' citizen suit.) and id. at 270 (Keith Trent, Environmental Review, Aug. 27, 2013, at 7) (Following judicial approval, consent decree would resolve state enforcement litigation against Asheville and Riverbend $99K civil penalties for violations as of July 15, 2013 (reinforces diligent prosecution) Compliance schedule for further delineation) with id. at 100 (Am. Compl. 64) (noting that the proposed consent order assessed a $99,000 fine, $60,200 of which was for coal ash pollution at the Asheville site, but did not include a mandate that the Company clean up the pollution or a requirement that the Company change how it stored toxic substances).
. Id. at 134 (Am. Compl. 98).
. Id. at 7980 (Am. Compl. 4344).
. My colleagues in the majority and I have a good faith disagreement about whether the board's knowledge, as pled in the complaint, is exculpatory under Caremark, their considered view, or in my view, whether that knowledge can and thus must be viewed with more suspicion. The complaint makes particularized allegations that it was a matter of public discussion for many years that Duke walked the line environmentally, that the Duke board knew that was the case and supported continuing that policy, and that the company engaged in extensive efforts to influence the political process to allow the company to escape the need to clean up its act. To my mind, on a motion to dismiss, the plaintiff is entitled to have rational inferences drawn in its favor, and I think it is at least rational to infer from these particularized facts that the Duke directors understood the company's policy was to skirt the environmental laws in pursuit of profits and to hope that they could get away with it by influencing regulators to ignore its non-compliance.
. Id. at 108123 (Am. Compl. 7287).
SEITZ, Justice, for the Majority:
US secretary of state says North Korea must stop threatening behaviour before talks with Washington can resume.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that North Korea must stop its threatening behaviour before diplomatic talks between the two countries can resume.
Tillerson, speaking at the United Nations Security Council in New York on Friday, accused North Korean leader Kim Jong-un of conducting unlawful missile launches and testing activities.
A sustained cessation of North Koreas threatening behaviour must occur before talks can begin, he said, adding: North Korea must earn its way back to the table.
Tillerson had declared the US ready to engage with Pyongyang without precondition, at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, on December 12.
In response to Tillersons comments, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders reiterated that Trumps views on North Korea remain unchanged.
North Korea is acting in an unsafe way North Koreas actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea, she said in a statement to reporters later on December 12.
But, according to Tillerson, the state department and US president were unified in their approach to dealing with the North Korean leader.
The Presidents policy on North Korea is quite clear, and there is no daylight at all between the presidents policy and the pursuit of that policy, he said.
We are going to lead this pressure campaign, were going to unite the international community, and were going to keep the pressure as much as we can and increase it where possible.
That is intended to lead to diplomatic talks. In the meantime, the president has been very clear: Militarily, we are going to be prepared should something go wrong. And our military is prepared.
Fridays session was called after North Korea test-launched its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile yet on November 29.
The missile reached an altitude of 4,500km, with analysts estimating it could fly a distance of 13,000km potentially giving North Korea the ability to strike any part of continental United States with its nuclear weapons.
Trump threatened to impose major sanctions on the communist country following the test.
Just spoke to President XI JINPING of China concerning the provocative actions of North Korea. Additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2017
However, US efforts to encourage fellow UNSC members China and Russia to exert additional pressure beyond existing resolutions on North Korea failed on Friday, with both countries refusing to do so.
Tillerson has said the US would like to see China stop supplying oil to North Korea in order to drive the government in Pyongyang towards diplomatic talks.
Chinese envoy Wu Haitao called for all parties to exercise restraint, and said Beijing is committed to opposing North Koreas pursuit of developing nuclear weapons through the implementation of existing UNSC resolutions.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council that diplomacy is the only pathway to sustainable peace and denuclearisation.
We must do everything we can to reach that objective and avoid a level of danger that would be unpredictable in its trajectory and catastrophic in its consequences, he said.
Pyongyang says it needs a functioning state nuclear force to prevent invasion and plunder by the US, which has 28,500 troops stationed in neighbouring South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Now we know that not only did Hillary Clinton show intent in her handling of classified materials routed through her private server, but that former FBI Director James Comey and his team showed intent in letting her get away with it, to the detriment of American national security.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, in a Thursday letter to current FBI Director Christopher Wray, reveals how edits to Comeys exoneration memo went beyond changing grossly negligent to extremely careless but edited out content that shows the FBI knew Hillary was intentionally in violation of the Espionage Act but that, since the decision to exonerate her had already been made, they had to submit to the annals of history a lie they agreed upon:
Newly released documents obtained by Fox News reveal that then-FBI Director James Comeys draft statement on the Hillary Clinton email probe was edited numerous times before his public announcement, in ways that seemed to water down the bureaus findings considerably. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to the FBI on Thursday that shows the multiple edits to Comeys highly scrutinized statement. In an early draft, Comey said it was reasonably likely that hostile actors gained access to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clintons private email account. That was changed later to say the scenario was merely possible. Another edit showed language was changed to describe the actions of Clinton and her colleagues as extremely careless as opposed to grossly negligent. This is a key legal distinction. Johnson, writing about his concerns in a letter Thursday to FBI Director Christopher Wray, said the original could be read as a finding of criminality in Secretary Clintons handling of classified material. This effort, seen in light of the personal animus toward then-candidate Trump by senior FBI agents leading the Clinton investigation and their apparent desire to create an insurance policy against Mr. Trumps election, raise profound questions about the FBIs role and possible interference in the 2016 presidential election and the role of the same agents in Special Counsel Muellers investigation by President Trump, Johnson said.
Indeed, this does raise profound questions. Coupled with the text messages of lead investigator, FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who has become known as the Zelig of the FBI who mysteriously appeared at every controversial moment, expressing clear intent to prevent the election of Donald Trump, we have before us a criminal conspiracy in which the most powerful law enforcement agency on this planet conspired with one political party to defeat the candidate of the other:
The letter reveals specific edits made by senior FBI agents when Deputy Director Andrew McCabe exchanged drafts of Comey's statement with senior FBI officials, including Peter Strzok, Strzok's direct supervisor, E.W. "Bill" Priestap, Jonathan Moffa, and an unnamed employee from the Office of General Counsel (identified by Newsweek as DOJ Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson) - in what was a coordinated conspiracy among top FBI brass to decriminalize Clinton's conduct by changing legal terms and phrases, omitting key information, and minimizing the role of the Intelligence Community in the email investigation. Doing so virtually assured that then-candidate Hillary Clinton would not be prosecuted.
Imagine what was at stake here. If the FBI had just followed the evidence where it led and drew the obvious conclusions, Hillary Clinton would have been indicted, the Democratic Party would have been irreparably shattered, with Donald Trump wining in a popular vote as well as electoral vote landslide. This, in the view of a corrupted and politicized FBI had to be prevented at all costs and the Comey memo had to be sanitized before its release:
In addition to Strzok's "gross negligence" --> "extremely careless" edit, McCabe's damage control team removed a key justification for elevating Clinton's actions to the standard of "gross negligence" -- that being the "sheer volume" of classified material on Clinton's server. In the original draft, the "sheer volume" of material "supports an inference that the participants were grossly negligent in their handling of that information." Furthermore, the FBI edited Comey's statement to downgrade the probability that Clinton's server was hacked by hostile actors, changing their language from "reasonably likely" to "possible" -- an edit which eliminated yet another justification for the phrase "Gross negligence." To put it another way, "reasonably likely" means the probability of a hack due to Clinton's negligence is above 50 percent, whereas the hack simply being "possible" is any probability above zero.
Strzok provided the motive for these activities to cover up the guilt of Hillary Clinton, activities which constitute obstruction of justice in text messages between him and his mistress and fellow FBI Agent Lisa Page: While everybody was predicting a Hillary victory, Strzok had his doubts and elevated himself to the status of savior of America, requiring that Trump be stopped at all costs, with this end justifying any and all means:
Out of all the damning, politically charged anti-Trump text messages released, one text from Strzok to Page on August 15, 2016, raised the most suspicion. It referred to a conversation and a meeting that had just taken place in "Andy's" (widely believed to be Deputy FBI Dir. Andrew McCabe's) office. According to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Strzok had texted this: "I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy's office [break]... that there's no way he gets elected. I want to believe that... But I'm afraid we can't take that risk... We have to do something about it." In another text, Page said: "maybe youre meant to stay where you are because youre meant to protect the country from that menace." Strzok replied: "I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps." "This goes to intent," Jordan said. "We can't take the risk that the people of this great country might elect Donald Trump. We can't take this risk. This is Peter Strzok, head of counterintelligence at the FBI. This is Peter Strzok, who I think had a hand in that dossier that was all dressed up and taken to the FISA court. He's saying, 'we can't take the risk, we have to do something about it.'"
What they tried to do about it is called obstructing justice and using the powers of their offices to interfere in a presidential election to materially aid the candidate of their choice. As Rep. Jordan notes, we face the probable reality of a dossier concocted by Russians, paid for by Team Hillary and the DNC, being used to fraudulently trick the FISA court to order surveillance of one campaign to the benefit of the other campaign. The politically motivated unmasking of Michael Flynn dovetails with this criminal conspiracy and explains much about the true purpose of Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe, which ignores Hillarys collusion with Russia in Uranium One but indicts a Trump adviser for misremembering a legal phone call.. Can anyone say collusion? Then we face the prospect of a weaponized FBI becoming a campaign arm of the Hillary campaign.
We see now the method in the madness of the tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and AG Loretta Lynch, why the FBI issued immunity agreements to Clinton cronies such as Cheryl Mills, never empanelled a grand jury, started drafting an exoneration agreement before witnesses were interviewed, and failed to put Hillary under oath in an interview that James Comey did not attend. The fix was in
One can only hope that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not asleep at the switch but rather just keeping a low profile as he methodically puts together a damning case of criminal conspiracy, obstruction of justice and, yes, gross negligence prior to an avalanche of indictments starting with Hillary Clinton and working its way down the food chain to include James Comey, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe and many others.
Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investors Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
I have a theory. It is not that the scales have fallen from our eyes about sexual harassment. Its that the cultural left has run out of game. Without game, it cant pass off sleazy exploitation as something else. Neo-avant-gardist art, brand-leveraged politics, deconstructionist philosophy, spectacle, fashion, the Lacanian Real - - none of these are any longer up to the task. Transgressive politics are dead. Worse, theyre boring. Even the New York Timess Andrew Sullivan and Ross Douthat are rooting for the baker, penning their sudden doubts about the rectitude of humiliating devout Christians for sport.
So the up-and-coming phrase in town, ladies and gentlemen, is situational ethics. It denotes, I believe, the idea that there is one ultimate truth about women who claim they have been assaulted, progressives have a monopoly in it, and if conservatives arent sufficiently obsequious, they are colluding. The values of anyone who dissents are, moreover, disgusting to the exact degree they deviate from progressive verities. What is interesting to note, amid the current jubilee of raucously righteous self-congratulation, is that this idea marks off yet another area of discourse that cant be contradicted or demurred to. To disagree is to condone. It is, in other words, shorthand for political correctness. It is political correctness, on Viagra.
In a parallel universe in which Harvey Weinstein was a courtly gentleman respectful of women, you could imagine the whole Al Franken in flagrante delicto thing going a different way. You could, for example, imagine some postmodernist theorist arguing that the photograph in which he appears to be grabbing a sleeping Leann Twedens breasts is a statement about the demolition of the female gaze. Or it is about trespass and agency, or the hegemonic contingency of raw presence.
Im making this up. But then, again, that doesnt mean it isnt true. (Hows that for a postmodern twist?) Consider Richard Prince, one of the highest-priced artists working today. Hardly a day goes by when news of another record-breaking sale of one of his paintings at Sothebys or Christies isnt delivered by Google Alerts into my inbox. Yet few people talk about how this cultural mascot made his bones, or if they do, it is in heroic terms. In the 1980s, he cheaply licensed a nude picture of Brooke Shields, taken when she was ten years old, by the professional photographer Garry Gross. She stands in a bathtub, her heavily made-up eyes looking with incongruous seductiveness into the camera, her prepubescent body lathered in oil. (I wont link to it but you can easily find it on the internet.) Prince displayed this shocking artifact of parental ambition gone awry in a storefront gallery in the East Village, below the title Spiritual America. Later, after Prince had become famous for rephotography, Londons Tate Modern had to remove the picture from a projected exhibition on orders from Scotland Yard. This year, the picture was exhibited by Oberlin students in an exhibition titled (you cant make this stuff up) CAPTURING THE BODY: Ownership and Resistance in Visual Culture.
Heres the real fault with moral equivalence. It ignores the structural underpinnings of wrongdoing. All alleged sexual molesters arent equal. All publicized incidents arent identical. All lies do not harm to the same degree, nor harness the same level of credulity and indignation among people with varying histories and experiences. This is a good thing. It is why we have juries. It is why pre-Internet political scientists applauded cross-cutting cleavages, countervailing influences on the electorate from a variety of differently situated secondary groups. The elites who are riding the #MeToo momentum seem to forget this. They would impose their own made-up, spuriously universal measure in determining culpability. Credible seems to be the latest one in todays pop-up court of public remonstrance. Absent rules of evidence, what does this mean, anyway? And who but columnists with their own agendas benefit most from perpetuating vague standards they defend in lawyerly manner without fear of rebuttal?
Indubitably, people in power err. They cross lines, they sin, they act out. Some feel they are entitled to do it with impunity. Others - - like a partner at one of the corporate worlds top law firms I once worked with - - have phobias and fixations that drive them over and over again to stage idiosyncratic sexual encounters with unwilling or reluctant bystanders. (These repetitious, squalid encounters are the real pornographic fantasy - - not the X-rated ones superannuated spies invent in opposition-research dossiers or Rorschach readings of the presidents tweets a la Elizabeth Warren.) Whether the miscreant is Democrat or Republication makes no difference. The behavior is sordid and inexcusable, at its mildest, outright annoying. Nonetheless, there is an essential difference between the right and the left on this score. Only the left is infatuated with sexual aberration. As the Richard Prince example shows, intentional perversity is the fundamental pursuit of its intellectual system.
Democrats will do anything to win, including campaigning against obscenities that their culture manifestly exalts. Republicans seem to need exculpation, with or without cause. So, moral purity now plays with constituencies of both the right and left. In that vein, some outspoken conservative pundits are gloating over Roy Moores defeat. But do they consider the consequences going forward of their disparaging the principles of due process?
Off the bat, one such consequence is that hysteria breeds overregulation. Already Samuel Estreicher, a law professor at New York University, is calling for independent audits by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of potential corporate sexual misconduct. No complainant would need come forward to trigger such audits, which would be at the discretion of the agency. Just what the world needs: another freelancing IRS. If such extra-legal oversight comes to pass, certain conservatives - - we all know who they are - - will have played their part.
Something else we can look forward to: a political discourse monomaniacally focused on sexual vigilantism. As a society, we couldve used the Weinstein revelations as impetus to examine what lies behind Hollywoods perfect bodies and decaying tropes. Instead of the #MeToo movement, we could have studied how to build better institutional self-monitoring and cultures of compliance so that victims wouldnt feel as afraid to come forward. (The financial services industry has done it.) We could have probed the role of those who keep quiet about the Office Creep, or are actively and collectively complicit in his depredations. We could have interrogated the mechanisms of memory and ways both men and women use sexuality to advance their ambitions. Who knows, we might even have been able to broach the possibility that women who willingly exploit their sexuality, indeed, make a virtue of their whoring (and then cry foul at slut-shaming), have fundamentally different interests than ones who dont.
We could have done all of this. We could have actually learned something. Instead we get robotic pronouncements on good and evil.
What might Robespierre, The Incorruptible have been thinking after he attempted suicide only to leave the job unfinished? The man who managed the Terror of the French Revolution succeeded only in shattering the jaw that had enabled his rabble-rousing speeches. He then faced the very mobs he had impassioned. But in the end, they hustled him to the guillotine.
Thomas Carlyle described Robespierres last moments:
"All eyes are on Robespierre's Tumbril, where he, his jaw bound in dirty linen, with his half-dead Brother, and half-dead Henriot, lie shattered; their 'seventeen hours' of agony about to end. The Gendarmes point their swords at him, to shew the people which is he. A woman springs on the Tumbril; clutching the side of it with one hand; waving the other Sibyl-like; and exclaims: 'The death of thee gladdens my very heart, m'enivre de joie;' Robespierre opened his eyes; 'Scelerat, go down to Hell, with the curses of all wives and mothers!' -- At the foot of the scaffold, they stretched him on the ground till his turn came. Lifted aloft, his eyes again opened; caught the bloody axe. Samson wrenched the coat off him; wrenched the dirty linen from his jaw: the jaw fell powerless, there burst from him a cry; -- hideous to hear and see." The truth is that the architect of the Terror perished deluded, still thinking of himself as incorruptible -- perfect in vision and actions. A reconstructed death mask shows him as he was in real life, pockmarked and malevolent; not at all the handsome, blemish-free young man portrayed done by propagandists of the time.
Sic semper tyrannis, be it Robespierre still shouting curses at the corruptibles he wished to exterminate or his ideological heir Stalin, who, while dying of a stroke and lying in his own urine, still was convinced he was invincibly incorruptible. Both believed themselves justified in exterminating enemies in order the perfect revolution be achieved. Theirs was a righteous persecution for a righteous cause. As Robespierre stated, Terror is nothing more than justice, prompt, secure, and inflexible. It is therefore an emanation of virtue.
The demand for complete purity actualized by terror always turns lethal.
No one can ever live up to the ideals required of the incorruptible citizen or the perfect comrade. Any given person is guilty as charged by the more discerning and the unpolluted radicals, qualified as they believe themselves to be to deliver the sentence of death; death to enemies real or perceived being seen as the necessary gateway to utopia.
How did Robespierre and his allies attain the power to deliver death sentences to whomever they wished?
They succeeded the way the Left has always succeeded and still succeeds.
They jettisoned the structures of the society in which they lived, destroying the old institutions (rather than reforming them), and substituting new ones they had dreamed up. Their new structures were intended to destroy the old foundations of state and Church while giving the revolutionaries the power to dispose of their enemies.
Together with his allies, Robespierre developed a legal basis for the Terror.
The Law of Suspects ordered the arrest of persons suspected of opposing the revolution. It was followed by a Decree on Emergency Government, which ditched the French Constitution and individual rights. Completing the coup was the Law of Frimaire, which essentially handed over all power to Robespierre and his comrades ensconced in the Committee for Public Safety. Topping off the whole was the attempt to create a substitute for Catholicism, one that demanded allegiance to the new state religion honoring the Supreme Being.
The Committee of Public Safetys The Law of Suspects became a template followed almost to the letter by the Left in the Democratic Party, as well as much academia and the media. Robespierre was quite clear about just who suspects were:
The following are deemed suspects: i. those who, by their conduct, associations, comments, or writings have shown themselves partisans of tyranny or federalism and enemies of liberty; ii. those who are unable to justify, in the manner prescribed by the decree of March 21st, their means of existence and the performance of their civic duties; iii. those to whom certificates of patriotism have been refused. The Committee also included civil servants not aligned with the Revolution as well as well all members of the aristocracy (their extended families included) who did not constantly demonstrate their devotion to the Revolution. Any who had fled France in 1789 were deemed enemies. If there were additional enemies, the newly established Surveillance Committees would be responsible for drawing up lists of suspects, with issuing warrants of arrest against them, and with placing their papers under seal.
Have the tactics of the Left changed since the establishment of the Terrors dictatorial Committee for Public Safety? In fact, it is abundantly clear that all aspects of Robespierres new order were and still are part and parcel of the agenda of the Left wherever it is found.
Isnt it clear the rule of law in America is increasingly disposable when it comes to mob and media justice and the decrees of secret committees and tribunals which are authorities unto themselves? This is to say nothing of sanctuary cities whose leaders have essentially established duchies with their own set of rules.
Title IX was and still is used to deny due process to college and university men accused of assaulting women. Similar in-house tribunals have proliferated throughout academia at large.
Workplace show trials for inappropriate behavior or speech have long been standard, with sensitivity seminars dictating elaborate codes of conduct and language. Transgressors are either fired or forced to repent.
Secret examinations and punishment doled out by a few in power in academia have resulted in cases like that of Canadian teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd. She was berated and interrogated for showing a few minutes of a Jordan Peterson tape in which he protested against anyone being forced to use transgender pronouns.
Without the rule of law and due process to establish the guilt or innocence of the hundreds of powerful men who are accused of sexual assault, who is to know just who is really guilty?
When the media and the mob rule, no one is exempt from accusation and condemnation. Mass hysteria is no impartial judge of the facts.
John Kekes excellent article in City Journal, Why Robespierre Chose Terror, notes the results of mass hysteria. He quotes J.M. Thompson:
The result of this climate of hysteria was Robespierres Decree of the 22nd Prairial. It expressed in principle the views of the whole Committee. The Committee was fanatical enough to approve, and the Convention powerful enough to enforce, as a New Model of Republican justice . . . a law which denied to prisoners the help of counsel, made it possible for the court to dispense with witnesses, and allowed no sentence except acquittal or execution; a law which, at the same time, defined crimes against the state in such wide terms that the slightest indiscretion might bring one within the article of death. To any right-minded or merciful man such procedure must seem a travesty of justice. (Italics mine.)
The basis of Robespierres ideology was not reason or facts but angry passion, an ideological anger that justified the execution of many innocents in order the perfect Revolution be established. He never looked back, not even at the end. He never asked if he was wrong because he thought his vision was incorruptible. He did not ask if terror should overrule facts, because facts might get in the way of quickly actualizing the revolution. He would make the world fit his vision by any means necessary.
Does the above not also characterize the Left in all its manifestations?
How ironic that in America, the sexual revolution begun in the 60s, based on passion and the freedom to exhibit passion in any time and way as long as the thin reed of consent was leaned on, now has turned in on itself. But that is what happens when rage is the basis of justice. That is what happens when extremes of feeling completely replace the rule of law based on reason and revelation.
When the ideological fever rises to a temperature similar to that of the Terror, guilt or innocence does not really matter -- in fact, the very concepts have been drowned out by the screams of the mob. Only raw emotion and power matter. Only ideological purity matters.
Perhaps, knowing the fate before him would be one of the living dead no matter what he did or didnt do, that is why Dan Johnson, a lawyer in Kentucky accused of sexual assault, committed suicide.
Perhaps Johnson knew, as did Robespierre at the end, the verdict of the mob would be death -- of one kind or another, be it actual or a living death.
We dont know for sure.
But death in one form or another is always what happens when mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
The current hysteria must be opposed and halted. The rule of law and due process must be re-established. Otherwise, we may find the country taking a path to The Terror -- American style.
Fay Voshell is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. Her thoughts have appeared in many other online magazines. She may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com.
Lenin famously said, "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them," and the mullahs of Iran are putting his dictum to work. Billions of dollars and thousands of jobs are at stake, as Iran seeks to re-equip its fleet of airliners with at least 180 new birds, and Boeing and Airbus for a piece of the pie. Adam Kredo reports in the Free Beacon:
Executives from major airplane manufacturers Boeing and AirBus will reportedly head to Iran next week to hammer down multi-billion dollar deals to sell the Islamic Republic a new fleet of commercial planes amid a congressional crackdown on Tehran's continued use of commercial aircraft to transport weapons and terrorist fighters across the region. As controversy continues to swirl around Boeing's and AirBus's efforts to sell Iran a fleet of new jets, Congress has taken steps to mandate the U.S. government release public reports outlining Tehran's continued use of commercial aircraft for illicit terrorism purposes. Boeing, whose principal law firm, Perkins Coie, served as a cutout in hiring Fusion GPS on behalf of the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign, faces more difficulty in closing the deal than it would have if the campaign sabotage had been more effective in defeating Trump. Included in the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, a mammoth yearly funding bill for America's defense priorities, is a requirement that the U.S. government begin providing Congress with an annual report on Iran's use of commercial aircraft for illicit purposes. The effort, lawmakers told the Free Beacon, is meant to highlight the danger of deals being pursued by Boeing and AirBus. "Iran Air has been using their sanctions relief money from Obama's nuclear deal to fly weapons, material, and fighters directly into Syria," Sen. David Perdue (R., Ga.), the architect of the new effort, told the Free Beacon. "We need a closer look into how Iran is propping up the murderous Assad regime," Perdue said. "As President Trump determines how it will proceed with regard to these commercial aircraft sales, a new reporting requirement included in the defense bill he signed into law today will help give us a better look at Iran's nefarious behavior." Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.), who spearheaded the reporting requirement in the House, told the Free Beacon that Boeing and AirBus executives should not be holding meetings with Iran's hardline regime. "The reports of Boeing and Airbus executives traveling to Tehran to sell aircraft to the Iranian regime's airliner are outrageous," Roskam said. "In the past month, IRGC-backed forces have threatened to attack U.S. forces in Iraq and Iran's military leadership has threatened Europe with ballistic missiles. No American company should be doing business with this regime, let alone be selling militarily-fungible jets to the terror-supporting transport-arm of the IRGC." The State Department would not directly comment on potential licenses that may or may not be granted to Boeing, but told the Free Beacon that Iran's use of commercial aircraft for terror purposes is extremely concerning.
It is hard to see what the mullahs could do to assuage this concern other than promise to be good boys.
The Trump administration will not grant any license to sell Iran commercial aircraft unless it can be concretely proven they will not be used for illicit operations. "We do not comment on individual OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] specific licenses, but the administration's position is clear: We will not issue export licenses unless we are convinced the aircraft will be used exclusively for civilian passenger aviation," a State Department official told the Free Beacon.
I suspect that Airbus might be willing to accept such promises. In which case, expect massive protests over high-paying aircraft assembly jobs being shifted overseas to Airbus.
Of course, roughly a third of the value of an average Airbus commercial airliner comes from the United States. Critical systems, such as avionics, are not available elsewhere in some cases. The United States could theoretically embargo the sale of such components to Iran if push comes to shove. But there would be blowback from that decision, possibly encouraging substitution of non-American components, even at the cost of performance.
Iran's civil aviation has suffered under the embargo that lasted until the Obama Iran deal shipped pallets of cash and freed up a hundred-plus billion dollars' worth of assets for use by Tehran. Iran is a large country and needs airliners in order to carry on business and family life. The Iranians have kept ancient airliners flying (and attracted foreign plane-spotters) by buying used parts on the aftermarket to keep them airworthy. That is both expensive and risky. Cranky Flier is but one of many aviation buffs who have made fun of the vintage of Iran's fleet and the promise of new planes:
The economics of airliner manufacturing makes extra volume very profitable. Once the fixed development costs have been recouped, and as the per plane costs of manufacturing decline ("the "experience curve") with increasing volume, additional sales become highly lucrative. Iran is likely to buy airliners already in wide use and therefore especially profitable for the manufacturers.
Keep your eyes on this drama. And remember that Boeing makes billions off of national defense in addition to its commercial airliner business. More threats mean more defense business, and unless the mullahs are trustworthy, more airliners for Tehran means more threats. In other words, a booming market in rope, as Lenin put it.
Hat tip: Bryan Demko
They are still embroiled in an electoral mess down in Honduras. It promises to go on for a bit longer, according to news reports:
The question is whether the United States is willing to overlook a possibly fraudulent election to ensure that outcome. President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a conservative hoping to win a second term, has been a willing partner on the concerns that matter most to the United States. And as he increased control over every branch of the government since his election in 2013, no objections were raised from the Obama or Trump administrations not even when his handpicked Supreme Court justices found a circuitous way to lift the prohibition on running for re-election. How well the White House navigates a resolution of the contested election may not only affect Honduran democracy but also could resound across the region, where elections are scheduled over the next year in seven countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia.
Is it really a challenge or not?
The U.S. is in a no-win situation here.
The U.S. could challenge the legality of the Supreme Court's decision, but that would be referred to as an intervention in another country's election. After all, what would we be saying if another country had opined about Bush v. Gore in 2000? Wouldn't we be saying "stay out of our business"?
The second problem is that the left in Latin America will use this election to say that the president of Honduras is a puppet of the U.S. That's unfair, but who ever said the left is fair?
So we will continue to watch the marches and protests. My guess is that they will eventually end, but the damage to Honduras will be profound.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
To hear the media tell it, tax cuts are Bad For You and you won't like the result. Pay no attention to the fact that the cost of living is up, the government is bigger, incomes have stagnated, large corporations are no longer creating jobs, and the U.S. hasn't had a major tax cut since 1986. Somehow, we are all supposed to believe tax cuts which put more of our own money in our pockets, will make us ... miserable.
It's the most fallacious collection of up-is-down arguments ever assembled. Pity when the press doesn't have facts to go on, I suppose. And the Democrat dominance of rule-by-redistribution and subsidy is threatened. So here is a handy-dandy abbreviated guide to some of the rubbish being bandied about on the airwaves and print since they won't stop:
1. Tax cuts won't do anything for the economy
The Washington Post follows this line:
First, the bill is unlikely to generate sustain 3 percent growth, let alone 4 percent. The overwhelming expectation of economists is that there will be a "modest" pick up in growth, but it won't last long given America's aging population. Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs predicts growing soaring to nearly 3 percent for a year or two and then falling back down.
What's stupid about this argument is that economists have been consistently wrong about this claim. Anyone remember the Reagan boom? Tax cuts triggered far greater growth than economists forecast then. And you probably don't remember it, but the cognoscenti in 1979 said the Chilean Model of private social security accounts would fail, too. They didn't - they gave Chileans 7% to 9% average compounded interest over the life of workers who saved in its market-based mechanisms - and huge retirement payouts with no dependence on bankrupt government coffers. Heck, anyone remember the doomsaying that accompanied Donald Trump's election? They said the markets would take a dive there, too. And they didn't. Stocks skyrocketed enough to put Paul Krugman into a puddle of tears, or at least, make him look like an ignorant boob. Bottom line: free market policies work beyond expectations every time you try them.
2. Tax cuts will increase the deficit
CNBC likes to pursue this one:
The final Republican tax bill would expand budget deficits by more than $1.4 trillion over a decade, according to a "very preliminary" analysis by the congressional scorekeeper Joint Committee on Taxation. It would mean the GOP plan slips under the maximum $1.5 trillion it is allowed to add to the deficit under rules set by the Senate earlier this year.
Two problems: The analysis relies on a static analysis that one dollar in your pocket is one dollar less in the government's pocket. The reality is, much of the money in consumer hands will go on to investments which in turn will create more businesses which in turn will expand the tax base, at least in states with business-creation-friendly policies such as Texas, Indiana and North Carolina. It also ignores that the government is capable of cutting costs if it's forced into it. It doesn't always have to expand and President Trump has shown a strong understanding of this issue and will probably act. Government on the whole spends cash less efficiently than individuals who know it's their own money. The other problem is that government forecasts have a long record of being wrong, starting with the Nightmare of Obamacare and how its vast spending mechanisms ballooned the deficit. The New York Times insists the analyses it cites do take into account a non-static analysis. As for that, see point one above.
3. The tax cuts aren't sufficient.
According to NBC News, the whole tax cut package is just awful because it's not big enough and not everyone will get all of it:
The new child tax credit will be $2,000, same as in the Senate bill, but a maximum of $1,400 will be refundable against payroll taxes versus $1,100 earlier. But not everyone is entitled to the full $1,400, which scales up with income. "Ten million children in low-income working families will get nothing from the last-minute changes to the GOP tax bill's child tax credit increase and as a result will get just a token increase of $75 or less per family," Chye-Ching Huang, director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in an e-mail. "Another 14 million will continue to get less than the bill's full CTC increase."
First of all, the child tax refund credit, which hands out $1,400 to people who don't make enough to pay any taxes anyway, isn't a tax, a tax cut, or any sort of refund: It's redistribution, a subsidy, and from working taxpayers who pay taxes to people who work but don't make enough to pay taxes. To howl that they aren't getting enough is fallacious because they've crossed that line of paying any tax and can't get a tax cut from nothing. What they are getting, even the supposedly horrific free $75, is gravy.
4. The tax cuts benefit 'wealthy heirs.'
NBC News again, citing the reduction of the death tax and laying the baloney on thick:
The starting point for the estate tax would be doubled under the bill from the current $5.5 million for single filers. This benefits wealthy heirs, but goes less far than the House bill, which would have eliminated the estate tax entirely. President Donald Trump's family might have saved over $1 billion on their own if that change had gone into effect.
First of all, the truly wealthy heirs have had this number for a long time now and know how to get around it. But an $11 million business passed on to heirs isn't a corporate empire, it's a small dry cleaning business, a family farm, or a plumbing contractor. The left has no idea what things cost and so imagine that these small stakeholdings built of sweat and labor are places full of idle lordlings and princelings. In reality, they are the people who can't pass on their businesses to their sons or daughters because of the punitiveness of the estate or death taxes, meaning everything they have worked to build up gets lost to the government when they die. The superrich have had tax shelters to get around this but not the smaller entrepreneurs. Now the smaller businesses get a tad of relief - and smaller businesses can become bigger businesses, hiring more people at higher wages.
5. Charities will suffer:
This one is being pushed by the New York Times as well as the Washington Post. The Times reports:
The final legislation roughly doubles the standard tax deduction, to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples. A higher standard deduction means fewer taxpayers will itemize their deductions on their tax returns, reducing the incentive to give to charities. Currently, only taxpayers who itemize meaning, they detail gifts to charity and other spending on their returns may deduct contributions.
The WaPo headline:
The Republican tax plan will make it more expensive to donate to your church
(As if leftists really cared about supporting churches.)
The problem here is that it assumes most charity is given by fat cats who deduct. With Christian and other faiths' doctine emphasizing charitable duties by all, there are millions who give without taking any deduction due to the amounts being too small. Maybe charities now can focus on those people instead of just a few fatcat donors and become worthy of being called charities once again. Right now, they are just tax vehicles for well-heeled NGOs who serve themselves first from the spoils. But more to the point, good economies mean lots of money to give to charity. People give to charities because they want to, not solely because of tax deductions. When the boomtimes happen, the charity cash rolls in.
The bottom line is, tax cuts are great. They put more money in your pocket. They create more jobs. They help everyone directly and indirectly. They give more choices and freedoms. They force the government to get smaller and more efficient.
In short, they make America great again. Let's roll.
The latest data from Homeland Security show that there has been a sharp increase in the number of illegal aliens crossing the southwest border of the U.S.
Almost 40,000 illegals were caught trying to cross the border last month, up 12% since October and more than twice the number from last March.
Washington Times:
Homeland Security said overall things are still an improvement over the worst years of President Obama. "Under President Trump, illegal immigration has declined dramatically over the last year," said spokesman Tyler Q. Houlton. But he said more needs to be done, and said action needs to come from Capitol Hill. "The administration is working tirelessly to secure the border, enhance interior enforcement and establish a merit-based immigration system. But we need Congress to act immediately to close immigration loopholes, fund the border wall, terminate outdated visa programs and provide the necessary tools for DHS officials to carry out their mission," Mr. Houlton said. The 39,006 people caught in November included 29,086 caught by the Border Patrol, and 9,920 who tried to come through official ports of entry without permission. The total is still less than 2015 or 2016, but is more than 2012, 2013 or 2014, signaling a return to Obama-era levels of illegal immigration on the border. Just last week the Trump administration crowed over its gains, pointing to a nearly 30 percent decline in people being caught at the border compared to the previous year. But they did say they were "very concerned" by the latest trends, which have been born out in Friday's numbers. CBP officials said cartels have figured out how to "exploit legal and policy loopholes" in the U.S. to get illegal immigrants into the country and give them a chance to blend into the shadows.
There are several possible explanations for the surge. The threat of increased enforcement could be driving some of the increase. The prospect of a wall going up on the border may also be a spur to illegal immigration.
But a likely culprit for the increase is that the border patrol is losing agents faster than it can replace them. This despite the president's goal of hiring 5,000 more agents.
More than 900 agents leave each year on average but the Border Patrol only hires an average of 523 a year, the Government Accountability Office said in a broad survey of staffing and deployment challenges at the key border law enforcement agency. The law requires the agency to have a minimum of 21,370 agents on board, but it had just 19,500 agents as of May. That's an even bigger problem when stacked up against President Trump's call for hiring 5,000 more agents, to reach a workforce of 26,370.
Fewer agents patrolling the border means that the mules who are leading groups of illegals into the U.S. can find unguarded or lightly guarded routes that gives them a bigger chance of success.
The surge in illegal crossings makes a stronger political case for the president's campaign promise to build a wall. Congress has yet to authorize any money to construct the barrier, with Democrats promising to shut down the government rather than appropriate any money for the wall.
On Monday, four U.S. senators publicly suggested that President Trump resign from office because of alleged, but unproven, sexual harassment claims against him. Tuesday, the drumbeat against the president continued, with comments from a Hawaiian senator and a suggestion from a caucus of over fifty congresswomen that Congress investigate the claims.
It seems that all of our elected politicians need to be reminded of the four-hundred-year old European proverb, "people who live in a glass house shouldn't throw stones."
These senators and congressmen and congresswomen work in a big glass house so rife with cracks from sexual harassment and misogyny claims, with more on the way, that it is about to fall in on itself.
Senate Democrats and millions of Democratic voters, mostly women, who elected President Clinton set the bar for triggering outrage for presidential sexual harassment and misogyny by not demanding Clinton's resignation for his harassment of numerous women.
Now the Democratic political geniuses, by eating their own requiring that Representative John Conyers and Senator Al Franken resign want the American public to accept the notion that now that Donald Trump is president and the Clinton years are long over and forgotten, they can established new standards and penalties for sexual harassment. And that we should now all join in and apply the new Democrat-defined standards to this president. This is a variation on a "bait and switch" tactic that will have much shorter legs than the get-rid-of-Trump with the Russian-election-meddling ploy.
Unless those politicians suggesting that the President Trump resign will:
(1) demand that the Clintons, in settlement under the new Democrat standards of William Clinton's harassment of women since retroactive resignation is not possible donate the total sum of monies now amassed in the 1997 William J. Clinton Foundation to unaffiliated non-political charities; and
(2) demand that Mrs. Hillary Clinton publicly announce that her husband, William Clinton, was, in fact, a congenital sexual harasser and misogynist and that she publicly denied his prurient activities purely for political purposes,
...they need to save their outrage for their colleagues in the Congress and try to keep their glass house from imploding.
Supreme Court of Texas. CITY OF KRUM, TEXAS, Petitioner, v. Taylor RICE, Respondent No. 17-0081 Decided: December 15, 2017
This interlocutory appeal arises from respondent Taylor Rice's suit contesting the validity of a sex offender residency restrictions ordinance enacted by petitioner, the City of Krum. Krum presents issues regarding Rice's standing to bring this suit and the trial court's jurisdiction over a civil challenge to an allegedly penal ordinance. We do not reach these issues, however, because Rice's claims were rendered moot during the pendency of the appeal. Accordingly, we vacate the judgments of the court of appeals and the trial court, and we dismiss the case as moot.
In 2014, Rice pled guilty to sexual assault of a fourteen-year-old. Rice agreed to deferred adjudication community supervision, the terms of which barred him from going within 1,000 feet of a premise where children commonly gather, including a playground, until 2024. Rice also had to register as a sex offender under Article 62 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. At the time, the City of Krum had in place a sex offender residency restrictions ordinance (SORRO) prohibiting registered sex offenders who had committed violations involving minors under the age of sixteen from residing within 2,000 feet of any premises where children commonly gather.
Before his arrest, Rice lived in Krum with his parents, whose house is seventy-seven feet from the Krum Municipal Park. Following his guilty plea, the SORRO barred Rice from living in that house, and the terms of his community supervision prohibited him from even going there. Nonetheless, Rice returned to his parents' house after his release, and he alleges that Krum police officers ordered him to vacate the residence under threat of enforcement of the SORRO. Rice sued Krum in 2015, challenging the SORRO's validity on the ground that, as a general-law city, Krum lacked the authority to pass such an ordinance. His alleged harm was that he wished to live with his parents or to establish his residence at another location within the City of Krum prohibited by [the] SORRO. Krum filed a plea to the jurisdiction, arguing that Rice lacked standing to sue. The trial court denied Krum's plea, and Krum filed an interlocutory appeal.
On appeal, Krum continued to challenge Rice's standing, arguing that his claimed injury was not traceable to Krum or the SORRO because the terms of his community supervision already prevented him from living at his parents' house. Krum also argued that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to hear Rice's civil challenge to the SORRO, which Krum contended was a penal ordinance. A divided court of appeals affirmed the order denying Krum's plea to the jurisdiction. 508 S.W.3d 808 (Tex. App.Fort Worth 2016). The court held that Rice had standing because the restriction in Krum's SORRO (2,000 feet from a place where children gather) was broader than that of Rice's community supervision (1,000 feet from such a place). Id. at 820. The court concluded that Rice's alleged general desire to live somewhere in Krum that violated the SORRO was enough to establish an injury, as the SORRO was the only restriction in effect between 1,000 feet and 2,000 feet from a place where children gather. Id. Further, the court interpreted the SORRO as a civil or regulatory ordinance in its intent and effect despite its penal language. Id. at 818.
Krum filed a petition for review in this Court reiterating its jurisdictional arguments. While Krum's petition was pending, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 1111, which enables general-law municipalities to prohibit registered sex offenders from going near child safety zones as defined in the statute. Act of May 26, 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., ch. 997, 3, 2017 Tex. Sess. Law Serv. 4027 (codified at Tex. Local Gov't Code 341.906). The statute's effective date was September 1, 2017. Id. 5, 2017 Tex. Sess. Law Serv. at 4028. Among other things, the statute also caps the distance of any restrictions at 1,000 feet and requires an exemption for persons who established residence within a restricted zone before the effective date of the relevant ordinance. Tex. Local Gov't Code 341.906(d), (f). Krum has since passed an amended SORRO. The amended ordinance prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a child safety zone, as defined in section 341.906, and recognizes the exemption mandated by section 341.906(f). Krum, Tex., Code of Ordinances ch. 8, 8.05.001, .002(a), (f) (2017).
In light of these developments, we must consider whether Rice's challenge to the SORRO is moot. A case is moot when either no live controversy exists between the parties, or the parties have no legally cognizable interest in the outcome. Williams v. Huff, 52 S.W.3d 171, 184 (Tex. 2001). Put simply, a case is moot when the court's action on the merits cannot affect the parties' rights or interests. Heckman v. Williamson Cty., 369 S.W.3d 137, 162 (Tex. 2012). A case may become moot at any time, including while on appeal, and it may happen as a result of a change in the law. See id. at 16667 (recognizing that intervening events like a repeal of or change in the law may moot a challenge). When a case becomes moot, the parties no longer have standing, Huff, 52 S.W.3d at 184, which requires the court to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. Heckman, 369 S.W.3d at 15051. In turn, the court should set aside all previous judgments in addition to dismissing the entire cause. Carrillo v. State, 480 S.W.2d 612, 619 (Tex. 1972); Freeman v. Burrows, 141 Tex. 318, 171 S.W.2d 863, 863 (1943).
We hold that Rice's challenge to the SORRO is moot in light of the passage of Texas Local Government Code section 341.906 and Krum's amended SORRO. Section 341.906 clearly empowers general-law municipalities to enact ordinances that limit the movements of sex offenders. This negates the substance of Rice's claims, and he identifies no deficiencies in the amended SORRO that would keep his challenge alive. Rice does assert that the ordinance fails to comply with section 341.906's mandatory-exemption provision, but the SORRO's text negates that assertion on its face, as it in fact includes the required exemption. Krum, Tex., Code of Ordinances ch. 8, 8.05.002(f) (2017).
Additionally, the alleged basis for Rice's interest in the proceedingsthe gap between the distance requirements of his community supervision and the prior version of the SORROno longer exists. The restrictions imposed by the SORRO and the terms of Rice's community supervision are now coextensive vis-a -vis where in Krum Rice may lawfully reside. Consequently, any ruling by this Court about the SORRO's validity would have no effect on Rice's rights because the community-supervision restriction would still be in place. Therefore, we hold that Rice's challenge is moot.
Because Rice's claims have been rendered moot by changes in the law, the courts lack jurisdiction over those claims. Accordingly, without hearing oral argument, Tex. R. App. P. 59.1, we grant Krum's petition for review, vacate the judgments of the court of appeals and the trial court, and dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction.
FOOTNOTES
. General-law municipalities possess those powers and privileges that the State expressly confers upon them. Tex. Dep't of Transp. v. City of Sunset Valley, 146 S.W.3d 637, 645 (Tex. 2004). By contrast, home-rule municipalities, which derive their powers from the Texas Constitution, possess the full power of self government and look to the Legislature not for grants of power, but only for limitations on their power. Town of Lakewood Vill. v. Bizios, 493 S.W.3d 527, 531 (Tex. 2016) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).
. Because one justice dissented in the court of appeals, we have jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal under the applicable version of the Texas Government Code. Act of May 17, 1985, 69th Leg., R.S., ch. 480, 1, 1985 Tex. Gen. Laws 1720, 1731 (codified at Tex. Gov't Code 22.225(c)) (authorizing this Court to hear interlocutory appeals in which the justices of the court of appeals disagree on an issue of law material to the court's decision), repealed by Act of May 19, 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., ch. 150, 4, 2017 Tex. Sess. Law Serv. 291, 292.
. Krum passed a revised SORRO on July 10, 2017, with the same September 1 effective date as section 341.906. The SORRO currently enshrined in Krum's Code of Ordinances contains amendments adopted September 6, 2017, that are substantively identical to the July 10 amendments. It thus appears that Krum re-adopted the SORRO amendments after section 341.906's effective date. This opinion refers to the ordinance currently embodied in Krum's Code of Ordinances.
PER CURIAM
Liam Allan is a victim of a police policy to treat all accusers as credible and true
Liam Allan, the poor sod falsely accused of rape and betrayed by the police, is not an isolated incident, says Angela Rafferty QC, chairwoman of the Criminal Bar Association. She also warns that the Crown Prosecution Service may be unconsciously biased towards people who report sex offences. In other words: if you claim youve been raped, you will be believed. You will be referred to as the victim by the PR-driven police and survivor by a venerating media.
The apogee of this police, political and media collusion, the creation of their self-serving agenda to form a moral force for good in the face of depraved and powerful criminals, thus keeping the plebs in thrall to the heroes protecting us from evil, can be seen in those instances of celebs being nicked for the cameras, as in the cases of comic Jim Davidson, who was pinched at Heathrow Airport as he flew in to the country, and the no less innocent Sir Cliff Richard, whose home was raided on live telly.
In the words of retired judge Sir Richard Henriques, in his review of the polices Operation Midland into an alleged VIP paedophile ring operating out of Westminster, a policy that automatically believes the accuser perverts our justice system. Sir Richard cited a 2014 statement of Her Majestys Inspector of Constabulary which stated that the presumption that a victim should always be believed should be institutionalised a monocular policy echoed in the polices assertion that Nick, who claimed to know of the alleged ring and had seen it all, was credible and true.
Said Sir Richard:
Since a complainant may or may not be telling the truth, the present policy causes those not telling the truth to be artificially believed and, thus, liars and fantasists and those genuinely mistaken are a given free run both unquestioned and unchallenged.
Of course, you might have missed Sir Richards report, as Daniel Finklestein quipped in the Times:
Bad luck for the Metropolitan police that on the very day it published a report into its handling of celebrity sex-abuse claims, the Americans held an election that took up most of the medias attention. How were the police to know that would happen, eh?
Had belief counted for all, Liam Allan could have been sent to prison for a crime that was never committed. But prosecuting counsel Jerry Hayes was someone involve in the trial who saw sense and saved the day. Thanks to him and lawyers on Mr Allans defence team, police produced a copy of the victims messages that exonerated the accused.
Police officers do not seem to understand their duties of disclosure, Mr Hayes, told the Mail. They have a statutory duty to look at everything not just the bits that will help the prosecution. They should log all the material and then send it up to the CPS lawyer handling the case. That did not happen here. The first thing I knew about [these messages] was when we were halfway through the trial. The defence counsel asked if I was sure there was no digital download from the complainantss phone. She said, Are you sure theres nothing there? I said I would check. I asked the officer if he had the disk of phone material.Oh yes, he said. But he said it was clearly not disclosable, as some of it was very private. I asked him if there was anything on the disk which could undermine the prosecution case. No, he said.
The officer was wrong.
As the Times notes:
The woman who accused Liam Allan of rape told police that she hated sex, but hundreds of messages sent to friends during the preceding months detailed her obsession with the student and her love of sex. The messages were downloaded by police from the womans telephone shortly after she was interviewed in January 2015. Police then stated there were no messages of interest to either the prosecution or Mr Allans lawyers.
A few examples of her messages are shared:
Honestly I was just a mess and I was like Im asking for one last chance to show you how much you mean to me. After the initial pain of the train getting into the tunnel its not that bad, after a while its alright and its fun . . . everyone knows I enjoy it but it still hurts me to this day but no pain no gain. Its worth it. Its always nice to be sexually assaulted without breaking the law. You clearly dont love me because you keep revoking my sexual advances, have I got to drug you.
Conflate sexual experimentation with abuse is that what the police do? And if it is, does it reveal how they view the sexes: women as inherently weak and men as rapists-in-waiting? Is the police force obsessed with identity, unable to treat people as equal in the eyes of the law? And how does a lack of circumspection and open mindedness help actual victims of heinous abuse who do pluck up the courage to make an accusation?
Paul Sorene
Posted: 16th, December 2017 | In: Key Posts, News Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. WILLIAM EARL WRIGHT, Defendant - Appellant. No. 17-7057 Decided: December 14, 2017
Before KELLY, LUCERO, and HARTZ, Circuit Judges.
ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY*
William Earl Wright, a federal prisoner appearing pro se, filed a Motion to Correct a Plain Error, which the district court treated as an unauthorized second or successive 28 U.S.C. 2255 motion and dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. To appeal from that decision, Wright must obtain a certificate of appealability (COA). See United States v. Harper, 545 F.3d 1230, 1233 (10th Cir. 2008). For the reasons that follow, we deny a COA and dismiss the matter.
In August 2010, Wright pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine base. He was sentenced under the United States Sentencing Guidelines as a career offender based on two prior drug convictions. Consistent with the terms of his plea agreement, Wright did not file a direct appeal.
In June 2016, Wright filed his first 2255 motion (D.C. No. 6:16-cv-00258-RAW), challenging his career-offender Guidelines sentence based on the Supreme Court's decisions in Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015), and Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243 (2016). The district court denied the motion. The court first explained that the Johnson Court held that the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) was unconstitutionally vague, but Wright was not sentenced under the ACCA's residual clause. Instead, Wright was sentenced as a career offender under the Guidelines based on two prior drug convictions. The court therefore concluded that Wright was not entitled to sentencing relief under Johnson. The court next explained that Wright could not rely on the Mathis decision for relief because it did not announce a new rule of law and was therefore not retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review, citing to this court's decision in United States v. Taylor, 672 F. App'x 860 (10th Cir. 2016). Wright did not seek to appeal from the denial of his 2255 motion.
In February 2017, Wright filed a motion for reconsideration, which the district court treated as an unauthorized second or successive 2255 motion and dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Wright did not seek a COA to appeal from that dismissal.
In June 2017, Wright filed a second 2255 motion (D.C. No. 6:17-cv-00227-RAW), which the district court dismissed as an unauthorized second or successive 2255 motion. He did not seek a COA to appeal from that dismissal; instead, in August 2017, Wright filed the underlying Motion to Correct a Plain Error, which the district court treated as an unauthorized second or successive 28 U.S.C. 2255 motion and dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
Wright now seeks a COA to appeal from the dismissal of his motion. To obtain a COA, Wright must show at a minimum that jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the district court was correct in its procedural ruling. Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000). He has not made this showing.
A prisoner may not file a second or successive 2255 motion unless he first obtains an order from the circuit court authorizing the district court to consider the motion. 28 U.S.C. 2244(b)(3)(A); id. 2255(h). Absent such authorization, a district court lacks jurisdiction to address the merits of a second or successive 2255 motion. In re Cline, 531 F.3d 1249, 1251 (10th Cir. 2008) (per curiam).
Although Wright styled his pleading as a motion to correct a plain error, [i]t is the relief sought, not [the] pleading's title, that determines whether the pleading is a 2255 motion. United States v. Nelson, 465 F.3d 1145, 1149 (10th Cir. 2006). As we have explained:
A 2255 motion is one claiming the right to be released upon the ground that the sentence was imposed in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States, or that the court was without jurisdiction to impose such sentence, or that the sentence was in excess of the maximum authorized by law, or is otherwise subject to collateral attack.
Id. at 1148 (internal quotation marks omitted).
In his motion to correct a plain error, Wright argued that he was erroneously sentenced as a career offender, requested that his career-offender enhancement be vacated, and asked the court to reduce his sentence from 153 months to 84 months. He again asserted that he was entitled to relief under Mathis. His motion to correct a plain error clearly sought to challenge his sentence, it was his third attempt to do so after his initial 2255 motion was denied, and he had not received authorization from this court to file a successive 2255 motion. In Wright's request for a COA, he continues to argue the merits of his request for sentencing relief and fails to adequately address how the district court erred in dismissing his motion for lack of jurisdiction.
Given these circumstances, reasonable jurists could not debate the district court's decision to treat Wright's motion as an unauthorized second or successive 2255 motion and to dismiss it for lack of jurisdiction. Accordingly, we deny Wright's request for a COA.
Entered for the Court
ELISABETH A. SHUMAKER, Clerk
FOOTNOTES
. We construe Wright's Opening Pro se Brief as a request for a COA.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. TIMOTHY WADE COFFELL, Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-17427 Decided: December 14, 2017
Before WILSON, JORDAN, and ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judges.
After a jury trial, Timothy Coffell was convicted of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1), and possessing an unregistered silencer that lacked a serial number, in violation of 26 U.S.C. 5861(d) and (i). On appeal, Coffell argues that the district court erroneously denied his motion to suppress and that the government's evidence was insufficient to show that he knew the homemade device found in his trailer was a silencer. Coffell also argues, with the assistance of counsel appointed for this appeal, that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance in various ways. After careful review, we affirm Coffell's convictions, without prejudice to his ability to raise his claims of ineffective assistance in a motion to vacate under 28 U.S.C. 2255.
I.
Before his arrest, Coffell lived in a trailer that he rented from BlueKey Property Management Company (BlueKey). On February 2, 2016, BlueKey's maintenance man entered Coffell's trailer while he was away, using a master key, in order to replace his broken oven. Once inside, the maintenance man used a screwdriver to open a locked door so that he could access the circuit-breaker box and shut off power to the oven before replacing it. Inside the locked room, he observed what appeared to be marijuana plants under grow lights that had been connected to the circuit-breaker box. He took pictures of the marijuana plants with his phone and contacted law enforcement.
Based on the information provided by the maintenance man, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for the trailer. Before the warrant was executed, law enforcement also learned that Coffell had previously been convicted of a felony. During a subsequent search of the trailer, officers found marijuana plants, growing materials, and containers of harvested marijuana. In addition, officers seized four firearms, nearly 1,500 rounds of ammunition, and a silencer.
After his arrest, Coffell was indicted on one count of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1), and one count of possessing a silencer that was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record and that was not identified by a serial number, in violation of 26 U.S.C. 5861(d) and (i).
Coffell pled not guilty and then filed a motion to suppress, arguing that law enforcement illegally searched his property in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Coffell presented three main arguments for suppression. First, he argued that the maintenance man's entry into his trailer and locked bedroom violated his reasonable expectations of privacy. Second, he maintained that law enforcement exceeded the scope of the search warrant by searching for and seizing firearms and ammunition. Finally, he contended that law enforcement omitted material information from the search-warrant affidavit.
The district court held an evidentiary hearing and then denied the motion to suppress. The court found that the maintenance man's actions did not violate the Fourth Amendment because he was not a government actor, that the search of Coffell's trailer did not exceed the scope of the warrant, that the plain-view doctrine independently authorized the warrantless seizure of firearms, ammunition, and a silencer, and that no material information was omitted from the search-warrant affidavit.
The case proceeded to trial before a jury. After the government's case-in-chief, Coffell moved for a judgment of acquittal, which the district court denied. Coffell then presented his case, testifying in his own defense. Coffell did not renew his motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of all the evidence. The jury returned a guilty verdict on both counts charged in the indictment. Coffell now appeals.
II.
We first address the denial of Coffell's motion to suppress. When we review the denial of a motion to suppress, [w]e review the district court's findings of fact for clear error and its rulings of law and application of the law to the facts de novo. United States v. Sparks, 806 F.3d 1323, 1333 (11th Cir. 2015). A factual finding is clearly erroneous only if, after reviewing the entire record, we are left with a definite and firm conviction that the district court made a mistake. Id.
A.
Coffell first contends that suppression was warranted because the maintenance man violated his reasonable expectations of privacy. But the protection of the Fourth Amendment extends to governmental action only. Sparks, 806 F.3d at 1334. A search by a private person does not implicate the Fourth Amendment unless he acts as an instrument or agent of the government. United States v. Steiger, 318 F.3d 1039, 1045 (11th Cir. 2003). And the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit the government's use of information discovered by a private party who is not acting as a government agent. Sparks, 806 F.3d at 1334.
Here, the Fourth Amendment was not violated because, as Coffell concedes, the maintenance man was not acting as an instrument or agent of the government. The maintenance man, without law enforcement's prior knowledge, entered Coffell's trailer and his locked bedroom solely for the purpose of replacing his oven. See Steiger, 318 F.3d at 1045. Because the maintenance man entered Coffell's locked bedroom for reasons wholly unrelated to law enforcement, the Fourth Amendment does not bar the government's use of that information to obtain a search warrant. See Sparks, 806 F.3d at 1334.
B.
Coffell next argues that law-enforcement officers exceeded the scope of the search warrant by seizing firearms, ammunition, and a silencer. We hold that seizure of these items was proper under the plain-view doctrine.
The Fourth Amendment requires that search warrants describe with particularity the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. U.S. Const. amend. IV. This requirement is aimed at preventing general, exploratory rummaging in a person's belongings. United States v. Wuagneux, 683 F.2d 1343, 1348 (11th Cir. 1982) (internal quotation marks omitted).
We have routinely recognized that firearms can be so connected to the sale of narcotics that their seizure is implicitly authorized by a warrant to search for narcotics. United States v. Folk, 754 F.3d 905, 910 (11th Cir. 2014). Indeed, we have stated that [i]t is uniformly recognized that weapons are often as much tools of the trade as the most commonly recognized narcotics paraphernalia. United States v. Terzado-Madruga, 897 F.2d 1099, 1120 (11th Cir. 1990).
The district court found that seizure of the firearms, ammunition, and silencer was impliedly authorized by the search warrant for evidence of drug activity, because drugs and guns go together. The facts of this case, however, do not suggest a strong connection between the two, as there was no evidence that Coffell sold any of the marijuana he grew. Ultimately, however, we need not address whether the search warrant implied authorization to seize firearms or ammunition because we agree with the district court's alternative determination that the plain-view doctrine nevertheless authorized the seizure. See Folk, 754 F.3d at 911.
The plain-view doctrine permits the warrantless seizure of an item where (1) the officer is lawfully located in the place from which the seized object could be plainly viewed; (2) the officer has a lawful right of access to the object itself; and (3) the incriminating character of the item is immediately apparent. Id. (quotation marks omitted). All three requirements are satisfied here.
The first two requirements were met because the firearms, ammunition, and silencer were found during a valid search of Coffell's trailer for evidence of drug activity. In executing the search warrant, law-enforcement officers had the right to conduct a search as extensive as reasonably required to locate the items described in the warrant. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Coffell does not contest the district court's factual finding, which is amply supported by the record, that the searching officers discovered the firearms, ammunition, and silencer while searching areas where evidence of drugs or drug activity reasonably could have been found. Coffell suggests that the officers were subjectively motivated to search for firearms and ammunition, but their subjective motivations are irrelevant. See Brigham City, Utah v. Stuart, 547 U.S. 398, 404 (2006) (subjective motivations are irrelevant in determining whether a law enforcement officer's actions violated the Fourth Amendment). Accordingly, the officers were lawfully located in a place from which the seized items could be observed and accessed.
Because law enforcement knew that Coffell was a convicted felon and reasonably believed that the firearms, ammunition, and silencer in his trailer belonged to him, the final prong of the plain-view doctrine was also satisfied. A firearm that reasonably appears to be in the possession of a convicted felon qualifies as contrabandand is therefore subject to seizure under the plain view doctrine. See Folk, 754 F.3d at 912. The same goes for the ammunition and silencer, which 922(g) likewise prohibits a convicted felon from possessing. See 18 U.S.C. 922(g) (prohibiting the possession of any firearm or ammunition); id. 921(a)(3)(C) (defining a firearm for purposes of 922(g) as, among other things, any firearm muffler or firearm silencer).
For these reasons, the district court properly concluded that seizure of the firearms, ammunition, and silencer during a lawful search for evidence of drug activity was permissible under the plain-view doctrine.
C.
As a final challenge to the denial of his motion to suppress, Coffell argues that law enforcement violated the Fourth Amendment by omitting material informationhis status as a convicted felonfrom the search-warrant affidavit. Coffell asserts that, if his status as a convicted felon was to be used as a basis for seizure of his firearms and ammunition, it should have been presented in a separate search warrant and application.
Search warrants must be based upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation. U.S. Const. amend. IV. Suppression may be warranted when misrepresentations or omissions in a warrant affidavit materially affect the probable cause determination. See Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 16465, 17172 (1978). But if including the alleged omission or removing the alleged misrepresentation would not defeat a finding of probable cause, suppression is not warranted. United States v. Kapordelis, 569 F.3d 1291, 1309 (11th Cir. 2009).
Here, the alleged omission was not material because including the omitted fact about his felon status would not have prevented a finding of probable cause. See id. Based on the maintenance man's observations, plainly there was probable cause to search his trailer for evidence of drug activity. Nothing about Coffell's status as a convicted felon undermines that finding. In addition, no second search warrant was necessary because, as we have established above, the warrantless seizure of these objects was permitted under the plain-view doctrine.
In sum, the district court properly denied Coffell's motion to suppress.
III.
Coffell next challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction for possession of a silencer that was not registered or identified by a serial number.
We generally review challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence de novo, asking whether a reasonable jury could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Godwin, 765 F.3d 1306, 1319 (11th Cir. 2014). But where a defendant present[s] his case after denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal and then fails to renew his motion for judgment of acquittal at the end of all of the evidence, we review the defendant's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence for a manifest miscarriage of justice. United States v. House, 684 F.3d 1173, 1196 (11th Cir. 2012) (quoting United States v. Jones, 32 F.3d 1512, 1516 (11th Cir. 1994)). Under the manifest miscarriage of justice standard, we must affirm unless the evidence in a key element of the offense is so tenuous that the conviction is shocking. Id. (alterations adopted). Regardless of the standard of review, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the government and accept all reasonable inferences and credibility choices that support the jury's verdict. Id.
Here, we review Coffell's sufficiency challenge for a manifest miscarriage of justice. Although Coffell moved for a judgment of acquittal at the close of the government's case-in-chief, he chose to present a defense and then failed to renew his motion after the close of all the evidence. See House, 684 F.3d at 1196. In any case, even if we treated the issue as preserved and applied de novo review, sufficient evidence supports his conviction.
The National Firearms Act (Act), 26 U.S.C. 58015872, imposes strict registration requirements on statutorily defined firearms. Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 600, 602 (1994). Under the Act, the term firearm includes any silencer (as defined in section 921 of title 18, United States Code). 26 U.S.C. 5845(a)(7). A silencer is any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(24).
All firearms covered by the Act, including silencers, must be registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record maintained by the Secretary of the Treasury. 26 U.S.C. 5841. Also, 5842(a) requires any maker of a covered firearm to identify it with a serial number and other information. Id. 5842(a). Any person who possesses a firearm that lacks the information required by 5842(a) must identify the firearm with a serial number assigned by the Secretary. Id. 5842(b). Section 5861 makes it a crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, see id. 5871, for any person to possess a firearm that is not properly registered, id. 5861(d), or that is not identified by a serial number, id. 5861(i).
To support a conviction under 5861(d), the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that (1) the defendant possessed a firearm within the meaning of the Act; (2) the defendant knew the features of the firearm that brought it within the scope of the Act; and (3) the firearm was not property registered to the defendant. United States v. Ruiz, 253 F.3d 634, 63839 (11th Cir. 2001); United States v. Moore, 253 F.3d 607, 60910 (11th Cir. 2001). For a conviction under 5861(i), the elements are the same except that the firearm, instead of being unregistered, must not have been identified by a serial number. See Ruiz, 253 F.3d at 63738. The government need not prove that the defendant knew that the firearm was unregistered or did not have a serial number. Id. at 63839.
Coffell challenges the element of knowledge only. He does not dispute, and the evidence shows, that the silencer he possessed is a firearm as defined in 5845(a), in that it was tested and found to reduce the sound of a firearm, and that it both was not registered to him and did not have a serial number. See 26 U.S.C. 5861(d) and (i).
To show Coffell's knowledge, the government needed to prove that he was aware of the features that bring the weapon within the scope of the Act: the fact that it is a silencer. Ruiz, 253 F.3d at 638. More precisely, the government needed to prove that he knew that the object was a device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm. Moore, 253 F.3d at 611 (quoting 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(24)).
Here, sufficient evidence supports Coffell's conviction under 5681. Coffell testified that he obtained the device from a man who more or less indicated that it was a silencer and who told him that it would fit a 9-millimeter firearm of the type that he possessed. The jury also heard evidence that Coffell had specialized knowledge of firearms. In particular, he attended gunsmith school, had been a licensed firearms dealer, and possessed a number of firearms in his trailer. And Coffell's testimony indicated that he closely examined the device, because he was aware that it was homemade and did not have a serial number. See id. ([K]nowledge can be inferred from circumstantial evidence, including any external indications signaling the nature of the weapon. (quoting Staples, 511 U.S. at 616 n.11)). Even assuming that he never used the device, as he claimed in his testimony, a reasonable jury could infer from this evidence that he recognized the device and understood it was for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm. See id.
Coffell insists that the silencer did not fit any of the firearms found in his trailer and that the district court incorrectly believed that it did. But even if that is true, it is largely beside the point. Section 5681 prohibits possession of the silencer with knowledge that it is in fact a silencer. See Ruiz, 253 F.3d at 638. The silencer did not need to fit onto one of Coffell's guns in order for him to know that it was a device for muffling the sound of a firearm.
In that regard, Coffell's heavy reliance on the First Circuit's decision in United States v. Crooker, 608 F.3d 94 (1st Cir. 2010), is misplaced. Crooker involved a silencer designed for use with an air rifle, which the court said was not a firearm. Id. at 95. Because the evidence in that case failed to prove either that the defendant or the maker of the airgun silencer intended that it be used to silence a firearm, the question before the court was whether the defendant's knowledge that the airgun silencer could be adapted for use with a firearm was sufficient to sustain his conviction. Id. at 9799. The court said that it was not, holding that the statute requires something more than a potential for adaptation and knowledge of it. Id. at 97.
No such issue is presented here, however, because Coffell's own testimony reflects that he obtained the silencer with the understanding that it was intended to be used to silence a firearm. Moreover, the district court specifically instructed the jury that in order to find Coffell guilty, it was required to find that Coffell knew the device was designed to silence, muffle, or diminish the report of a firearm. Trial Tr. at 339 (emphasis added). That instruction is consistent with Crooker's holding. See id. at 99 (explaining that its holding was limited to cases where the device was not designed to be used as a silencer for a firearm). For the reasons explained above, sufficient evidence supports the jury's finding as to Coffell's knowledge.
For these reasons, sufficient evidence supports Coffell's conviction for possession of a silencer that was not registered and did not have a serial number. See 26 U.S.C. 5681(d), (i).
IV.
Finally, Coffell argues that trial counsel provided ineffective assistance. However, we generally do not address ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims on direct appeal. United States v. Puentes-Hurtado, 794 F.3d 1278, 1285 (11th Cir. 2015). In most cases, there has not been an opportunity to develop and include in the record evidence bearing on the merits of the allegations. United States v. Hilliard, 752 F.2d 578, 580 (11th Cir. 1985). Therefore, in most cases a motion brought under [28 U.S.C.] 2255 is preferable to direct appeal for deciding claims of ineffective assistance. Massaro v. United States, 538 U.S. 500, 504 (11th Cir. 2003). Nevertheless, when the record has been sufficiently developed, we may consider a defendant's ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims, subject to de novo review. United States v. Bender, 290 F.3d 1279, 1284 (11th Cir. 2002).
Here, we decline to consider Coffell's ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims on appeal. Although the district court addressed some of the issues he raises on appeal, the record was not developed in a way that would allow us to assess counsel's performance or determine whether Coffell was prejudiced. Coffell concedes as much, stating that it is clear from the transcripts that he did not have sufficient time, focus or legal ability to make his entire position and factual contentions known to [the district judge] nor was he able to present additional evidence. Reply Br. at 11. We decline Coffell's request to remand this case to the district judge for an evidentiary hearing, but we note that he is free to raise his claims of ineffective assistance and request an evidentiary hearing in the context of a collateral proceeding under 28 U.S.C. 2255.
V.
For the reasons stated, we conclude that the district court properly denied Coffell's motion to suppress and that sufficient evidence supports his conviction for possession of an unregistered silencer. We decline to consider his claims of ineffective assistance of counsel because the record is not sufficiently developed. We therefore affirm Coffell's convictions and total sentence, without prejudice to his ability to raise his claims of ineffective assistance in a motion to vacate under 28 U.S.C. 2255.
AFFIRMED.
FOOTNOTES
. Testimony from the suppression hearing reflects that officers were not immediately sure what the silencer was and believed it could have been either a silencer or a pipe bomb. Either way, the object appeared to be contraband.
. Accordingly, we need not and do not consider the district court's third alternative determinationthat law enforcement's community-caretaker functions authorized seizure of these objects to prevent others from entering the trailer and taking them.
. The government asserts that the silencer did in fact fit one of his firearms but that it was tested with a different firearm, which required the use of an adapter.
PER CURIAM:
The review plea claimed that death penalty was a premeditated, 'cold blooded killing' of a human being by the state in the name of justice.
The plea also said the investigation in the matter was not only flawed but also unreliable as many facts of the investigation pertain to recording of the dying declaration of the victim. (Photo: File)
New Delhi: Two of the four death row convicts in the December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder case on Saturday moved the Supreme Court for review of its verdict upholding the capital punishment awarded to them.
The review petition by convicts Vinay Sharma and Pawan Kumar Gupta came after the top court on December 12 completed the hearing on the review plea filed by another death row convict Mukesh.
A 23-year-old paramedic student was gangraped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by a gang of six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out naked.
She succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
The review plea, filed through advocate AP Singh for two of the convicts, claimed that death penalty was a premeditated and "cold blooded killing" of a human being by the state in the name of justice.
It said the investigation in the matter was not only flawed but also unreliable as many facts of the investigation pertain to recording of the dying declaration of the victim.
The top court had on December 12 allowed the counsel to file review petition for another convict Akshay Singh and listed the matter for hearing on January 22.
The top court had on May 5 upheld the death penalty to the four convicts - Mukesh, (29), Pawan (22), Vinay Sharma (23) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31), saying the "brutal, barbaric and diabolic nature" of the crime could create a "tsunami of shock" to destroy a civilised society.
Another accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail, while a convicted juvenile has come out of the reformation home after serving a three-year term.
Asked if India is prepared for a two-front war, Lt Gen Krishna said the country was 'undoubtedly' ready for any eventuality.
Lt Gen Krishna says the Indian Army is in high spirits and ready to take on any mischief. (Photo: PTI)
Kolkata: The Army is totally geared up to face any situation in the Doklam sector and any mischief will be dealt with "properly", General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Command Lt Gen Abhay Krishna said on Saturday.
He was asked about China reportedly stationing its troops in Doklam, where the two countries were locked in a standoff for over two months earlier in 2017 after the Chinese army tried to build a road in the area claimed by Indian-ally Bhutan.
India feared the road, if completed, would allow China to cut off its access to its northeastern states. The standoff ended in September after the two countries mutually agreed to withdraw their troops from the area.
Stating that he would not name anyone specifically, Lt Gen Krishna said the Indian Army is in high spirits and ready to take on any mischief.
"We are totally prepared, geared up; let anybody do any mischief and he will get it back nice and proper," he told reporters in Kolkata.
Lt Gen Krishna was speaking at the Eastern Command headquarter at Fort William in Kolkata after a wreath-laying ceremony on 'Vijay Diwas' to commemorate India's victory over Pakistan in 1971, which led to the liberation of Bangladesh.
The road building effort by China and presence of its troops at the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan had led to an eyeball-to-eyeball face off between New Delhi and Beijing for 73 days from June 16.
Reports have said that China still has troops stationed a few hundred metres from the tri-junction in Doklam sector.
Asked if the reports were verified, Lt Gen Krishna said a lot has been stated about them and he has nothing more to add.
"The Indian Army is always in very high spirits, we are always ready to take on any mischief by anybody. I am not going to name anybody specifically.
"Territorial integrity is ingrained in our blood and for that we will go to any extent to ensure the territorial integrity," he said.
Asked if India was prepared for a two-front war, Lt Gen Krishna said the country was "undoubtedly" ready for any eventuality.
Intensifying his attack, Rahul said that BJP has set the country ablaze with the fire of violence, which will now be difficult to control.
'Many of us are disillusioned by politics of our time. Today, politics is devoid of kindness and truth,' the newly-sworn Congress president said. (Photo: ANI)
New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Saturday formally became the Congress President taking the baton from his mother Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul was presented with a certificate that formally names him as the new Congress President. From here on, he is officially the top boss of the Congress party.
In his maiden speech as the Congress president, Rahul Gandhi said, "We consider the BJP as our brothers and sisters, but we do not agree with them. They (BJP) crush voices but we allow them to speak, they defame we respect and defend."
Rahul Gandhi said that politics belongs to the people, but today it is not being used for people. "It is not being used to uplift people, but to crush them," the 47-year-old Congress president said.
"Many of us are disillusioned by politics of our time. Today, politics is devoid of kindness and truth," the newly-sworn Congress president said.
Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, "Congress took India to 21st century, but the PM, today, is taking us back to the medieval times."
Intensifying his attack on BJP, Rahul said, "You have an example in front of you, once fire breaks out it is difficult to douse it, that is what we are telling the people of BJP, that if you set the nation on fire it will be difficult to control. Today BJP has spread the fire of violence across the country."
"And if there is anyone who can stop what the BJP is doing, it is the 'pyara karyakarta and neta' of Congress. We are going to make Congress, grand old and young party. We will fight the politics of anger," the Congress president said.
Congress is an ancient idea. BJP would have you believe they are the oldest idea in the universe, as usual this is not the truth. In India, there are two ideas that have clashed, idea of self vs the other. BJP are soldiers fighting for self. Congress guided by service of community, Rahul said.
The newly-elected Congress chief said, It is with deepest humility, that I accept this position (of Congress President) knowing that I will always be walking in the shadow of giants.
Rahul Gandhi ended his speech saying, "Thanks mother Sonia Gandhi for being a guiding force."
Handing over the charge of the party to her son and congratulating and blessing Rahul, Sonia Gandhi said, "Rahul is my son, so I do not think for me to praise him is right but I would say that since childhood he had to bear the brunt of violence, after joining politics he had to face blatant personal attacks, that have made him a stronger person."
"When I realised the Congress party is getting weaker after my husband's death, then I had to listen to my party's 'cheekh' (voice)," Sonia Gandhi said in her last speech as the Congress leader.
Sonia Gandhi thanked her mother in-law and the former prime minister of the country Indira Gandhi and said, "I was introduced to politics for the first time after marrying Rajiv Gandhi. Indira Gandhi was a big support."
Read: Crackers celebrating Rahul's elevation stops Sonia mid-speech
Addressing the event, former prime minister and Congress leader Manmohan Singh said, "I am sure the party will scale new heights of glory."
"Rahul taking over as president when there are certain disturbing trends noticeable in politics. As a distinguished academic pointed out that there are dangers that politics of fear will take over politics of hope, Rahulji, we depend upon you to transform and sustain politics of hope," Singh added.
Now that Soniaji is handing over reins of the party to Rahulji we salute Soniaji for uniting the leadership, something that she has been doing since 19 years. Rahulji brings a new sense of dedication and commitment (as party president)," Manmohan Singh said.
Rahul Gandhi was handed over the certificate of his elevation by the Congress' central election authority (CEA) at an event held at the lawns of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in the national capital.
47-year-old Rahul Gandhi was handed over the certificate in the presence of his mother and predecessor Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra and her husband Robert Vadra, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and other senior party leaders.
While handing over the certificate, CEA chairman Mullappally Ramachandran termed the moment as "historic".
There was chaos outside the AICC headquarters where the Congress workers gathered in large numbers for the event, making it difficult even for the senior party leaders to enter the venue.
Meanwhile, parts of Lutyens' Delhi were dotted with posters hailing Rahul Gandhi's ascension with some of them describing the development as the beginning of a New India.
Rahul Gandhi entered electoral politics in 2004. He was appointed as the party general secretary in 2007 and was elevated as its vice president in January 2013.
With inputs from PTI.
BJP spokesperson attacked the Congress after Gandhi slammed the ruling party soon after replacing her mother Sonia Gandhi as its president.
Newly elect Congress President Rahul Gandhi receives greetings from supporters after taking charge during an event held at the lawns of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday dubbed the Congress as a "corrupt thought process" as it shrugged off Rahul Gandhi's elevation as its president, saying its working style and "corrupt ways" remained the same.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra launched a sharp attack on the Congress after Gandhi attacked the ruling party soon after replacing her mother Sonia Gandhi as its president.
Patra cited the sentencing of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, who was supported by the Congress, in a corruption case to hit out at the party, claiming it would remain corrupt despite the change in leadership.
He said it was an irony that despite the Congress not being in power for four years, corruption cases were still tumbling out and people jailed for corruption they did when it was in power.
"This speaks volumes about the thought process, the working nature of Congress party. So a new president or an old president, the working style of Congress party, the corrupt ways of Congress party still remain the same," he told reporters.
He said when the Congress talks about a change in leadership, the country is seeing how during its 10-year rule, corruption of ten to fourteen lakh crore rupees took place under their very nose.
"Congress is not an ancient thought process as claimed by a few, rather Congress is a corrupt thought process and that has been proved by the judicial process today," Patra added.
After assuming the leadership of the party, Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP of spreading hatred and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking India back to medieval times.
"The BJP is spreading hatred and communalism... they break, while we unite. They ignite fire, we douse it," Gandhi said.
Asked about the 'Aag laga ke' (ignite fire) comment, Patra said this is "not a decent way" to react.
"Elections are won not because of riots on streets, not because 'sadak pe aag laga ke'. Elections are won because the mantra of reform, transform and perform works in the country under the able leadership of Narendra Modi," he said.
He went on to add that elections are won as people compare how during the UPA days, the direct benefit transfer (DBT) was not there and the money could not reach the pockets of poor man.
"Today because of DBT, what the poor man deserves, reaches his pocket. Elections are won by giving LPG cylinders to the last man standing in the queue, when electricity reaches every village.
"So my simple request is we should not demean the basic nature of democracy in the country. Democracy is vibrant in the country because development is taking place as never before," he added.
Patra said that today is an important day as Madhu Koda, who was the chief minister of Jharkhand with the support of Congress party, has been sentenced to three years in jail because of his involvement in the coal scam.
"We all know that Madhu Koda was an Independent MLA, but because of the fact that the government was formed with the outside support of the Congress party, the government then was almost a Congress government run by 10 Janpath, 24 Akbar Road by the help of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Ahmed Patel," he said.
The draft was prepared by an inter-ministerial group headed by home minister Rajnath Singh.
Under the draft legislation, triple talaq in any form spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS or WhatsApp would be illegal and void. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: The Centre on Friday moved a step closer towards making the legislation declaring triple talaq illegal a reality with the Union Cabinet approving the draft law that will now be introduced in Parliament.
The Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill makes the practice of giving instant triple talaq illegal and void, which would also attract a jail term of three years for the husband, official sources said.
The draft was prepared by an inter-ministerial group headed by home minister Rajnath Singh. The other members included external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, finance minister Arun Jaitley, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and his junior minister P.P. Chaudhary.
The proposed law would only be applicable on instant triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat, and it would give power to the victim to approach a magistrate seeking subsistence allowance for herself and minor children.
The government, which has backed Muslim women seeking an end to the practice, hopes to get it passed in the Winter Session of Parliament which began Friday.
The Supreme Court had on August 22 struck down triple talaq, calling the practice unconstitutional and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, which provides for equality before the law.
Under the draft legislation, triple talaq in any form spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS or WhatsApp would be illegal and void.
The provision of subsistence allowance and custody has been made to ensure that in case the husband asks the wife to leave the house, she should have legal protection.
Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, confirmed that the Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill has been approved, but refused to share details as Parliament was in session.
The bill is being introduced as the practice still continues despite the Supreme Court striking down talaq-e- biddat (instant triple talaq). According to the draft law, that would be applicable to the entire country except Jammu and Kashmir, giving instant talaq would attract a jail term of three years and a fine. It would be a non-bailable, cognisable offence.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, PlaintiffAppellee, v. Anthony Tyrone JOHNSON, DefendantAppellant. No. 17-12577 Decided: December 15, 2017
Before TJOFLAT, HULL and JULIE CARNES, Circuit Judges. Robert Benjamin Cornell, U.S. Attorney's Office, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Lisette Marie Reid, Madeleine R. Shirley, Emily M. Smachetti, U.S. Attorney ServiceSouthern District of Florida, U.S. Attorney's Office, Miami, FL, for PlaintiffAppellee. Andrew L. Adler, Michael Caruso, Federal Public Defender, Federal Public Defender's Office, Miami, FL, for DefendantAppellant.
Anthony Tyrone Johnson appeals the denial of his 18 U.S.C. 3583(e)(1) motion for early termination of supervised release. He contends that the District Court abused its discretion by summarily denying his motion without explanation. Section 3583(e)(1) requires courts to consider several 3553(a) sentencing factors when terminating a term of supervised release. The issue before us is whether, and the extent to which, a district court must indicate or explain its consideration of the relevant 3553(a) factors when denying a 3583(e)(1) motion.
Because a defendant may appeal a court's decision to deny him early termination of supervised release, and because appellate review must be meaningful, we hold that a district court's order, in light of the record, must demonstrate that the pertinent factors were taken into account. This mirrors our 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2) precedent on the matter. See United States v. Douglas, 576 F.3d 1216, 1219 (11th Cir. 2009). Here, nothing in the record or in the District Court's order show that it considered the required 3553(a) factors. We therefore vacate its decision and remand the case for further consideration and explanation.
I.
In 1995, Anthony Tyrone Johnson was charged in a one-count indictment with being a convicted felon in unlawful possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g) and 924(a)(2). This was after Johnson, having found out his brother was murdered, reacted by shooting a rifle in the direction of two women and two children. The charge was tried to a jury in March 1997, and it found him guilty. Although the maximum statutory penalty for Johnson's offense was ten years' imprisonment, some of his prior criminal historytwo 1987 manslaughter convictions and a 1990 conviction of possession of cocaine with intent to sell subjected him to the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), which contains a fifteen-year mandatory minimum and a statutory maximum of life imprisonment. See id. 924(e). The applicable guidelines range was 262 to 327 months of imprisonment. After voicing concern about Johnson's extraordinary criminal history and violent propensities, the District Court sentenced Johnson to 327 months' imprisonment, to be followed by five years' supervised release.
Johnson appealed, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction and the Court's lack of findings in support of his sentence. This Court affirmed the conviction and sentence. United States v. Johnson, 252 F.3d 438 (11th Cir. 2001) (unpublished table decision).
In April 2016, Johnson returned to the District Court and filed an unopposed emergency motion under 28 U.S.C. 2255 to vacate his sentence and for immediate release from custody. Johnson argued that under Johnson v. United States, U.S. , 135 S.Ct. 2551, 192 L.Ed.2d 569 (2015), which held the ACCA's residual clause in 18 U.S.C. 924(e)(2)(B)(ii) unconstitutionally void for vagueness, his enhanced sentence constituted a due process violation. The statutory maximum of his 1997 firearm conviction was thus ten years, and he had already served twenty-one. In a report and recommendation, the Magistrate Judge suggested that the District Court grant the motion. The Court adopted the report and recommendation, but also ordered that a probation officer be assigned to Johnson and that he commence a three-year period of supervised release. The Court's order provided no reasons for the supervised release.
A year later, Johnson moved for early termination of his supervised release under 18 U.S.C. 3583(e)(1). Section 3583(e)(1) allows district courts to terminate the remainder of a defendant's term of supervised release once the defendant has completed a year, and provides a number of 3553(a) sentencing factors to be considered in making this determination. Johnson filed a brief in support of his motion, contending that early termination of his supervised release was in the interest of justice, as he had served eleven years of unnecessary prison timetwenty-one years on a ten-year sentence. He added that he was employed full-time at a construction company, went to church and Bible study, volunteered helping at-risk youth, and that his probation officer would not oppose early termination of his supervised release. Without requesting a Government response, the District Court denied Johnson's motion in a paperless entry on the docket, reading in its entirety: ORDER denying Defendant (1) Anthony Tyrone Johnson's [ ] Motion for Early Termination of Supervised Release. Signed by Senior Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley on 6/2/2017. The order provided no explanation whatsoever for the Court's decision. Johnson appealed.
II.
On appeal, Johnson does not necessarily contend that the District Court should have granted his motion. Rather, he claims that there must be some indicationfrom the District Court's order or the recordthat the Court considered the enumerated 3553(a) factors in making its decision. Here, he argues, neither the Court's summary denial nor the record was sufficient to show that such consideration took place. The Court's denial was thus an abuse of discretion and its judgment must be vacated and the case remanded. We agree.
A.
First, however, we briefly address the threshold issue of whether 3583(e)(1) requires courts to consider the relevant 3553(a) factors at all when denying a motion for early termination of supervised release. The Government contends that the factors must be consulted only when choosing to terminate supervised release earlynot when denying a defendant's request. For this, the Government points to the provision's opening line: The court may, after considering the [relevant 3553(a) factors,] terminate a term of supervised release 18 U.S.C. 3583(e)(1) (emphasis added).
Under the Government's reading, the provision would require courts to consider the factors only when deciding affirmatively to terminate supervised release early. This raises the question of how, other than consulting the factors, courts are supposed to determine when to deny relief under the provision. Or why, when denying relief only, they are allowed to turn a blind eye to them. It is sufficiently implicit in the provision that the factors are to be considered whether a court grants or denies a 3583(e)(1) motion. This conclusion is further supported by numerous unpublished opinions in this Circuit and by several decisions of our sister circuits.
With it established that courts must consider the specified 3553(a) factors when denying 3583(e)(1) motions, we now explain why, in denying these motions, they must indicate that the factors were actually considered.
B.
1.
We review a district court's denial of a motion for early termination of supervised release for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Trailer, 827 F.3d 933, 938 (11th Cir. 2016). [R]eview under an abuse of discretion standard, however, is not simply a rubber stamp. United States v. Docampo, 573 F.3d 1091, 1104 (11th Cir. 2009). A court must explain its sentencing decisions adequately enough to allow for meaningful appellate review. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 50, 128 S.Ct. 586, 597, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). Else, it abuses it discretion. Id. at 51, 128 S.Ct. at 597. This principle applies not only when a court imposes a sentence, but also when it determines whether or not to reduce a defendant's sentence. See Douglas, 576 F.3d at 1219.
For instance, when ruling on a 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2) motionwhich gives courts discretion to reduce a defendant's sentence if the Sentencing Commission subsequently lowers the relevant sentencing rangea court must demonstrate that it has considered the 3553(a) factors. Douglas, 576 F.3d at 1219. It need not articulate the applicability of each factor, but the record must show that the pertinent factors were taken into account. Id. And there must be enough, in the record or the court's order, to allow for meaningful appellate review of its decision. See id. at 1220.
So too here. Early termination of supervised release is sufficiently analogous to a 3582(c)(2) sentence reduction to warrant the same requirement. Both provisions contain a similar scheme. First, a defendant must be statutorily eligible. Under 3582(c)(2), the Sentencing Commission must have lowered the relevant sentencing range, while 3583(e)(1) requires the defendant to have completed a year of supervised release. Then, the court determines whether, in its discretion, relief should be granted. Both provisions require that a number of 3553(a) factors be considered in making this determination.
Further, this Court has recognized that a defendant is not without recourse if he is denied early termination of supervised release precisely because he may appeal the district court's denial of such relief. Trailer, 827 F.3d at 938. Appellate review as recourse implies meaningful review, which in turn requires the reasons for the district court's decision to be sufficiently apparent. This line of logic also accounts for our 3582(c)(2) standard, see Douglas, 576 F.3d at 121920, substantiating further its applicability here, to a 3583(e)(1) decision.
We accordingly conclude that for a 3583(e)(1) motion to be properly denied, the court's order, in light of the record, must indicate that the court considered the factors enumerated in the provision. Cf. id. at 1219. We join a number of our sister circuits in so holding. The sentencing court need not explain each factor's applicability, nor always explicitly articulate that it considered the factors. There may be, for example, instances where an explanation for its decision was provided when denying a previous motion and no new facts were presented in a subsequent request, or [w]here clear and compelling reasons to deny relief leap out from the record. United States v. MathisGardner, 783 F.3d 1286, 1289 (D.C. Cir. 2015). But where the order is deficient in explanation, the record must clearly imply that the relevant factors were consideredenough so that meaningful appellate review of the factors' application can take place, rather than speculation of whether they were taken into account in the first place.
2.
We turn now to whether, in light of the record, the District Court's paperless order on the docket stating only that Johnson's motion was denied was sufficient to meet the standard above. Because the Court's order articulated nothing other than that Johnson's motion was denied, any indication that the 3553(a) factors were considered must come implicitly from the record.
To this point, the Government notes that the Court presided over Johnson's 1997 trial. As apparent from the sentencing hearing transcript, it knew of the nature of the events leading to Johnson's 1997 conviction and of his extensive criminal history. This knowledge, the Government argues, implicitly informed the Court's decision to deny Johnson's 3583(e)(1) motion twenty years later. Further, Johnson filed a brief in support of his motion, which described his exemplary conduct since being released. So the Court likely considered that too. The Government thus contends that, in aggregation, the record implies that the Court adequately considered the relevant 3553(a) factors.
Presiding over a defendant's trial acquaints the sentencing judge with a wealth of information relevant to the 3553(a) factors. To be sure, this might support an inference that these factors were considered, despite a summary order, when the judge later rules on the defendant's 3583(e)(1) motion. But we will not stretch this inference to cover our situation, where Johnson's motion came twenty years after his trial. The Court does not anywhere indicate that it looked back at Johnson's trial or sentencing record. And further, the violent conduct and prior convictions that concerned it at Johnson's 1997 sentencing are now between twenty and thirty years old. Their impact on the Court's decisionmaking could certainly have diminished with the passage of time. Without any indication from the Court, it would be unacceptable speculation to impart sentencing considerations from 1997 to this case.
This Court illustrated this principle in Broadwater v. United States, 292 F.3d 1302 (11th Cir. 2002). There, the petitioner challenged his conviction and sentence under 28 U.S.C. 2255, raising six instances in which his counsel provided allegedly ineffective assistance. The District Court summarily denied the motion. We vacated and remanded so that the Court could give further explanation in order to provide a sufficient basis for [appellate] review. Id. at 1303 (internal quotation marks omitted). In holding that meaningful review was impossible, we noted the following:
We are mindful of the fact that the same judge who denied this 2255 motion [in 2000] also conducted the several-day trial of the case in 1997, and that some situations may be resolved by the district court's personal knowledge or recollection. When that is not revealed in the order, however, there is no way for an appellate court to review the accuracy of that recollection or whether that is sufficient upon which to base a denial of relief. Here, we cannot tell whether the district court's ruling was premised upon its review of the files, records, and transcripts of the proceedings, or in whole or in part upon its own recollection of events.
Id. at 1304 (citation omitted). We refused to assume that the District Court's experience conducting the defendant's trial provided adequate foundation to summarily deny the defendant's postconviction motion three years later. Although arising in a different context, Broadwater's principle sufficiently applies to Johnson's case. Without indication, we cannot assume that the District Court's sentencing considerations twenty years ago buttressed its denial of Johnson's motion. Therefore, without a basis for the District Court's decision, we cannot meaningfully review it.
Moreover, Johnson filing a brief in support of his motion does not necessarily mean that, by reviewing and then denying the motion, the Court considered the required factors. Johnson's brief made no mention of the relevant 3553(a) factors, and the Government was not ordered to respond. Affirming the District Court's decision in the instant case would promote post hoc rationalization of sentencing decisions, not meaningful review.
III.
Neither the District Court's summary order nor the record indicate the basis for the Court's denial of Johnson's 3583(e)(1) motion. We cannot just reflexively presume that the learned judge appropriately exercised his discretion and considered all of the relevant factors, because that would risk turning abuse of discretion review into merely a rubber stamp. MathisGardner, 783 F.3d at 128889; see also Docampo, 573 F.3d at 1104 ([R]eview under an abuse of discretion standard is not simply a rubber stamp.). The District Court's denial therefore constitutes an abuse of discretion. We vacate its decision and remand this case for further consideration and explanation.
VACATED AND REMANDED.
FOOTNOTES
. Section 3582(c)(2) allows courts to reduce a defendant's term of imprisonment if the Sentencing Commission subsequently lowers the relevant sentencing range. When determining whether to reduce a sentence, the court must consider the applicable 3553(a) factors and Sentencing Commission policy statements. 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2).
. At Johnson's sentencing hearing, the Court stated that it was really never clear whether [Johnson was] trying to shoot those people or just inflict some injury on [their] home itself or a home nearby. The women's connection to the murder of Johnson's brother was also unclear. The Court stated that at most maybe they were related somehow to some of the people involved in the shooting of [Johnson's] brother.
. Other prior convictions not contributing to Johnson's status under the ACCA include attempted burglary in 1985, burglary/forced entry into a nonresidence in 1987, battery in 1991, grand theft in 1991, and fleeing or attempting to elude police in 1991.
. Johnson returned to the judge that conducted his 1997 trial and imposed his sentence.
. Specifically, Johnson's two manslaughter convictions that served as ACCA predicates no longer qualified under the ACCA's residual clause.
. Johnson again returned to judge that handled his trial, sentencing, and 2255 motion.
. Section 3583(e)(1) provides:The court may, after considering the factors set forth in section 3553(a)(1), (a)(2)(B), (a)(2)(C), (a)(2)(D), (a)(4), (a)(5), (a)(6), and (a)(7) terminate a term of supervised release and discharge the defendant released at any time after the expiration of one year of supervised release if it is satisfied that such action is warranted by the conduct of the defendant released and the interest of justice.The cited 3553(a) factors require consideration of the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant; the need for deterrence, for public protection from further crimes of the defendant, and for correctional treatment for the defendant; the guidelines range; the Sentencing Commission's policy statements; the need to avoid unwarranted sentencing disparities; and the need to provide restitution to any victims of the offense. 18 U.S.C. 3553(a)(1), (a)(2)(B)(D), (a)(4)(7).
. See, e.g., United States v. Boyd, 606 Fed.Appx. 953 (11th Cir. 2015); United States v. Fu Qian Danny Pan, 540 Fed.Appx. 945 (11th Cir. 2013); United States v. Keshishian, 507 Fed.Appx. 913 (11th Cir. 2013).
. See United States v. MathisGardner, 783 F.3d 1286, 128788 (D.C. Cir. 2015) (holding that the specified 3553(a) factors must be considered when denying a 3583(e)(1) motion and noting that at least six circuits have held or strongly implied the same). Five circuits have addressed the different question, discussed in part II.B.1., of whether, and the extent to which, courts must indicate or explain their consideration of the factors. See infra note 10.
. See United States v. MathisGardner, 783 F.3d 1286, 128889 (D.C. Cir. 2015); United States v. Emmett, 749 F.3d 817, 82021 (9th Cir. 2014); United States v. Lowe, 632 F.3d 996, 998 (7th Cir. 2011); United States v. Gammarano, 321 F.3d 311, 315 (2d Cir. 2003). But see United States v. Mosby, 719 F.3d 925, 930 (8th Cir. 2013) (Neither 18 U.S.C. 3583(e) nor relevant case law required the district court to explain its denial of early termination of supervised release.).
. Cf. Douglas, 576 F.3d at 1219; United States v. Dorman, 488 F.3d 936, 944 (11th Cir. 2007) (holding a sentence procedurally reasonable, despite the sentencing court failing to expressly mention that it considered the 3553(a) factors, because consideration could be derived from its rulings on the defendant's objections and downward-departure motion).
. That is, the judge that denied Johnson's 3583(e)(1) motion also conducted his 1997 trial and sentencing.
. The Government also notes that the Court knew of Johnson's previous probation violations. At Johnson's sentencing hearing, his probation officer testified briefly about one probation violation in 1991 and another in 1992. The Court, however, did not mention the probation violations when explaining its rationale for Johnson's sentence.
. This does not mean that such an inference can never be made, only that no such inference is appropriate given the twenty-year passage of time here.
PER CURIAM:
The incident has come to the fore a day after Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis announced the scheme was being implemented smoothly.
The Shiv Sena MLA has raised the issue citing faulty implementation of the loan waiver scheme and demanded an inquiry into this flawed inclusion as the rules bar any existing or former elected representative from getting benefit under the scheme. (Photo: ANI)
Nagpur: Shiv Sena MLA Prakash Abitkar has claimed he was named as a beneficiary of the farm loan waiver in the Kolhapur District Central Cooperative Bank, even though he had not applied for it.
He has got a loan waiver of Rs 25,000 from the bank.
This has come just a day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the scheme was being implemented smoothly.
He told the state legislative Assembly on Thursday that his government had committed some "mistakes" while implementing the Rs 34,022-crore farm loan waiver scheme, but has fixed all these issues.
Abitkar, an MLA from Radhanagari in Kolhapur district, has got the benefit of Maharashtra Government's loan waiver scheme for drought affected farmers.
The Shiv Sena MLA has raised the issue citing faulty implementation of the loan waiver scheme and demanded an inquiry into this flawed inclusion as the rules bar any existing or former elected representative from getting benefit under the scheme.
He said, "I was stunned when I came to know that my name appeared in the green list of loan waiver beneficiaries. I was shocked again when I got more details about the list of my (Kolhapur) area. I had not even applied or registered my name anywhere to get the waiver."
The Opposition is directly blaming Fadnavis for this as the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) had been working on the data of the beneficiaries of this scheme through the information and technology department of Maharashtra.
Jeetendra Kumar Jha's family initially was unable to identify his body. They identified after police showed his wallet and clothes.
Indian Civil Accounts Service officer Jeetendra Kumar Jha's body was found on rail tracks on Monday in Palam. (Photo: Facebook | jeetendra.k.jha)
New Delhi: The family of a Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry official, whose body was found on railway tracks three days after he went missing, on Friday alleged that he was killed and his body was dumped there.
Indian Civil Accounts Service officer Jeetendra Kumar Jha's body was found on rail tracks on Monday in Palam.
Police, however, said that it was a case of suicide since a purported note was also found in which he said no one was responsible for his death.
Jha's family was initially not able to identify his body on Thursday. But after police showed a wallet and clothes, they identified the body.
RN Mishra, Jha's brother-in-law, said the body was mutilated beyond recognition and that is why they could not identify it.
He alleged that there was foul play in Jha's death.
"Three-four months ago, he had said that he won't live for long. He was scared for his life," Mishra said.
Mishra said that Jha was scared and was not even going to work and had been on leave.
"He had even stopped visiting our house late in the night. If we had to meet him, we would have to visit his home," Mishra recalled.
It was for this reason that Jha had even started leaving his cell phone at home so that his location could not be tracked.
"He would leave his cell phone behind since he feared that his location might be tracked and he might be attacked. Even on the day he went missing, he had left his phone at home," said Mishra.
Jha, an Indian Civil Accounts Service officer, went missing from Dwarka on Monday after going for a walk, they said.
An unidentified body was found on the intervening night of December 11 and 12 on the railway tracks in Palam. It was identified as that of Jha after a wallet was found.
Jha, a 1998-batch officer, was posted in the training section of Ministry of Human Resource.
Jha was not going to office and was on medical leave from September 28, the police had said.
Hazare who is also scheduled to visit Itanagar on Saturday said that he has learnt many lessons from his last Lokpal movement.
Guwahati: Noted social activist Anna Hazare here on Friday said that the present BJP-led government was giving more emphasis on the interest of industrialists than the farmers of the country.
Informing about his movement that he is going to start from March 23 in New Delhi, Mr Hazare told reporters that previous Congress regime headed by Manmohan Singh had weakened the Lokpal bill while it was frmaed. The present government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has further weakened the proposed Lokpal Bill by presenting an amendment in the parliament on July 27, 2016, he regretted adding that the government has proposed an amendment, which provides immunity to relatives of government employees including wife, son daughter and others not to submit the details of their property every year.
The veteran activist said that he has written many letters to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on various issues but never got the reply.
Mr Hazare who is also scheduled to visit Itanagar on Saturday said that he has learnt many lessons from his last Lokpal movement.
I have learnt my lesson from my lat Lokpal movement as I saw people rising politically through my movement. This time volunteers have to sign an affidavit stating that they will not join any political party or float their own once they are part of this movement against corruption, said Mr Hazare who was accorded grand welcome by his supporters. Mr Hazare who is on a nation-wide tour for his next movement also met a number of RTI activists and youths carrying out anti-corruption movement in the state.
Maliwal also highlights the need for having fast-track courts in New Delhi so that rapists are punished forthwith.
Swati Maliwal urges the prime minister to bring in a legislation wherein at least those convicted of raping minors are given death penalty within six months. (Photo: ANI)
New Delhi: Lamenting the "delay" in carrying out sentence of December 16 gang-rape and murder incident, Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati Maliwal on Saturday claimed the long winding legal process allowed the criminals to feel they can get away with such heinous crimes.
She urged the prime minister to bring in a legislation wherein at least those convicted of raping minors are given death penalty within six months.
Nirbhaya, a para-medical student, was brutally gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. The incident took place while she was returning with a friend after watching a movie. She died 13 days after the incident at a hospital in Singapore.
Of the six men arrested in the case, one of the accused Ram Singh hanged himself in prison in March 2013, while another man, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August. In 2016, he was released from the correction home after serving the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.
The other four - Akshay, Vinay Sharma, Pawan and Mukesh - were found guilty and sentenced to death by the Delhi High Court in September 2013. The Supreme Court also upheld the high court's decision.
"It's the fifth death anniversary of Nirbhaya incident and the fact is that nothing has changed in this country. Everyday girls and women are being brutally raped in this country," she said.
Maliwal also highlighted the need for having fast-track courts in the city so that rapists are punished forthwith.
Also, there is a need to upgrade the delivery mechanism of the forensic department as well as the accountability of the police, she said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"The system has made the criminals confident enough to believe that they can get away with any crime perpetrated against a woman or a child. It is very unfortunate that even Nirbhaya herself has not got justice in this country. Nirbhaya's mother is still running from pillar to post in order to ensure that her beloved daughter can get justice," Maliwal said.
The DCW chief said that at least in case of rape of minor girls, there should be a law in this country in which such rapists should be punished and given death penalty within six months.
She also made an appeal to the prime minister to constitute a high-level committee on women's safety in Delhi, having the Union home minister, the lieutenant governor, the
chief minister, the police commissioner and the DCW representatives as its members, to take effective decisions on issues of women's safety.
Drawing the prime minister's attention to the Nirbhaya fund, which has remained unutilised till date, Maliwal urged him to devolve the fund immediately to the states failing which the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' programme will lose its relevance.
The court said the Centre for Justice and Peace Trust has not been named as an accused in the FIR.
New Delhi: In a setback to social activist Teesta Setalvad, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with an order passed by the Gujarat police to freeze the nine bank accounts of her Trust, which is fighting for the victims of the 2002 communal riots cases.
A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A.M. Kanwilkar dismissed the appeals filed by Teesta and her husband against a Gujarat high court judgment refusing to lift the ban.
Writing the judgment Justice Kanwilkar said, there is no room to countenance the challenge to the action of seizure of bank account of any person which may be found under circumstances creating suspicion of the commission of any offence. In the present case, FIR has been registered at least against three private appellants, naming them as accused.
The court said the Centre for Justice and Peace Trust has not been named as an accused in the FIR. But the investigation thus far, according to the respondents, reveals that Teesta Atul Setalvad and Javed Anand are actively associated with the said Trusts and have carried out transactions which may be found under circumstances suspicious of the commission of the alleged offence.
The Bench said for the present, the Investigating Officer is of the view that there are certain circumstances emerging from the transactions done from these bank accounts, which create suspicion of the commission of an offence.
It is on that belief he has exercised his discretion to issue directions to seize the bank accounts pertaining to CJP Trust.
The Bench while dismissing the plea said it would be open to the appellants to apply for de-freezing of the bank accounts and persuade the concerned Court that the said bank accounts are no more necessary for the purpose of investigation It will be open to the concerned Court to consider that request in accordance with law after hearing the investigating agency, including to impose conditions as may be warranted in the fact situation of the case.
The bank accounts, in all nine, of the appellants have been seized on the instructions of the Investigating Officer as a sequel to the complaint filed by the members of Gulberg Co-Operative Housing Society, Gujarat. The appellants contended that to justify the freezing of the bank accounts the investigating authority must demonstrate that the monies held in these accounts are connected with the commission of the offence. The investigation of the alleged offence has been a roving one and the police have investigated the entire accounts of the appellants even beyond the period referred to in the FIR. Further, the seized accounts have nothing to do with the subject matter of the FIR, they said and prayed for de-freezing the accounts.
There is still a mystery over whether Sonia will contest from Rae Bareli in 2019.
New Delhi: Making way for her son, Mrs Sonia Gandhi on Friday stepped down as Congress president, with her son Rahul set to officially take charge on Saturday. Asked about her new role, she told reporters: My role is to retire.
However, Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala later tweeted, saying: Would sincerely request friends in the media to not rely upon innuendos. He added: Sonia Gandhi has retired as president of Indian National Congress and not from politics. Her blessings, wisdom and innate commitment to Congress ideology shall always be our guiding light.
Mrs Gandhi is also leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP), which includes members of both Houses. Her statement on Friday led to speculation that she might also hand over the CPP leadership to Rahul Gandhi. Mr Gandhi will be handed over a formal certificate of being elected as Congress president by the partys central election authority on Saturday.
Insiders claim Mrs Sonia Gandhi may be appointed as the partys patron. There is still mystery over whether she will contest from Rae Bareli in 2019. Many feel she may step down and pave the way for her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest the seat.
Mr Gandhis assumption of the Congress presidency comes two days before the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh election results will be declared. Interestingly, all the exit polls have given an edge to the BJP over the Congress in both states. Once Rahul Gandhi takes over, he will be the sixth member of his family, and its fifth generation, to become Congress president. The first of the Gandhi-Nehru family was Motilal Nehru, followed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, who has been the longest-serving party chief, with a reign of 19 years.
The Congress headquarters in the national capital bore a festive look on Friday on the eve of the coronation. The preparations have already started, with a stage being prepared where the certificate of election will be given to Mr Gandhi. On the stage will be Sonia and Rahul Gandhi along with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The entire Congress Working Committee will be present along with senior leaders. All state unit chiefs will also be present. Posters congratulating Mr Gandhi have come up on Akbar Road, that houses the Congress office. Stalls have also come up selling keychains, posters and other small items bearing the photograph of Mr Gandhi.
Mr Rahul Gandhi faces the daunting task of giving a fresh impetus to the party with a blend of the old guard and newer leaders. Mr Gandhis taking over is expected to usher in winds of change in the Congress. Insiders say there will be two key advisers who would directly report to the new Congress president. Mr Gandhi has indicated earlier that there will be a judicious mix of young and experienced leaders, and nobody will be left out.
The police on Saturday will file a case into the alleged suicide case based on his wifes statement.
New Delhi: In a fresh development in the mysterious disapperance-cum-death case of an Indian Defence Accounts Services officer who had gone missing on Monday from his house in Shivali Apartment in Sector-9 of Dwarka, the brother identified the deceaseds body on Friday.
It may be noted the officer was found dead on Thursday on the railway tracks in Palam.
On Friday, the elder brother of the deceased Jitender Kumar Jha, Amrendra Kumar Jha reached Delhi on Friday and went to the mortuary with the police team where he identified the body of his deceased brother.
Following the identification, the police have sent the body for post mortem. On Saturday, the body will be handed over to the family.
On Thursday evening, once the news of the IDAS officers death reached them, the deceaseds wife and his nephew refused to cooperate with the police and didnt identify the body.
After refused to identify the body, the police decided to carry out the DNA test of the slain officer. The wife didnt identify the body stating it was badly mutilated. However, the deceaseds elder brother completed the formality of identifying the body on Friday, said the police.
The police on Saturday will file a case into the alleged suicide case based on his wifes statement.
According to order, the VCs of such universities can now take up new works that cost up to Rs 5 crore if they are executed through the PWD.
The finance department has issued an order following the approval of Lt Governor Anil Baijal. The order was issued on Friday, has come into force with immediate effect. (Photo: File)
New Delhi: The Delhi government has given financial powers to vice-chancellors of state-funded universities to spend up to Rs 5 crore for any new work. The finance department has issued an order following the approval of Lt Governor Anil Baijal. The order was issued on Friday, has come into force with immediate effect.
In November, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said that vice-chancellors of Delhi government-funded universities would soon be able to carry out on their own work that cost up to Rs 5 crore per annum, a move which he had described as a major reform to ensure autonomy of these institutions.
In exercise of powers conferred under the Rule -13 of delegation of Financial Power Rules, 1978, the Lt Governor, Delhi, is pleased to delegate the following financial powers to the vice-chancellors of the universities being funded by GNCTD of Delhi, the department said in its order.
According to the order, the VCs of such universities can now take up new works that cost up to Rs 5 crore if they are executed through the Public Works Department (PWD). It also stated that for repair and maintenance works, VCs can spend up to Rs 1 crore per annum if the work is awarded to agencies other than the PWD.
Delhi Technological University and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University are among the universities that are full funded by the Delhi government. VCs of these universities earlier did not have such financial powers and they were dependent on the government for sanction of works that they might need to undertake on an urgent basis.
According to a government statement, Kejriwal asks the agencies not to demolish any 'jhuggi' till February 28.
The move comes after the chief minister held a meeting with senior officials from the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), the Delhi Development Authority and the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi over the Slum Policy. (Photo: File)
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asked all land-owning agencies in the city not to demolish 'jhuggis' until the end of the winter season.
The move comes after the chief minister held a meeting with senior officials from the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), the Delhi Development Authority and the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi over the Slum Policy.
According to a government statement, Kejriwal asked the agencies not to demolish any 'jhuggi' till February 28.
"Please do not demolish jhuggis till winters are over, say around February 28, 2018. It's very cold and take a humanitarian approach," he was quoted as saying in the statement.
He also asked the agencies to follow the protocol set for demolition of 'jhuggis' "in letter and spirit".
Kejriwal said none of them should be razed immediately without following the framework of the demolition policy.
"No demolition should be done in future also without proper rehabilitation or relocation of the slum dwellers. The DUSIB will lay down the norms for demolition according the notified Slum Policy and it will be applicable for all of Delhi and agencies," the chief minister said.
The Slum Policy notified recently lays down guidelines for demolition and has made the DUSIB the nodal agency for relocation or rehabilitation of jhuggi bastis.
The CEO of West Bengal had already sent eight companies of Central forces to Sabang.
Kolkata: The West Bengal BJP unit on Friday accused the ruling Trinamul Congess of letting loose a reign of terror and demanded adequate deployment of Central Paramilitary forces for the Sabang assembly bypoll, which is scheduled to be held on December 21.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday organised a sit-in demonstration outside the office of chief electoral officer (CEO) of West Bengal and demanded deployment of adequate Central forces to ensure free and fair elections.
According to the norms of election commission of India, we want Central Paramilitary forces to be deployed in all the booths of Sabang constituency. Democracy is under threat and TMC has let loose a reign of terror. It is the duty of the election commission to ensure that free and fair voting takes place, BJP leader Mukul Roy said.
Earlier this week a BJP delegation had met the CEO and submitted a deputation in this regard.
The CEO of West Bengal had already sent eight companies of Central forces to Sabang. But the BJP wants 14 companies of Central forces to be deployed in Sabang.
The TMC leadership while reacting to BJPs demand said, they can ask for as many force they want to. They had tried the same trick in 2016 but had failed. The people of West Bengal stands with Mamata Banerjee, we will win the seat with a much bigger margin.
United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Jean Tony VALBRUN, Defendant, Appellant. No. 16-1806 Decided: December 15, 2017
Before Barron, Selya and Stahl, Circuit Judges. Leslie FeldmanRumpler, Boston, MA, on brief for appellant. Richard W. Murphy, Acting United States Attorney, and Renee M. Bunker, Assistant United States Attorney, Appellate Chief, on brief for appellee.
Following his conviction for a drug-trafficking offense, defendant-appellant Jean Tony Valbrun assigns error to certain of the district court's evidentiary rulings and to a jury instruction. Finding his asseverational array unpersuasive, we affirm his conviction.
I. BACKGROUND
This case is one of several arising out of the activities of a sprawling drug-distribution ring operating in Maine. As such, it implicates one of many spokes radiating from the hub of a conspiratorial wheel. We briefly rehearse the relevant facts and travel of the case, directing readers who hunger for more exegetic details about the drug-distribution ring to consult our opinion in United States v. Gordon, 871 F.3d 35, 4042 (1st Cir. 2017).
In 2014, Joey Brown, an agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), led an investigation into the activities of Jacques Victor, the suspected kingpin of a drug-distribution ring. During this investigation, the DEA received judicial authorization to intercept calls and text messages to and from a number of telephones, including Victor's cellphone. See id. at 4142; see also 18 U.S.C. 25102522. Through these intercepts, the DEA learned that Victor was plotting with Alcindy JeanBaptiste, Jonathan Duffaud, and the appellant to obtain drugs in Massachusetts and transport them to Maine.
When the plot matured, the authorities were ready: the appellant was arrested while driving a rental vehicle en route from Massachusetts to Maine. Concealed within the vehicle were 225 net grams of heroin and 106.2 net grams of cocaine base (crack cocaine).
In due course, the appellant and eleven other persons were indicted on charges associated with the activities of the drug ring. The appellant was, however, tried separately, on charges of knowingly possessing with intent to distribute heroin and crack cocaine, see 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1), and of aiding and abetting the same, see 18 U.S.C. 2(a). At trial, the government introduced thirteen recorded calls derived from the wiretap on Victor's cellphone. Victor (who had participated in each of the thirteen calls) testified about these conversations, identifying specific voices and explaining jargon and other phrases of uncertain meaning. The appellant's principal defense was that he did not know that the rental vehicle contained controlled substances.
At the conclusion of the trial, the district court instructed the jury on, inter alia, the doctrine of willful blindness. The jury found the appellant guilty as charged. The court subsequently sentenced him to an incarcerative term of twenty-eight months. This timely appeal ensued.
II. ANALYSIS
The appellant assigns error in two respects. First, he contends that the district court erred in allowing parts of Victor's testimony about the intercepted calls. Second, he contends that the court erred in instructing the jury on willful blindness. We address these contentions sequentially.
A. The Challenged Testimony.
As an initial matter, the appellant trains his fire on the district court's admission of Victor's testimony interpreting parts of the telephone conversations. In support, he argues that most of the language was clear and that Victor's interpretive gloss was neither necessary nor helpful to an understanding of the evidence. The challenged testimony falls into two categories: in the appellant's words, one category consisted of testimony comprising repetitions or explanations juxtaposed with testimony as to Victor's own knowledge of facts; the second category consisted of testimony that materially changed the meaning of statements. Although the appellant attempts to paint with a broad brush, he only articulates specific challenges to testimony regarding three calls. We limit our inquiry accordingly. See United States v. Albertelli, 687 F.3d 439, 44849 (1st Cir. 2012).
A threshold problem looms: the appellant's challenges implicate Federal Rule of Evidence 701, and the government disputes whether the appellant adequately preserved these objections below. We find it unnecessary to resolve this dispute; rather, we assume, favorably to the appellant, that his objections were preserved. Consequently, our review is for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Gobbi, 471 F.3d 302, 311 (1st Cir. 2006) (holding that disputed rulings relating to admission or exclusion of evidence, if preserved, are reviewed for abuse of discretion).
The appellant's interpretive testimony is fairly characterized as lay opinion testimony. See, e.g., United States v. Dunston, 851 F.3d 91, 96 (1st Cir. 2017); United States v. Santiago, 560 F.3d 62, 66 (1st Cir. 2009). Rule 701 permits the admission of lay opinion testimony that is rationally based on the witness's perception, helps the factfinder to understand the witness's testimony or to determin[e] a fact in issue, and does not depend on scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge within the scope of Rule 702. The district court has considerable discretion in deciding whether to admit lay opinion testimony under Rule 701. United States v. Valdivia, 680 F.3d 33, 51 (1st Cir. 2012). Even so, the rule requires exclusion where the witness is no better suited than the jury to make the judgment at issue, thus providing assurance against the admission of opinions which would merely tell the jury what result to reach. United States v. VazquezRivera, 665 F.3d 351, 363 (1st Cir. 2011) (quoting United States v. Meises, 645 F.3d 5, 16 (1st Cir. 2011)).
Here, Victor's interpretations are rationally based on his experience and his first-hand perceptions and do not involve scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge. Fed. R. Evid. 701. The question, then, is whether the district court abused its discretion in determining that those interpretations would help the jury to understand what was being communicated in the calls. In answering this question, we do not write on a pristine page: it is settled beyond hope of contradiction that a witness with personal knowledge of slang or jargon commonly employed in the drug trade may, consistent with Rule 701, be allowed to interpret ambiguous language used conversationally by drug traffickers. See Dunston, 851 F.3d at 96; United States v. Lizardo, 445 F.3d 73, 83 (1st Cir. 2006). It follows that a knowledgeable coconspirator may be permitted to offer lay opinion testimony in a drug-trafficking prosecution as to the meanings of 'code words' used by fellow conspirators in taped conversations in which he participated. Lizardo, 445 F.3d at 83 (quoting United States v. Gaines, 170 F.3d 72, 77 (1st Cir. 1999)).
In this instance, though, the appellant insists that the language in most of the intercepted calls was clear and that Victor's testimony was of no help in understanding the dialogue. The district court reached a different conclusion, and our review of the record convinces us that the court's conclusion was well within the compass of its discretion. The calls contained a host of ambiguities, and Victor's testimony served not only to clarify those ambiguities but also to provide needed context to the events that were transpiring. For example, the participants in the calls referred to individuals involved in the drug ring's activities informally, and Victor was helpful to the jury in identifying the persons to whom sobriquets such as Dude and Face referred. See, e.g., United States v. Spencer, 873 F.3d 1, 14 (1st Cir. 2017).
We add, moreover, that the participants in the calls used ambiguous terms to discuss what the government argues were references to the drugs found in the car and money the appellant would receive for transporting the drugs. For example, calls between Victor and the appellant contained vague references to putting the thing, my stuff, and hid[ing] it well. Nor does it seem to have been mere happenstance: Victor testified that he often tried to conceal [his] transaction[s] by not explicitly mentioning drugs. Seen in this light, it is nose-on-the-face plain that Victor's testimony was likely to assist the jury in understanding what was meant both by the statements he made and by the statements he overheard. Given Victor's personal knowledge of the vernacular favored by the conspirators, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that his testimony was helpful to the jury.
The appellant also asserts that exclusion of portions of the challenged testimony was mandated because Victor misled the jury by materially changing the meaning of recorded statements. Properly viewed, this assertion goes to the weight of Victor's testimony, not to its admissibility. See Robinson v. Watts Detec. Agency, Inc., 685 F.2d 729, 739 (1st Cir. 1982) (explaining that whether an opinion is accurate goes to the weight of the testimony, not its admissibility); cf. United States v. VegaFigueroa, 234 F.3d 744, 755 (1st Cir. 2000) ([T]he modern trend favors the admission of opinion testimony provided it is well founded on personal knowledge and susceptible to cross-examination.). Once the court has determined that lay opinion testimony will be helpful to the jury and satisfies the other prerequisites of Rule 701, it is for the jury to assay the persuasive force of that testimony. See Albertelli, 687 F.3d at 448; United States v. Paiva, 892 F.2d 148, 157 (1st Cir. 1989).
To be sure, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of misleading the jury. Fed. R. Evid. 403. Here, however, the appellant failed to invoke Rule 403 either at trial or in his appellate briefing. Consequently, any claim of error that hinges on the application of this Rule would, at best, be reviewed for plain error. See United States v. Gordon, 875 F.3d 26, 30 (1st Cir. 2017) (holding that party's failure to specify ground of objection in district court results in plain error review); United States v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 17 (1st Cir. 1990) (holding that issues adverted to in a perfunctory manner in appellate briefs are deemed waived); see also Fed. R. Evid. 103(a)(1)(B). There was no Rule 403 error here, plain or otherwise.
When Rule 403 is in play, the devoir of persuasion rests with the party urging exclusion. See United States v. Tse, 375 F.3d 148, 164 (1st Cir. 2004). The appellant has not carried this burden: his attempts to portray Victor's testimony as misleading are largely conclusory. The record makes manifest that Victor offered his interpretations of certain statements based on personal knowledge, and the appellant had a full and fair opportunity to cross-examine him. No more is exigible whenas in this casethe appellant has not developed any sufficient argument indicating that the risks inherent in admitting Victor's testimony substantially outweighed its probative value.
To say more about the challenged testimony would be pointless. We hold, without serious question, that the district court did not abuse its considerable discretion, Valdivia, 680 F.3d at 51, in allowing Victor to offer lay opinion testimony about the meaning and purport of intercepted conversations in which he had participated.
B. The Challenged Instruction.
This brings us to the appellant's claim that the district court's willful blindness instruction was unwarranted. Our case law is inconsistent concerning the standard of review that applies where, as here, a defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence undergirding a willful blindness instruction. While older cases have reviewed for abuse of discretion, see, e.g., United States v. Coviello, 225 F.3d 54, 70 (1st Cir. 2000), more recent cases have undertaken de novo review, see, e.g., United States v. Parker, 872 F.3d 1, 14 (1st Cir. 2017). In the case at hand, this issue is further complicated by the government's suggestion that the appellant has not preserved this claim of error. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 30(d); see also United States v. Moran, 393 F.3d 1, 13 (1st Cir. 2004) (explaining that unpreserved claims of instructional error are reviewed for plain error).
We need not unwind this procedural tangle. Given the impeccable provenance of the challenged instruction, we simply assume, favorably to the appellant, both that the claim of error was duly preserved and that it engenders de novo review. Even on such a generous set of assumptions, the claim is hopeless.
The doctrine of willful blindness permits the government to prove scienter when a defendant deliberately shields himself from apparent evidence of criminality. See GlobalTech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 563 U.S. 754, 766 (2011). In effect, the law treats persons who know enough to blind themselves to direct proof of critical facts as having actual knowledge of those facts. Id.; see United States v. Singh, 222 F.3d 6, 11 (1st Cir. 2000). A willful blindness instruction is justified if (1) a defendant claims a lack of knowledge, (2) the facts suggest a conscious course of deliberate ignorance, and (3) the instruction, taken as a whole, cannot be misunderstood as mandating an inference of knowledge. United States v. Azubike, 564 F.3d 59, 66 (1st Cir. 2009); see Singh, 222 F.3d at 11. In mounting his claim of instructional error, the appellant dwells on the second of these elements, insisting that the evidence of purposeful avoidance was insufficient to ground the instruction. We do not agree.
To begin, the government is not required to prove willful blindness by direct evidence. See Singh, 222 F.3d at 11. Instead, it may satisfy its burden of production by adducing evidence that red flags existed that the defendant consciously avoided investigating. See United States v. Ford, 821 F.3d 63, 74 (1st Cir. 2016); Singh, 222 F.3d at 11. We have held that such circumstantial evidence is sufficient to permit a factfinder to infer conscious avoidance of guilty knowledge and, thus, to justify a willful blindness instruction. Singh, 222 F.3d at 11.
In this case, warning signs abounded. For instance, the appellant was a party to a call during which (as Victor testified) Victor and Duffaud discussed the rental vehicle's air filter housing system as a potential place to hide drugs. During the same call, Victor told the appellant, [s]ince you're a mechanic call me when dude is putting the thing, and the appellant replied, Aight.
So, too, in a subsequent call, the appellant told Victor, Dude is down the street, coming. Get it get on the highway; ninety five. Victor responded: Aight If you can, look for a good place in the car to hide it well for me. Look under, if you can search under If you can, go under physical yourself, to which the appellant replied, [y]eah, imma put From these and other discussions explicated by Victor, the jury reasonably could have inferred that the appellant either knew of an effort to hide drugs in the rental vehicle and was cooperating in that endeavor or he purposefully avoided looking into the meaning of what the statements portended. The latter inference was sufficient to ground a willful blindness instruction. See Singh, 222 F.3d at 11; United States v. Cunan, 152 F.3d 29, 39 (1st Cir. 1998). Indeed, we previously have upheld the use of a willful blindness instruction in a drug-distribution case where a defendant responds affirmatively to jargon on an intercepted call and makes no inquiry into its meaning. See Azubike, 564 F.3d at 68. Such a ruling does no more than reflect the reality of events: drug organizations do not usually take unnecessary risks by trusting critical transactions to outsiders. Id. at 65 (internal quotation marks omitted).
In an attempt to derail this reasoning, the appellant invokes our decision in United States v. PerezMelendez, 599 F.3d 31 (1st Cir. 2010). There, we ruled that the evidence undergirding the jury verdict was too thin. See id. at 4647. This ruling stemmed from our conclusion that the government had established no more than that the defendants knew or were willfully blind to the fact that something illegal was afoot, not that a controlled substance was involved. Id. at 45.
The case before us is readily distinguishable from PerezMelendez. In that case, the record contained no evidence that the defendants had resisted learning the true nature of the contraband that they were transporting. Id. at 46. To the contrary, they had been hired by a legitimate shipping company for an ostensibly legal purposethe transportation of reams of paperand the government's case of scienter relied almost entirely on the fact that the defendants had given inconsistent statements to the police. No red flags existed that might have alerted the defendants to the fact that they were transporting narcotics (as opposed to other types of contraband).
By contrast, the present record contains ample evidence, including Victor's testimony regarding the contents of the intercepted calls, from which a jury reasonably could findas this jury didthat the appellant knew that a drug deal was in the offing. Moreover, the jury reasonably could have found that the appellant either knowingly participated in the transportation of the drugs or deliberately closed his eyes to the obvious fact that he was transporting drugs.
III. CONCLUSION
We need go no further. For the reasons elucidated above, the judgment is
Affirmed.
FOOTNOTES
. We add that the members of the drug ring regularly used Haitian Creole dialect when speaking on the intercepted calls. See Gordon, 871 F.3d at 4849. This is significant because recorded conversations in foreign languages present unique issues for juries, who may struggle to grasp the meanings of relevant speech idiosyncrasies or idioms. United States v. Mendiola, 707 F.3d 735, 742 (7th Cir. 2013). Because Victor was fluent in Haitian Creole, his testimony was especially valuable in clarifying his coconspirators' often cryptic statements.
. In determining whether the government has satisfied its burden of production, we take the facts in the light most favorable to it. See Singh, 222 F.3d at 11.
. Taken in context, the word Aight appears to be a contraction of all right, and the parties' briefs assume as much.
. The fact that the drugs were concealed in the trunk liner of the rental vehicle driven by the appellant does not alter this conclusion. After all, the jury, crediting the appellant's statements during the intercepted calls and Victor's testimony, reasonably could have inferred that the appellant either knew that the drugs had been hidden there or purposefully avoided such knowledge.
SELYA, Circuit Judge.
On his return to Dharamsala, the Tibetan monk announced that he may not travel abroad in future due to fatigue.
Tibet and the Dalai Lama have recently been in the news. Does this mean that the Tibet issue is moving towards a solution? Probably not!
On November 23, the Dalai Lama affirmed in Kolkata: Tibet does not seek independence from China but wants greater development. While saying that China must respect the Tibetan culture and heritage, he added: The past is past. We will have to look into the future. We want to stay with China. We want more development.
Development did not come up when the Tibetan spiritual leader met former US President Barack Obama on December 1; they discussed compassion and altruism, according to an aide. The Dalai Lama said that the meeting with Obama was very good, I think we are really two old trusted friends. The two leaders discussed promoting peace in todays world torn by strife and violence.
On his return to Dharamsala, the Tibe-tan monk announced that he may not travel abroad in future due to fatigue. He has nominated two official emissaries, President of the Tibetan government-in-exile Lobsang Sangay and former Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche to act as his envoys.
A few days later, the Dalai Lama was again in the news, he gave an unusually long interview to a leading national daily. Apart from mentioning the Tibetan tradition and its closeness to Indias belief system and their relevance today, he commented, We need material development. And many Chinese are showing genuine appreciation of Tibetans spiritual knowledge. Eventually in the future, with Buddhism, we could control China. Yes, this is possible! He then added: The Chinese government must respect Tibetan culture and language. One time, Chinese narrow-minded officials deliberately tried to eliminate Tibetan language and script this is impossible to do. Tibetans too have an ancient culture thats difficult to eliminate. What is meant by more development for Tibet? For the Tibetans, it would probably translate into more Han Chinese migrating to Tibet in order to build and maintain new roads, airports, railway lines and cities. But it could mean a problem for India as all these developments will have a dual use, civil and military.
On July 1, 2016, China Military Online reported that a joint meeting on the development of military-civilian integration (known as dual-use) of airports was held in Beijing.
On the agenda was the Interim Provisions of Operation Security at Dual-use Airports by the PLA Air Force (PLAAF). According to the PLA website, it is based on win-win principles for both the military and civil administration. The new arran-gement integrates the development of military-civilian airport resou-rces between the PLAAF and civil aviation. The article further expla-ined: Its main purpose was to establish a complementary management mechanism with smooth coordination and shared resources to gradually form a support capability that guarantees flight safety at peace times and meets combat needs at wartimes.
Soon after, Lhasa Gongkar airport became one the two first integrated airports in China. And this led to the National Peoples Congress passing a new law dealing with national defence transport. The legislation covers the use of infrastructure for defence and civilian purposes. Xinhua reported: The new law regulates planning, construction, management and use of resources in transportation sectors such as railways, roads, waterways, aviation, pipelines and mail services, for national defence.
After the recent incident at the tri-junction between Sikkim, Tibet and Bhutan, more development facilitating the rapid deployment of troops and airborne Special Forces on the plateau, China could be tempted to enter into a conflict with India.
The day the Dalai Lama met Obama, a Chinese website mentioned the road to Metok, the last Tibetan village before the Yarlung Tsangpo enters India in Arunachal Pradesh and becomes the Siang. The Chinese article says Metok was an isolated island due to lack of transportation: The situation was unchanged until October 31, 2013 when Zhamo Road was completed [since then] the road mileage has been increasing rapidly.
Metok administration is upgrading the road. It will take a lot of money to upgrade an existing road so close to the Indian border; undoubtedly, such development will bring more silt to the Brahmaputra and the PLA closer to Indias border.
In a related issue, former Ambassador Phunchok Stobdan commented in a news website: Within this rapidly-unfolding scenario, the Dalai Lama appears to have sent Samdong on a discreet visit to Kunming [in Chinas Yunnan province]. Samdongs visit, starting from mid-November, must have been facilitated by no less than the newly-appointed head of the United Front Work Department overseas Tibetan affairs You Quan. Mr Quan, who formerly served as party secretary of Fujian, is a close associate of President Xi.
Though Samdhongs visit has not been confirmed, it is doubtful that the Tibetans would sign a deal with an authoritarian Chinese regime; it is, however, worrisome for India. If the Dalai Lama returns to Tibet, will the Tibetans take Beijings side on for the disputed borders, particularly in Ladakh and Uttarakhand (in the case of Tawang, the Dalai Lama has made it clear time and again, that it is Indian territory)?
Another development is the nomFination of a Tibetan General Thubten Thinley to the Communist Partys 19th Congress. His job is to recruit Tibetans in the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). For China, it makes sense to enroll more Tibetans in the PLA and post them on the Indian borders. Local Tibetans are tempted by the enrollment as it brings decent revenues to the poorer sections of society.
The Dalai Lama told the newspaper: China needs India, India needs China There is no other way except to live peacefully and help each other. Now, this might be true in theory, but the Doklam incident has taught us that there is a gap between the theory and the practice. India needs to be watchful of Beijings next move on the Tibet issue.
Pentagon in a report said India has also donated limited security assistance, most notably four Mi-35 aircraft.
India has also donated limited security assistance to Afghanistan, most notably four Mi-35 aircraft, says the Pentagon. (Photo: PTI)
Washington: India is Afghanistan's "most reliable regional partner", the Pentagon told the US Congress on Friday as it welcomed additional economic, medical, and civic support from New Delhi to the war-torn country.
"India is Afghanistan's most reliable regional partner and the largest contributor of development assistance in the region," said the Pentagon in its report to the Congress titled 'Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan'.
This assistance includes civil development projects such as the Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam and the Afghan parliament building, the report said.
India provides significant training opportunities for Afghan officers and enlisted personnel and has frequently offered to increase its burden sharing for Afghanistan, it said, adding that approximately 130 Afghans travel to India each year to attend various military and commissioning programmes.
India has also donated limited security assistance, most notably four Mi-35 aircraft, the Pentagon said.
"The new South Asia policy highlighted our relationship with India and called on India to provide more assistance to the international efforts in Afghanistan. The United States welcomes additional Indian economic, medical, and civic support to Afghanistan," the Pentagon said in its report.
This is the first report of the Pentagon to Congress after President Donald Trump announced his new Afghan and South Asia policy in August.
"Our purpose in Afghanistan remains the same: to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a safe haven from which terrorist groups can plan and execute attacks on the United States, or our allies and citizens abroad. To accomplish this, we continue to support our Afghan partners and train, advice, and assist its military and government institutions," it said.
Under the new strategy, the US will continue to support the Afghan government and security forces in the fight against the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - Khorasan (ISIS-K), and other insurgents and terrorists, to strengthen the Afghan government and prevent reestablishment of terrorist safe havens in Afghanistan.
"A major change from our previous strategy is the shift from a time-based approach to a conditions-based one. This shift underscores the US commitment to the continued development of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF), provided that our Afghan partners satisfy their obligations," the Pentagon said.
The new strategy does not mean a return to US-led combat operations, instead, the key to success lies in improving ANDSF capabilities and allow them to lead in the fight against the Taliban, it clarified.
"We will continue to work by, with, and through the ANDSF to help them defeat their enemies and to ultimately arrive at a political settlement in Afghanistan," said the Pentagon.
Under new strategy, US diplomatic, military, and economic resources are aligned in support of a negotiated settlement to terrorism.
According to report, 'To move forward, we must see fundamental changes in the way Pakistan deals with terrorist safe-havens in its territory.' (Photo: Representational | AFP)
Washington: The US will take "unilateral steps in areas of divergence" with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism, the Pentagon on Saturday told Congress and insisted that there must be "fundamental change" in the way Islamabad deals with terrorist safe havens on its territory.
In its first report on Afghanistan to Congress after President Donald Trump announced his new Afghan and South Asia strategy, the Pentagon said it will be a part of a whole-of- government, regional strategy to isolate the Taliban from "sources of external support" and to mitigate any malign influence from outside actors.
"Our military-to-military relationship with Pakistan remains critical to the success of our mutual interests in the region," said the semi annual report titled 'Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan' that covers events during the period from June 1 to November 30 in 2017.
"To move forward, we must see fundamental changes in the way Pakistan deals with terrorist safe-havens in its territory," the report said.
"To induce that change, we will work across the US government, using a range of tools to expand our cooperation with Pakistan in areas where our interests converge and to take unilateral steps in areas of divergence," it said.
The Af-Pak border region remains a sanctuary for various groups, including al-Qaida, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), ISIS-K, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, it said.
"Sanctuary on the Pakistani side and presence on the Afghan side remain security challenges for both countries and pose a threat to regional security and stability," the department of defence said.
Although Pakistani military operations have disrupted some militant sanctuaries, certain extremist groups - such as the Taliban and the Haqqani Network - retain freedom of movement in Pakistan, it said.
"The United States continues to convey to all levels of Pakistani leadership the importance of taking action against all terrorist and extremist groups," the Pentagon said.
Increased collaboration between Afghanistan and Pakistan is critical to maintaining pressure on militant and terrorist groups and for meeting the enduring security requirements on both sides of the shared border, it said.
"The trust deficit resulting from Pakistan's support of and inaction against Afghan-oriented extremists, and Pakistan's concerns about terrorist attacks launched from Afghanistan, hampers the bilateral military collaboration required to achieve enduring security," the Pentagon said.
According to the report, the hard-won gains in Afghanistan remain fragile, but are worth defending.
Under the new strategy, US diplomatic, military, and economic resources are aligned in support of a negotiated settlement to this long-running war.
"We have recommitted to helping the Afghan government and people navigate through these challenges with a new approach that leverages additional support from allies, partners, and regional actors," it said.
"Our commitment is enduring but not unlimited, our support is not a blank check. As long as the Afghan government continues to show real progress and make real reforms, we will continue to support them as our strategic partners in the fight against international terrorism," the report said.
"The Taliban cannot win on the battlefield. They must know that their only path to peace and political legitimacy is through a negotiated settlement with the Afghan government," it asserted.
Sharmeen Obaid, whose documentaries have given voice to victims of acid attacks and honour killing in Pakistan also retweeted the story.
Naeema Kishwar who is a member of the religious Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, a pro-Taliban party, took umbrage with a focus on sexual abuse in the madrassas. (Photo: File)
New York/ Islamabad: It began with sweets and pocket money when he was 10 years old - special attention from the religious cleric who ran the Pakistani madrassa, or Islamic school, the boy attended.
It escalated to rape and months of sexual abuse, the now 28-year-old young man says.
"I feel rage now when I think that after he raped me he took a bath and right away he left to lead the prayers," said the victim, an economist who lives in Islamabad.
"After that I came to know from three or four of my classmates that the mufti used to do the same with them," he said.
Speaking English, at times searching for the right words and at others apologizing for the explicitness of his conversation, he described the cleric's advances: how he took him to another mosque that was not associated with the madrassa the boy attended and then raped him.
He said he suppressed memories of the abuse for years, but after reading a report in November revealing widespread abuse by clerics in Pakistan's thousands of madrassas, they all came tumbling back.
"I read the story two times. The first time I was shocked. The things that were written there were everything I had lived. The second time I read it, the whole of my body was trembling because of the memories it brought back," said the man, speaking on condition of anonymity, not only because of the shame he felt nearly two decades later but because he feared Pakistan's religious leaders could retaliate against him either with violence or charges of blasphemy or being an apostate, both of which, he said, were tantamount to a death sentence.
He decided to approach his former classmates, to rally survivors of abuse to band together to speak out. But, he said, he was rebuffed, and firmly.
"They said 'Stop talking. This is not something to discuss.' It is so common in the madrassas here, but people don't want to talk about it. We are ashamed," the young man said.
There are more than 22,000 registered madrassas in Pakistan, and many thousands of unregistered ones, often grimy one- or two-room facilities in remote villages. The millions of students they teach are often among the country's poorest, who receive food and an education for free.
But at the madrassa this young man attended - one of the largest in the Pakistani capital, which attracted students from other parts of the country - many of his fellow students were, like himself, from middle- and upper-middle class families, "sent to the madrassa to win favour for the family from God," he said.
Naeema Kishwar, a federal lawmaker who in 2016 helped change Pakistan's laws to close a legal loophole that had allowed those who commit so-called "honour killings" to escape punishment, said that laws exist to tackle sexual abuse of minors, which she called a scourge in Pakistan, not only in madrassas but in public schools, at home and among the army of child workers who are employed in homes as domestic workers and in factories.
"Of course, it is the responsibility of the federal government to prevent abuse of children, but you must keep it in your mind that provincial governments are equally to be blamed for being unable to stop child abuse at all places, including private and government schools and madrassas," she said. "This is a common problem."
But Kishwar who is a member of the religious Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, a pro-Taliban party, took umbrage with a focus on sexual abuse in the madrassas.
Her party operates thousands of religious schools. But like the clerics who dominate her party, Kishwar, despite data and evidence to the contrary, said the incidents of abuses in religious seminaries were isolated.
Taha Siddiqui, a prominent Pakistani blogger and journalist, who has come under attack by the military and intelligence agencies in Pakistan for his outspoken commentaries, said the AP report was widely shared on social media, whereas the mainstream media stayed mostly silent.
He blamed fear among the mainstream media of antagonizing the country's religious leaders and because sex, even if it involves abuse, is a taboo subject.
"Such topics rarely get any coverage on national television channels. And for that reason, there were discussions on social media which were much more encouraging," he said.
Two-time Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid, whose documentaries have given a voice to victims of acid attacks and "honour killings" in Pakistan, retweeted the story.
Sherry Rahman, a senator in Pakistan's upper house of Parliament and a close ally of Pakistan's slain leader, Benazir Bhutto, tweeted: "This is a subject we need to talk about so our children are better protected. Sexual abuse of children is pervasive at many levels of society across the class divide. We must give courage and hope for victims to speak out. "
Raza Rumi, a Pakistani journalist and policy analyst, who moved to the United States after surviving an assassination attempt by members of the militant Lashkar-e-Janghvi group, tweeted: "This had to be said. For too long we have avoided confronting such brutalities. . . End #child #abuse in #Pakistan."
But there were also virulent attacks, said Siddiqui. Some accused those who criticized madrassas of blasphemy, while others said it was a Western conspiracy to defame Islam.
Says the young economist and abuse survivor: "In Pakistan the mullahs have two weapons, they can declare you an apostate or charge you with blasphemy. Both are a certain death sentence."
Fighting between the Myanmar military and rebels has recently resumed. More than 120,000 people live in 167 refugee camps since 2011. Despite tensions, Pope Franciss words of peace continue to echo in the country. Catholic leaders undertake initiatives of reconciliation.
Myitkyina (AsiaNews) Two weeks after Pope Franciss historic apostolic visit to Myanmar, Card Charles Maung Bo, archbishop of Yangon, has started a visit to Kachin State.
The first Burmese cardinal arrived in the northern State where he will meet with internally displaced people (IDPs) living in a number of centres run by charities in Myitkyina, the state capital, and in several refugee camps set up as a result of the ongoing conflict between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
During his visit, the pontiff repeatedly called for peace and reconciliation in the country, urging Catholics to reject the logic of revenge and Church leaders to "foster unity, charity and healing in the life of this nation".
The cardinal's visit takes place at a time that the Myanmar military is engaged in an offensive against the Kachin, a mostly Christian ethnic group. The two sides have been fighting since 2011, when fresh violence ended a ceasefire signed in 1994.
The fighting has displaced more than 120,000 people, who are now living in 167 IDP camps in Kachin State. According to local leaders, the Myanmar military army usually goes on the offensive against rebel groups in Kachin and Shan in October, when the dry season beings.
This year however, operations began late, in November, against areas controlled by the KIA in the north of the state, particularly the Tanai district. Experts believe that the military is trying to maintain a lower profile due to strong pressure from the international community over the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine.
Meanwhile, the police on Wednesday raided the Myitkyina compound of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), the political arm of the KIA.
The next day, the army shelled at least four KIA positions. In the Tanai area, soldiers blocked roads leading out of town, shelling nearby mining villages and dropping leaflets from helicopters ordering people to move out these areas before May.
Kachin is rich in natural resources and the Myanmar military has a keen interest in grabbing control of these areas. Jade mining areas in Hpakant are already under army control, whilst mining areas in Tanai are controlled by the KIA.
Despite fresh tensions in the north, the words of peace of Pope Francis continue to echo in Myanmar. Civil society groups, Catholic and others, continue to express joy and pride for hosting such an important event.
"Reinvigorated in their faith, Catholics are still euphoric for the meeting with the Holy Father, said Fr Mariano Soe Naing, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar (CBCM) speaking to AsiaNews.
The bishops and priests have increased their efforts in their pastoral work. The popes words on forgiveness reached the hearts of the Kachin refugees and Card Bos visit represents the beginning of a new impulse in the reconciliation process.
Moreover, the northern commander, General Nyi Swe, will welcome the cardinal at the cathedral of Myitkyina. This is an important signal because it shows that the military is willing to collaborate with the Church on the path to peace."
"The pontiffs words were appreciated everyone in Burma, said Mgr Raymond Sumlut Gam, bishop of Banmaw, whose diocese includes Kachin and hosts numerous displaced persons.
"The Kachin people is trying to put into practice his [the popes] words, which have reinforced Catholics' expectations about peace. Although there is no reconciliation at the moment, the parties in conflict are trying to hold talks.
Together with Baptist pastors, the Catholic Church is engaged in an important work of mediation between the government, the military and armed groups, through the establishment of a Committee.
The latter has nine members, including leaders of various religious confessions. It has called for the parties to work together to remove the landmines so that displaced people can return safely to their communities. This is an important step that, together with Card Bos visit, sends a signal of hope."
by Fady Noun
Leaders held a historic meeting in Bkerke yesterday. Trump's "unfortunate" decision is a provocation to the Christians and Muslims of the world and distorts the spiritual mission of the Holy City. The choice by the US "lacks the wisdom needed by true peace makers". Lebanons Islamic-Christian voice is precious.
Beirut (AsiaNews) Despite its seemingly formal aspect, yesterday's interfaith summit in Bkerke will go down in history because of the seriousness of the issue it addressed, namely the status of the city of Jerusalem. Going against almost the entire international community, as well as repeated calls by the Vatican to give the Holy City a special status guaranteed by the international community, the US president made the "unfortunate" decision to declare unilaterally that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
Without prejudging the international legal consequences of the US decision, and in the wake of the recent declarations on this subject by the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the leaders religious of Lebanons Christian and Muslim communities, meeting in Bkerke, have decided to stand firmly and united but without particular vehemence against the US presidents decision, which is heavy with consequences.
The declaration focuses on both the "religious rights" of monotheistic religions to their place in the Holy City, as well as the "national rights" of Palestinians not to be deprived of their capital. However, what characterises the situation above all beside the Christian voice emanating from the Holy See or the Muslim voice resonating from Istanbul is the precious Muslim-Christian voice that Lebanon is well placed to make heard. Indeed, the Hashemite monarch, King Abdullah, felt the need to go to the Lebanese Embassy in Amman to express his admiration to the ambassador.
Moreover, the concerned Lebanese circles have not hidden the fact that the position of Lebanon's Christians on Jerusalem will bring worthy dividends in the Arab world. This includes the head of the Higher Shia Council, Sheikh Abdel Amir Kabalan, who expressed his admiration for Islamic-Christian Lebanon. Speaking about the position of Lebanons president at the Islamic summit held on the banks of the Bosphorus, he first called him "Mohammad Michel Aoun" before correcting himself and say "imam Michel Aoun".
Excerpts
Here are some important excerpts from the final press release issued by religious leaders, as read by the Secretary General of the National Committee for Islamic-Christian Dialogue, Mohammad Sammak:
"The city of Jerusalem is home to the sacred historical sites of the monotheistic religions, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Great Mosque (al-Aqsa). It is not an ordinary city like other cities of the world, but it occupies a privileged place in the consciousness of the believers of these religions. As a result, the US President's decision, based on private political calculations, is a provocation for more than three billion people and deeply affects their faith."
"Religious leaders say that all the world's leaders have decided to respect the UN resolutions that describe Jerusalem and the West Bank as occupied territories, and by virtue of this legal and ethical commitment, they have refrained from opening embassies in occupied Jerusalem. Even the United States had agreed to this policy until President Trump's unfortunate decision, on 6 December 2017, to violate its provisions."
"This decision, according to the religious leaders, not only contravenes international laws and conventions, but also undermines the symbolism of the Holy City, as a universal spiritual centre, where the name of God is invoked aloud and in a religious convergence of the values of all monotheistic religions."
"Changing this noble image of the Holy City, changing that spiritual mission that this decision entails, and the fact of considering this decision as a fait accompli (. . .) are a challenge to the religious feelings and the national rights of the Palestinians."
"Together people salute the Palestinian people, especially the residents of the Holy City, and salute their resistance to the occupation and attempts to change the religious and national identity of the city."
"This is why," the statement goes on to say, "the leaders together invite the members of the international community to work together to put pressure on the US administration to reverse a decision that lacks the wisdom needed by true peace makers."
"They call on the American public (. . .) that some voices may rise high to warn President Trump and his administration about the dangers of this unjust decision, which plunges the Middle East into a new cycle of violence that comes on top of many others. "
Settlement
"The leaders together greatly fear that President Trumps unilateral decision against a major resolution of international legality relating to the Palestinian cause will also lead him to go against other similar resolutions, including the one related to the right of Palestinians to self-determination and return to their occupied country, which has had direct repercussions for Lebanon, home to about 500,000 refugees since 1948 and which rejects in the preamble of its Constitution any plan for open or masked settlement.
"Finally, the religious leaders expressed their attachment to the notion of conviviality between Christians and Muslims, in perfect civic equality, and their support for the official position of Lebanon, including the plan proposed by the President of Lebanon Michel Aoun at the United Nations, whose aim is to view Lebanon as an international centre for dialogue between religions and cultures."
At the opening of the meeting, Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi said: "Most of us have expressed our refusal of this decision, individually or on behalf of our communities. Today, we are meeting to express, as one voice, our joint refusal."
"We demand, as does the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the application of international laws passed since 1947, especially resolution 181 of 29 November 1947, under which Jerusalem has a special status (. . .)," Bishop al-Rahi said.
The interfaith meeting saw the participation of the Maronite Patriarch, the Mufti of the Republic, the President of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council Sheikh Abdel Amir Kabalan, Druze Sheikh Akl, Catholicos Aram I, the patriarchs of the Armenian Catholic and Greek Catholic, Youssef Abdo, the patriarchs of the Syriac-Orthodox and Syriac-Catholics, a representative of the Greek Orthodox patriarch, the Apostolic Vicar of the Latin Cesar Essayan, the president of the Evangelical Community in Lebanon and Syria Rev Salim Sahyouni, the vicar of the Alawite Council, a representative of the Coptic Orthodox Church, a representative of the Chaldean Church, a representative of the Coptic Catholic Church, and members of the National Committee for Christian-Muslim dialogue.
Fr Samir describes an atmosphere of joy and hope, despite the lack of resources and less aid. The struggle for survival has boosted the bond between Christians, Muslims, and Yazidis. About 150 refugee families are still living at the centre, 70 per cent depending on resources provided by the Church. Hundreds of young people attend the prayer meeting in preparation for Christmas.
Erbil (AsiaNews) Despite hardships, "a climate of joy and hope" can be felt among the refugees from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain, still hosted at the reception centre of the parish of Enishke, in Iraqi Kurdistan, said Fr Samir Youssef, a priest in the diocese of Amadiya (Kurdistan).
Speaking to AsiaNews, he said that the daily chores and daily struggle for survival "have in fact boosted the bond and solidarity among Christians", which ends up embracing "even Muslim families" as well.
Over the years, the clergyman has helped thousands of families of Christian, Muslim, and Yazidi refugees who fled their homes in 2014 to escape the Islamic State group.
The fight against the jihadist movement might be over, as Iraqi Prime Minister al-Abadi announced last week, but displaced people still face huge problems without the means to deal with them.
Still, the families "do not let sadness and fatigue overwhelm them even if they live in difficult situations," Fr Samir noted. On the contrary, they seem "to be sustained by a force that goes beyond the material sphere."
There is a "common feeling of belonging among people" who often try to "help each other, buying food and basic necessities, clothes". All this "really helps to create a Christmas atmosphere, a feeling and sense of caring that make us feel truly loved."
About 150 Christian, Muslim and Yazidi families still live at the centre, refugees from Batnaya, Qaraqosh, Telkief, and Mosul. They cannot return yet as their homes are still unsafe.
About 20 to 30 per cent of them receive support from abroad or have some financial independence because they earn some money from trading or making crafts but the remaining 70 per cent rely mostly on aid without which they would not be able to survive.
The economic situation is still tough because the Iraqi and Kurdish governments have not agreed on the payment of salaries for teachers and public servants. So far, there have been only vague promises by the central authorities, but nothing concrete.
Some families from surrounding villages and towns continue to turn to Enishke parish for help or small contributions to survive. They have nothing except terrible stories that are repeated every week.
Fr Samir is one of the main beneficiaries of AsiaNewss campaign Adopt a Christian from Mosul.
He noted that at Christmas time, families used to shop for groceries and clothing. Now however, the situation of crisis "has drastically reduced the resources available. Very few people are earning enough money to buy what they need.
The Kurdistan government recently announced that it has no money to pay salaries, already in arrears of two months, until the new year."
Hence, the local Church has renewed its efforts to meet the needs of the population, whether they are refugee families or long-term residents in the area. Such solidarity has been extended as far as possible, to Christians, Muslims and Yazidis alike, the priest said.
"For a week, the parish organised a Christmas market (pictured) with food, milk, basic necessities, clothing and shoes, Fr Samir said. We sold items at a lower price than in the city.
Previously, as a Church, we handed out vouchers worth a hundred dollars to 120 needy families. Others bought items at a discount. Although our resources are fewer, we try to help those in difficulty."
This has also attracted the attention of Muslim families, who have asked if they could benefit from lower prices as Christians and Yazidis do.
"Unfortunately, we did not have enough for everyone, so we could not help them directly. But I know of Christian families who bought food and clothes and then given them to Muslim families. Even Christmas trees, to get them involved in the festivity."
The community realises that the resources "are no not like before, so we give up something and share more goods and resources. For example, a Christian woman yesterday used 80 of the 100 dollars voucher without asking for the difference, which she left to buy food for those who are poorer.
Such grassroots solidarity has also involved the Muslim owner of a mini-market near the parish, who gives us good prices and sells on credit, waiting without haste for the time when we can pay him back."
As the weeks of Advent unfold, the community is getting ready for the birth of Jesus through meetings and prayer, like the one last week that brought together 850 boys and girls from middle and high school.
The meeting was held at the John Paul II Cultural Centre under the supervision of ten priests and nuns. It included seminars, testimonies, the recitation of the rosary, and Masses. Next Wednesday, there will be confessions for the whole community, then the solemn Mass on Christmas Eve.
"In all of Iraq, Christians are trying to be a source of joy and reconciliation, Fr Samir explained, but do not leave us alone: we need your prayers, your closeness and solidarity, so that this land can become a land of peace. And it is in this that the strength of the Christmas message can be found." (DS)
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United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. JAMES ROCKETT, III, a/k/a James Rocket, a/k/a James Rockett, Defendant - Appellant. No. 17-6829 Decided: December 15, 2017
Before DUNCAN, KEENAN, and WYNN, Circuit Judges. James Rockett, III, Appellant Pro Se. Darryl James Mitchell, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellee.
James Rockett, III, seeks to appeal the district court's order denying relief on his 28 U.S.C. 2255 (2012) motion. The order is not appealable unless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability. See 28 U.S.C. 2253(c)(1)(B) (2012). A certificate of appealability will not issue absent a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right. 28 U.S.C. 2253(c)(2) (2012).
When the district court denies relief on the merits, a prisoner satisfies this standard by demonstrating that reasonable jurists would find that the district court's assessment of the constitutional claims is debatable or wrong. Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000); see Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336-38 (2003). When the district court denies relief on procedural grounds, the prisoner must demonstrate both that the dispositive procedural ruling is debatable, and that the motion states a debatable claim of the denial of a constitutional right. Slack, 529 U.S. at 484-85.
We have independently reviewed the record and conclude that Rockett has not made the requisite showing. Accordingly, we deny a certificate of appealability and dismiss the appeal. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
DISMISSED
PER CURIAM:
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. GLENDA R. COURAM, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES, (SCDMV); SHIRLEY RIVERS, in her official and individual capacity; LULA N. DAVIS, in her official and individual capacity; CONSTANCE CONNIE RHETT, in her official and individual capacity; MARCIA ADAMS, in her official and individual capacity; DOROTHY BLANKENSHIP, in her official and individual capacity; TOSHA AUTRY, in their official and individual capacities; RICHARDSON PLOWDEN ATTORNEYS AT LAW; EUGENE H. MATTHEWS, Esq., in his individual and official capacity; SC OFFICE OF DISCIPLINARY COUNSEL; LESLEY M. COGGIOLA, in their individual and official capacity; JOHN DOE, in their individual and official capacity; STEVEN W. LAKE, in his official and individual capacity; JUDGE JAMES R. BARBER, III, Court of Common Pleas of Richland County Circuit Court - District 5, in his individual and official capacity; JUDGE L. CASEY MANNING, Court of Common Pleas of Richland County Circuit Court - District 5, in his individual and official capacity; JUDGE H. BRUCE WILLIAMS, (2) SC Court of Appeals, in his individual and official capacity; JUDGE JOHN D. GATHERS, SC Court of Appeals, in his individual and official capacity; JUDGE STEPHANIE P. MCDONALD, SC Court of Appeals, in her individual and official capacity, Defendants - Appellees. No. 17-1190 Decided: December 14, 2017
Before MOTZ, KEENAN, and HARRIS, Circuit Judges. Glenda Renee Couram, Appellant Pro Se. Eugene Matthews, RICHARDSON PLOWDEN, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees.
In August 2016, the district court adopted in part the magistrate judge's recommendation and entered judgment against Glenda Renee Couram, remanding some of her claims to state court and dismissing the rest of her complaint.* Couram timely appealed that judgment while a Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e) motion for reconsideration filed by some of the Defendants was pending. In February 2017, the district court granted the Rule 59(e) motion, dismissed all but one of Couram's claims, and remanded the remaining claim to state court. Couram did not file a new or amended notice of appeal.
Under Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(4)(B)(ii), a party seeking to challenge a ruling on certain postjudgment motionssuch as a Rule 59 motionmust file a new or amended notice of appeal. Because Couram failed to do so, we lack jurisdiction over the February 2017
judgment. As to the rulings made in the August 2016 judgment that were not altered by the February 2017 judgment, we have reviewed the record and find no reversible error. Accordingly, we affirm that portion of the August 2016 judgment for the reasons stated by the district court. Couram v. S.C. Dep't of Motor Vehicles, No. 3:15-cv-04870-MBS (D.S.C. Aug. 10, 2016). We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED IN PART; DISMISSED IN PART
FOOTNOTES
. The district court also denied Couram's motions to recuse the magistrate judge and to amend the complaint. To the extent Couram challenges these rulings on appeal, we conclude the district court did not err.
PER CURIAM: